German regional railway

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German regional railway GmbH
German regional railway logo.svg
Basic information
Company headquarters Berlin
Web presence regionalisenbahn.de
Reference year 2013
Board Gerhard J. Curth,
Georg Radke
Employee 29
sales EUR 1.7 milliondep1
Length of line network
Railway lines 735 kilometers (April 4, 2020)dep1

The German regional railway GmbH (DRE, seat: Berlin) is a non State-owned railway infrastructure companies (EIU), which according to the length of the route is the second largest railway network after the Deutsche Bahn operates in Germany. It was founded in 1993 by the Deutsche Bahnkunden-Verband e. V. (DBV) founded. The DRE operates throughout Germany , but there are independent subsidiaries in individual federal states , as the corporate structure shows.

History and goals

The German regional railway was founded in 1993 by the PRO BAHN e. V. (Central Association of East German States) (later DBV) was initially founded as a non-profit special fund and converted into a GmbH in 1996 . This was approved as an EIU and also as a railway company (EVU). Due to the decision of the DBV of November 27, 2004, the DRE was sold to the employee holding company Drebeg-Beteiligungsgesellschaft (EBEG) GbR , as otherwise the public benefit of the DBV would have been endangered. At the beginning of 2009 the DBV concluded a cooperation agreement with the DRE, which contractually secures the existing cooperation and grants the DBV member associations a most-favored-nation clause . At the end of October 2016, the employee holding company EBEG dissolved and its members have now become direct shareholders of DRE.

The DRE was created at the same time as Deutsche Bahn AG and initially used the short name DR . For legal reasons, this was changed to DRE after a few months .

It feels connected to the statutory goals of the DBV, particularly with regard to the maintenance of the railway infrastructure and the prevention of the closure of railway lines. This is done either by concluding train path security agreements with the previous owner (especially DB Netz ) or by taking over the routes by means of a lease or purchase agreement . To secure the company, when taking over routes from other RIUs, their economic viability is increasingly taken into account.

Corporate structure

As a subsidiary, DRE has the EVU DRE Bahnverkehr GmbH (seat: Strehla ), the Bayerische Regionaleisenbahn GmbH (BRE, seat: Schwarzenbach adSaale ) and indirectly (via the holding company) the vehicle company Landeseisenbahn Braunschweig gGmbH (seat: Braunschweig ). The blocking minority stake in Döllnitzbahn GmbH was sold in 2007. DRE Transport GmbH was renamed on May 13, 2008 from the previously existing infrastructure maintenance company BahnInfekturDienste GmbH (BID) (seat: Oschatz ). On the occasion of a restructuring, this company was named DRE Bahnverkehr GmbH in February 2009 ; it serves as an EVU in the DRE group.

The DRE is a member of the tariff association of federal and non-federal railways in Germany (TBNE) and of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV).

Since the DRE in Saxony operates a route that borders on neighboring countries, it requires a safety permit (in accordance with Section 7c of the General Railway Act ), which requires proof of a safety management system. The Federal Railway Authority (EBA) granted this approval on July 9, 2009. The DRE is therefore directly subject to the supervision of the EBA. Contrary to what is sometimes shown, the responsibility of the state railway supervisory authorities for the other DRE routes remains unaffected.

Infrastructure

stretch

Sign at the beginning of a DRE route

At the end of 2013, the DRE Group's infrastructure network had reached its greatest expansion with a total length of 844 kilometers. Since then, it has been observed that routes that are not ready for operation are increasingly being given to third parties or are being closed. In April 2020, the route network still covers 735 kilometers, 83 kilometers of which are operated by the subsidiary BRE. Of the total route length, 362 kilometers are in operation. The following lists the routes owned and leased by the DRE Group, sorted according to federal states and route numbers.

