The market is expected to remain stable. Abellio will continue to bid selectively and responsibly. In 2019 Abellio will start operations in Stuttgarter Netz (STN), S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr (SBRR) and Ruhr-Sieg-Netz 2 (RSN2) and will continue to focus on cross border connections like Arnhem-Düsseldorf.

Organisation and staff

Abellio Germany’s head office is based in Berlin with subsidiary offices in Halle, Bielefeld, Hagen and Stuttgart. Abellio has collective tariff agreements with the unions Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer (GDL) and Eisenbahn Verkehrs Gewerkschaft (EVG). Both agreements stipulate a 39 hour work week instead 40 hour work week (starting 1 January 2018). GDL will later go down to 38 hours. Negotiations for the renewal of the GDL contract for the years 2019 and 2020 have been concluded at the end of 2018. As a result of the new agreements Abellio will need to recruit additional staff and salary costs will increase.

New trains

Abellio Germany has ordered new rolling stock via an operational lease arrangement: 52 Bombardier Talent 2 trains will be produced for Stuttgarter Netz. The trains for Abellio, owned by the PTA Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (NVBW), will consist of 26 electric multiple units with 3 carriages and 26 electric multiple units with 5 carriages. The first train sets will be delivered in the beginning of 2019.
For the DISA network Abellio has received all 54 Coradia Lint 1 in 2018 from Alstom. As the train sets for lot 1 of the RRX concession (29 Siemens Desiro HC in total, thereof 15 trains in the first operating phase starting December 2018) are operated by Abellio but provided, owned and maintained by the PTA and the manufacturer, these trains are not categorised as new trains for Abellio Germany (the same goes for the SBRR fleet).

Workshop under construction

A three-track servicing hall with a total length of 120 meters and train storage sidings for Stuttgarter Netz will be built in Pforzheim. This city in Baden-Württemberg near Stuttgart has a long standing train tradition and is ideally located within the route network. In October the groundbreaking ceremony with the State Transport Minister of Baden-Württemberg took place. It is foreseen that the train storage sidings will be finished in time for operation in June 2019. A partial commissioning of the workshop is planned for June 2019. The construction works for the new site will be finished in September 2019.