EuroCity
The type of train EuroCity (short name EC ), in Germany and Austria Eurocity , stands for passenger trains in international long-distance traffic in Europe.
history
On May 31, 1987, the railways of the European Community , Austria and Switzerland founded the EC network, initially with 64 train runs. The EC trains are the successors to the Trans-Europ-Express , which ran from 1957 to 1987. The main difference is that a TEE only leads the first class, an EC on the other hand first and second class. The level of comfort in the first class is comparable. For several years there were also trains called EC-Nacht consisting of sleeping cars and couchettes . This later resulted in the EuroNight train type . A type of train related to the EC is the InterCity , which is used by several European railways in domestic traffic. In some cases, EC and IC run in a common clock traffic, for example in Germany .
In the 1990s, a number of railways in the former Eastern Bloc also introduced EC trains. Previously, from 1986, the Interexpress train type was offered here accordingly . In 1991 the number of EuroCity trains was increased from 76 to 102. On the other hand, there are no more EC trains to Spain today, the few cross-border trains run as Talgo (day) or Elipsos (night). Many former ECs were converted into high-speed trains after the construction of high- speed lines , for example the Thalys on the routes from Paris via Brussels and Aachen to Cologne or Amsterdam . In December 2017 , the EuroCity Express Frankfurt – Milan was also introduced. The trains between Berlin and Amsterdam Schiphol are called IC, so that there are no more EC trains running in the area of the Dutch State Railways .
Quality criteria
With the introduction of EC traffic, uniform quality criteria were introduced for all participating railways, which were also monitored by the International Union of Railways UIC :
- Cross-border train route,
- Air-conditioned first and second class cars,
- Increased cleaning in the departure stations as well as cleaning en route when trains run for more than 5 hours
- Stop only in important cities
- Holding time a maximum of 5 minutes, for operational reasons exceptionally up to 15 minutes (until 1989: 20 minutes),
- Border controls during the journey, also only short stays in border stations ,
- The menu cards are served with a breakfast service between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and a main meal between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. in the dining car , a bar car or at the seat in first class must be bilingual,
- Train attendants with knowledge of at least two languages, including German, English or French,
- Average cruising speed (including all stops) at least 90 km / h (with the exception of mountain railways and train runs with rail ferries ),
- Special punctuality criteria, often unpunctual trains can lose the train type EC ,
- Each pair of trains has a name that relates to its European character (tourist, cultural, historical),
- Daily traffic (departure after 6:00 a.m., arrival before midnight).
These criteria are now interpreted differently by the various railways: Some railways also use EC in Germany. Second class cars without air conditioning were initially only intended for a transitional period, but these have persisted in some countries to this day. Sometimes there are only buffet compartments instead of a full dining car or only small snacks from a serving trolley (minibar) . The German railway has abolished most Zugnamen since 2003, only in the trains running to / from the direction of Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic EC-train routings they have been retained.
The Stiftung Warentest evaluated the arrival times of EuroCity trains at their terminus in ten major German cities from September 23 to October 31, 2007 (excluding strike days), between 06:00 and 24:00. Of 1582 trains examined, 48 percent were four or more minutes late. The Deutsche Bahn rejected the result of the survey and spoke of an overall punctuality in passenger traffic of “well over 90 percent” in 2007, without giving any more specific figures.
Vehicle material
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The rolling stock for EC has the following characteristics:
- Air conditioning,
- RIC capable,
- Top speed 200 km / h,
- Compartments with six places in first and second class, compartment length approx. 2.3 meters (first class) or 1.9 meters (second class),
- Großraumwagen with seat assembly 2 + 1 (first class), or 2 + 2 (second class).
The ČD , MÁV , in part, the ÖBB and SBB have purchased specifically for EC trains new car. Today the HŽ and SŽ use EC wagons that were procured for EC by the JŽ before they were split up. Most of the other railways participating in the EC system use the same wagon types for EC as for IC trains. An example of wagons that already met these criteria before the introduction of the EC train type are the Eurofima wagons of several European railways.
Sometimes older wagons were and are used in EC, which do not always meet the quality criteria. The oldest EC cars were dining car of CIWL that arose in 1955 from war-damaged old cars of the 1920s and 1985 - now the property of the NMBS / SNCB - light gray orange with nostalgic interior decoration and painting in Eurofima C1 paint were processed. These ran until the mid-1990s in the EC Vauban and Iris .
