Koblenz electricity company and transport company
| Koblenz electricity company and transport company
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | September 30, 1886 |
| resolution | July 1, 2014 |
| Reason for dissolution | fusion |
| Seat | Koblenz |
| management | Josef Rönz (CEO), Karlheinz Sonnenberg, Bernd Wieczorek |
| sales | 451 million € (2010) |
The Koblenzer Elektrizitätswerk und Verkehrs-AG , ( KEVAG ), was a company for power supply and local public transport in the greater Koblenz and Westerwald area . The service company owned stakes in the areas of renewable energies, transport and telecommunications. In 2014 all business areas of KEVAG were taken over by EVM AG .
Company profile
The KEVAG supply area included 217 cities and municipalities in the areas of Koblenz and Untermosel as well as parts of the Westerwald . It supplied around 200,000 private and commercial customers and around 2,200 business customers as well as four municipal utility companies with electricity. In 2010, electricity sales to private and commercial customers totaled 759.8 million kWh (28%), business customers totaled 1,605.6 million kWh (59%) and energy supply companies 340.5 million kWh (13%). [Total 2,705.9 million kWh] Since 2010, KEVAG has also acted as a gas provider.
As a power producer, KEVAG is also involved in the field of renewable energies. It owned ten wind turbines as well as a stake in Windpark Westerwald GmbH. In addition, the company operated a hydropower plant in Bad Marienberg and Naurot and several photovoltaic systems on the roofs of its locations in Koblenz and Hahn am See . In the transport sector, KEVAG was involved as a subcontractor and service provider for its operating subsidiary KEVAG Verkehrs-Service GmbH (KVS) and, with its network service, KEVAG built and operated electricity and telecommunications networks for KEVAG Distribution Network GmbH, KEVAG Telekom GmbH and third parties. In electromobility, KEVAG was driving the expansion of the charging station infrastructure in the supply area and is involved in e-mobility projects.
Holdings
The KEVAG Group also integrated further business areas:
- KEVAG Distribution Network GmbH (KVNetz)
- KEVAG Verkehrs-Service GmbH (KVS)
- Motor Vehicle Traffic Koblenz GmbH (KVG)
- Naturstrom Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH (NRLP)
- Windpark Westerwald GmbH (WPW)
- KEVAG Telekom GmbH (KTK)
- KEVAG energy management system (EnMS)
history
The company was founded on September 30, 1886 with 125,000 marks as a Coblenz tram company . Over time, the local horse-drawn tram company developed into a supra-regional commercial enterprise with the business areas of electricity and transport as well as holdings in the areas of renewable energies and broadband telecommunications. The company has been operating under its current name since June 22, 1939.
Due to the strong development of the city of Koblenz in the 19th century, an improvement in traffic was obvious. At that time Koblenz was the seat of the Upper Presidium of the Rhine Province and the administrative district of Koblenz as well as a garrison town. As a result, many authorities, civil servants, the military and other institutions that sought their proximity were settled here. Koblenz was also a popular destination for day trippers who came to the city by train, steamboat, horse-drawn carriage or on foot.
In 1883 the city council decided to introduce a horse-drawn tram between the inner city and the suburbs.
In 1886 a contract was finally signed with entrepreneurs Alexander von Stülpnagel and Wilhelm August von Tippelskirch . As a result, the "Coblenzer Straßenbahn-Gesellschaft" was entered in the commercial register under the direction of director Wilhelm August Fuhrmann .
Operations began on May 28, 1887 with one line. In the following years, the existing routes were expanded and other parts of the city opened up. In 1897 there were already four lines. In 1893, 802,275 passengers were carried on a 12.3-kilometer route network. 25 wagons and 72 horses were available for this.
Due to the success of the horse-drawn tram, it was decided very early in Koblenz to electrify the network . In the course of this, in 1896, with the conversion to electrical overhead lines, the construction of the coal-fired power station required for this was also decided.
In the same year, a piece of land was acquired at the Schützenhof in Koblenz and the Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft in Berlin was commissioned with the project planning. The current location of the KEVAG office can be traced back to this planning.
The coal-fired power station, completed in 1898, not only supplied the trams with electricity, Koblenz and the surrounding area also received electricity from this power station. This development explains the connection between the two business areas of public transport and electricity, which is still reflected in KEVAG's offerings today.
