ÖBB: Rail Cargo Group made the highest turnover in 2017

The Rail Cargo Group (RCG) defends its position as Europe’s second-largest rail freight company. In 2017, the economic tailwind caused an increase in consolidated rail transport by 6 percent to 115.2 million net tons compared to the previous year. However, the pressure on the margins in the logistics industry continues to be enormous, explained ÖBB CEO Ing. Mag. (FH) Andreas Matthä at the annual press conference.

With the growing supply of rail logistics services to the Far East and Central Asia, RCG underpins its internationalization strategy across European borders. Since 2017, the Rail Cargo Group has been active on all routes of the Silk Road. The first direct train from Chengdu to Vienna is expected on April 27 at the Vienna South Freight Centre. For 2018 Andreas Matthä announced the processing of more than 400 trains on the routes between Europe and China.

The expansion strategy to Asia also includes the development of new connections within Europe, especially to ports that are rapidly gaining importance as a logistics hub and offer RCG attractive potential for further growth.  In addition, new shuttle services, such as between Linz and the Rhine-Ruhr area will be implemented and transports from and to the European maritime ports will be expanded.

Parallel to this, the procurement of state-of-the-art Vectron multi-system locomotives – initially for operations on the Italian routes – and the freight wagons are equipped with GPS positioning systems. Overall, the Rail Cargo Group currently has 8,720 employees in 18 countries, ten of which have their own traction. Domestically, the strong position in freight transport was defended. The market share in Austria is 72.9 percent.

www.oebb.atwww.railcargo.com

 

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