Swiss Rail to cut 900 jobs

With the help of consultants McKinsey and Company, Swiss Rail has put together plans to shave 550 million off its annual costs by 2020 and 1.75 billion by 2030. As part of the cost cutting, 900 jobs are expected to disappear.

In 2014 the company managed to increase operating profits by 1.6% to CHF 314 million, despite rising expenses. However, the profit increase was largely supported by a 3.5% increase in public funding – stripping out this increase would take operating profits down to CHF 237 million, 23% lower than 2013. In 2014 public funding represented 26.3% of total revenues, slightly higher than the 26.1% figure for 2013.

• Swiss are world’s train travel champions (Le News – 13.10.15)
• Swiss Rail lost CHF 1.9 billion in 2014 (Le News – 08.04.15)

Of particular concern to Swiss Rail’s management are predicted falls in the costs of competing forms of transport such as buses and driverless cars. These competing forces leave little room to increase fares. In addition, the company has plans to invest heavily in expanding its offer and upgrading its infrastructure, so operating cost reductions are the only way to balance the books going forward.

In 2014 Swiss Rail carried 430 million passengers over 18 billion kilometres, and 53 million tonnes of freight over 14 billion kilometres. In 2014 passenger numbers were up 3.7% and freight volumes up by 9.8% compared to 2013.

Swiss Rail currently employs over 14,000 people (2014).

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