ÖBB Annual Report 2023

Group Management Report 140 Österreichische Bundesbahnen-Holding Aktiengesellschaft Consolidated Financial Statements | Group Management Report 95 Another Group-wide focus is on activities in the field of digital automatic clutches (DAC). It is a basic prerequisite for making rail freight transport more attractive and should increase the capacity of the railway system as a whole. Besides the ÖBB Group’s participation in the ER JU project “TRANS4M-R”, the ÖBB Group also manages the “European DAC Delivery Programme” (EDDP). ÖBB therefore plays a leading role in Europe when it comes to DAC. These projects involve working with other railway companies and the industry to drive forward the further development, testing and migration of the DAC. Development work is currently underway on the new coupling system, including additional applications such as an automated brake test. Subsequently, comprehensive demonstrator trains are planned for 2025 and 2026 in Austria, Scandinavia, Italy and Switzerland. Starting from the end of 2026, DAC pre-deployment trains throughout Europe are to collect important findings on reliability and availability in different regional conditions under normal operating conditions. ÖBB-Holding AG is in charge of coordinating the work for the DAC, which is being realised in close cooperation with the Group companies Rail Cargo Austria AG, ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG, ÖBB-Produktion Gesellschaft mbH and ÖBB-Technische Services-Gesellschaft mbH. The ÖBB Group’s innovation programme has worked intensively on the following three topics in the area of product and service innovations: “AI-supported email classification in customer service”, “Customer information” and “Customer world”. The results included for example the Jubel Advantage Pack and the Jubel Pack for the Climate Ticket. The Open Innovation team supported the departments on a selective basis alongside the innovation programme, for example on the topics of “circular economy for uniforms“, ”cycling strategy“ and “peak travel days”. The Group-wide “ÖBB 360°” project, which focuses on integrated mobility services for communities, regions and companies, continued to be supported this year. In 2023, another focus was on community work. In addition to the Open Innovation Lab at the company headquarters, the Open Innovation Factory was opened in Lassallestrasse in Vienna. The Factory offers 1,000 m2 of space for co-creation and co-working and is being developed into a meeting place for the Austrian mobility community. In 2023, a corporate venturing team was also set up to promote the topic of “business model innovations”. Additional project highlights from the area of research, technology and innovation in the ÖBB Group in 2023: – TARO: The Group-wide “TARO” (Towards Automated Railway Operation) project was completed in 2023. The project covers various areas of the railway system, such as digital twin vehicles, digital twin infrastructure, regional railway technology and improvements in the area of rail freight transport and shunting (such as in the “Autoshunting” project). The results of the work are now to be successively incorporated into regular operations. – eDigital trip report / driver cockpit (Postbus AG): Österreichische Postbus Aktiengesellschaft continued to focus on the comprehensive digitalisation of operating processes and made considerable progress in this area. The “Driver Cockpit” project enables the digital connection of approx. 4,000 Postbus drivers. In 2023, the digital journey report was introduced as part of this project. The aim is to process approx. 2,200 journey reports per day digitally at Postbus. The digital journey report therefore makes a significant contribution to further increasing the sustainability and efficiency of operational processes. The Group’s internal RTI tool was finalised in order to further increase the visibility of R&D within the ÖBB Group. It is now available to all ÖBB employees. ÖBB employees are provided with an overview of current and completed R&D projects. For example, this provides better transparency for the 101 R&D projects running in the ÖBB Group in 2023 with a project volume of approx. EUR 35.0 million (over the entire term). In addition, ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG published an annual R&D report for the first time, as well as an internal Group website that provides information on the R&D activities of ÖBB- Infrastruktur AG. ÖBB is working with over 200 Austrian and international project partners as part of the research projects. These include approx. 100 small and medium-sized enterprises as well as various national and foreign universities and research institutes. This also emphasises the economic importance of the ÖBB Group’s R&D activities. Outlook for 2024 The main focus of the ÖBB Group in 2024 is the continued participation in “Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking”. The project start in 2022 focused on the development of requirements and project principles and is to be followed by successive preparations for potential demonstrators in 2025 and 2026 from 2024. The two main strategic approaches for product and service innovations are: Simplicity of products and services and attractiveness of the overall offering. Improving customer information will be a key focus in 2024. The topic of “international travelling” will also be a focus of the innovation area. | MR95