Essen (dpa / lnw) – Almost a year after the Abellio Rail company in North Rhine-Westphalia went out of business, the Abellio insolvency administrator sued the transport associations in the state for millions in payments. A corresponding, around 2,000-page complaint was received by the Essen district court, a court spokesman confirmed. The “Wirtschaftswoche” had previously reported. The transport associations rejected the claim.
The railway company – a subsidiary of the Dutch state railway – had covered about every sixth train kilometer in NRW and written deep red numbers. Since the autumn of last year, the company has been going through protective shield proceedings, i.e. restructuring under insolvency law.
After negotiations between Abellio and the transport associations as clients on higher remuneration remained without agreement, the NRW transport associations terminated the long-term contracts with Abellio. The Abellio lines in NRW were awarded to other companies with temporary emergency awards from February 1, 2022.
According to the court spokesman, the insolvency administrator Rainer Eckert argued that the transport associations Rhein-Ruhr, local transport Westphalia-Lippe and local transport Rhineland prevented necessary price increases in their contracts and thus caused the insolvency. He is demanding 53.8 million euros in compensation claims as well as damages for all damage caused by the insolvency totaling three-digit millions.
The NRW transport associations blamed the Abellio management in NRW for the bankruptcy: “It was and remains obvious that this bankruptcy is mainly due to the sometimes serious wrong decisions of the management at the time,” they explained on Friday. The claims of the insolvency administrator were completely unfounded.