In the mid-1990s, in contravention of the quality criteria, 50-year-old domestic light steel dining cars were used on the Eurocitys Zurich-Munich , due to the lack of modern dining cars.
Some railways also use multiple units as EC. One example of this are the MFs from DSB on the Hamburg - Copenhagen route . The ÖBB 4010 and SBB RABe EC were also used as EC in the past. The TGV between France and Switzerland initially ran as an EC (today Lyria ). Since the timetable change in 2010, the former Cisalpino trains have also been running as EuroCity.
Another special case was the Catalan-Talgo Geneva - Barcelona , a former TEE that was operated with a Talgo III RD from 1968 (with a lane change on the French-Spanish border). Later the train route to Montpellier- Barcelona was shortened, the train then no longer ran as an EC, but under the name Talgo , and the Mare Nostrum was introduced from Montpellier to Cartagena , which was operated with a more modern Talgo-Pendular set. The Paris-Madrid-Talgo and Barcelona-Talgo night trains were operated as EC night trains at the end of the 1980s. The use of the cross-border Talgos ended in 2010 with the opening of a standard-gauge high-speed line to Spain.
In March 2019 it was announced that a new train with the working title ECx had been ordered from the Spanish manufacturer Patentes Talgo . This should from the timetable change 2023/24 u. a. serve the EuroCity line Berlin – Amsterdam. The ECx has a top speed of up to 230 km / h and 17 passenger coaches. It is also characterized by WiFi , a separate toddler area and stepless entry.
Cisalpino
In the summer of 2004, SBB and Trenitalia handed over the operation of their joint InterCitys Canaletto (Zurich - Venezia Santa Lucia ) and Cinque Terre (Schaffhausen / Zurich - La Spezia) to their joint subsidiary Cisalpino AG , which in addition to multiple units now also ran trains with conventional rolling stock . While the multiple units continued to run under the name Cisalpino, the conventional trains received the status of a EuroCity. For these two trains, extra SBB car material was overmolded in Cisalpino colors.
With the 2005 timetable change, the Cisalpino took over all cross-border connections between Switzerland and Italy on the Geneva-Italy, Basel- Lötschberg- Italy and Zurich-Italy axes . The Cisalpino trains continued to operate under the name of the operating company. Each train was given a name (EC Cisalpino…). As part of this, the InterCity Riviera dei Fiori connection Basel-Gotthard-Milano Centrale-Nice was discontinued and instead led to Venice as EC Cisalpino San Marco . After Milan, certain of these trains continued to Venice or Livorno .
In 2008, the EC / IC operation on the Gotthard was switched to the InterCity tilting train and Cisalpino. The EuroCitys Basel-Lötschberg-Italy and Geneva-Italy also all became Cisalpinos. The connections Basel-Gotthard-Italy were reduced to one, which was to run from summer 2009, all others became ICN. All connections with the exception of Geneva – Venice were cut to Milano Centrale. Also on the Lötschberg and Simplon axes, only Cisalpino trains are used for service to Italy, all others end in Brig at the latest. Due to the technical problems with the Alstom ETR 610 , the train runs were mostly separated in Domodossola or Lugano. The planned train route Basel – Gotthard – Italy could not be realized because the ETR 610 are not permitted on the Gotthard.
In December 2009, SBB and Trenitalia dissolved Cisalpino AG. Since then, all former Cisalpino trains have been running as EuroCity. The multiple units have been split up among the former Cisalpino owners and continue to operate EC.
Since December 2017, ETR610 runs to Frankfurt have been extended and are called ECE ( EuroCity Express ) within Germany .