Bavaria

Brandenburg

Elbe-Elster-Express in Schlieben on June 30, 2006 with 798 01

Lower Saxony

Saxony

Elbe-Spreewald-Kurier on May 1st, 2008 in Riesa with Uerdinger rail bus VT 98

Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony and Thuringia

Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia

Thuringia

Legende

A - connecting railway according to § 9 BOA ; G = in the approval / permit procedure; KBS - course book range ; Ö - public route according to § 6 or 7 AEG ; U = company license only;

Infrastructure measures

In order to resume or improve rail traffic on its route network after a long period of time without traffic, DRE has initiated the following infrastructure measures, among others:

  • Pretzsch – Eilenburg railway line : construction of a loading and unloading station for freight trains with gravel from the Laußig gravel works ; the first loading took place on November 4, 2008. At the end of July 2010, the new Bad Schmiedeberg Kurzentrum stop was opened, so that the journeys from the previous Bad Schmiedeberg terminus could be extended by one kilometer. At the beginning of July 2011, the section Eilenburg Ost - transfer station Kieswerk Sprotta was prepared for electrical operation again.
  • Horka-Priebuser-Kleinbahn : upgrading of the line in autumn 2008 up to a new pellet plant in the industrial area at Rothenburg airfield ; From the beginning of 2009, the finished product should be dispatched with three block trains per week. In September 2009, however, the plant filed for bankruptcy and no train was ever driven over the route (as of June 2012).
  • Niederlausitzer Railway : commissioning of a siding in the industrial area Luckau -Alteno on June 12, 1999. degradation of the rails mid-1990s in the section Gross Leuthen -Gröditsch- Beeskow , so this leg has since no longer passable.
  • Thuringian Oberlandbahn : After the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled on an urgent application from the DRE that the railway overpass over the federal autobahn 9 (BAB 9) near Moßbach may not be demolished when the autobahn is widened, a crossing agreement was concludedwith DEGES at the end of October 2008, which provided for the demolition in October 2009 and the construction of a longer railway bridge over the BAB 9.
  • Unstrutbahn : New construction of a platform in Wangen (Unstrut) , which wasinaugurated bythe Saxony-Anhalt Minister of Transport Karl-Heinz Daehre on April 9, 2009.
    Since April 10, the trains from Nebra ordered by the state of Saxony-Anhalt have been traveling around two kilometers to the new stop (which means that visitors to Arche Nebra do not have to change trainsin Nebra).

Route consolidation

Route checks and consequences

The DRE divides its routes into traffic routes that are kept ready for rail traffic and development routes, which are mostly closed and whose routes are to be secured with the aim of turning them into traffic routes. For reasons of economy, the development routes in particular are repeatedly checked with regard to their possible uses. If these cannot be foreseen, leased routes will be returned to the owner or the company's own routes will be used for other purposes. This has happened for the following routes:

  • Oberoderwitz – Löbau railway line : On the line leased by DRE in 2007, no traffic could be developed in the Oberoderwitz – Niedercunnersdorf section. That is why this section of the route was returned to the owner DB Netz in mid-2012 .
  • Bretleben – Sondershausen railway line : On the line leased in 2008, no traffic could be developed between Sondershausen and Bad Frankenhausen, so this section was returned to DB Netz in 2012. After the deedication , the route was used for the further construction of the Unstrut-Werra cycle path . The remaining section from Bad Frankenhausen to Bretleben will be rehabilitated by 2022 on behalf of the Bundeswehr.

Route returns and closures

In mid-2012, several routes (Bad Belzig – Niemegk, Gochsheim (Ufr) –Kitzingen-Etwashausen, Mühlberg Abzw. Kieswerk – Mühlberg (Elbe), Pretzsch – Torgau (Elbe-Heide-Bahn), Probstzella – Ernstthal) were subjected to a profitability test. As a result of this, in 2013 four route sections with a length of 61.1 kilometers were tendered for takeover by other railway infrastructure companies in accordance with Section 11 AEG and then closed:

In the years that followed, there were further closures or leased lines were returned to the owner DB Netz:

Dispute over duty to operate

In April 2015, the Magdeburg Administrative Court ruled that there was an obligation to start operations on non-operational routes as long as they had not been formally shut down in accordance with Section 11 AEG. The court thus dismissed a DRE action against a decision from the state railway supervision of Saxony-Anhalt. With the decision, the DRE was prosecuted for keeping a route taken over by it partly not ready for operation despite an operating license according to § 6 AEG and also not applying for a start-up permit according to § 7f AEG.

In the opinion of the court, a railway infrastructure company is subject to the railway-law operating obligation from the date of issue of the operating license , from which it cannot escape even by failing to apply for the operating license. The DRE has appealed against this, especially since, due to the decision from Saxony-Anhalt, routes of the group of companies in other federal states may also be affected. However, no other such problems emerged until late spring 2018.

