ESNTrain - A historical chronology about a big scandal

This post summarizes the history of the ESNTrain scandal:

ESNTrain was supposed to be a private overnight train that would travel for 20 days in March/April 2009 through many European countries, including Austria, Italy, Croatia, Poland and Norway. This train was primarily meant to be used by Erasmus students.
The organizer cancelled the train on the day of its departure, leaving hundreds of students stranded.
Until now (January 2010) the organizer (Bernhard Jäggle) has not paid back a single penny to over 1000 students for the tickets and damages. The organizers also did not explain why the train was cancelled at all. Neither did he explain were all the money disappeared.

Chain of events (as the investigation has shown, subject to changes):

April, 2007:
ESN Zuerich organized ESNTrain and sold many tickets to students. Bernhard Jaeggle of ESN Zuerich was the head of the organizing team.

June, 2007:
ESN Zuerich cancelled ESNTrain, because of too few students, who signed up for the train. It is not completely verified whether all students got their money back. ESN Zuerich has not provided proof for that.

October, 2007:
ESN Zuerich announced that there will be a 2nd attempt to realise ESNTrain in 2009.

November, 2008:
Bernhard Jaeggle of ESN Zuerich founded and opened an own company with the name - Platform GmbH -. Bernhard Jaeggle became the CEO of Platform GmbH. Platform GmbH was the official organizer of ESNTrain in 2009. It was planned that the train would travel in March/April 2009 though more than 10 European countries. Jaeggle was very determined to make that train a reality, after it failed already in 2007.

December, 2008:
Platform GmbH started a campaign to promote ESNTrain. Paid employees of Platform GmbH have contacted various media organizations and ESN sections to spread the word about ESNTrain.
In most advertising material it was not mentioned that Platform GmbH would be the organizer. Rather, in some documents Platform GmbH employees (notably Remo Weber) wrongfully claimed that ESN would organize ESNTrain.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24126559/Remo-Weber-lies-again-in-EU-funded-Gmagazine
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16631865/Remo-Weber-ESN-organized-ESNTrain
http://esn-train-cancelled.blogspot.com/2009/05/remo-weber-organisation-behind-esntrain_1165.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27319724/V%C5%A0E-ESN-says-The-ESNtrain-means-a-unique-journey-It-is-organised-by-the-ESN-Erasmus-Student-Network
Matthias Fenner, then President of ESN, allowed Jaeggle to use the brand "Erasmus Student Network".
Moreover, it was communicated by Platform GmbH that two thirds of the costs were planned to be covered by sponsors and suppliers. (this turned out to be a big lie afterwards)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16333840/Original-ESN-FAQ

January, 2009:
Platform GmbH started selling ESNTrain tickets to students.
Bernhard Jaeggle was in contact with OEBB (Austrian Railways). Jaeggle wanted OEBB to be the main supplier for the train cars, engines, and tracks. OEBB did not accept his price demand (too low). OEBB was rather surprised that Jaeggle was already selling tickets to students, despite having no contract with him to actually supply the train for a set price.

2nd week of March, 2009:
OEBB and Jaeggle still have not reached an agreement about the price and payment conditions for the supply of the train. Jaeggle did not want to make any prepayment, because he did not have enough money to fund such a prepayment. OEBB wanted Jaeggle to pay 50% of the estimated total costs as prepayment.
The total cost estimate of Jaeggle was 500 to 600 thousand Euros.
The total costs estimate of OEBB was close to 800 thousand Euros.
Time was running out, because without a deal there would be no train on March 28.

OEBB finally asked Jaeggle whether he wanted OEBB to be his main supplier and whether Jaeggle would accept a prepayment of 400 thousand Euros. Jaeggle finally agreed to that.
Bernhard Soukup (direct contact person at OEBB) confirmed that*:

There is a written order of the ESN-Train 2009 according to the
conditions of the offer, signed by Mr. Jäggle.

*according to the blog post comment and newsletter http://esn-train-cancelled.blogspot.com/2010/02/only-40-days-left-until-our-claims.html#comments

This prepayment of EUR 400,000 was due a number days before the departure of ESNTrain train on March 28.

3rd week of March, 2009:
Jaeggle was begging a number of Universities (incl. ETH Zuerich) for emergency sponsoring. He asked for several hundred of thousand of Euros. Jaeggle naturally didn't get that kind of money.