EC trains in Central Europe
Timetable year 2019/2020
| No. | Surname | relation |
|---|---|---|
| EC 6/7 | Interlaken Ost ↔ Bern ↔ Cologne ↔ Hamburg-Altona | |
| EC 8/9 | Zurich ↔ Basel ↔ Cologne ↔ Hamburg-Altona | |
| EC 10/11 to EC 24/25 | Milano Centrale ↔ Zurich | |
| EC 30/31 to EC 38/39 | Copenhagen ↔ Rødby ↔ Hamburg | |
| EC 32, 34, 36 | Milano → Geneva | |
| EC 35, 39, 41 | Geneva → Milan | |
| EC 37/42 | Geneva ↔ Venice | |
| EC 40/41 to EC 46/47 | Berlin-Warszawa-Express | Warszawa / Warsaw ↔ Poznań / Posen ↔ Berlin |
| EC 50/51 | Milan ↔ Basel | |
| EC 52, 56 | Milan → Basel | |
| EC 54/55 | Berlin-Gdynia-Express | Gdynia ↔ Poznań ↔ Berlin |
| EC 57, 59 | Basel → Milan | |
| EC 80/83 | DB-ÖBB EuroCity | Verona ↔ Innsbruck ↔ Munich |
| EC 81/82, EC 88/89 | DB-ÖBB EuroCity | Munich ↔ Bologna |
| EC 84/85 | DB-ÖBB EuroCity | Rimini ↔ Munich |
| EC 86/87 | DB-ÖBB EuroCity | Munich ↔ Venice |
| EC 102/103 | Polonia | Vienna ↔ Warsaw |
| EC 104/105 | Porta Moravica | Graz ↔ Przemyśl |
| EC 106/107 | Sobieski | Vienna ↔ Gdynia |
| EC 110/111 | Comenius | Warsaw ↔ Ostrava |
| EC 112/113 | Porta Moravica | Warsaw ↔ Katowice ↔ Prague |
| EC 112/113 | Blue gentian | Klagenfurt ↔ Salzburg ↔ Frankfurt / Main |
| EC 114 | Wörthersee | Klagenfurt → Dortmund |
| EC 115 | Wörthersee | Münster → Cologne → Klagenfurt |
| EC 116/117 | Praha | Warsaw ↔ Prague |
| EC 117 | Salzach | Frankfurt / Main → Klagenfurt |
| EC 130/131 | Varsovia | Budapest ↔ Bratislava ↔ Warsaw |
| EC 139, 140 | Thello | Nice → Genova → Milano |
| EC 140/147 | Hortobágy | Zahony ↔ Debrecen ↔ Vienna |
| EC 141, 142, 143, 144 | Thello | Milano → Genova → Nice |
| EC 144/145 | Jan Perner | Zilina ↔ Ostrava ↔ Praha |
| EC 145/148 | Lehár | Vienna ↔ Budapest |
| EC 145, 146, 147, 148 | Thello | Marseille → Nice → Genova → Milano |
| EC 150/151 | Emona | Ljubljana ↔ Graz ↔ Vienna |
| EC 153/158 | Basel ↔ Milan | |
| EC 158/159 | Croatia | Zagreb ↔ Graz ↔ Vienna |
| EC 159/160 | Thello | Milano → Genova → Nice → Marseille |
| EC 163/164 | Transalpine | Zurich ↔ Graz |
| EC 170/171 | Carl Maria von Weber | Prague ↔ Dresden ↔ Berlin |
| EC 172/173 | Hungaria | Budapest ↔ Bratislava ↔ Prague ↔ Hamburg |
| EC 174 | Robert Schumann | Prague → Berlin → Hamburg |
| EC 175 | Robert Schumann | Berlin → Prague |
| EC 176/177 | Johannes Brahms | Prague ↔ Hamburg |
| EC 178 | Alois Negrelli | Prague → Berlin |
| EC 179 | Alois Negrelli | Hamburg → Berlin → Prague |
| EC 181/182 | Rákoczi | Košice ↔ Budapest |
| EC 186/187 | Hornád | Budapest ↔ Košice |
| EC 190 | Munich → Lindau → St. Gallen → Zurich | |
| EC 191/192 | Basel ↔ Zurich ↔ Lindau ↔ Memmingen ↔ Munich | |
| EC 193 | Basel → Zurich → Lindau → Munich | |
| EC 194/195 | Munich ↔ Lindau ↔ St. Gallen ↔ Zurich | |
| EC 196/197 | Munich ↔ Kempten ↔ Lindau ↔ St. Gallen ↔ Zurich | |
| EC 212/213 | Mimara | Zagreb ↔ Villach |
| EC 216/217 | Dachstein | Graz ↔ Saarbrücken |
| EC 218/219 | Chiemgau | Graz ↔ Frankfurt / Main |
| EC 232/233, EC 238/239 | Copenhagen ↔ Rødby ↔ Hamburg | |
| EC 242/243 | Roháče | Košice ↔ Prague |
| EC 246/247 | Citadella | Budapest-Déli ↔ Ljubljana |
| EC 270/271 | Petrov | Budapest-Keleti ↔ Brno |
| EC 272/273 | Csárdás | Budapest-Keleti ↔ Prague |
| EC 274/275 | Jaroslav Hašek | Budapest-Keleti ↔ Prague |
| EC 276/277 | Slovan | Budapest-Keleti ↔ Prague |
| EC 278/279 | Danubius | Budapest-Keleti ↔ Prague |
| EC 280/281 | Jan Jesenius | Budapest-Keleti ↔ Prague |
| EC 282/283 | Slovenská strela | Bratislava ↔ Prague |
| EC 286/287, EC 288/289 | DB-ÖBB EuroCity | Innsbruck ↔ Kufstein ↔ Munich |
| EC 314/315 | Dobova ↔ Villach | |
| EC 342/343 | Ivo Andrić | Beograd ↔ Budapest |
| EC 344/345 | Avala | Beograd / Belgrade ↔ Vienna |
