AUSTRIA’s federal minister for innovation, mobility and infrastructure, Peter Hanke, has instructed Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to present proposals within two months to restructure the national railway in order to improve its ability to react more quickly to changes in the market and to make it fit for the future.
The minister wants the new structure to come into effect in 2027 and ideally take the railway through to 2040. Hanke is keen to emphasise that restructuring ÖBB does not imply any redundancies as it is not seen as a cost cutting exercise.
ÖBB’s current structure was established under the 2003 Federal Railway Act and consists of a holding company with passenger, freight and infrastructure subsidiaries. However, Hanke says the legislation is far too rigid.
"This means that flexibility is very limited," Hanke says. He wants to simplify ÖBB’s legal obligations to make it more autonomous and enable it to respond more quickly to challenges as they arise.
ÖBB’s CEO, Andreas Matthä, welcomed the initiative. “ÖBB faces major challenges,” Matthä says. “Demand for public transport is growing continuously, as is competition. Furthermore, we need to be able to adapt more quickly to technological changes. For this, we need framework conditions that make us more agile. We must be able to react faster to market developments - this may also require an amendment to the Federal Railway Act.”
