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Competitive
failure
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Abellio did not start operating the RRX 1 on the central line of the Rhine-Ruhr area, which was advertised for 15 years, until 2019 - it will probably end in January
Photo: Marius Becker / dpa
The most important commuter railway in Germany is likely to lose its operator. Abellio can only keep the contract for the NRW-Express RRX 1 between Aachen and Hamm and several lines of the S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr if the local transport associations take over the majority of the losses. The Dutch state railway as Abellio's parent company has turned off the money and let parts of the company fall into bankruptcy.
This means that Deutsche Bahn's largest competitor on the railways will be canceled and a replacement will have to be found by February.
Business has always been difficult, and the passenger numbers, which have collapsed due to Corona, continue to spoil it.
And then there are many new construction sites, initiated by Deutsche Bahn as the network operator, which, for example, should enable the RRX to run at 15-minute intervals in the future, but currently result in delays and contractual penalties.
Only one company, it seems, can put away billions in losses in rail operations while at the same time launching the necessary investment offensive: Deutsche Bahn, with the federal government behind it as 100 percent owner.
For the traffic light coalition, alongside the KfW development bank, it is the most important vehicle for mobilizing capital for the climate, bypassing the federal budget and the debt brake.
But the coalition talks are also giving completely different signals.
The Greens and the FDP wanted to smash the railway, reported DER SPIEGEL, with two independent companies for network and operation.
Weakening the railways as a company in order to strengthen the railways as a means of transport - can that work?
Model Sweden: Free choice on the main routes
If you ask rail operator
André Schwämmlein
(40, member of the Green Party), there is a shining example: Sweden.
In long-distance transport, where Deutsche Bahn had a 96 percent market share before Corona, Schwämmlein's Flixtrain is the most serious challenger.
The company ventures its first international expansion in the Swedish market.
There everything is easier for private providers, enthuses Schwämmlein - even the digital applications for the route rights, in contrast to the German "Stone Age".
In Sweden there is also a state railway company (SJ) that runs on state tracks - but has been separate from each other since 1988.
The Trafikverket transport authority takes care of the infrastructure and is strictly independent.
Nevertheless, competition only really got off the ground since the Hong Kong company MTR Express entered the market in 2015 - concentrated on a few lucrative routes between the cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
Flixtrain and Transdev are also active there, in which, in addition to the French state savings bank Caisse des Dépôts, the Westphalian Rethmann Group is involved.
The competition wasn't free enough for entrepreneur Mats Nyblom: he closed his company Saga Rail in 2018 after a few months because SJ refused to sell his tickets on his own website.
The competition authority even went after that SJ's high market share was a problem in itself - even if it is extremely low at slightly over 50 percent in a European comparison.
After all: the competition has not weakened SJ.
Ticket prices fell slightly, but the profit margin rose into double digits through 2019.
Sweden is the EU country with the strongest growth in rail traffic since 2010.
Great Britain: The privatization pioneer is turning back
In addition to the parade, there is also a deterrent example of liberalization: Great Britain is currently trying again on a major rail reform to remedy the mistakes of the past.
Great British Rail is the name of the project announced in May, which should be in place in 2023.
Main purpose: To reconnect the network and operations more closely.
The British had completely disbanded their old state railway in 1994, with catastrophic consequences.
The listed network operator Railtrack went bankrupt in 2002 after several train accidents were attributed to a lack of investment and the supervisory authority demanded a move away from the ruinous austerity course.
The state stepped in with a billion-dollar bailout, but it is now clear: In addition to the private-sector rail network, the model of private-sector rail operation has also failed.
Again and again, the London Ministry of Transport had to take on one of the numerous railway companies as the operator of last resort, such as the East Coast Line of Virgin Rail from billionaire Richard Branson in 2018, or most recently in March 2020, Arriva Rail North, part of Deutsche Bahn.
Shortly afterwards, the Corona crisis ended the business model of these franchises completely, and London took over their liabilities.
As a private company, they should continue to exist, but without economic risk, with regulated fee income for their concessions - similar to the tenders in German local transport.
Great British Rail aims to legalize this solution on a permanent basis.
Then a central tariff system could take the place of today's mess.
Railway model country Switzerland: Liberal state monopoly
The number one railroad model country in Europe is not Sweden, but Switzerland. The access offer has grown by 37 percent since 2000, and demand even doubled - before the Corona slump. The rail network in the Alpine region is the densest in the world and fully electrified. The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) have ten times as many flat-rate customers for their GA travelcard as Deutsche Bahn, and that for a tenth of the population.
Liberal Switzerland relies on a 100 percent state-owned company that holds the network and operations in one hand. "Rail and train simply belong together," argues former SBB boss Benedikt Weibel, also in his capacity as supervisory board chairman of the private Austrian Westbahn, in an interview with SPIEGEL. A separation would be "inefficient, unworldly, the ultimate ruin".
The SBB act entrepreneurially autonomously, but according to clear target agreements and financial commitments from the Swiss Confederation.
The referendum of 1987 on the nationwide expansion with the "Bahn 2000" project was seen as the turning point for the successful railway.
Since then, the citizens have repeatedly granted more state money for the railway.
Switzerland also adheres to the competition rules of the neighboring EU: Access to the SBB rails is regulated independently of the public train path allocation office.
Italy: chic entrepreneurial railway, substance from the state
In the prestigious business with high-speed trains, the state railway companies are still among themselves - except in Italy, where in 2012 the private company NTV entered the market with its "Italo" trains.
The founders around ex-Ferrari boss
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo
(74) and shoe billionaire
Diego della Valle
(67) sold the company profitably in 2018 to the US financial investor GIP, who passed on a share to Allianz.
NTV is still profitable, even in the Corona year 2020, despite the sharp drop in passenger numbers - simply because the private competitor was just as protected by the state as the state-owned Ferrovie dello Stato (FS).
The Italos also drive on its tracks.
According to McKinsey, competition from Italo has improved the train offer and lured a billion passengers away from the plane on the Milan-Rome route alone.
Overall, despite the fancy express trains, Italy is one of the weakest rail performers in a European comparison: only 0.4 percent growth from 2010 to 2019. Rail is losing the much more important competition with the car.
That could change now, says McKinsey, if the infrastructure budget of FS is increased by 55 percent by 2027 thanks to the government plans for the EU reconstruction fund after Corona.
Japan: Success with private railways without competition
The railways have the highest share of traffic in the world in Japan, and as early as 1987 it was broken up into several, mostly private, companies.
These only compete with each other for capital on the stock exchange, not for customers on the same route.
Because every railway company operates the tracks on which it runs itself and has a monopoly in its territory.
Several private railways based on the same model already existed in local transport.
At the same time, the state intervenes hard in the market, prescribes specific conditions for the access offer and also regulates the prices in a nationwide ticket system.
What then makes the railway companies so lucrative?
Above all, the real estate business: Companies market retail space, offices, hotels and apartments around their train stations.
The better the rail connection, the greater its success.
The private railway companies have a long-term interest in their routes with the communities, argues the transport planner John Calimente.
"They bring valuable social benefits through public transport and generate profits at the same time."
Only this model is in contrast to the European conception of competition on the railways.