| EC 354/357 | Franz Kafka | Prague ↔ Munich |
| EC 355/356 | Karel Čapek | Munich ↔ Prague |
| EC 378/379 | Porta Bohemica | Prague ↔ Berlin ↔ Hamburg ↔ Kiel |
| EC 390/391 | Salzburg ↔ Frankfurt / Main | |
| EC 410/411 | Beograd ↔ Ljubljana | |
| EC 480/481 | Opatija | Rijeka ↔ Ljubljana |
| EC 482/483 | Ljubljana | Rijeka ↔ Ljubljana |
| EC 490/491 | Balkans | Sofia ↔ Beograd |
| EC 1288/1289 | DB-ÖBB EuroCity | Venice ↔ Munich |
| EC 1390/1391 | Ploče ↔ Sarajevo |
Accidents
- On August 8, 2008, EC 108 Comenius from Krakow to Prague at around 10:45 a.m. near Studénka (Nový Jičín district) in the north-east of the Czech Republic suffered a serious accident with eight dead and 35 injured passengers, while one was being repaired shortly before the train passed The existing motorway bridge fell on the tracks, the train crashed into the rubble of the bridge and derailed . The engine driver was able to initiate emergency braking from the cruising speed of over 130 km / h. He survived in the engine room of the locomotive.
- On August 1, 2014, the EC 216 from Graz to Saarbrücken at around 8:51 p.m. in Mannheim's main train station had a flank journey with a freight train. Five wagons of the passenger train derailed, two of which overturned. 35 people were injured, fourteen of whom had to be treated in hospitals.
- The same train suffered another accident on February 12, 2018, but this time in the Austrian Niklasdorf station . Driving over a signal indicating a stop led to several injuries and one death. The roof of several EC cars was torn open in the collision.
Web links
- EC / IC line network 2020 of Deutsche Bahn AG (PDF; 667 KiB)
- List of all EC trains in Germany over the past 20 years
- Train composition with pictures from the Czech side vagonWEB
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annual review 1991 of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: Die Bundesbahn , vol. 68, issue 1, January 1992, ISSN 0007-5876 , p. 43.
- ↑ Stiftung Warentest: How punctual do the trains really run? . In: test , 2/2008, ISSN 0040-3946 , pp. 78-82.
- ^ Deutsche Bahn AG: Deutsche Bahn punctuality at a high level ( Memento from February 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). Press release from January 24, 2008
- ^ Karl Emmenegger: The lightweight steel wagons of the Swiss Federal Railways (standard gauge) , 1997, ISBN 3-7230-0236-6 . Background: Because the light steel cars were the only SBB dining cars with a power frequency of 22.5 Hertz of the DB class 218, besides the RIC dining cars, which at that time could not be used due to technical problems, they had to be used. As a result of this problem, the power supply of four EW VI dining cars was adapted so that they can be used today.
- ↑ Editor: Deutsche Bahn and Talgo introduce new long-distance train "ECx". In: bahnblogstelle.net. March 13, 2019, accessed on May 18, 2019 (German).
- ↑ More comfort, more reliability, more space: Deutsche Bahn presents new long-distance train “ECx” | Deutsche Bahn AG. Retrieved May 18, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Cisalpino is dissolved. In: St. Galler Tagblatt Online
- ↑ Train races against bridge ( memento from December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) netzeitung.de from August 8, 2008 - 1:24 p.m.
- ↑ Freight train rams EC - dozen injured after train accident in Mannheim. In: faz.net , August 1, 2014, accessed January 7, 2018
- ↑ Woman dies in an accident on a German Eurocity train In: stern.de , February 12, 2018, accessed on November 18, 2018
- ↑ The number of people injured in a train accident in Styria rose to 27 In: derstandart.at , February 13, 2018, accessed on November 18, 2018