The first electric tram started running in Koblenz on January 17, 1899. After the horse-drawn tram had been replaced on that day in the inner-city area with a line from Görresplatz to Schützenhof, where the first depot was located, the electric train could also run on the right bank of the Rhine from Pfaffendorf to Ehrenbreitstein from August 8, 1899 . By 1901 the horse tram was completely replaced by the electric tram. Since then, the network has been gradually expanded, including to Arenberg , Vallendar , Horchheim , Oberlahnstein , Metternich , Bendorf , Sayn , Moselweiß and Höhr .
In 1912 the construction of the line from Lützel via Mülheim-Kärlich to Weißenthurm and Urmitz train station began; Because of the First World War , it was not completed, nor was the planned expansion from Neuendorf to Kesselheim, from Lahnstein to Braubach or from Vallendar to Engers to the Neuwied tram .
After the First World War there were only minor extensions to the network, from August 11, 1928 from Schützenhof to Oberwerth Island and from December 20, 1933 from Niederlahnstein to Oberlahnstein.
The following route network existed in the 1930s:
- 1 and 2 city lines in the direction of Schützenhof - Oberwerth
- 3 to Kapellen-Stolzenfels
- 4 to Lützel - Neuendorf
- 5 to Lützel - Metternich
- 6 to Moselweiß
- 7 to Vallendar
- 8 to Bendorf - Sayn
- 9 to Arenberg
- 10 to Oberlahnstein
- 11 to Höhr-Grenzhausen
This opened up eleven tram lines on a network of almost 52 kilometers, of which only 4.2 kilometers were double-track , until the Second World War, not only the suburbs, but also several independent communities in the vicinity of the city. Therefore, in addition to the main shareholder, the company for electrical companies in Berlin, which owned 97.5% of the shares, the Unterwesterwaldkreis also held 1.67% and the Koblenz district 0.83% of the capital in 1940 . In 1940, 82 railcars and 26 sidecars were in use.
The tram company also included the funicular from Kapellen-Stolzenfels (Laubach) to the Rittersturz (so-called Rittersturzbahn ), which was in operation from June 2, 1928 to October 25, 1959 on a 400-meter route. After that, due to inefficiency, it was replaced by an omnibus line that started operating on April 15, 1960.
During the Second World War, the company began replacing the tram network with trolleybuses that took over the tram line numbers. The youngest rail line from Vallendar station to Höhr-Grenzhausen was the first to be changed on July 17, 1941, because it was so heavily loaded by freight traffic that renewal was no longer worthwhile. In October 1942, this line 11 in Höhr-Grenzhausen was extended by 600 meters to 9.3 kilometers and received a turning loop there. The four trolleybuses were parked in the Vallendar car hall.
The next expansion of the trolleybus network was planned and started during the war, but could not be implemented until May 25, 1949. Line 12 led from the Herz-Jesu-Kirche to the residential area Karthaus, which had been served by the first Koblenz city bus route since January 9, 1939. On the 2.5 km long route a steep incline had to be overcome, which the trolleybus could handle better than the diesel bus.
The remaining tram routes survived the end of the war despite severe war damage and despite the demolition of the Rhine and Moselle bridges. However, the network remained divided into a part to the right of the Rhine and one to the left of the Rhine. After the bus line O (Hauptbahnhof - Ehrenbreitstein) had crossed the river on November 14, 1949, a new 7.8 kilometer trolleybus line from the main station to Vallendar established an electrical connection over the Pfaffendorfer Bridge from July 18, 1953.
At the same time, tram line 7 from Ehrenbreitstein to Vallendar was shut down. The rail network was further reduced when on May 15, 1954, line 8 from Vallendar to Bendorf-Sayn (seven kilometers) was replaced by trolleybus operations. The tram line 10 to Lahnstein was replaced by a bus line on May 16, 1956, but a trolleybus line was set up for tram line 9 to Arenberg (4.9 kilometers), which was discontinued on September 29, 1958, because of the steep route. This meant that the right bank of the Rhine - where there was temporarily an "island operation" - was rail-free and was only served by the trolleybus.
The extent of the tram network was given in the manual of the public transport company (HÖV) 1958/59 with 22.2 kilometers, that of the trolleybus network with 25.2 kilometers. After tram line 3 to Kapellen-Stolzenfels was driven for the last time on September 3, 1958, and was replaced by omnibuses, and line 9 was replaced by trolleybuses on September 29, its network changed - at the expense of the tram around five kilometers too. In 1958 there were 53 tram units and 21 trolleybuses available, a few years later there were 29 trolleybuses with 17 trailers.
