DB Cargo UK, Britain’s biggest rail freight operator, has entered a formal consultation with drivers’ union ASLEF, regarding plans to make several traincrew roles redundant in areas it believes there is a surplus of driver resource.
It is understood that around 10% of the existing traincrew could leave the business via the redundancy route, which is around 70-75 drivers.
In a memo by DB Cargo UK CEO Andrea Rossi dated November 1, and seen by Rail Express, he states: “despite our recent and ongoing efforts to improve operations, financial efficiency and profitability, regrettably we remain on course to report yet another significant loss this year.
“Significant softening of some of our core markets, our recent exit from some unprofitable contracts, and loss of business to our competitors means we are running over 25% fewer trains every week, but with the same level of resources.
“Our costs have also increased exponentially over the past 18 months due to external factors like the invasion of Ukraine and its ongoing impact on the price of things like energy, parts and materials.”
He said that parent company DB Cargo AG has informed its European entities that it can no longer sustain the
