GERMANY: On August 19 Eurorail signed a contract to operate Maas -Rhein-Lippe-Netz Regional-Express services from December 13.

The Keolis subsidiary had been selected to operated the services in 2007, through an international tendering process managed by the Rhein-Ruhr and Ruhr-Lippe transport authorities.

The contract covers the operation of around 3·3 million train-km a year on Hamm - Dortmund - Gelsenkirchen - Düsseldorf and Hamm - Wuppertal - Düsseldorf - Mönchengladbach - Venlo services, using 18 Stadler Flirt EMUs.