Swiss Federal Railways expects to finish 2024 in the black

SBB expects a profit, as in 2023 Keystone-SDA

Swiss Federal Railways expects to land a similar profit for the current financial year as it did in 2023, the chair of the company’s board of directors has told media.

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Thanks to high passenger numbers, the Federal Railways netted a profit of CHF267 million ($299 million) in 2023. “At the moment, it looks like we’ll achieve roughly the same again,” Monika Ribar told the Schweiz am Wochenende newspaper on Saturday.

Strong passenger demand – especially in the second half of 2024 – should lead to a result that exceeds company expectations, she said.

+ Read more: Swiss are keenest rail users in Europe

After-effects of the pandemic

In the long term, however, such results will not be enough. The Railways needs to make an annual profit of around CHF500 million to be able to meet its investment requirements and ensure that its debt is sustainable, Ribar told the newspaper. An overhanging burden of some CHF3 billion in debt from the pandemic years “unfortunately does not disappear so easily”, she added.

Net debt amounted to CHF11.6 billion in the first half of 2024. The Railways thus continued to exceed the debt coverage ratio set by the government for 2030. In the first half of this year, the company made a profit of CHF50.8 million, half the previous year’s figure.

In 2023, the national railway company made a profit for the first time in three years, i.e. since before the pandemic.

“Our financial situation is tight,” Ribar said in the Schweiz am Wochenende interview. She added that the company is glad to have the backing of state authorities in reducing its debt, but that it also has to make a substantial contribution of its own. The goal is to return to higher profits, she said.

Translated from French by DeepL/dos

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