According to ÖBB:

[ÖBB] was told by Mr. Jäggle that with the help of certain EU -
commissioners he was going to obtain discounts by the involved railway
companies. However, [ÖBB] never saw a correspondence about these negotiations.

March 27, 2009:
OEBB informed Jaeggle that OEBB won't supply ESNTrain because Jaeggle failed to make the prepayment of 400 thousand Euros in time. Jaeggle just paid 100 thousand Euros to OEBB.
Jaeggle informed ESN about the financial troubles at the annual ESN meeting AGM in Utrecht. This is the first time ESN officially became aware of the troubles.
However, ESN couldn't help him with the money either.

March 28, 2009:
Jaeggle informed all students with paid tickets by email that ESNTrain was cancelled.
Hundreds of students got stranded in icy weather in Slovakia and Austria, because the information did not reach them in time. On this day (March 28, 2009) the ESNTrain was supposed to depart Bratislava.

March 29, 2009:
Jaeggle initiates an misinformation campaign and blamed OEBB for breaching the contract with him. (it is unclear, which contract Jaeggle meant)
Many students at this point learned that not ESN, but Platform was organizing ESNTrain.

This blog - critical towards Bernhard Jaeggle - went online.


March 28/29/30, 2009:
ESNTrain was vandalized by unknown individuals. Jaeggle communicated that burglary to a number of people at various ESN sections, but not to all students with paid tickets.

ESN President (Matthias Fenner), who was the main contact person for Jaeggle at ESN, resigned. Matthias Fenner failed to say anything substantial about ESNTrain and the causes of its cancellation until today.

April, 2009:
ESN and students were asking Jaeggle to pay back the ticket money (close to EUR 400 for each students; several hundred thousand Euros in total). Jaeggle has not answered most of their emails. ESN and students are asking Jaeggle to show them the contract between Platform and OEBB in order to verify Jaeggles' claim that OEBB was at fault. Jaeggle refused to do so.
Despite having virtually no money and enourmous debt (ticket money of students), Jaeggle refused to declare Platform bankcrupt.
Jaeggle has not refunded a single cent to students with paid tickets.

April, 2009:
This blog correctly predicted that all of the students was lost and that student won't get their money back. This prediction was right.

May, 2009:
Jaeggle acknowledged to Austrian TV station ORF that he didn't have a written contract with OEBB.
http://esn-train-cancelled.blogspot.com/2009/07/jaggle-didnt-have-contract-with-obb.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moyqOUPzCBA

Jaeggle received a written warning from OEBB (Abmahnung) not to blame OEBB any longer.

June, 2009
Jaeggle organized a party at his home in Maennedorf, Switzerland. His friend and ESNTrain board member Martin Kos put the party pics on the internet.
http://maia.fotopic.net/c1749509.html
These photos show Jaeggle having a good party and ridiculing our paid ESNTrain materials, which were supposedly vandalized during the burglary in March.
These photos show that Jaeggle was not hard working to return our money, but instead was flirting with Martina Bader (President of ESN Zuerich) with a spoon.

June, 2009
ESN International (Marketa Tokova) proposed a number of mediation rounds to settle the ESNTrain issue. ESN, Jaeggle, students with paid tickets and OEBB were supposed to take part in the mediation.

July, 2009
Despite numerous attempts Jaeggle refused to participate in the mediation round because he had other stuff to do (e.g. holiday).
Moreover, Jaeggle refused to accept postal letters at his address (= Platform GmbH). Letters were returned unopened to angry participants.

October, 2009
Finally the mediation round took place in Vienna. Jaeggle did finally agree to participate at last - after four months. According to sources from ESN sections (thanks to them) Jaeggle refused to tell anything specific why ESNTrain was cancelled at the last minute. In addition, Jaeggle acknowledged that Platform GmbH had no money to repay students, everything was spent. Platform GmbH had many additional unpaid bills with other suppliers, as well.
Jaeggle refused to account where all the ticket money of the students went. Moreover, he admitted of having almost no sponsors who gave him substantial amount of money prior the ESNTrain departure.

November, 2009
ESN International sent an open letter to Jaeggle.
http://www.esn.org/files/uploaded/Open_letter_061109.pdf
ESN blamed Jaeggle for the bad communication policy and accuse Jaeggle that he was responsible for the negative feelings students have against him. Moreover, ESN demands Jaeggle to turn over accounting books of Platform GmbH and the contract with OEBB. ESN wanted to verify whether Jaeggle told us all the truth.

