Schienen-Control Newsletter Schienen-Control
APF Annual Report 2022 - Record figures for rail and air procedures
The year 2022 was marked by a record number of rail-related cases handled by the Agency for Passenger Rights (apf). Never before had the apf received so many inquiries and mediation requests concerning rail travel in a single year. The aviation sector also recorded a high number of requests and proceedings compared to the previous year. This and more can be found in the apf's 2022 annual report.
In 2022, a total of 5,896 written conciliation requestsand inquiries were received by the apf (2021: 2,896), of which 4,697 were in the aviation sector (2021: 2,224), 1,120 in the rail sector (2021: 626), 69 in the bus sector (2021: 38), and ten in the shipping sector (2021: eight). This represents a doubling of the total number.
The experts from all four transport sectors worked efficiently and solution-oriented on behalf of travelers. They once again achieved a high success rate and were able to reach an agreement between the parties in more than three-quarters of the arbitration cases.
In 2022, apf achieved a total amount of monetary compensation, reimbursements, and penalty reductions of €1.6 million for applicants (2021: €1.1 million). This represents an increase of approximately 40 percent compared to the previous year. However, it should be noted that the number of cases rose by more than 50 percent during the period in question. €115,463 of this amount was attributable to pandemic-related cases across all areas.
The majority of the total amount, €1.49 million, was attributable to air travel (2021: €1.09 million), while €114,637 was attributable to rail travel (2021: €54,429) and €3,291 to bus travel (2021: €1,278).
Further details on the procedures and the full report can be found online at:
Data interface: Significant savings for energy suppliers thanks to intervention by Schienen-Control
Surveys show that rail transport companies with 40 trains per day save up to €35,000 per month.
The Schienen-Control conducted mediation talks between the railway infrastructure operator and railway undertakings (RUs) in the freight sector due to the mandatory transmission of train and wagon data (minimum operational data). Relevant train data includes, for example, car number and weight, departure and destination stations, or RID for the transport of dangerous goods by train. Technical characteristics of the vehicle are referred to as car data. This includes, for example, the number of axles and the brake weight.
The rail network terms of use of the railway infrastructure operator required that, from 2019 onwards, if the minimum operational data was not communicated via a data interface, an international wagon list had to be submitted at least 90 minutes before reporting readiness for departure. If the data was transmitted via a data interface, the 90-minute deadline did not apply.
For a long time, only one market participant in freight transport had the option of transmitting data via an interface.
Due to the increase in traffic performance, the responsible operations control center recommended that other rail transport companies also transmit wagon data via interface from 2020 onwards. This resulted in costs of €28 per train for the rail transport companies. Assuming 40 trains per day, this would amount to a total of around €35,000 per month.
Following intervention by the Schienen-Control , the railway infrastructure company relented and made the data interface available to all railway undertakings as a temporary solution until a successor system is put into operation. In future, an hourly rate of €79.27 will be charged for setup and changes. Setting up the interface takes a few hours, but there are no ongoing costs, meaning that Schienen-Control intervention will result in monthly savings for the rail transport companies concerned – around €35,000 in the above example!
Market update May 2023
Since the last edition of the newsletter, WESTbahn has Schienen-Control additional train pairs between Vienna and Innsbruck to Schienen-Control . In addition, Tenforty2-Rail is entering the Austrian rail transport market.
WESTbahn launches new services to Innsbruck
WESTbahn hasannounced new services between Vienna and Innsbruck to Schienen-Control : in addition to the three train pairs currently operating, a fourth will run from mid-June 2023 and a fifth from the beginning of September. This will significantly expand the rail company's services between Vienna and Innsbruck.
Vienna's local railways see increase in passenger numbers
WLB recorded a significant increase in passenger numbers in 2022 , rising by 22 percent to 12.6 million passengers. Particularly strong growth was recorded in the second half of the year after the summer holidays. On the one hand, the increases can be attributed to high fuel prices and the widespread introduction of parking stickers, and on the other hand to the increased frequency of services on the Vienna Opera – Wiener Neudorf section. In mid-February, despite new vehicles, the journey time between Vienna and Baden was extended by five minutes for the first time in more than 30 years.
New energy supplier active in Austria
From mid-June 2023, Tenforty2-Rail GmbH will operate daily trains from Brno via Břeclav to Vienna Airport under the name "Gepard-Express." The timetable is coordinated with early and late connections at the airport.
Tender in Tyrol
A Europe-wide open tender is being conducted by the Bavarian Railway Company (BEG) in conjunction with Verkehrsverbund Tirol GesmbH (VVT) and covers regional transport on the Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Mittenwald – Scharnitz and Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Reutte in Tirol – Pfronten-Steinach routes.
The transport contract will start in December 2027 and run until December 2039. BEG and VVT are expected to award the contract in December of this year. The route network is currently operated by DB Regio, with the exception of the Karwendelbahn (ÖBB-PV). A new feature is a continuous hourly service between Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Innsbruck.