Train path pricing system

The train path pricing system, which will apply from March 1, 2008, provides for four price categories for public routes, which are differentiated according to train weight for all relevant route sections. In addition, a steam surcharge of 20 percent and a surcharge for exceeding the loading gauge of 50 percent are levied. For the use of the track infrastructure in the GVZ Berlin Ost (Freienbrink) there is a separate train path pricing system that also regulates the parking of rail vehicles and handling services.

Operations management

Most DRE lines are monitored in train control, a simplified operating procedure in which signals on the lines can be largely dispensed with. In order to reduce the workload for local train control centers, the Central Train Control Center Pretzsch (ZZL) was set up on December 10, 2006 , in which dispatchers regulate operations on all routes nationwide. In 2013, this affected over 100 trains a day, more than half of which were passenger trains that run on the four routes with ordered local rail transport.

To monitor the growing business, it was necessary to appoint a second senior manager on February 1, 2007 . The senior operations management south is based in Hof (Saale) and is responsible for the federal states of Bavaria and Thuringia. The head operations management north has its seat in Oschatz ; it is responsible for the routes in Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. However, the Oberbetriebsleitung Süd was dissolved again in the same year, because the subsidiary Bayerische Regionaleisenbahn GmbH (BRE) (based in Weidenberg ) had taken over its tasks.

Rail transport

In the 2010s, the DRE no longer operates rail transport independently, as it sees itself as a rail infrastructure company. However, other railway companies operate several routes on the DRE rail network for regular passenger traffic :

passenger traffic

DRE rail bus in Lutherstadt Wittenberg
  • From 2000 onwards, passenger traffic was operated by the DRE itself on the Niederlausitzer Eisenbahn (NLE) as weekend traffic in the summer half-year, and on various special occasions such as the 110th anniversary of the NLE , the Schliebener Moienmarkt and the Rochau Forest Christmas. It was there that MAN's own rail bus was used for the first time in 2000 for the State Garden Show from Lübben to Luckau . Since 2005 the Uerdingen rail bus operated by the cooperating DBV-Förderverein Niederlausitzer Eisenbahn e. V. as the Elbe-Elster-Express between Schlieben and Falkenberg / Elster . This was a citizen's railroad model that was funded by the EU in 2006 and in which the train personnel were provided voluntarily from the region. In 2007 the first connection from Mühlberg / Elbe took place after 46 years, which in 2008 was continued on Saturdays until July 5th. With the 2008 annual timetable, Riesa was connected to the Unterspreewald (initially to Lübben and from June 1 to Groß Leuthen -Gröditsch) for the first time on Sundays and public holidays with the new Elbe-Spreewald courier via the NLE . There were also increased failures of the DRE rail bus towards the end of the driving season, so that it was terminated prematurely on October 3rd. The early termination of the Elbe-Elster-Express at the end of the 2008 timetable year was justified by the DBV with the low demand and the lack of financial support from the municipalities and regions concerned, so that no cost-covering operation was possible. Since then there has been no more passenger traffic on the route.
  • Passenger traffic also takes place on the Elbe-Heide-Bahn . After the state of Saxony-Anhalt canceled local rail passenger transport at the end of 2007, the DRE was able to find a solution together with the state, the bus company Vetter and the district of Wittenberg , so that between Lutherstadt Wittenberg and Bad Schmiedeberg a "demand-oriented transport" partially financed by the state ( initially only Monday to Friday), is maintained ("Schmiedeberger model"). This traffic was discontinued at the end of 2014. In July 2015, the state of Saxony-Anhalt announced via the service company NASA that the services for the occasional tourist traffic between Easter and October in the Lutherstadt Wittenberg - Bad Schmiedeberg section for the years 2016 and 2017 to the Berlin-Anhaltische Bahn e. V. to want to forgive.
Train in Laineck, 2015

Stations

For special trains on routes that are not regularly operated by rail passenger transport, there is often the problem that the platforms at the stations still belong to DB Station & Service , so that they cannot stop there and therefore alternative stopping locations have to be found. Since August 1, 2013, this has changed on the Unstrutbahn by leasing the platforms in Roßleben, Donndorf and Gehofen and on the Wisentatalbahn in Mühltroff, Langenbuch, Lössau and Wüstendittersdorf.

Freight transport

The DRE has in rail freight as utilities as part of the restructuring program MORA C operation of six freight tariff points on the documents belonging to it on 1 January 2002 Niederlausitzer railway from the former DB Cargo AG applied. It carried out single wagon traffic with a towable MAN rail bus or a shunting diesel locomotive stationed in Lübben (Spreewald) until around 2007, when this traffic came to a standstill. Since then, the operation has only been operated in the more economical block train traffic (mainly wood) exclusively by other private railways.

literature

  • Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn GmbH (Ed.): From rail customers - for rail customers. Berlin 2006.