November, 2009
Jaeggle refused to handover any documents or to tell anything substantial where the money of students went (disappeared) and why the cancellation had happened at all. Bernhard Jaeggle blames ESN for jeopardizing his efforts to sue OEBB.
Moreover, Jaeggle announced that he was working hard to organize a follow-up ESNTrain project.

November, 2009
Bernhard Jaeggle announced that he would sue OEBB for all damages, despite him admiting that he had no contract. Moreover, he would sue students with paid tickets who speak badly about him on the internet. He wanted to sue the people behind this blog, as well.
(comment: Jaeggle has virtually no chance in wining a case against OEBB; it is just another game of him to gain time and to shift blame away from him)

December, 2009
Sadely, ESN International announced that they won't take any legal action against Jaeggle. More decisive action against Jaeggle is not in the card for ESN International.
Jaeggle speculates that all students with paid tickets would forget this scandal over time.

Has anyone seen the real ESNTrain?

News: So, 40 participants in Bratislava did not see the ESNTrain.
Dear Bernhard Jaeggle, would you be so kind to post a number of photos of the ESNTrain at Bratislava Nové Mesto, taken on the day of its intended departure!
Why didn't you care for the participants who were stranded at Bratislava Petrzalka station? It was just 4 miles away from the ESNTrain.

According to my information the real ESNTrain was standing in the rail yard at Bratislava Nové Mesto train station. However, no engine really picked up the train there, because ÖBB/ZSSK withdrew their commitment.

Has anyone of you - participants - seen the train there? Bratislava Nové Mesto is not Bratislava Main station (hlavna stanica) or Bratislava Petrzalka.
Was anyone coming from Hungary to join ESNTrain at Bratislava Petrzalka? All trains from Hungary, which travel through Györ, travel also via Bratislava Nové Mesto train station. Maybe you've seen the train there?

Has someone already received any money back?

If yes, please use my comment function to tell us more about it?
Has ESNTrain refunded the entire tickets costs?

Honestly, I haven't heard from anyone who already got the money back.

Jäggle, you should not forget that participants are making alternative travel plans.
For that the participants need the ticket money as soon as possible.
So, please hurry, Jäggle!!! You have the bank account details from most of us. A SEPA money transfer usually takes just 2 business days.

Oh, by the way. Do you guys know Nora Kleisli? She studies Business Information Technology (Wirtschaftsinformatik) at the University of Zürich. Well, she is the ESNTrain communication person. I've read this article, which was published on March 10th 2009.
http://edithschachinger.viennablog.at/2009/03/10/studenten-am-zug

In that article Nora Kleisli states:

„Heuer hatten wir allerdings eine angemessene Vorlaufzeit und der ESNtrain kommt definitiv auf Schiene.“

"This year we had enough time for organization and the ESNTrain is definitely going to be put on tracks"
Well, well Nora. Technically you were right. The ESNTrain was put on tracks in Bratislava. The problem was that the train was not moving.

Here is another statement:

„wenn ihr zu Ostern mitfahren wollt, macht schnell“, heißt es da, „manche Trips werden bald ausgebucht sein!“

"If you want to join ESNTrain during the Easter Break, you should hurry, because many nights on the ESNTrain are going to be fully booked very soon."

Apparently the ESNTrain team was desperate to get more money.
In my eyes it was so disreputable by Nora Keisli to try to lure more people to sign up for ESNTrain in March. As I stated many times in this blog. The ESNTrain team must have known of the EUR 400,000 deficit (and the inevitable cancellation) early in March.

Jäggle: I am not sure if all money can be refunded

Finally a brave reporter sheds some light into the inner workings of the ESN Train team.
http://www.euranet.eu/ger/Europawahl/Euranet-unterwegs/Was-wird-aus-dem-Geld-der-ESNtrain-Teilnehmer
(please go to translate.google.com if you want to read in full)

I would like to add that Jäggle complained in that radio interview "that he has been ripped apart in this blog." Part of the reason is that you haven't guaranteed us to pay us back. Secondly you must have seen in February that is ESNTrain would be going nowhere. Because of your last minute cancellation you ruined these weeks for hundreds of participants. It is simply not excusable, because this mess was so preventable.
It doesn't help anyone(and doesn't excuse this last-minute cancellation) if you tell them hundreds of people have fought until the last minute for this train.
It doesn't help anyone (and doesn't excuse this last-minute cancellation) if you tell them that you had such a hard time acquiring sponsors.
It doesn't help anyone (and doesn't excuse this last-minute cancellation) if you tell them that the 2-year work of hundreds of people is worth nothing.


