Austria: After many years of testing the DDEMU2 EMUs in the EU, it has been announced that their certification process is nearing completion. A fleet of four six-car trains is scheduled to enter service by mid-December.
The operator will be private railway company Westbahn, which leased the rolling stock directly from the Chinese manufacturer in 2019 for 10 years, with an option to purchase at any time. According to Westbahn’s CEO, Marco Ramsbacher, the choice of CRRC was driven by short delivery times, quality, and the innovative solutions applied.
However, Westbahn’s main shareholder, Hans Peter Haselsteiner, criticised the certification process, which dragged on for three years. “We feel less like a customer and more like a petitioner. It took European industry four years to grant approval”, he remarked.
The news provoked a wave of criticism from Austria’s railway industry association VBI, the Vienna Chamber of Labour, and the PRO-GE and Vida trade unions. Overall, these organisations warned that importing Chinese trains threatens jobs in the sector.
VBI, whose members include Alstom, Stadler, Siemens and others, stated that increasing imports of rolling stock from outside the EU could affect both the cost and technological innovation of rail transport. The association stressed that the state subsidies received by CRRC create a structural imbalance that poses a long-term threat to the competitiveness of European suppliers. It should be recalled that earlier this year, partly due to CRRC’s growing presence, the EU introduced new rules governing public procurement and asset acquisitions.
Westbahn responded to VBI’s criticism, noting that around half of the components in the new trains are of European origin, including seats, doors, brakes, and safety systems. It is also worth noting that Austria itself does not have any domestic manufacturers of passenger rolling stock.
Meanwhile, Lukas Oberndorfer, head of the Climate, Environment and Transport Department at the Vienna Chamber of Labour, called on the European Commission to review its rolling stock procurement criteria. “Unlike other transport sectors, we remain technological leaders in the EU’s railway industry. Exposing that position to the risks associated with low-cost suppliers would be short-sighted from both an industrial and employment policy perspective”, he said.