May 5, 1961 brought the end of lines 4 and 5 to Neuendorf and Metternich, and until November 27, 1964, line 6 ran from the Herz-Jesu-Kirche to Moselweiß. But for almost three years the last two lines 1 and 2 squeezed off the plan through the narrow streets of the old town to get to the main station and on to the Schützenhof and Oberwerth. The small two-axle railcars with their roller pantographs were no longer state-of-the-art. On July 19, 1967, the end came for them too.
The trolleybus, which had not replaced the rail network on the left bank of the Rhine to any significant extent, only outlived the tram by three years. As the first trolleybus line, the 12 to the Karthauser was shut down on July 15, 1968; the oldest line, the 11, followed on February 1, 1969. Two years later, on August 1, 1970, lines 7 and 8 from the main station to Vallendar and Bendorf-Sayn ended, and on October 30, 1970, line 9 was the last trolleybus line started operations in Koblenz.
As a result of the oil crisis in the 1970s, the company began using electric buses on a trial basis for five years from 1971 , which took their energy from batteries that were carried on a trailer.
Bus transport
In 1953, bus routes A from the main train station to Immendorf (August 3) and B from the Herz-Jesu-Kirche to the gold mine (December 7) were opened. On January 10, 1955, line C followed from Münzplatz to Wallersheim. Other lines started at the main train station and ran as line E to Arzheim (May 21, 1958), D to Mittelweiden (September 3, 1958), G to Urbar (December 3, 1962), F to the industrial area (February 18, 1963) and H zur Horchheimer Höhe (July 12, 1965). Line J from Zentralplatz to Mozartplatz only ran from 1968 to 1969.
In addition to line 10 to Lahnstein, the following bus lines were set up to replace the former tram lines:
- 1/2 Rhine - Oberwerth / Schützenhof (1967)
- 3 according to Kapellen-Stolzenfels (1958)
- 4 to Neuendorf and 5 to Metternich (1961)
- 6 Herz-Jesu-Kirche - Moselweiß (1964)
In 1967 KEVAG operated 15 bus routes (total length 68 km) and five trolleybus routes (total length 49 kilometers).
In the course of the 1970s, all remaining letters were replaced by line numbers (on some lines there were cars that did not travel the entire route and were given the suffix "a", e.g. line 8 to Bendorf , 8a only to Vallendar ). There was also an exchange of lines with the Kraftpost and Deutsche Bundesbahn. The KEVAG lines were combined into ten main lines so that hardly any line endpoints remained in the city center. There were also supplementary and reinforcement lines.
Merger with the EVM
At the end of 2012, RWE AG sold its 57.5% stake in KEVAG for around 220 million euros to EKO² GmbH. The city of Koblenz, the Stadtwerke Koblenz , Thüga and Energieversorgung Mittelrhein were involved in the deal .
On July 1, 2014, KEVAG was merged with Energieversorgung Mittelrhein . The new company also bears the name Energieversorgung Mittelrhein AG (evm for short). The KEVAG subsidiary KEVAG Verkehrs-Service GmbH (KVS for short) was also merged into the new company and now carries out public transport services under the name evm Verkehrs GmbH in Koblenz and the surrounding area.
literature
- D. Höltge: Deutsche Straßen- und Stadtbahnen, Volume 4 Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland , Zeunert Verlag, Gifhorn 1981, ISBN 3-921237-60-2 , pp. 53-94.
- Werner Stock: Trolleybus systems in Germany. Bielefeld 1987.
- Koblenz without the tram. In: Stadtverkehr , No. 8, August 1967.
- Ralph Bernatz: City traffic in Koblenz. In: Stadtverkehr , No. 5/6, May 1983.
- Koblenzer Elektrizitätswerk und Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (Ed.): The transport company through the ages: From the horse-drawn tram to the most modern transport service provider. Self-published, 2007.
- M. Kochems, D. Höltge: Trams and Stadtbahnen in Germany , Volume 12 Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland , EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-88255-393-2 , pp. 56-77.
- Report on the 127th financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2011; Ed .: Koblenzer Elektrizitätswerk und Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft, Koblenz (online) .
Web links
- KEVAG website
- KEVAG distribution network GmbH
- KEVAG energy management
- The Koblenz tram
- Tram Koblenz with pictures
- Early documents and newspaper articles on the Koblenz electricity works and transport company in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2010 annual financial statements filed with the commercial register. Retrieved September 16, 2011 .
- ↑ RWE: RWE sells share in KEVAG , press release of December 21, 2012.
- ↑ What are the consequences of the merger of Kevag, EVM and Gasversorgung Westerwald? In: Rhein-Zeitung from July 1, 2014, section Koblenz / Region
Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 28 ″ N , 7 ° 35 ′ 5 ″ E