1) Jäggle goes on the record and told the reporter that he was not sure if all money is going to be refunded.
OK, now we know. Our money is not safe. I have been predicting this since last Saturday. People critized me for making false speculations. People critized me for not waiting for official confirmation.
OK, here we go. It is now official. Jäggle said it himself.
(btw: we all have a contract with Platform GmbH, so Jäggle cannot just say, we would only get (lets say) 60% back of the money.)

2) The blame game is starting. According to Jäggle there would not be any future ESNTrain, because this blog angered the railway companies. I predict that Jäggle may tell us next week, that it would have been the fault of this blog that ESNTrain lost money in negotiations with ÖBB. That's why people should sue me.
Well, I am not afraid. I consider myself to be a brave person now.
But I assume that you will hear this phrase from me a lot in the upcoming weeks "I told you so."

3) Here comes my "Mega-Argument". Jäggle said that he attempted to get discounts from various railway infrastructure for these expensive track fees. He failed doing that. He received no written documents which guaranteed these discounts.

Now, my arguments makes total sense. Ask yourself why NO railway infrastructure authority agreed to issue a written discount guarantee! In my eyes it has something to to with EU Law, which prohibits EU railway infrastructure authorities to issue discounts.
I would like to make one minor correction. Because Switzerland and Norway are not members of the EU, I guess SBB (Swiss Rail) and NSB (Norwegian Rail) might be able to issue discounts, but not the other ones.

The reporter asked Bernhard Jäggle, why he didn't cancel ESNTrain much earlier. He answered that he had guarantees for track discounts, but he didn't have any written document.
This is ridiculous.

A deal is done when a deal is done. And when you talk about these amounts of money, you always have to have some written and signed document.
This was so naive on the part of Bernhard Jäggle. And because of this gross naivity hundreds of participants were stranded and our money is at risk.

4) ÖBB estimates that the total deficit of ESNTrain was running close to EUR 400,000.
So even if Jäggle received these track fees discounts, he would not have been able to balance this EUR 400,000 deficit anyway. Jäggle disputes this number in the radio interview. Well, I actually trust the numbers by ÖBB more than the numbers by Jäggle.
No one can tell me that the ESN Train was not aware of this insurmountable problem in February.
No Jäggle, you were not running short of EUR 150,000. You were running short of EUR 400,000 (EUR 150,000 + EUR 300,000). (there is a minor EUR 50,000 discrepancy, but hey, it is just our money, don't worry!)

5) Jäggle goes on the record and states that sponsors were withdrawing their commitments at the last minute.
I simply do not believe this. Jäggle should tell us more details so we can verify if this claim is really correct.Jäggle wants to make us believe that one mysterious Mega-Sponsor cancelled his commitment just hours before ESNTrain was supposed to leave Bratislava.
No, no, no - Jäggle and his team have not been successful in acquiring sponsors for the entire last year. Even if you blame the financial crisis - the financial crisis was known to everyone in February.
And it is safe to assume that Jäggle already knew in February, that he would face a serious cash deficit because of the lack of sponsors.
Even with that he had the guts to write on esntrain.org that two thirds of the costs would be covered by sponsors, railway goodwills.
This is unbelievable mismanagement on the part of Bernhard Jäggle.

6) Oh, this is nice, folks.
ÖBB offered to restart ESNTrain on April 2nd in Ljubiljana. Jäggle just told the ÖBB, that he did not want this. Jäggle: "It's either all or nothing." Jesus! This is the right person we needed, a defiant guy handling our money.

This all makes me really sick.

btw: Today I screwed up the comment function on this blog. As of now, all comments are welcome and will be posted immediately without me reviewing them.

Finally some answers (in German)

OK, here are some more information about the cancellation

http://www.euranet.eu/ger/Europawahl/Euranet-unterwegs/Was-wird-aus-dem-Geld-der-ESNtrain-Teilnehmer

I am going to comment (partly translate) this article later.

What I like is that Bernhard Jäggle has finally given out some more information. Moreover, the news seems to raise our chances to get our money back (before anyone is sueing me ... this is a personal opinion, I am not a lawyer).
After reading more carefully through the article, I retract from my statement about the good news.

