ÖBB Annual Report 2025

3 Management & Supervisory Board ÖBB ANNUAL REPORT 2025 Foreword by the Board of Management Step by step into the future. The 2025 financial year was another year of considerable challenges. By December, however, things took a major turn for the better with the opening of the Koralm Railway. The timetable change to incorporate the new railway marked the successful completion of one of the largest infrastructure projects in more than 100 years. Even after four decades of planning and 27 years of construction, the project came in exactly on budget. The new route links people and regions together and opens up new economic opportunities. The popularity among passengers clearly demonstrates the potential of this important stage of the new Southern line. This expansion of transportation options in Austria nevertheless comes at a time of increasing external pressures. We continue to find ourselves in a highly competitive market environment, particularly in goods transportation. As one unfortunate consequence of this situation, the Rail Cargo Group fell short of its 2025 target, with noticeable effects on ÖBB’s overall result. We have therefore taken the necessary measures to once again stabilize the business model of our goods transportation subsidiary. Our aim is to reverse the trend by implementing efficiency improvements, leaner structures and clearly targeted actions. However, these must be accompanied by fair international conditions that treat all modes of transportation equally. Only then can the shift from road to rail be achieved and sustained on an economically viable basis over the long term. Efficient and competitive There is no question that cost awareness is the order of the day. In addition to the annual savings resulting from the federal government’s budget consolidation, we have launched a comprehensive Group-wide program to increase competitiveness. Our actions are aimed at keeping ÖBB’s future as a competitive group on track, train by train. We are therefore investing in digitalization and continuing our growth trajectory – as recently exemplified by a notable success in a German regional transportation tender. Growth is also required in terms of personnel: we will need to add several thousand new colleagues in the coming years. The 140,000 applications we have received clearly show that ÖBB remains a highly attractive employer. Although we are looking to the future with confidence, we are concentrating on three central goals – particularly in view of the difficult environment: keeping our promises to our customers, especially in terms of punctuality; further strengthening our competitiveness; and continuing our expansion strategy. We are laying a strong foundation for this with the Koralm Railway, new vehicles, our internal modernization steps and a clear strategic course. Together with a great team of 48,000 employees, we work every day to further improve our services, develop the ÖBB Group responsibly and help achieve the climate targets. Mag. a Manuela Waldner Chief Financial Officer (CFO) ÖBB-Holding AG Ing. Mag. (FH) Andreas Matthä Chairman of the Board of Management (CEO) ÖBB-Holding AG