Hamburg-Cologne Express

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hamburg-Cologne-Express GmbH
logo
Basic information
Company headquarters Cologne , Germany
Web presence hkx.de ( Memento from November 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
Reference year 2013
legal form GmbH
founding October 5, 2009
Board Carsten Carstensen
Employee 42
Lines
railroad 1
statistics
Passengers approx. 350,000 a year
Mileage approx. 0.93 million train km per year

Hamburg-Köln-Express (HKX) describes a former type of train whose trains ran between Hamburg-Altona and Cologne Central Station from 2012 . The trains have been running under the name Flixtrain for Flixmobility since April 2018 .

history

In October 2009 the company Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH was founded as a joint venture between RDC Germany (75 percent stake), Locomore rail GmbH & Co. KG (17.5 percent) and the British-Canadian railroad investor Michael Schabas (7.5 percent) Percent).

According to the company, the Hamburg – Cologne axis emerged from intensive market analyzes. The economic and tourist potential of the two regions would have spoken in favor of this. Regions like the Rhine-Main area or Berlin, on the other hand, were connected to them by high-speed lines, on which Deutsche Bahn is faster. The company originally planned to offer long-distance trains between Cologne and Hamburg from August 2010. In April 2010, the company announced that it would not operate the route with three daily train pairs until April 2011. The company cited the uncertainty as to whether the train paths would be allocated as the reason for the delays. In addition, four of the six train paths ordered had train path conflicts with the SNCF subsidiary Keolis , who also used this route . After Keolis withdrew its framework contract registrations in April 2010, a framework contract was concluded with DB Netz in June 2010 . It runs until December 2015.

In March 2011, HKX announced that it had lodged a complaint against the new station price system with the Federal Network Agency , as this would result in a cost increase for HKX of 135 percent or 500,000 euros annually. At the end of May 2011, the Federal Network Agency instructed the DB subsidiary Station & Service to withdraw the station price increase of 135 percent. As for Deutsche Bahn, station prices may only rise by 18 percent.

In mid-2011, operations were scheduled to start on September 1, 2011. Due to delays in the reconditioning of the wagons and the approval by the Federal Railway Authority , the start date was postponed. The first HKX train finally started on Monday, July 23, 2012 at 6:35 a.m. from Hamburg-Altona station in the direction of Köln Hbf .

According to the company, it had invested around 16 million euros by mid-2012. In 2012, two to three million euros in sales should be achieved. According to the company, three times as much had been planned, but since the vehicles on which it was based were missing, the company would initially make losses. The company has 40 employees. According to the company, 30 to 40 percent of the proceeds will be used to cover infrastructure fees (excluding traction energy). These include, in particular, train path and station charges . According to the company, around 25,000 people were transported in the first month. Above all, people were addressed who had not yet taken the train.

The company still intended to become profitable in mid-2013. In order to be able to work economically, the company says it needs a capacity utilization of 70 percent. This did not succeed, however, as the 2013 balance sheet showed an annual deficit of 11.6 million euros. In the first half of 2013, the company said it carried 150,000 people in 700 trains, generating revenues of more than three million euros. 80 to 90 percent of the trains would have reached their destination on time. In June 2014 the managing director Eva Kreienkamp left the company. Carsten Carstensen remained as sole managing director.

For the 2016 timetable year, HKX also registered routes on the left-hand Rhine route between Cologne and Frankfurt (Main) in addition to the existing traffic . Due to overhauls and the high utilization of the route, six trains (three in each direction) of the trans regio line MRB 26 had to pass through several stations without stopping.

Since September 1, 2016, all HKX trains have only been running on their eponymous section between Hamburg and Cologne, but only from Friday to Monday due to the weak demand on Thursday. With the timetable change in 2016/17, Mondays will no longer be available and Saturdays will only be served in summer (south direction) or spring, summer and autumn (north direction).

The long-distance train was on hold from October 4, 2017 to December 21, 2017.