Web links

Commons : Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Annual financial statements for the financial year from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013. In: Bundesanzeiger . Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn GmbH, June 10, 2015, accessed on August 15, 2015 .
  2. a b c railway infrastructure of the German regional railway group (complete overview of the DRE group). (PDF) German Regional Railway, April 4, 2020, accessed on August 16, 2020 .
  3. a b DRE - New Structure. In: Bahn-Report . Edited by the Association of Rail Transport Associations. V. No. 2. Chemnitz 2005, p. 33. ISSN  0178-4528
  4. ^ DBV, DBV / DRE cooperation agreement. In: signal. No. 1. Berlin 2009, p. 24. ISSN  0723-7499
  5. ^ Post of the German regional railway group. In: Facebook. November 16, 2016, accessed November 16, 2016 .
  6. ^ Deutscher Bahnkunden-Verband e. V., Federal Statutes, Section 2, Paragraph 10. (PDF) (No longer available online.) April 10, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on August 31, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bahnkunden.de
  7. ↑ In 2009, DRE relies on consolidation of routes and more traffic. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: DRE press release. January 6, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 17, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / vere-thueringer-oberlandbahn.de
  8. ^ Bahn-Report , Chemnitz, No. 4/2008, p. 31. ISSN  0178-4528
  9. DRE Bahnverkehr - restructuring completed. (No longer available online.) In: eurailpress.de. February 13, 2009, archived from the original on February 16, 2009 ; Retrieved February 16, 2009 .
  10. Bahn-Report , Chemnitz, No. 2/2010, p. 31. ISSN  0178-4528
  11. ^ List of EIU BRD - List of infrastructure companies that are subject to approval according to § 6 AEG. (No longer available online.) February 1, 2016, archived from the original on February 4, 2016 ; Retrieved February 4, 2016 .
  12. Railway infrastructure of the DRE group. (PDF; 556 kB) (No longer available online.) German Regional Railway, September 23, 2013, archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; accessed on December 1, 2013 .
  13. ^ Freight traffic center Berlin East (Freienbrink), transport connections. (No longer available online.) IPG Infrastruktur- und Projektentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, January 1, 2012, archived from the original on December 12, 2012 ; accessed on August 31, 2012 .
  14. New tasks for the Wisentatalbahn. Regular tourist train services on the Schönberg - Schleiz West railway line. Project description. (PDF; 5.0 MB) Förderverein Wisentatalbahn e. V., December 20, 2011, accessed on August 31, 2012 .
  15. In three years, bioethanol transports on the Zuckerbahn from Blumenberg to Klein Wanzleben will be doubled. (No longer available online.) Stockwatch.de, February 21, 2011, archived from the original on February 23, 2016 ; accessed on August 31, 2012 .
  16. DRE leases the Nebra - Artern railway line from DB Netz. (No longer available online.) In: DRE press release on eisenbahn-webkatalog.de. May 21, 2008, archived from the original on June 3, 2008 ; Retrieved May 21, 2008 .
  17. Information on DRE routes, see: Route 6814 Zeitz - Tröglitz. (No longer available online.) German Regional Railway, June 28, 2013, archived from the original on September 21, 2014 ; Retrieved July 22, 2013 .
  18. ^ Gravel works in Laussig. (No longer available online.) Mitteldeutsche Baustoffe GmbH, archived from the original on December 12, 2012 ; Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
  19. Loading station Laussig - first loading of a freight train. (No longer available online.) In: eurailpress.de. November 5, 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved September 20, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.eurailpress.de
  20. 07/14/2010 Opening of the Bad Schmiedeberg stop. (No longer available online.) Deutscher Bahnkundenverband e. V., July 19, 2010, archived from the original on December 12, 2012 ; Retrieved September 13, 2010 .
  21. Deutsche Regionalisenbahn, press release 06/2011 of June 30, 2011: Gravel works near Eilenburg can again be approached electrically by train.
