Locomore
Locomore (abbreviation: LOC ) was the brand name of a long-distance train on the Berlin - Stuttgart route ; The train has been marketed under the Flixtrain brand since April 2018 .
Originally, the railway company (EVU) Locomore GmbH & Co. KG, based in Berlin , started operations on this route in December 2016. The company filed for bankruptcy in May 2017 and ceased operations. On August 24, 2017, the Czech railway company Leo Express resumed operations , which had taken over the necessary assets from the bankruptcy in partnership with the long-distance bus company Flixmobility, which is responsible for sales .
The Locomore long-distance train until May 12, 2017
positioning
The Locomore drove mainly on high-speed lines and there with 200 km / h. Despite the travel speed comparable to the Intercity , the train was to be seen more as a competitor to the long-distance bus than to the long-distance trains of the Deutsche Bahn, according to the passenger association Pro Bahn . With a matching customer concept, the Locomore should, among other things, achieve something similar to that of the long-distance bus, which opened up new groups of customers who previously did not use public (long-distance) transport, but traveled by car or via car sharing agencies .
According to its own admission, Locomore operated as a small provider against long-distance buses as well as against Deutsche Bahn as a quasi-monopoly in German long-distance passenger transport - as far as possible with a long-distance bus price level on the rails and combined this with good service on site . That should be combined with a speed and comfort that would not be possible with the long-distance bus. As one of the possible target groups, Locomore named ecologically minded, price-conscious people who are open to innovations, for example students and young families. The long-distance train deliberately served university towns.
In the modernized Locomore wagons there were free internet connections via WLAN and sockets at the seat, as well as several bicycle and stroller spaces. There were also themed compartments for travelers with the same interests and compartments for families with children. The service included cold and warm drinks as well as small dishes such as B. Salads and sandwiches. These were preferably organic products and those from fair trade . The Locomore drove exclusively with green electricity .
Tickets
Tickets were available online (directly and via some long-distance bus portals), by phone or on the train. Due to competition from the private sector, there was no cooperation with Deutsche Bahn sales outlets and booking systems, similar to the Hamburg-Cologne Express , the Thalys and the former InterConnex .
Bookings were made using a ticket system known from airlines and Thalys : Early bookers received lower prices and could choose between several service classes, each ticket was booked by name and contained a reservation. Children up to the age of 14 could travel for free; However, the free transport of severely disabled people was excluded, but if they had to be accompanied, this person traveled free of charge.
Locomore advertised that even the most expensive tickets for last - minute travelers, which can be bought on the train themselves, were cheaper for travelers than normal flex price tickets from Deutsche Bahn with a BahnCard 50 discount on the same route.
Ticket sales ceased on May 11, 2017.
line
The company signed a framework agreement with DB Netz for train paths that will run for five years until 2020. To this end, several schedule capacities have been reserved. A pair of trains on the reserved routes started running on December 14, 2016, and further connections should be added in spring 2018 at the earliest. According to the company, the focus was clearly on Berlin.
The pair of trains started on December 14, 2016 and drove from Stuttgart to Berlin-Lichtenberg in the morning and back again in the afternoon. The Locomore drove five days a week in each direction; In weeks with public holidays Locomore also offered seven connections in each direction, i.e. daily. The travel time from Stuttgart to Berlin Hauptbahnhof was six hours and 26 minutes (south direction) and six hours and 47 minutes (north direction).
The train formation (number and type of wagons used) resulted from the bookings made in advance and could vary greatly depending on the day of the week. Trains with up to twelve cars were possible on peak days with high passenger demand.
The train stopped en route in both directions in Vaihingen an der Enz , Heidelberg , Darmstadt , Frankfurt am Main Süd , Hanau , Fulda , Kassel , Göttingen , Hanover and Wolfsburg . While in Stuttgart there was only one stop at the main train station, in Berlin the stations Zoologischer Garten , Hauptbahnhof, Ostbahnhof and the terminus Lichtenberg were served. The Rhine-Main conurbation was a special feature. The locomore stopped here more often, which was also due to the appropriate morning and evening traffic times - these were suitable for commuters who only traveled there.
The capacity utilization of the trains was described as satisfactory after the first 100 days, only the section between Frankfurt and Stuttgart was rather weak.
vehicles
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Mainly eight passenger coaches of the type designations Bmz and Bbmvz, modernized for Locomore, were used . The cars are former type Bm 235 compartment cars, each with twelve compartments, which were used by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen until 2009 . Three modernization variants Bmz 1 (four cars), Bbmvz (two cars) and Bmz 3 (two cars) were created. Seven of these cars should be on the road during normal operation, and more on busy days. The owner of the passenger coaches is SRI Rail Invest GmbH .