New start under the Flixtrain brand

From December 22, 2017 to January 2, 2018, HKX trains ran again in cooperation for Flixbus , after which traffic was suspended again from January 3, 2018.

From March 23, 2018, the trains will run once a day except Wednesdays in the design of the Flixbus sister company Flixtrain , which will also be responsible for ticket sales . The operation of the trains for Flixmobility will from now on be ensured by RDC Germany, a subsidiary of the Railroad Development Corporation and sister company of HKX GmbH. HKX GmbH ceased operations after 9 years of losses.

Offer from the former HKX

HKX route (green, western route)
HKX route from December 13, 2015 to August 31, 2016

While HKX provides the service staff for the trains, operations were carried out by Transdev until December 2015 . With the timetable change on December 13, 2015, BahnTouristikExpress took over this task.

The HKX stops between Hamburg-Altona and Cologne Central Station only in Hamburg Central Station , Hamburg-Harburg and at the main stations of Osnabrück , Münster , Gelsenkirchen , Essen , Duisburg and Düsseldorf . An originally planned stop in Sagehorn near Bremen was not realized. The shorter Bremen freight bypass is used here.

From the timetable change on December 13, 2015, the HKX operated partly beyond Cologne: After stopping at the main train stations in Bonn , Koblenz and Bingen , Frankfurt am Main was reached. About eight months later, however, the extension was discontinued due to a lack of demand, and since the beginning of September 2016 Cologne has been the terminus of all trains again.

After HKX initially offered up to three train pairs per day between Hamburg and Cologne (in summer 2015 there were only up to two connections per day and direction), from 1 May 2016 connections were only available from Friday to Monday. Trains from Frankfurt only ran on Thursday and Saturday, in the opposite direction there was a train to the Main on Friday and Monday. One pair of HKX trains runs between Hamburg and Cologne from Thursday to Monday. As of September 1, 2016, the trip on Thursday was canceled and, since December 11, also on Monday.

The travel time from Hamburg Central Station to Cologne Central Station is just over four hours; from Cologne to Frankfurt main station it was about two hours 30 minutes. The total travel time between Hamburg-Altona and Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof was around seven hours. The HKX timetable is designed for a top speed of 160 km / h. Since there are no detours via Bremen or Dortmund and the train only stops at selected stations, there is sometimes a time gain between Hamburg and Cologne compared to the long-distance trains of Deutsche Bahn. Between Cologne and Frankfurt, however, the HKX was significantly slower than an Intercity Express ; the ICE takes just over an hour on the high-speed route Cologne – Rhein / Main . The HKX logo was revised with the introduction of the extension to Hesse; instead of the full name Hamburg / Cologne / Express, the advertising slogan Zug / and / gut was used.

During the 2014 summer schedule, there were also through trains from Westerland on Sylt . The HKX drove to Hamburg-Altona as a regional express of the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn, whose rolling stock was used for many HKX journeys anyway.

Tariff (until 2018)

Tickets according to the HKX tariff

When booking an HKX ticket, only one carriage class is offered (“Basic”); this can be upgraded to a first class ticket (“HKX + Ticket”) on board the train.

The HKX tickets are tied to the train booked and include a seat reservation. Several cars of the train associations are reserved for passengers with reservation. Snacks and drinks can be purchased from a catering compartment on the train. The bicycles can be booked in advance at an additional cost, as far as space permits this.

HKX tickets can be purchased from ticket sales points and ticket machines of many transport companies, in selected travel agencies, online via the HKX website and on the train.

At the start of operations, the company announced that it would offer competitive prices of 20, 40 or 60 euros on the Hamburg – Cologne route in the first few weeks of operation . Then there should be variable, demand-oriented pricing. A HKX single ticket for the Cologne – Hamburg route or vice versa cost between 20 and 60 euros until September 30, 2012. On October 1, 2012, the maximum price was increased to 68 euros. The regular price of Deutsche Bahn is, however, without BahnCard -discount in Intercity 83 Euro and Intercity Express 92 euros.

