DB Regio Lower Franconia

DB Regio Lower Franconia
Basic information
Company headquarters	Wurzburg
Web presence	www.regio-unterfranken.de
owner	Deutsche Bahn
Operations management	Markus Schreyer, Robert Feldner
Transport network	Verkehrsverbund Mainfranken , transport association on the Bavarian Lower Main
Employee	390
statistics
Mileage	8.192 million km per year
Stops	67
Catchment area	8th 500  km²
Residents in the catchment area	1.3 million
Length of line network
Railway lines	825 km
Operating facilities
Depots	Wurzburg

DB Regio Unterfranken was a division of DB Regio Bayern , a regional division of DB Regio . The company, based in Würzburg, provided most of the regional and local transport services in the Lower Franconia administrative region ; private competitors were only able to prevail on the Kahlgrundbahn and in the “Kissinger Stern”. Since the merger with DB Regio Mittelfranken on October 1, 2010, DB Regio Unterfranken has merged into DB Regio Franken .

Vehicle material

DB Regio Unterfranken only had passenger coaches, the company did not have its own locomotives. Instead, mostly locomotives from the DB Regio Middle Franconia division from Nuremberg were used; on cross-border lines to Baden-Württemberg or Hesse , the trains were also hauled by locomotives from the Stuttgart or Frankfurt (Main) locations . In the Lower Franconian traffic area, older vehicles were mostly used. The main load of the train services was denied with conventional local transport push-pull trains, mostly four or five n-wagons operated in association with electric locomotives of the series 111 , 112 , 143 and 146.2 .

Modern railcars or the air-conditioned double-decker cars now used in fast regional traffic in large parts of Germany were only found sporadically. Exceptions were the regional express lines from Würzburg to Erfurt / Bad Kissingen and Hof / Bayreuth, on which tilting technology trains of the 612 series run in triple traction, but the vehicles are provided by other DB regional branches. Double-decker push-pull trains are used on the Nuremberg – Bamberg – Schweinfurt RE line operated by DB Regio Franken. Former Reichsbahn wagons , mostly converted into so-called Modus wagons , have been running on the lines to Nuremberg and Frankfurt (Main) from Würzburg since the end of the nineties . Now that the services awarded in the competition have started operating, class 440 railcars can be found.

Transport services

The following lines were operated by DB Regio Unterfranken:

product	Walkway	Course book - route (s)	length	Stations	Clock frequency
RE	Franken-Express Würzburg – Kitzingen – Neustadt (Aisch) –Fürth – Nuremberg	805	102 km	12	60 minutes
RE	Würzburg – Karlstadt – Gemünden (Main) –Lohr (Main) –Aschaffenburg – Kahl (Main) –Hanau – Offenbach (Main) –Frankfurt (Main)	800, 640	136 km	17th	60 minutes
RB	Aschaffenburg – Heigenbrücken	800	17 km	4th	60 (120) minutes
RB	(Schlüchtern–) Jossa – Gemünden (Main) –Karlstadt – Würzburg – Schweinfurt (–Haßfurt – Bamberg)	801, 800, 810	202 km	29	60 (120) minutes
RB	Würzburg – Ochsenfurt – Steinach – Ansbach – Gunzenhausen – Treuchtlingen	920	140 km	14th	60 minutes
RB	Würzburg – Kitzingen	805	23 km	5	60 minutes ( HVZ )

Other lines partly ran through Lower Franconia, but were operated by DB subsidiaries from the neighboring federal states or administrative districts:

product	Walkway	operator
RE	Mainfranken-Thuringia Express Würzburg – Schweinfurt – Bad Kissingen / Bad Neustadt (Saale) –Mellrichstadt – Grimmenthal – Suhl – Oberhof – Arnstadt – Erfurt	DB Regio Southeast
RE	Würzburg – Schweinfurt – Haßfurt – Bamberg – Lichtenfels – Kulmbach – Bayreuth / Münchberg – Hof	DB Regio Nordostbayern
RE	Schweinfurt – Haßfurt – Bamberg – Forchheim – Erlangen – Fürth – Nuremberg	DB Regio Franconia
RE	Würzburg – Lauda – Osterburken – Bad Friedrichshall – Heilbronn – Bietigheim-Bissingen – Ludwigsburg – Stuttgart	DB Regio Baden-Württemberg
RB	Aschaffenburg – Dieburg – Darmstadt – Mainz – Wiesbaden	DB Regio Hessen

Tendering for the Würzburg electrical network

On June 7, 2006, the Bavarian Railway Company, in cooperation with the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund, as the responsible authority for the Hessian part, put the operation of the so-called "Electrical Network (E-Netz) Würzburg" out to tender across Europe. The approximately 425-kilometer-long route network comprised an annual operating volume of 5.5 million train kilometers on the Bavarian side and around 200,000 train kilometers in the neighboring state of Hesse , making it the largest competition procedure in Bavarian local rail passenger transport to date . Part of the tender were the branches from Würzburg to Schlüchtern in Hesse, Bamberg , Nuremberg and Treuchtlingen . While the Regional Express services were awarded on the route to Nuremberg , the other routes only included regional rail traffic.

