8 million passengers

Westbahn recorded record passenger numbers in 2023

A Westbahn train

(Bild: Kronen Zeitung)

The private ÖBB competitor Westbahn has returned to the road to success after the coronavirus years and achieved its best operating result to date in 2023. Group revenue rose from 90 million euros in 2022 to over 120 million euros and profit increased from four to ten million euros. Only 2019 saw a higher profit due to train sales. In the previous year, around eight million passengers traveled on Westbahn trains, 35 percent more than in 2022 and 20 percent more than in 2019. 

"Westbahn has grown up and arrived where we actually wanted to be a few years ago," summarized Florian Kazalek, who has been the Management Board duo of Westbahn's parent company Rail Holding AG with Thomas Posch for almost two years. However, the pandemic has set back the plans of the rail company, which was launched in 2011.

Connection to Vorarlberg to be expanded
The Management Board sees customer popularity as the basis for further expansion. The company wants to expand the connection to Vorarlberg, where Westbahn stops in eleven towns, and extend the trains to Munich as far as Stuttgart, stopping in Augsburg, Ulm and Günzburg on the way there because of Legoland. There are also plans to the east. The Westbahn is trying to obtain a license in Hungary.

Around half of the eight million passengers in 2023 were climate ticket holders. They accounted for around a third of Westbahn's turnover, as Posch explained. Even though Westbahn generates more revenue with its own ticket sales, it is actively trying to attract climate ticket holders, for example with its own train class.

Initial losses not yet offset
Despite the recent profits, the initial losses from the first few years of operation have not yet been fully offset. Whether there will nevertheless be a dividend for the first time in 2023 is a matter for the Supervisory Board and the Annual General Meeting and has not yet been decided, according to the two Management Board members.

Westbahn is 49.9 percent owned by the Haselsteiner Family Private Foundation, 32.7 percent by the Swiss Augusta Holding of entrepreneur Erhard Grossnigg and 17.4 percent by the French state railroad SNCF.