Validity of Deutsche Bahn tickets

On February 1, 2015, HKX changed its tariff concept. Since then, the connection has no longer counted as long-distance traffic, but as an independent local train. For this purpose, an application was previously submitted to the tariff association of federal and non-federal railways in Germany . This meant that the trains could also be used with all Deutsche Bahn tickets. On the other hand, network tickets and those according to the Lower Saxony tariff and the NRW tariff , including the two state tickets NRW ticket and Lower Saxony ticket , were not valid.

Seat reservations were not possible when using Deutsche Bahn tickets, but several cars were available on each train for passengers without a reservation. In contrast to the HKX house tariff, a distinction is made between first and second class. First class is also available on the train under the name HKX + for a distance-dependent surcharge of 10, 20 or 30 €, but an "upgrade" is not permitted in conjunction with DB tickets (second class) either.

With the recognition of DB tickets, passengers with destinations away from the HKX route should also be able to use the Hamburg-Cologne Express. As a model for this tariff concept are self-operated Interregio Express trains of the Deutsche Bahn. The reason is also the strong competition from long-distance buses , whose network has grown significantly since the beginning of 2013.

On September 1, 2016, the mutual recognition of tickets between HKX and Deutsche Bahn ended without replacement due to difficulties in reconciling different fare conditions for seat reservations.

The free transport of severely disabled people on the HKX trains was carried out in accordance with the provisions of §§ 145ff. of the ninth book of the Social Security Code (SGB IX) between February 1, 2015 and August 31, 2016. An accompanying person was also free of charge thereafter.

vehicles

Until 2018

BahnTouristikExpress wagons, as they have been in use at HKX since December 2015
View into a compartment of a car used at HKX (Bom 024 )

As of the 2016 timetable, the married pair cars were no longer available to the HKX. Instead, those from the new partner BahnTouristikExpress were used. These were UIC-Z compartment cars (Bom) with speeds of up to 160 km / h , which were built for the Deutsche Reichsbahn in the 1980s . Since the 2015/2016 winter timetable, a train consisting of ten cars, made up of a second-class compartment car and a half-baggage car (BDomsb) with first-class compartments, has operated. The half-baggage trolley allowed wheelchairs and bicycles to be carried, but prior notification was required for both. In addition, the fleet also included a former interregional bicycle cart (Bimdz), which had open seating areas and compartments as well as bicycle parking spaces. This was used next to or as an alternative to the half baggage cart.

The HKX sets were drawn with locomotives of the Siemens ES64U2 type ( discontinued at Deutsche Bahn as class 182 ).

HKX-owned trains

In addition to the rented wagons, the HKX and RDC Germany have their own train sets, which, however, have never been used as HKX. These are control cars and intermediate cars of the 4010 series from the 1960s, they were purchased by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) in 2009 . Most recently at the end of 2014 it was announced that the use of two sets of three cars each was planned for the HKX. They should be more spacious than comparable Deutsche Bahn cars and offer free internet access.

The use of this rolling stock was planned from the start of operations: three HKX train sets, two of which were for scheduled traffic and one as a reserve, were originally to consist of an electric locomotive , four intermediate cars and two end cars (former control cars). These 18 cars would have been modernized by the start of operations at the H. Cegielski rail vehicle plant in Poznan, Poland. However, due to problems, the collaboration was terminated. In March 2013, a contract for the modernization of initially a six-car set was signed with EuroMaint Rail Deutschland GmbH. This received approval from the Federal Railway Authority in late summer 2014 . However, these cars were never used at the HKX.

Previous car use

Double-decker cars and two Avmz 111s in the HKX in February 2013
Avmz 111 with HKX advertising (July 2013)

In the first few years, a colorful mixture of rented cars from various companies was used at HKX; travel comfort was therefore subject to certain fluctuations. The cars were painted differently, but many had HKX advertising. For a long time, the cars were almost exclusively side aisle compartment cars . The following types of wagons were used:

B (I6)

In November 2013, HKX Eurofima cars were rented from SNCB . These are second-class compartment cars with 66 seats. The mission ended in December 2014.