  22. Pellet production in Rothenburg starts at the beginning of 2009. (No longer available online.) In: Lausitzer Rundschau. November 6, 2008, archived from the original on November 12, 2014 ; Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
  23. ^ Dahme-Spree district, Alteno-Luckau industrial area. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 17, 2009 ; Retrieved November 6, 2008 .
  24. ^ Oberlandbahn: Railway bridge at Moßbach remains standing. In: hoellentalbahn.net. March 27, 2008, accessed November 3, 2014 .
  25. Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn GmbH - DEGES and DRE sign crossing agreement for a railway bridge . (PDF; 59 kB) In: sormitztalbahn.de. October 31, 2008, accessed September 20, 2009 .
  26. Breakpoint in Wangen inaugurated. In: Kyffhauser news. April 10, 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2009 .
  27. a b Signal , updates from the DRE “track test stand”, issue 3/2012, p. 31, GVE-Verlag Berlin, ISSN  0723-7499
  28. Federal Railway Office, Erfurt branch: Public announcement in accordance with Section 23, Paragraph 2 of the General Railway Act - Exemption from railway operating purposes regarding parcels in Bad Frankenhausen, Rottleben, Bendeleben, Göllingen, Hachelbich and Sondershausen, BAnz AT 04.12.2012 B4
  29. Ingolf Gläser: Millions invested in Kyffhäuserbahn route: Bundeswehr wants to put tanks on rails. Thüringische Landeszeitung , March 23, 2018, accessed on December 29, 2019 .
  30. Surrender of the DRE Group's railway infrastructure. Deutsche Regionalisenbahn, March 29, 2013, accessed on May 9, 2013 .
  31. ^ Railway line Schweinfurt - Kitzingen. Deutsche Regionalisenbahn Gruppe, January 29, 2016, accessed on March 25, 2016 .
  32. ^ VG Magdeburg, judgment of April 30, 2015, file number 3 A 250 / 12.MD
  33. Obligation to start operations. In: Bahn-Report . Edited by the Association of Rail Transport Associations. V. No. 6. Chemnitz 2015, p. 15. ISSN  0178-4528
  34. Opportunities and risks of a new wave of decommissioning. In: Bahn-Report . Edited by the Association of Rail Transport Associations. V. No. 1. Chemnitz 2016, pp. 82–83. ISSN  0178-4528
  35. signal. No. 1. Berlin 2007, p. 31. ISSN  0723-7499
  36. Job offer student employee. (PDF; 785 kB) (No longer available online.) Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn GmbH, October 2013, archived from the original on October 13, 2013 ; Retrieved November 3, 2013 .
  37. signal. No. 2. Berlin 2007, p. 29. ISSN  0723-7499
  38. signal. No. 3. Berlin 2007, p. 29. ISSN  0723-7499
  39. ^ "Elbe-Elster-Express" public railroad project. ( Memento of December 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: German Networks Leader +, Leader + in Germany. Chosen projects. Bonn 2006, p. 82 f. ISSN  1439-8419
  40. Due to high interlocking costs, the Elbe-Elster Express on Sundays is no longer available. (No longer available online.) In: Press release of the DBV-Förderverein Elbe-Elster-Express on eisenbahn-webkatalog.de. May 27, 2008, archived from the original on August 26, 2014 ; Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
  41. Elbe-Elster-Express will no longer run on Saturdays in future. (PDF; 1.9 MB) In: Official Gazette for the City of Falkenberg / Elster. July 25, 2008, accessed August 31, 2012 .
  42. DRE-Flyer: It continues on the Heidebahn Lutherstadt Wittenberg and Bad Schmiedeberg. Timetable from December 10, 2007 to August 22, 2008.
  43. Current DRE timetable page. Retrieved April 30, 2008 .
  44. Timetable changes: Line TL70: between Varnsdorf pivovar Kocour and Seifhennersdorf only buses on the way. 15.06.-31.10.2015. (No longer available online.) Trilex , archived from the original on July 4, 2015 ; accessed on September 11, 2015 .
  45. Timetable changes: Line L7: between Varnsdorf pivovar Kocour and Seifhennersdorf only buses on the way. (No longer available online.) Trilex , archived from the original on November 15, 2018 ; accessed on June 6, 2018 .
  46. ^ Deutsche Regionalisenbahn GmbH. In: Bahn-Report . Edited by the Association of Rail Transport Associations. V. No. 1, Chemnitz 2014, p. 57. ISSN  0178-4528
  47. railfan.de: MORA C-cooperation between DB Cargo and private railways . Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  48. See photo of the VT11. at privatbahn.de, accessed on November 6, 2008 .