On February 9, 2007, the Bavarian Ministry of Transport announced DB Regio AG as the winner of the tender. An objection from the unsuccessful competitor Hamburger Hochbahn , which had participated in the tender together with the Hessische Landesbahn via the joint subsidiary cantus , remained without result, so that Deutsche Bahn secured its dominant position in Lower Franconia at least until the end of the new transport contract and was able to secure around 150 jobs in the driving and workshop areas by placing the order. On August 2, 2007, the transport contract was signed in the Würzburg town hall, which stipulated the following schedule improvements:

• Compression of the Regional Express line Würzburg – Nuremberg to a continuous hourly service until midnight by ordering two additional pairs of trains
• Extension of the regional train Würzburg– Schweinfurt beyond Schweinfurt Hbf to the city station
• Every half hour in rush hour traffic to Lohr (Main) , Schweinfurt, Kitzingen and Ochsenfurt
• Order some additional trains to close gaps in the intervals

When the timetable changed in December 2009, DB Regio began operating on the Würzburg – Nuremberg route under the name “MainfrankenExpress”. Regional train services followed a year later under the name “MainfrankenBahn”. Since new vehicles were stipulated in the tender conditions, Deutsche Bahn ordered a total of 27 “ Alstom Coradia Continental ” multiple units from the French manufacturer Alstom in July 2007 , most of which were manufactured at the Salzgitter site . They replaced the locomotive-hauled push- pull trains made up of n-wagons that handled most of the regional traffic. The order for 27 multiple units was divided into 22 three-part and five four-part vehicles, eight units are in use on the Würzburg – Nuremberg route. In contrast to the previous vehicle material, the LIREX trains are designed for speeds of up to 160 km / h, are air-conditioned and have a low-floor area of around 90 percent at a floor height of 60 cm. This height would enable barrier-free access to platforms with an edge height of 55 cm, but the Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft is planning continuous platforms 76 cm high for the main lines starting from Würzburg in the target state.

Further competition projects in Lower Franconia

The old roundhouse of the depot at Würzburg Central Station

Class 628 railcars as the Würzburg – Bad Mergentheim regional line

In July 2006, the sister company DB Regio Hessen was announced as the winner of the tender for the southern Hesse network, which extends to Lower Franconia on the Darmstadt - Aschaffenburg line . "As good as new" double-deck cars are to be used. The ten-year transport contract began with the timetable change in December 2008.

Since December 2005, the Hessische Landesbahn has been running new Desiro railcars every hour on the 23 kilometer long Kahl – Schöllkrippen railway line . The infrastructure and former transport operator, Kahlgrund Verkehrs-GmbH , was unsuccessful in the tender carried out in 2003 and thus lost its most important mainstay. The transport contract with HLB ran until 2015.

Since December 2004, the Thuringian Erfurter Bahn (EB) has been running the regional train routes Schweinfurt - Bad Kissingen - Gemünden (Main) and Schweinfurt - Bad Kissingen / Meiningen in the so-called "Kissinger Stern" under the name " Unterfranken-Shuttle " after a price request . EB 14 procured new Regio-Shuttle diesel multiple units from the Swiss manufacturer Stadler Rail for the two lines, which run every two hours.

Regional network Westfrankenbahn

On January 1, 2006, the Aschaffenburg - Miltenberg - Wertheim route and the regional rail services on the Würzburg - Lauda (- Bad Mergentheim ) route were outsourced from the DB Regio Unterfranken traffic area and together with some other routes in northern Baden-Württemberg to form the region -Network Westfrankenbahn summarized.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bavarian Ministry of Transport: Huber: "Starting shot for a competition project in Lower Franconia" press release from June 8, 2006
2. ↑ ^{a b} Deutsche Bahn: DB Regio Unterfranken is to be awarded the contract as the operator of regional transport in Mainfranken. Press release of February 9, 2007
3. ↑ Hamburger Hochbahn wants to operate E-Netz around Würzburg. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Your passenger association informs. Pro Bahn , p. 1 , archived from the original on November 19, 2007 ; Retrieved May 14, 2014 (480 KB). 
4. ^ Deutsche Bahn: Traffic implementation contract for the Würzburg E-Netz signed press release of August 2, 2007
5. ↑ Bavarian Ministry of Transport: Huber: "So far the largest competition project in Bavarian local rail transport" ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release from February 9, 2007
6. ↑ Deutsche Bahn: 39 electric multiple units ordered for transport in Bavaria, press release of July 26, 2007
7. ^ Deutsche Bahn: New generation of vehicles for the E-Netz Würzburg press release of August 2nd, 2007
8. ↑ Target platform heights. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Bavarian Railway Company , July 3, 2006, archived from the original on October 11, 2007 ; accessed on May 14, 2014 (overview map). 
9. ↑ DB Regio AG wins tender for the South Hesse network. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund , July 3, 2006, archived from the original on October 13, 2007 ; Retrieved May 14, 2014 (6.8 KB). 
10. ↑ Kahlgrundbahn Hanau – Schöllkrippen. Press release of April 28, 2005. (No longer available online.) Bavarian Ministry of Transport, archived from the original on July 1, 2007 ; accessed on May 14, 2014 . 

Web links

• Vehicle list Modus-Wagen at www.nahverkehr-franken.de
• Vehicle list n-Wagen at www.nahverkehr-franken.de