ÖBB boss Matthä takes action against the problem company

The week before last said goodbye Sandra Gott-Karlbauer managing director and spokesperson for the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary Technical Services (TS).

This subsidiary of the ÖBB subgroups Menschverkehr AG (75 percent) and the freight transport Rail Cargo has an important area of ​​​​responsibility for the state railway; it is responsible for the maintenance of the trains and the workshops. The company employs around 4,000 people at 25 locations, 23 of which are in Austria.

As is well known, the ÖBB is fighting against bottlenecks in trains and wagons. This has nothing to do with the floods in September, but has been the case since the end of the pandemic, when demand for rail travel increased again. The result for the annoyed passengers is delays and train cancellations.

The ÖBB simply doesn’t have enough functioning rolling stock. Railway boss Andreas Matthä justified this in an email to all employees this year with a “critical mix of delivery delays for new trains and an overload of old wagon material as well as, to put it cautiously, progressive planning”.

Most of the problem is homemade. The deployment plans were unrealistic. The fleet is in need of repair and service. During the pandemic, the workshops should have been running at full speed. Insiders report serious structural deficiencies. Management failed to improve efficiency and processes. The railway workers’ union sees the solution in more employees, but we hear that Matthä is not willing to give in.

In addition to the factual problems, there were also climatic tensions and team problems in the TS management. This year, the technical director found a supply position in the ÖBB holding company, the previously commercial director Gott-Karlbauer was given an early extension and promoted to head of technology.

Matthä, who is not exactly known for tough personnel management, may now have seen a need for action. Ultimately, as CEO, the quality problems fall on his head. The ÖBB does not confirm that he suggested to the manager that she should take the consequences of what was being said in the company.

Mentor’s Ederer

He was a strong supporter of Gott-Karlbauer Brigitte Ederer – already as a Siemens board member. Gott-Karlbauer was also at Siemens for a long time and rose to become an authorized representative. Shortly before the start of the turquoise-blue government, she was appointed as the new head of strategic corporate development at ÖBB, allegedly at the behest of Ederer – the ex-SPÖ politician was chairwoman of the railway’s supervisory board at the time. In 2019, her protégé moved to the management of Technical Services.

Now, however, Ederer has also, we hear, withdrawn her protective hand. The job has been advertised and the interim successor is the railway expert Ralf Mair. He has the best chance of getting a permanent appointment.

The ÖBB did not want to answer whether Gott-Karlbauer would receive severance pay and how long her contract as managing director would have lasted. We ask for your understanding that details regarding the termination of the contract cannot be disclosed.