On / ABm

Compartment coaches of the types Am and ABm were used . These were first-class cars or mixed-class cars that were built for the Deutsche Bundesbahn and for British and American troops in Germany. Most of these non-air-conditioned cars each had eleven compartments with 66 seats.

Avmz

The Avmz class is a car that was procured in the 1960s by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for the Rheingold or the Rheinpfeil , which originally belonged to the first class. Depending on the equipment, the carriages each have 50 or 54 seats, divided into nine six or four-person compartments. Among other things, the first ever built Avmz 111 car was in service with the HKX, and it was reconditioned by summer 2013. The Avmz wagons were initially defining for the trains of the HKX, but were returned to the rental company in spring 2014.

Compartment car of the NOB

There were also compartment cars with ten compartments , which were built in the 1980s for the Deutsche Reichsbahn , and large-capacity control cars. These were rented from the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn and, unlike the other wagons, are only approved for 140 km / h.

HKX 1802, made up of married pair wagons, in Duisburg Central Station (September 2014)

Married pair car

From 2012 to December 2015, HKX trains were made up of so -called married pair wagons ; towards the end of this phase, these were almost exclusively used. The cars came from the Transdev subsidiary Nord-Ostsee-Bahn. These open- plan cars, including a control car, mostly belong to the second car class. You can also transport wheelchairs and bicycles.

Due to a lack of vehicles, there were also short-term deployments of other vehicles in the beginning, for example in November and December 2012 of class 460 multiple units from trans regio . In addition, an air-conditioned double-decker car was used at times.

owner

The owners of Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH are Railroad Development Corporation Deutschland GmbH (RDCD), HKX Beteiligungs GmbH & Co KG and Michael Schabas.

literature

  • Rüdiger Block: HKX. New long-distance competitor . In: railway magazine . No. 9 . Alba publication, September 2012, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 24-27 .
  • Hans Leister (RDC / HKX): How do new regional rail companies hold their own in the long-distance transport market? (PDF) (No longer available online.) November 4, 2015, formerly in the original ; Retrieved on November 29, 2015 (presentation at the 9th Westphalian Local Transport Days with a description of the HKX business model).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.nahverkehrstage.org

