The Austrian railway freight carrier plans to operate in Serbia from next year. Namely, “Rail Cargo”, a subsidiary company of Austrian Railways (OBB), intends to start transporting cargo through its own company in Serbia at the beginning of the second quarter of 2023, Clemens Furst from “Rail Cargo” announced today.
Serbia will thus be the 13th country in which the company will transport cargo with its own locomotives and personnel. Ferst said that OBB will thus be able to offer clients another route in the direction of Turkey and Greece, which will make it more resistant to crises.
As of January 1, Rail Cargo opens its representative office in Shanghai and begins work, with the goal of building the railway corridor of the “new Silk Road”.
Ferst also announced at the press conference that OBB will increase the prices of its services in Austria by an average of 20 percent, while the increase will be smaller for clients abroad. Director of OBB Andreas Mate said that railway freight transport is facing a multiple crisis, that it is facing, in addition to inflation, the pandemic, the climate crisis and problems with deliveries, and there are also numerous construction sites on the railway network and competition from road transport, Tanjug reports.
