Allgau Mountain Railway Initiative” Entering The Winter Season With A New Board And An Extensive Basic Study.

The “Allgäu Mountain Railway Initiative” (ABBI) is entering the winter season with a new board and an extensive basic study.

A year has now passed since the "Allgäu Mountain Railway Initiative" was founded. The initiative unites almost 17 ski lift and mountain railway companies in the Allgäu region in order to give the interests of the member companies a common and strong voice vis-à-vis politicians, the public and associations.

In the first year of its founding, the focus was on building up the association and its structures. In addition, a lot of time was invested in building up a robust network, mutual exchange and the development of a 10-point paper together with Allgäu GmbH. The managing directors of ABBI are Bernhard Joachim (formerly Allgäu GmbH) and Klaus Gehrer (Oberstdorf Kleinwalsertal Bergbahnen).

The close cooperation with Allgäu GmbH is extremely important in order to develop a common strategy for the future of winter sports and to strengthen the positive image of the entire winter sports industry. For this reason, the new managing director of Allgäu GmbH, Stefan Egenter, is a permanent guest on the ABBI board.

The ABBI board changes on a rotational basis throughout the year: The current board member Henrik Volpert (Oberstdorf Kleinwalsertal Bergbahnen) passes the chairmanship of the association to Thomas Dusch (Bergbahnen Ofterschwang Gunzesried). Henrik Volpert is satisfied with the work of the first year: "It was important to quickly put the ABBI into working mode and to anchor it firmly in the political and tourist landscape of the Allgäu. I am pleased to be part of this working group and am sure that Thomas Dusch will achieve a lot as the new board member of the ABBI." ABBI board member Thomas Dusch is positive about his new task: "We mountain railways in the Allgäu work closely together in partnership and have already achieved a lot in the first year. But we cannot and do not want to be satisfied with that; we must work together to ensure that winter sports are sustainable. A major project in this context is our study on the role of the mountain railways in the Allgäu, which we are currently working on."

All cable car, drag lift and mountain railway companies from Allgäu, Tyrol and Vorarlberg can join the association. This means that the cross-border association also serves as an interface to the respective national mountain railway associations. The Allgäu Mountain Railway Initiative is organizationally based on the Allgäu Tirol Bergwelt GmbH (ATB), an association of Allgäu and Tyrol cable cars and drag lifts that form the joint Superschnee ski pass association. This keeps the structures lean and efficient.