What I don't like is that there seems to be participants who would accept a total loss of the ticket prices (first paragraph).
What I don't like is that Bernhard suggests that this Blog destroys any chances of a future ESNTrain.

What is a Patronage Committee ?

Hello folks,
yesterday I browsed through the ESNTrain Doissier ( http://www.esntrain.org/files/ESNtrain-EN-Dossier.pdf ).
Well, the ESN Train Patronage Committee is presented there. This Committee is composed of some high-ranking people.

• Ján Figel, Member of the European Commission,
  responsible for Education, Training, Culture and
  Youth ( http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/figel/index_en.htm ); Ján Figel is an EU Commissioner and directly reporting to EU Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso.
  
• Prof. Dr. Patrick Aebischer, President of the EPFL
  (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
• Dr. Erhard Busek, former Austrian vicechancellor, president of the European Forum Alpbach, president of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (Vienna)
• Prof. Dr. Ralph Eichler, President of the ETH Zuerich
• Matthias Fenner, FORMER president of the ESN (Brussels)
• Prof. Dr. Andreas Fischer, President of the UNIZ
  (University of Zuerich)
• Adolf Ogi, former Swiss Federal Minister and Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace to the United Nations Secretary General until 2007
• Prof. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder, Rector of the United Nations University (Tokyo)

I guess if don't hear from Bernhard Jäggle soon, what is really going on with our money, we may have to contact these members of the ESN Train Patronage Committee. We may want to consider to write EU Commissionar Ján Figel a joint letter.

D13040 Prague - Dresden : Our ESN Train

Here is a timetable leaflet, which was distributed to German railway staff yesterday.
It shows two trains (D13040 Prague-Dresden and DPE 13041 Dresden-Wroclaw). Guys, this would have been our ESN Train. German Railways (DB Netz) assigned these 5-digit numbers to our train.
"Achtung ! Der Sonderzug darf nur mit besonderer Teilnehmerkarte des Veranstalters benutzt werden!"
means
"Attention ! This special train can only be used with a specific ticket of the organizer"

Here are the bad news. German Railways clearly expects our ESNTrain to go ahead. As we all know, ESNTrain is cancelled. But that doesn't matter, because German Railways will probably charge at least track fees for our train, because the tracks were reserved in advance.

ESN President Resigned

Ouch, this doesn't sound very good.
Here is the letter of resignation by Matthias Fenner, the President of ESN.
http://petek1.republika.pl/Resignation_e-mail_to_sections.pdf

Here is the key excerpt from it:

We all know that the ESNtrain had to be cancelled. I was the Board Member responsible for the contact between the company behind the ESNtrain and ESN International. The unique and fantastic ESNtrain is not running, meaning mistakes were made. The full picture behind the cancellation still has to be drawn as the situation is complex and not all information available yet. To facilitate this process, I am stepping down.

I simply do not think that Bernhard Jäggle or the ESN Train team was withholding information from Matthias Fenner (ESN President). The terms "situation is complex and not all information available yet" indicates to me that the ESN Train team just don't know how much money they got and how much money they owe to ÖBB.

• How much of the EUR 100,000 will be refunded by ÖBB to the ESN Train team? Or is ÖBB even claiming more money from the ESN Train team? The term "complex" relates to the issue that even ÖBB still has to negotiate with third parties (Wagon Slovakia, other railway infrastructure authorities) how much has to be paid to them. The sudden cancellation of ESN Train created an so-called "undefined" situation, where even the legal experts at ÖBB probably don't know how to deal with it.
  
• How much of the bought stuff (drinks, T-Shirt, printed ESN Train guides) can be liquidated and turned into money?
  

ESN Political Silly Season

[Author deleted this entry]

Crunching the Numbers: Will it be enough or not?

It is Tuesday, March 31st, 2007. The time is 19:23 CET.
There still no news on the background of the cancellation and no news about refunding our money. The ESN Train people people are probably right now in the progress of crunching the numbers. Will it be enough to repay us or not? That is the question that young people from all across Europe are interested in right now.

Where is our money?

Hello Folks,
I just had some bad dreams last night. OK, I admit, this is all pretty speculative, so please do not take everything for granted what I am saying. I just hope (for me and all other participants) that the ESN Train people will show that my concerns and assumptions are not correct.

This post is written, because I just fear that a large chunk of the money, we've paid, is lost.

