30 units

Bottlenecks: ÖBB rents wagons from Deutsche Bahn

(Bild: ÖBB/Harald Eisenberger)

Despite its return to a normal timetable, ÖBB is struggling with a backlog in the maintenance of its fleet as well as breakdowns and delays. Hiring wagons from Deutsche Bahn is now intended to counteract the bottleneck. In addition: 6.1 billion euros are now being spent on renewing the fleet.

ÖBB has returned to its normal timetable this week. Nevertheless, it is still struggling with the maintenance of its fleet and thus with train cancellations and delays. To alleviate these problems, the federal railroads have now rented wagons from Deutsche Bahn. "There are around 30 of them that we will be using on the western route in the short term," said ÖBB's head of long-distance transport Kurt Bauer on Friday on Ö1-Morgenjournal.

We will be deploying around 30 trains on the western route in the short term.

Kurt Bauer, ÖBB-Fernverkehrschef 

This will increase the capacity of existing trains and at the same time allow for more reserves in the current fleet, Bauer continued. It is no secret that Öbb has been struggling with a backlog in train maintenance for months. In some cases, even very outdated trainsets have to be used. Although an increase in capacity in the workshops has made it possible to return to normal operations after several months with a thinned-out timetable, further improvements are still needed.

New trains from April 8
The maintenance backlog will not be eliminated overnight. The industry is now constantly supplying new trainsets, which will also help to ease the situation. The first new trains are scheduled to run on the Brenner line from Munich to Verona from April 8th. This would in turn free up capacity that could be used on the southern route.

Bauer also referred to ÖBB's major investment program to renew its fleet. EUR 6.1 billion is to be invested in the project by 2030. The railroad has ordered a total of 330 new long-distance and local trains.