Electrification of the Traisentalbahn railway / Closure in Außerfern
The Traisentalbahn railway line is to be electrified between 2024 and 2027, and the stations are to be made more attractive. This will enable a regular daily timetable (hourly or half-hourly service) between St. Pölten and the municipalities of Hainfeld and Schrambach. Track and switch systems as well as the ballast bed are currently being renewed on the Westbahn line between St. Pölten and Pöchlarn. This will result in timetable changes for local and long-distance trains.
The Außerfern railway line will also be closed to all train traffic until mid-May 2023 due to important maintenance work.
Other market observations
Trenitalia , in cooperation with ÖBB Personenverkehr and DB, has announced new connections between Rome and Munich (with stops at Brenner and Innsbruck) for 2026.
The Styrian Transport Association has expanded its evening service for the greater Graz area . New additions include evening and weekend connections to Bruck/Mur and Fehring. GKB is increasing its service to Köflach and Wies-Eibiswald on Sundays and public holidays to hourly service in the afternoons.
DB Cargo CZ and Graf Railservice GmbH now have a valid safety certificate for Austria.
The Rail Cargo Group is expanding its TransNET intermodal network, adding the destinations Treviso (one round trip per week) and Frosinone (on request) on the one hand, and on the other hand, in cooperation with Ukrainian Railways, the Vienna–Kyiv route via Budapest and Lviv, with weekly departures in both directions.
Market data from ÖBB Infrastructure for Q1/2023
At the end of the first quarter of 2023, ÖBB Infrastructure's performance data shows a significant decline of four percent in freight transport performance (gross tonne-kilometers) compared to the same quarter in 2022. Compared to the first quarter of 2019, performance is also down by around one percent.
A direct quarterly comparison of freight train kilometers traveled in 2023 shows only one percent fewer kilometers than in 2022, but the number of freight trains has also fallen by four percent.
On the other hand, passenger transport has grown strongly, as expected. Compared to 2022, six percent more train kilometers were traveled, and compared to 2019, the increase was as much as twelve percent, reaching a new record high. In addition to the expansion of local transport, this is also due to the increase in long-distance transport (ÖBB-PV, WESTbahn). This is confirmed by a five percent increase in train journeys compared to 2022 and a significant increase compared to all previous years.
At minus seven percent, RCA's transport performance has slumped sharply compared to the beginning of last year, but with the exception of LTE and Raaberbahn Cargo (up 16 and 37 percent, respectively), this affects all major competitors to a similar extent. This is likely to be primarily due to the sharp rise in energy prices, which has shifted some transport from rail to road. In comparison, truck traffic (>7.5t) rose by 0.5 percent in Suben (AUT/GER border) in March 2023, while it fell by around three percent at the Hungarian border and by one percent at the Brenner Pass. Even sharper declines in rail traffic are expected for the second quarter.
In terms of market share (gross tonne-kilometers), RCA lost two percentage points and now stands at just 58 percent. All three types of freight transport recorded declines, with the largest in single wagon transport (EWV) and the smallest in combined freight transport (KLV). In general, the share of "traditional" block train transport in the total transport performance of rail freight transport rose to 40 percent. KLV accounted for 33 percent of this, while EWV, which has been declining for some time, accounted for just under 28 percent.
IRG-Rail international market report for 2021 published
Close cooperation between European regulatory authorities in the rail sector was one of the most important prerequisites for presenting the support measures taken in the second year of the pandemic and developments in the European rail transport market as a whole. The international comparison provided by the IRG-Rail market report helps to put the measures taken inAustria intocontext," said Maria-Theresia Röhsler, Managing Director of Schienen-Control, on the occasion of the publication of the 11th market report by the Independent Regulators' Group-Rail (IRG-Rail).
The annual report provides a comprehensive overview of developments and economic conditions in the European railway sector. It enables continuous monitoring of the European railway market and also provides information on its competitiveness. In addition to regularly presenting the development of important indicators for European rail transport in the areas of railway infrastructure, infrastructure usage charges, market participants, and freight and passenger transport markets, the report contains detailed analyses of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the rail sector. On the one hand, almost all performance indicators in 2021 were still below their pre-crisis levels of 2019, but on the other hand, the report clearly shows their gradual recovery since 2020.
Austria temporarily replaced as the EU's number one rail country
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic hit passenger transport particularly hard in 2020. Although many trains continued to run in Europe for reasons of mobility, they were used much less frequently due to lockdowns and travel restrictions. Transport performance, measured in train kilometers per passenger, was 41 percent lower in 2021 than in 2019. However, this figure has already increased significantly compared to 2020 (up 15 percent). Long-distance transport (often international) in particular picked up speed again in 2021, both in terms of train kilometers (supply) and passenger kilometers (demand). Encouragingly, this means that every person living in Austria in 2021 traveled an average of more than 100 additional train kilometers (950 in total). In addition, there are currently many indications that this increase will be repeated in 2022, making 2020 an exception. However, since every resident in France traveled an average of over 200 additional kilometers by rail (1,040 in total), Austria has since been displaced from first place in the statistics for the most avid EU rail travel countries. France and Austria are followed in this ranking by Sweden and Denmark, which are far behind (768 and 722 kilometers per person, respectively).