• The cancellation E-Mail by the ESN Train team includes this statement: "we will do everything within our faith to clear all financial issues and to satisfy everybody. [..] we will evaluate our assets." Since I have some experiences how to read press releases, I have the feeling, that the financial state of ESN Train (Platform GmbH) is in absolute shambles.
• Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) stated in their press release, that the ESN Train team had already paid EUR 100,000 (out of EUR 800,000 outstanding) to ÖBB. Do you think that the ÖBB is going to fully refund these EUR 100,000, because the ESN Train was cancelled? I don't think so. Most of the carriages were rented from Wagon Slovakia ( http://www.wgske.sk/en ). Bernhard Jäggle hinted in this Youtube video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMjs5yJKmg ) that all the train is still standing at Bratislava train station. Due to that Wagon Slovakia probably wants to have at least some money for the rented cars. And I presume ÖBB will probably transfer money to Wagon Slovakia due to contractual obligations. Moreover, ÖBB reserved tracks, engines and engine drivers with almost 12 railway companies across Europe. Due to this last-minute cancellation, ÖBB is probably obliged to pay these 12 railway companies some money. I have some friends, who work for DB Netz (the German rail infrastructure authority), I am waiting if they can answer me, if a last-minute cancellation of rented track would carry penalties. Because of all these issues I think ÖBB will not fully refund these EUR 100,000. However, this shortfall must be compensated by the ESN Train team. I strongly advise the ESN Train team and the "ÖH" not to blame the ÖBB, if the ÖBB refuses to pay these EUR 100,000 back fully.
  
• If Bernhard Jäggle (President of ESN Train) has acquired sponsorship money, he is most likely asked by the sponsors to pay this money back. I mean, imagine you were the sponsor, but the train does not leave the station - What would you do?
  
• As I said in the last post, the ESN Train team has collected at least EUR 228,000 from participants. This number does neither include the upgrade fee for the 3-people sleeper cabin, nor does it include the EUR 20,- fee for the printed ESN Train guide. Because of that I assume the ESN Train has acquired around a quarter of a million Euros from participants. Now, the ESN Train team is obliged to refund at least a quarter of a million Euros to the participants. Do you think the ESN Train team has EUR 250,000 in their bank accounts ready for us ? If yes, Bernhard Jäggle, his team, and all participants can sleep well. But if not, we are looking for a total fiasco to happen. Let me remind you that the ESN Train team was not able to pay the second tranche of EUR 400,000 to ÖBB. I am scared !!!
  
• Most probably a number of participants will seek damage payments from the ESN Train team (Platform GmbH), because of the breach of contract. Bernhard Jäggle has to find funds for those claims, as well.
  

In that sense I am just hoping that the upcoming press release by the ESN Train team contains some positive news about our money.

Cancelled ESN Train: Your Rights

The ESN Train team practically closed down the ESNtrain.org site. That way the terms & conditions and the original timetable are no longer accessible.
// Now, the ESN Train is online again.
However, I uploaded the original timetable and terms & conditions on sribd.com

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13735553/ESNtrain-Timetable
http://www.scribd.com/doc/13735555/ESNtrainAGBDE

According to the terms & conditions the train can only be cancelled after booking in case of an act of nature beyond control (force majeure).
However, the ESN Train team wrote:

The reason why we had to cancel the project is that we were not able to
raise the needed money before the train was supposed to start, as well
as a misunderstanding with the ÖBB about the payment conditions.

This is not an act of nature beyond control.
The cancellation of the ESN Train constitutes a breach of contract. All damages from this breach must be compensated.

Let me inform the world:

• All ESN Train participants paid everything upfront (in German: Vorkasse). That's why the issue of retrieving the money back from ESN Train (Platform GmbH) is really relevant.
• There was no clause in the terms & conditions, which said, the ESN train would only go ahead if a minimum number of participants was reached or when a certain amount of sponsor money could be secured.

Bernhard Jaeggle wrote on ESNtrain.org:

"Who is supporting and financing the project?

One third of the total costs is financed by the passengers and train visitors. Two thirds by sponsoring and donations as well by a lot of goodwill on the part of the railway companies. Although the train will roll, further sponsors and donators are warmly invited to join."

This statement was probably a major reason why many people booked the ESNTrain and paid the money upfront to a Swiss bank account.
This is pure speculation: But the statement by Bernhard Jaeggle appears to be a lie.