Austria’s private rail cargo companies are below EU-average

The still significant importance of single wagon traffic dampens the competition between rail freight companies in Austria

As to passenger transport by rail, Austria is number 1 in the EU for the first time. This is the result of the 3rd European Monitoring Report of IRG-Rail (Independent Regulators‘ Group-Rail), presented by the Austrian railway control institution Schienen-Control on 9 April.

Accordingly, each and every Austrian covered 1,425 km by train in 2013 from a statistical point of view – meaning around 94 km more than the year before. Hence Austria was ahead of France, taking the lead in the ranking for the first time. Compared with the European average of 978 kilometres per passenger and year, the Austrians went by train by 45 per cent more.

Rail freight transport has remained largely stable from 2012 to 2013 in the countries of the study. In Austria, the volume of freight transport has risen in the second half of 2013 by five per cent compared to the same period of the previous year. Relative to the size of the country, Austria also in the quality of transport remains among the countries with the highest share of rail transport. In absolute figures, more goods were transported in Austria by rail than in most other European countries, with over 21 billion net tonne-kilometres. Only Germany, Poland and France reported a higher absolute rail transport performance.

As to the number of private railway companies, a continuous increase was recorded in most European countries since 2011. In Austria, the number of railway companies has increased from 27 to 33 in the last three years. Thus Austria, in view of its size, is ranked among the top country in Europe. Apart from Austria, the number of private railway companies has also increased in Belgium, France and Hungary.

In European cargo traffic, the average market share of private railways increased by 3.5 percentage points to 32 per cent in 2013. Also in Austria, the market share of private providers in rail freight transport has increased. However, with 19.3 per cent they are well below average.

„In Austria single wagonload traffic is still playing a major role. As a result, there is less competition due to the system than in other European countries. However, in Austria the market share of private freight companies has risen by around one third since 2011. As this means a better deal for the clients, this rise is very gratifying from a competition perspective,“ Maria-Theresia Röhsler, Managing Director of Schienen-Control GmbH said about the development.

www.schienencontrol.gv.at

Quelle: LogEastics
Portal: www.logistik-express.com