“Rail has lost competitiveness and market share in
intra-Austrian freight transport” was the basic statement of Prof.
Sebastian Kummer, Director of the Institute of Transport Economics and
Logistics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
In his remarks Sebastian Kummer pointed out the competitive disadvantages of
freight railways for short distance traffic due to the system, resulting from
ÖBB’s business management and full cost accounting. As further problem areas he
mentioned:
- High costs for connecting railways mean that many rail connections are no longer operated.
- The combination of long investment cycles and low margins for the railways is a poor starting point for digital transformation.
In his presentation, Sebastian Kummer explained approaches to improving
this situation. These include
- Targeted bottleneck investments in railway infrastructure instead of spectacular large-scale projects, especially in Vienna
- Intensification of research into digital transformation in the railway sector
- Many companies would like to use the railway for ecological reasons, but costs and services must not be far from those of truck traffic.
- Use of inner-city railway stations for city logistics
- The transport of goods by rail within Austria
requires the increase of direct payments made by the state to railway companies,
logistics service providers or shippers.
