End for railway companies ?: Abellio employees advertise last-minute rescue

Immediately before the decisive meeting at the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) on the future of the ailing Abellio regional train in North Rhine-Westphalia, employees asked for a last-minute rescue.

“It's about 1080 jobs.

We hope that the VRR will reconsider its decision and that the jobs will be preserved, ”said Abellio works councilor Tom Zielonka.

An emergency award of the Abellio lines to other train companies would bring significant conversion problems and thus train cancellations and delays, said Zielonka.

Almost 100 Abellio employees came to the meeting place in an office building in Essen.

Abellio works council member Bärbel Völker-Schneider presented the VRR board spokesman Ronald Lünser with a petition from the workforce for the continuation of driving operations, which had been signed by almost 1,800 people.

380 million euros made available

The board of directors of North Rhine-Westphalia's largest transport association, VRR, had recommended that the cooperation with Abellio be terminated. In the early afternoon, the company's board of directors wanted to decide whether to follow the board of directors. Abellio is deep in the red, which is mainly due to higher personnel costs and significantly increased follow-up costs for construction sites, for example for replacement rail traffic and late penalties.

If the end for Abellio comes, the VRR wants to award the lines to other railway companies on February 1st.

This is done through emergency awards, which are much more expensive than before.

The state government is providing 380 million euros to cover the additional costs that will arise in the coming years.

The state had already announced that the Abellio employees will also be needed in the future and - then - can continue to be employed by other railway companies.

"We are not chess pieces"

The employees identified with their company and did not want to be pushed back and forth, said works council Zielonka.

“Nobody has applied here yet,” he said.

“We are not chess pieces,” it said on a banner.

About every sixth train kilometer in NRW's local rail transport is on Abellio, which operates important lines such as the RE1 from Aachen to Hamm, the RE 19 from Düsseldorf to Kassel and the S2 from Dortmund to Essen.

In the event that the orders expired, the Abellio management pointed out that “mass layoffs and mass stoppages in the near future” could not be ruled out.