GERMANY: Austrian Federal Railways’ purchase of The Go-Ahead Group’s rail activities in Germany was completed on February 1. This follows the European Commission’s approval of the deal announced in October.
ÖBB told Railway Gazette International that ‘with this acquisition, ÖBB is pursuing its long-term goal of further international growth. With the acquisition of Go-Ahead Deutschland, ÖBB has achieved its market entry into local passenger transport by rail in Germany. It is an important step for further growth in southern Germany.’
Go-Ahead’s German business held the Land of Baden-Württemberg’s Stuttgart Netz Lot 1b (Rems–Fils), Lot 1c (Franken-Enz) and Netz 3b Murrbahn operating contracts, and Bayern’s E-Netz Allgäu and Augsburger Netze Lot 1 contracts, with around 1 000 employees and 144 electric multiple-units.
‘Positive outcome’
Completion of the transaction marks Go-Ahead’s exit from the German rail market after five years, although the operations will continue to use Go-Ahead branding in the short term.
Go-Ahead Group Chief Executive Miguel Parras said the company had delivered new trains, high customer service and increased capacity, and the sale was ‘a positive outcome both for The Go-Ahead Group and for our German colleagues’.
Go-Ahead is owned by Kinetic and Globalvia. It holds rail operating contracts in partnership with Keolis in the UK and alone in Norway, and operates buses in the UK, Singapore, Ireland, Sweden and Australia. It was recently selected to operate the Stockholm metro in a joint venture with ComfortDelGro.
‘Go-Ahead continues to pursue opportunities for strategic expansion in both bus and rail in selected markets around the world’, said Parras.
