Federal Railways (ÖBB) managed to lower the number of delayed trains, according to Austrian Times.

The state-funded firm said that 96.6 per cent of its passenger services ran on time or were behind schedule by less than five minutes last year. This percentage figure means that the Vienna-based railroad company improved in this concern over the years. Only 90.5 per cent of its passenger trains ran on time in 2009 before their share rose to 94.2 per cent in 2010.

ÖBB is getting closer to Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) as far as punctuality is regarded. SBB is widely seen as the best federal railroad service operator in the world due to its reliability and a network of connections linking rural regions with industrialised areas. Around 96.1 per cent of SBB’s trains arrived on time in 2010, down by 0.2 per cent compared to 2009. The Swiss firm achieved a rate of 97.3 per cent last year.

ÖBB – which is headed by ex-Verbund AG executive board member Christian Kern – also announced yesterday that Germany’s Deutsch Bahn (DB) had a punctuality rate of 92.9 per cent last year. Speaking to Austrian newspaper Die Presse recently, SBB chief Andreas Meyer said he was convinced that ÖBB would not collapse despite its high losses. "There might be synergies, but SBB and ÖBB will still be independent companies (in 20 years’ time)," Meyer said.

ÖBB sustained a loss of 28 million Euros in 2011, according to preliminary annual business report figures presented yesterday. This means a significant improvement compared to the year before when the company had to argue an all-time record loss of 330 million Euros. Especially its cargo subsidiary company, Rail Cargo Austria (RCA), experienced immense difficulties following years of high activity.

The pressure on ÖBB’s passenger transportation department rose last month when Westbahn, a private company founded by construction business tycoon Hans Peter Haselsteiner, entered the tracks. Westbahn started offering daily connections between federal capital Vienna and Salzburg, the birthplace of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, on 11 December.

ÖBB and Westbahn met in court several times in recent months over various issues regarding schedules, marketing campaign claims and other issues. Haselsteiner revealed he was planning to launch legal action against the Republic of Austria over subsidies for ÖBB. The Strabag SE boss argued the payments enabled ÖBB to offer cut-price tickets for its Vienna – Salzburg service. The connection is the only passenger railway link the state-funded firm is making a profit with.

Kern admitted he would consider a possible Westbahn victory regarding subsidies as a "disaster". Kern said ÖBB may be forced to jack up ticket prices if the state was ordered by judges to reduce its financial support for his enterprise. ÖBB counted 210 million passengers in 2010. Another 250 million Euros used its Postbus bus and coach services. Reports have it that Postbus could be privatised if ÖBB failed to achieve a profit in the near future. Labour union officials appealed on decision-makers to clearly dissociate themselves from such a step.

ÖBB receives 560 million Euros a year from the state to operate unprofitable connections. The company is provided with around six billion Euros in credits, guarantees and direct investments by the government coalition of Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the People’s Party (ÖVP) each year. ÖBB must carry out various infrastructure projects – including expensive tunnel constructions and various small renovation procedures – in return. Kern said yesterday the current strategy of ÖBB was trying to achieve a profit in 2015.