German railway news – Page 48
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NewsLocomotive maintenance business sold
GERMANY: Paribus Group has sold its Northrail Technical Service locomotive maintenance and repair business to Railpool Group, which is to operate it under the Railpool Lok-Service brand. Paribus Group partner Dr Volker Simmering said NTS had made a valuable contribution to maintaining locomotives owned by its Northrail leasing business, but ...
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NewsLondon to Duisburg and China freight service launched
UK: The inaugural scheduled freight service from DP World’s London Gateway terminal east of London to the Duisburg freight hub in Germany set off on April 10, with the load including containers bound for China. This follows demonstration China to London and London to China services which ran last year. ...
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NewsRail.One opens Aschaffenburg concrete sleeper plant
GERMANY: Rail.One officially began series production of concrete sleepers at a new plant in Aschaffenburg with an inauguration ceremony on April 11. The site will produce the B70 sleeper design which is widely-used in Germany, as well as other types of sleeper for German and European main line and urban ...
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NewsAlstom awarded two DMU contracts
GERMANY: Alstom announced two orders to supply a total of 25 Coradia Lint regional diesel multiple-units from its Salzgitter factory on March 29. DB Regio Bayern has placed a €93m order for eight Coradia Lint 41 DMUs with 125 seats and 12 of the longer Coradia Lint 54 units with ...
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NewsRail to benefit from reduction in wind energy surcharge
GERMANY: The European Commission has ruled that Germany’s plan to grant railways a reduction on a planned offshore energy surcharge is permitted under EU state aid rules, because it would contribute to the rail sector’s competitiveness without unduly distorting the single market. Under an amendment to the German Energy Act ...
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NewsGo-Ahead prepares for German launch
GERMANY: The first of 45 Flirt3 electric multiple units ordered by UK-based transport group Go-Ahead as part of its entry into the German passenger market has been completed at Stadler’s Pankow factory in Berlin. In November 2015 the Land of Baden-Württemberg selected Go-Ahead for the Stuttgart Netz Lot 1b (Rems–Fils) ...
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NewsBombardier Transportation completes negotiations for ‘reorientation’ in Germany
GERMANY: Bombardier Transportation has announced the completion of negotiations with employee representatives for the ‘reorientation’ of its German activities. The company said the programme scheduled for completion by 2020 would offer all of its German sites a ‘long-term and sustainable perspective’, although there would be a loss of up to ...
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NewsFlixTrain launches on Hamburg – Köln route
GERMANY: FlixMobility’s first FlixTrain open access passenger service left Hamburg’s Altona station for Köln on the morning of March 23. Services run from Thursday to Tuesday, with market-based prices starting at a headline fare of €9·99. FlixMobility has launched FlixTrain to build on its FlixBus long-distance coach network, using a ...
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NewsDB Netz commissions first IP-based interlocking
GERMANY: Infrastructure manager DB Netz AG has put into operation its first digital interlocking which uses an IP network architecture to connect with the field equipment. DB Netz has been using computer-based interlockings for many years, but the Siemens installation at Annaberg-Buchholz on the Erzgebirgsbahn is the first in Germany ...
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NewsFlixTrain to launch Köln – Hamburg service this month
GERMANY: FlixMobility is to launch a FlixTrain-branded open access service on the Köln – Hamburg route on March 24, taking over the rolling stock formerly used by Hamburg-Köln-Express which suspended operation last year. The Berlin – Stuttgart open access service, originally launched by Locomore and is now operated by LEO ...
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NewsSmartron freight locomotive launched
GERMANY: Siemens has launched the Smartron electric locomotive, a version of its successful Vectron modular locomotive family which is intended to provide German freight operators with faster delivery times and a lower price through the use of a standard configuration. Smartron offers ‘one standard version, one standard contract, one standard ...
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NewsDB Cargo plans digital, low-noise wagon fleet by 2020
GERMANY: The DB Cargo management board has approved a ‘high double-digit million’ programme to fit its entire German wagon fleet with tracking, monitoring and telematics equipment. More than 1 000 wagons are currently equipped with telematics, a further 19 000 are scheduled to be retrofitted by the end of 2018, ...
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NewsFuel cell train development funding
GERMANY: The Federal Ministry for Transport & Digital Infrastructure is to provide Siemens and RWTH Aachen University with €12m to support the development of more efficient fuel cells which would offer a longer life cycle and higher power density. In November 2017 Siemens and Canadian fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power ...
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NewsDB opens carbon-neutral ICE depot
GERMANY: DB inaugurated a carbon-neutral ICE depot in the Nippes area of Köln on February 23. The 23 ha site is expected to reduce energy equivalent to 1 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year through various features, including geothermal heating and cooling. A 180 m2 solar heating ...
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NewsEP Cargo orders Traxx locos
GERMANY: Czech open access freight operator EP Cargo has ordered two Bombardier Transportation Traxx AC3 15 kV 16·7 Hz electric locomotives, with the first scheduled to be delivered in late March. The locomotives are to be used by EP Cargo Deutschland to haul fly ash and gypsum to Stralsund from ...
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NewsDB hosts ‘smart scrubber’ robot cleaning competition
GERMANY: In order to demonstrate the potential for the automation of routine station cleaning tasks, DB hosted a ‘smart scrubber’ event at Berlin Hbf on January 30. The Automated Cleaning Challenge organised by DB Services and the DB Mindbox digital innovation lab pitted cleaning machines from four international manufacturers ...
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NewsInnovative traction and electrification in Bayern plan to reduce diesel dependency
GERMANY: Proposals to significantly reduce the use of diesel traction in favour of low-emission alternatives have been presented to the Bayern cabinet by Land Transport Minister Joachim Herrmann. The Bayerische Elektromobilitäts-Strategie Schiene (BESS) is intended to support the federal government’s 2050 climate targets, and to make rail a more attractive ...
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NewsMetronom retains Hanze-Netz operating contract
GERMANY: Following a European tender which attracted several bids, the Niedersachsen, Bremen, Hamburg and Hannover transport authorities have jointly awarded incumbent Metronom the next contract to operate Hanse-Netz and Uelzen-Göttingen passenger services. The contract runs from December 2018 until December 2033 and covers five services: RE2 Göttingen – Hannover – ...
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NewsUlm – Wendlingen track contract awarded
GERMANY: Deutsche Bahn has awarded Rhomberg Bahntechnik and Swietelsky Baugesellschaft a €250m contract to design, install and commission 60 route-km of track and railway systems on the 250 km/h line which is being built between Wendlingen and Ulm as part of the project to reduce Stuttgart – Ulm journey times ...
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NewsMerkel inaugurates München - Berlin Unity Project 8
GERMANY: Special trains from München and Nürnberg, celebrations in multiple cities and a spectacular arrival in Berlin Hauptbahnhof marked the inauguration on December 8 of the railway known as German Unity Project VDE8. Commemorative events had been staged in Nürnberg, Erfurt, Leipzig and Wittenberg to mark the formal opening of ...