As per the Schienen Control report, the problems for Austria to growth in rail freight are attributed to the lack of qualified personnel, lack of locomotives, challenges imposed by the war in Ukraine, and some infrastructure works in neighbouring Germany. All of this contributed to the fact that rail freight is not winning here in the battle with road transport.
In Austria, the dominant player is the ÖBB-owned Rail Cargo Austria. It still has a 60.8% market share, although it is steadily decreasing. In 2018, the company had a 69.3% market share. All the remaining rail freight carriers operating in Austria had below 5% of the market share.
Here is the list of top 10 rail freight operators in Austria in 2022:
- Rail Cargo Austria – 60.8%
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Lokomotion – 4.99%
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Cargo Service – 3.80% (CargoServ)
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Ecco-Rail GmbH – 3.72%
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Wiener Lokalbahnen Cargo – 3.24%
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ČD Cargo – 3.03%
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LTE Austria – 3.00 %
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Raaberbahn Cargo - 2.13%
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S-Rail – 1.78% (SETG)
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Metrans – 1.35%
These companies are followed by FRACHTbahn and FOXrail, both slightly above 1% and then companies with a share between 0.5% and 1% market share – RTB Cargo Austria, PKP Cargo, DB Cargo Czechia, EUROGATE Rail Hungary. Railtrans International, DB Cargo, and Steiermark Transport und Logistik.
