Commuters and travelers have to be prepared for delays or even train cancellations on important regional train routes in North Rhine-Westphalia by the beginning of February at the latest. Regarding the departure of the Abellio company from rail traffic, the NRW boss of the Pro Bahn passenger association, Andreas Schröder, told the German Press Agency: "Given the already tight staffing situation, train cancellations are to be feared when transferring to the successor company." Abellio employees would probably take remaining leave. Bottlenecks are especially possible for train drivers. The financially stricken company Abellio has to cease operations at the end of January, and several other companies are to take over.

On Thursday (December 9th) the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) will decide which railway companies will take over the Abellio lines in an emergency award procedure.

Until December 14th

The two other NRW transport associations Nahverkehr Rheinland (NVR) and Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe (NWL) follow.

Applicants include DB Regio and, according to industry information, National Express, among others.

DB Regio is applying for the Rhine-Ruhr and Ruhr-Sieg S-Bahn network, as a company spokeswoman said.

If the company wins the contract, 500 employees - usually former Abellio employees - would have to be recruited and trained in a short period of time.

That is "without a doubt a great challenge".

Abellio has a sixth market share

This transition will probably lead to "jerks", as VRR boss Ronald Lünser recently said in the state parliament's transport committee. Abellio currently drives 21 million train kilometers per year and thus a market share of around one sixth in local rail passenger transport (SPNV) in North Rhine-Westphalia. Such a large railway company has never left the market. Lünser said there was "no blueprint" for the transition. One is well prepared and confident that there will be no downtime. But at the beginning you have to reckon with "one or the other restriction".

Abellio Rail GmbH currently operates the RE 1 from Aachen via Cologne to Hamm, the RE11 from Düsseldorf to Kassel, the RE19 from Düsseldorf to Arnhem and the RE49 from Wuppertal to Wesel. In the S-Bahn network, Abellio runs the S2 from Dortmund to Essen and the S9 from Hagen to Recklinghausen. The successor companies are to take over the staff from Abellio. The transport associations have assured the 1080 employees that they will also take into account overtime accounts and vacation plans when taking over and avoid transfers with "unreasonable distances" to the new job.

Abellio provides around 80 percent of the transport services for the VRR - the transport association based in Gelsenkirchen is therefore the main party affected by the Abellio-Aus. Leaving the market is an expensive thing: The state is providing 380 million euros to offset the foreseeable follow-up costs over the next few years.

The Green politician Norbert Czerwinski calls for long-term consequences.

"We need a public rail transport company that is ready and able to take over transport services," says the member of the VRR Board of Directors.

"On certain routes we should be able to award transport services directly to a public company and not to tender them out to the public, so that companies then go in again with dumping prices and throw in the towel a few years later," says Czerwinkski.

"We want a regional transport company in which all three network areas are involved - i.e. VRR, NWL and NVR."