During the modernization, all cars received sockets and WiFi routers for free WiFi . The four Bmz 1 cars are air-conditioned, so the windows cannot be opened. The cars Bbmvz and Bmz 3, on the other hand, are not air-conditioned, but can be heated and the windows (new translation windows that can be opened to a third) can be opened. Pressure waves in tunnels from oncoming ICE trains at 250 km / h are not a problem.
Otherwise, the cars differ in terms of equipment features:
- Bmz 1
- Car with open space and seven compartments. The newly built large seating consists of leather-covered seats, while the upholstered seats in the compartments have fabric covers. Part of the compartments and the open plan area contain folding tables of different lengths. The gap between the backrest of the upholstered seats and the headrest in the compartments of the original car was closed. The six seats in the compartments can be pulled out and pushed together. The compartments are air-conditioned, so the windows cannot be opened. One car has up to 78 bookable seats.
- Bmz 3
- Compartment car with twelve compartments with six seats each. The compartments and their seats and other features correspond to those of the Bmz 1. In contrast to the Bmz 1, however, the compartments can be heated individually and the windows can be opened. One car is equipped with 72 seats.
- Bbmvz
- Carriages with special functions (bicycles, prams, family compartments, children's play area, wheelchair spaces, catering, train attendants). The car is designed to be handicapped accessible and has a reduced number of normal seating compartments due to the special functions. These seating compartments and their seats as well as other features correspond to those of the Bmz 3 compartment car. The areas with the special functions are partly open seating landscapes. 31 seats could be booked in advance.
In addition to these eight wagons, there were six wagons (four of them from April 2017), which were rented from HEROS Rail Rent GmbH . The wagons are type Bimz 264 compartment wagons : Their use ended when the bankruptcy was announced in May 2017.
- Bimz
- Reinforcement wagons with the typical seating arrangements as known from the Interregio with high occupancy. These cars have not been rebuilt / modernized and have no WiFi or power sockets. The windows can be opened; the cars are not air-conditioned, but can of course be heated. One car has 60 seats.
All cars are approved for a top speed of 200 km / h. The locomotives and the train drivers are provided by the Swedish company Hector Rail , some of the train drivers come from Talgo Germany. As a locomotive, Hectorrail mainly uses its own 242.517 "Fitzgerald" of the Siemens ES64U2 type with a maximum speed of 230 km / h.
The Locomore long-distance train from August 24, 2017
Due to the fact that capacity utilization and sales were not increasing quickly enough, the original operator, Locomore GmbH & Co. KG, had to file for bankruptcy in May 2017 due to the low capital base available as a loss buffer. Due to the concept that convinced many customers and critics, however, soon after the insolvency report there were potential takeovers, which ultimately resulted in two final bidders. On August 16, 2017, Leo Express announced that it would resume its own commercial operation of the Locomore (at least temporarily using the old brand name) via its German subsidiary Leo Express GmbH on August 24, 2017. The former managing directors of Locomore took on business development tasks at Leo Express.
This was an asset deal without changes to the timetables or the vehicle material, but with changes and simplifications to the service concept. As before, when the Locomore was in operation, the train was moved by Hector Rail until May 2017 . Leo Express took over the eight locomore wagons with a new lease from SRI Rail Invest, which had already leased the wagons to Locomore. As a sales partner, Flixmobility took on marketing, sales and customer care, as well as pricing ( yield management ). Flixmobility wanted to enable its customers to use a combination of train and bus to get a quick connection to the cities approached; specifically, buses were to be used as feeders to the Locomore train. Reservations were no longer possible through the new sales partner, the conditions of carriage (e.g. tariffs for small children) were the same as those of Flixmobility for long-distance bus operations under the Flixbus brand . They differed from those of the old Locomore, which operated until May 12, 2017 .
Since December 2017, Berlin Ostkreuz , Weinheim (Bergstrasse) , Hanover Messe / Laatzen (instead of Hanover main station ) and Lehrte have also been served. Leo Express continued to run only four days a week in each direction (from Berlin to Stuttgart: Thursdays to Sundays; from Stuttgart to Berlin: Fridays to Mondays; plus individual public holidays).
Marketing of the connection under the Locomore brand was discontinued in April 2018. Since then, the train has been running under the Flixtrain brand.
Locomore GmbH & Co. KG
| Locomore GmbH & Co. KG | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Basic information | |
| Company headquarters | Berlin , Germany |
| Web presence | www.locomore.eu |
| Reference year | 2017 |
| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | July 25, 2007 |
| resolution | August 9, 2017 |
| Managing directors | Derek Ladewig |
history
The locomore GmbH & Co. KG , whose partner was the Railway Management GmbH, was founded in 2007 and as locomore rail GmbH Co. KG by Derek Ladewig based in Berlin-Kreuzberg founded to develop its own passenger trains new mobility services in Germany. At the end of 2016, after many years of preparation, the company was on the rails for the first time with its own long-distance train, a train of the same name.
