Surveys and analysis regularly confirm Abellio's high reputation in the individual regions. In quality surveys, Abellio's companies consistently achieve top rankings. But the financial situation does not reflect these good operating results. There are mainly external reasons for this, irrespective of the corona pandemic. Challenges facing the industry are caused by increased personnel costs that are not covered by the PTA’s as well as the high penalties for causes outside the control of the operators that put pressure on profitability. Therefore, after a phase of growth, a phase of consolidation and structural realignment of the group is now following.
First and foremost it is crucial for Abellio Germany's strategy to reach an agreement with its PTAs to structurally change the compensation and penalty regimes for the existing concessions. We expect to reach this agreement in 2021. To further improve profitability, an internal program has been initiated that should contribute to better results. In 2021 a Germany-wide functional structure will be implemented with one central management team. As a next step Abellio aims to merge the four regional companies into one company called Abellio Rail GmbH in 2021 with the aim to create synergies and to optimise and harmonise existing processes. The service company PTS GmbH will not be impacted by the new structure. In the future, Abellio intends to support the shareholder strategy for example by improving and expanding cross border connections.