Once again, the difficult European rail freight market is forcing an operator to take painful measures. The Czech national freight operator CD Cargo is laying off ten per cent of its employees.
The direct underlying reason for the layoffs is a decrease in orders, according to Czech media citing a representative of the Czech Railway Workers’ Union. ČD Cargo selected 420 employees to be laid off. Among them are 144 train drivers, about 10 per cent of the entire pool of drivers. ČD Cargo employed 1,519 train drivers at the end of last year.
ČD Cargo is offering a little consolation by facilitating transfers from the freight to passenger business. It reportedly set up an email for employees that are open to changing branches withing the ČD Group. However, not all employees are enthusiastic about that prospect, preferring to work in the freight sector.
Similarly to other freight operators in Europe, ČD Cargo lost a significant amount of freight volume due to a decline in the demand for coal. It transported 5 million tonnes less coal and iron in 2024 than the year before. In the case of Czechia, it is particularly the production downturn at the Liberty Steel plant in Ostrava that has reduced demand.