RAlpin: Perrin follows Rutishauser
Having reached retirement age, Erwin Rutishauser, chairman of the board of directors at RAlpin, stepped down at the annual general meeting of shareholders held on 19 June 2020. His successor is Nicolas Perrin, formerly CEO of SBB Cargo.
Last year, the Swiss operator of the rolling highway (ro-la) transferred over 86,000 heavy goods vehicles to rail on the route through the Swiss Alps.
Nevertheless, RAlpin posts a loss for the year-end result of CHF -3.6 million (2018: CHF -0.5 million) in 2019, which is mainly caused by high fixed costs for locomotives and rolling stock. Moreover, RAlpin was unable, within the year, to make up for the shortfall in federal compensation, which was cut by more than a third from over CHF 30 million to less than CHF 20 million, the company said.
To get the rolling highway back on track in terms of its finances, the operator has launched the “RAlpin 2021+” project. It includes cost savings, optimisations in terms of locomotive deployment as well as the extension of rolling stock to improve profitability by carrying more vehicles without having to increase the frequency of services on the Lötschberg-Simplon axis. (ben)