Development of the European rail freight market
The effects of the pandemic were also directly noticeable in the rail freight market, albeit not as pronounced as in passenger transport. Despite the noticeable economic downturn and the disruption to supply chains caused by the pandemic, intra-European rail freight transport remained largely intact. In 2021, despite a slight decrease in train kilometers, it even managed to slightly exceed the net ton-kilometers from 2019. This is mainly due to international freight transport, which recorded growth again on average across Europe.In 2021, European rail freight transport achieved around 466 billion net ton-kilometers. Compared to 2019, this represents an increase of around one percent, and compared to 2020, an additional eight percent. Germany continued to account for the largest share of the total volume with 139.3 billion net ton-kilometers, followed by Poland with 56 billion and France with 35.7 billion. Behind Italy (27.3 billion) , Austria displaced Sweden (23.4 billion) with 23.5 billion net ton-kilometers, taking an impressive fifth place in Europe. The first three countries mentioned were responsible for half of the total European rail freight transport performance in 2021.
Development of market shares
An overall view of Europe's rail freight transport shows the continuous loss of market share by the respective domestic incumbents, i.e., the (former) state-owned railway companies. At 49 percent, they accounted for less than half of the total European transport performance for the first time. While the group of foreign incumbents has recorded stable shares for years (around 15 percent), the shares of the group of private freight railways are growing steadily and stood at 36 percent in 2021. Although the trend in Austria is essentially the same, the domestic incumbent, Rail Cargo Austria, still held an above-average market share of 63 percent of all net ton-kilometers despite slight losses. Private freight railways accounted for 29 percent in Austria in 2021, while foreign incumbents accounted for eight percent.
In general, the liberalization of the European rail freight market is already very advanced in some countries, while in others, the incumbents still enjoy de facto monopolies. In addition to the increasing market shares of private freight railways, this can also be seen in the steadily growing number of railway companies active in freight transport. In about two-thirds of IRG-Rail member states, the number of rail transport companies active in freight transport exceeds that of passenger transport many times over.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: Government countermeasures
In accordance with a regulation issued by the European Union in 2020 (and extended several times) to protect the railway sector from the effects of the pandemic, aid measures for the industry have been taken in a number of countries. These include, among other things, the adjustment (reduction, waiver, or deferral) of infrastructure usage charges, with the infrastructure operator subsequently being compensated by the state for the loss of revenue. Another measure taken by some countries was, for example, the ordering of transport services by the public sector.
In Austria, infrastructure usage charges for individual market segments were retroactively suspended in 2021, as they had been in 2020. In addition, long-distance services originally operated on a commercial basis by ÖBB-Personenverkehr and WESTbahn on the main long-distance route between Vienna and Salzburg were commissioned with the aid of public funds.
About IRG-Rail
IRG-Rail was founded in The Hague in June 2011 by 15 European railway regulatory authorities. The network now has 31 member regulatory authorities, all of which have provided their statistical analyses for the report. The aim of the association is to further strengthen cooperation between regulatory authorities and to promote the creation of a uniform, competitive, efficient, and sustainable railway market in Europe.
The full report is available on the Schienen-Control website or directly on the IRG-Rail website.
Single European Railway Area Forum established
The first meeting of the Single European Railway Area Forum (SERAF) took place on May 4. SERAF was established by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) to support the achievement of the goal of a cross-border and pan-European rail transport market. SERAF will focus primarily on market issues.
SERAF's approximately 150 members are representatives of the entire European railway sector, including railway infrastructure and railway transport companies, industry, interest groups, authorities, etc. From Austria, Schienen-Control of SERAF include a representative of the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology (BMK) and a representative of Schienen-Control .
The actual work is to be carried out in thematic working groups; the plenary session is to meet twice a year. Among other things, SERAF is intended to enable the European Commission to consult with the railway sector as a whole on possible legislative initiatives even before they are formally launched.
Preview: Punctuality trends in local transport in 2022
At the end of May, the Agency for Passenger Rights will publish Schienen-Control punctuality report in cooperation with Schienen-Control . The report will examine punctuality in local transport on a federal state basis. This will allow the most punctual and least punctual connections throughout Austria to be identified. In regional transport, a punctuality rate of 95 percent is required by law, which rail companies must not fall below. This is relevant for compensation for persons in possession of an ÖBB passenger transport annual ticket or regional climate tickets. For the climate ticket valid throughout Austria, a total punctuality rate of 93 percent is relevant.