Web links

Commons : Hamburg-Köln-Express  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Change in the management of the Hamburg-Köln-Express. June 19, 2014, accessed June 19, 2014 (press release).
  2. ↑ a b Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2013. Federal Gazette , March 13, 2015, accessed on August 22, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Hamburg-Cologne route Deutsche Bahn has to fear modern competition. In: Der Spiegel (cited as source Westfalen-Blatt , Bielefeld). January 9, 2011, accessed July 23, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Ryanair on rails. In: WirtschaftsWoche. No. 46, November 9, 2009.
  5. ^ A b c Peter Berger: A low-cost airline on rails . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , July 21, 2012 ( online ).
  6. ↑ Competitors of the railway give up. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. Munich, No. 82, 10./11. April 2010.
  7. ↑ Long-distance train operator accuses railways of chicane ( memento from April 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Financial Times Deutschland , March 31, 2011.
  8. ↑ Regulator helps rail rivals. In: Financial Times Deutschland , May 24, 2011.
  9. ↑ Private provider attacks rail with cheap offers in Welt Online from August 12, 2011 .
  10. ↑ Stefan Bergmann: The start of the Hamburg-Cologne-Express is postponed again ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Ruhrnachrichten.de , January 6, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ruhrnachrichten.de
  11. ↑ Dieter Fockenbrock: The Hamburg-Cologne Express starts . In: Handelsblatt . No. 125 , July 2, 2012, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 22 ( short version ).
  12. ↑ a b Diana Fröhlich: The challengers . In: Handelsblatt . No. 141 , July 24, 2012, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 44 .
  13. ↑ a b c Christian Schlesiger: When building a private railway, not everything goes according to plan. In: Wirtschaftswoche . July 14, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2012 .
  14. ↑ Rail competitor attracts rail newbies. In: Handelsblatt . August 28, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Olaf Preuss: Rail competitor HKX is aiming for profit . In: The world . No. 166 , July 19, 2013, ISSN  0173-8437 , p. 19 ( similar version ).
  16. ↑ a b Into the future with the flair of the 1970s . Handelsblatt online , July 23, 2012.
  17. ↑ Diana Fröhlich: Train to train to destination . In: Handelsblatt . No. 15 , January 22, 2013, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 47 .
  18. ↑ Local traffic association Rhineland: Railway stops less frequently in Roisdorf , General-Anzeiger (Bonn) , 29 August 2015
  19. ↑ http://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article207951329/Hamburg-Koeln-Express-stell-Fahrten-am-Donnerstag-ein.html
  20. ↑ HKX will shut down trains for two months , Nadine Grunewald for Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , 23 August 2017
  21. ↑ HKX traffic reports: HKX will be paused from October 4th , accessed on October 9th, 2017
  22. ↑ FlixBus expands its offer for the Christmas season: HKX is running again
  23. ↑ [1] , Zeit Online , March 7, 2018
  24. ↑ Railjournal: Flixtrain expands Hamburg - Cologne services , July 13, 2018 (English)
  25. ↑ Contract signed: Veolia Verkehr becomes carrier for the Hamburg-Köln-Express , werkstattatlas.info.
  26. ↑ a b BTE BahnTouristikExpress runs for HKX , Eisenbahn-Kurier , November 16, 2015
  27. ↑ Hamburg-Köln-Express does not stop in Bremen until December 2012 ( Memento of October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  28. ↑ touristik-aktuell.de - HKX cancels further trains July 28, 2016
  29. ↑ Timetable from May 1, 2016 Timetable Valid from May 1, 2016, accessed on April 30, 2016.
  30. ↑ https://www.hkx.de/hkx-fahrplan/
  31. ↑ HKX: Sales have started
  32. ↑ Frequently asked questions on the HKX website
  33. ↑ a b General Conditions of Carriage of Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH
  34. ↑ a b Information on seat reservation in HKX trains , integrated into a forum post on Drehscheibe-online.de
  35. ↑ a b M. Fasse, D. Fröhlich, C. Schlautmann: Low-cost attack against railway . In: Handelsblatt . No. 141, July 24, 2012, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 18 f.
  36. ↑ Without a source
  37. ↑ Ticket info
  38. ↑ Hamburg-Köln-Express: A rail competitor buckles , Kerstin Schwenn for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , June 26, 2014
  39. ↑ touristik-aktuell.de - HKX: DB tickets no longer valid August 4, 2016
  40. ↑ Barrier-free travel in the HKX. (No longer available online.) In: hkx.de. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016 ; accessed on March 4, 2019 .
  41. ↑ News 2016: HKX is expanding its timetable and will also travel to Frankfurt am Main when the timetable changes in December (December 13, 2015) , accessed on October 24, 2015
  42. ↑ See for example Bimdz 268.9 D-BTEX in HKX
  43. ^ Christian Schlesinger: Cola and chocolate instead of cucumber sticks . In: Wirtschaftswoche . No. 41 , October 6, 2014, ISSN  0042-8582 , p. 60 ff . ( among other titles ).
  44. ↑ FPS zmodernizuje 18 niemieckich wagonów . (Link no longer available)
  45. ↑ Contract for modernization signed: HKX wagons are modernized by Euromaint Rail Germany , HKX press release
  46. ↑ Railway operator HKX receives approval for trains , Christian Schlesiger in Wirtschaftswoche , September 20, 2014
  47. ↑ Adieu, Belgian cars! , HKX on facebook.com, December 14, 2014
  48. ↑ The alex car stock ( Memento from March 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 104 KiB)
  49. ↑ HKX expands offer , press release, April 25, 2013.
  50. ↑ http://www.hkx.de/index.php/unternehmen/wir-ueber-uns