The majority of the company shares were held by the management board member Derek Ladewig (61.5%) and the employees (16%). In 2009, the company took a 17.5% stake in the newly founded Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH (HKX), which launched in 2012 as a private competitor of Deutsche Bahn with the HKX between these two cities. Because of different strategic views with the US HKX majority investor Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), Locomore and HKX parted ways at the end of 2012. Part of the HKX team switched to Locomore, and Locomore gave its shares in HKX to December 31, 2012 onwards. Locomore then concentrated on introducing its own privately operated long-distance train.
The introduction of operations between Berlin and Stuttgart was planned for September 2016 at the end of 2015. If it was successful, a line between Stuttgart and Munich (via Ulm and Augsburg) was also planned from 2017. The owner of the Locomore passenger coaches, SRI Rail Invest GmbH , initially modernized eight Bmz coaches in the Grivita repair shop in Bucharest . The preliminary planning required longer than the originally planned period of one year.
On December 14, 2016, Locomore started passenger train operations with only some of the eight modernized Bmz cars originally planned, which were therefore permanently in operation and were supplemented by rented Bimz cars. The remaining Bmz cars were still at Grivita for modernization at the time. According to the company, more than 25,000 passengers used the train in the first four weeks. On January 17, 2017, following technical problems with the wagons in operation and to improve the quality of travel, the company announced that it would have the train serviced two days a week between January 23 and April 6, 2017 and four days per direction (from Berlin towards Stuttgart: Thursday to Sunday; from Stuttgart towards Berlin: Friday to Monday).
On March 10, 2017, Locomore announced that in addition to the five in operation, three further modernized passenger wagons had arrived from the Grivita repair shop, so that all of the eight Locomore wagons originally intended for use were available for operation. The additional passenger coaches were to be used primarily on the weekend days that are in high demand. At the beginning of April Locomore was able to increase the fleet to 14 cars. From April 6, 2017, Locomore drove five days a week in each direction and thus one day more often than before since January. In weeks with public holidays, Locomore also ran seven connections in each direction and thus daily.
On May 11, 2017, the company filed for bankruptcy at the Charlottenburg district court . It was not possible to continue driving operations without a new investor. Locomore pointed out that no cancellation is possible for tickets that have already been booked and referred to the possibility of asserting claims in the context of insolvency proceedings. The search for investors was ongoing until the start of the insolvency proceedings on August 1, 2017. Immediately after filing for insolvency, twelve interested parties reported to the Locomore company with the insolvency administrator. Of these, five potential investors remained until May 29, 2017, who expressed a “specific” interest in Locomore, at least one of them (Leo Express) submitted a takeover offer. As of June 26, 2017, there were still two "very serious interested parties" left who promised financing for the "sustainable" resumption of Locomore's business operations using different strategies. The insolvency administrator initially regarded the chances of resuming business operations as "not bad". According to the insolvency administrator, however, the interested investors were then not granted the right to use the route .
With the opening of insolvency proceedings, the last 30 employees were dismissed and Locomore's presence on the social networks Facebook and Twitter was taken offline. The GmbH & Co. KG for August 9, 2017 from the insolvency proceedings resolved , it was published on August 14, 2017 Commercial Register.
Shareholders and executives
- 61.5% Derek Ladewig
- 16.0% due to five company employees
- 22.5% through silent partners
Other employees were Max Sigg (Marketing), Daniel Bertholdt (Business Development, Transactions) and Jan Christopher Witt (Operations)
financing
The financing was provided by the shareholders of Locomore and, since June 2015, by crowdfunding via the Startnext platform . Private individuals were able to use subordinated loans to provide the company with money that was invested in the company. On January 26, 2016, the company announced that it had reached the minimum capital required to start operations. The financing instrument continued to be used. So Locomore was able to collect an amount of 577,761 euros by June 29, 2016, and by March 22, 2017 this amount increased to 906,621 euros. On March 7, 2017 Locomore started a new financing round via crowdfunding. Depending on the amount paid in, Locomore offered an interest rate of up to 4.3 percent per year. As an alternative to interest in cash, ticket vouchers could also be used.
The collected capital was enough for the Locomore connections to go into operation. In addition to crowdfunding, the offer was financed by income from ongoing ticket sales and income from catering on board the long-distance train.
After the company filed for bankruptcy on May 11, 2017, crowdfunding was discontinued. The insolvency administrator was critical of the form of financing: In the very capital-intensive rail business, crowdfunding was not sustainable financing of an access offer, and Locomore's equity base was too thin. In order to be able to evaluate the viability of such an offer as the one from Locomore, sustainable financing over three to five years would have made sense. The approximately 70,000 travelers in the first few months were already a signal that the Locomore business idea could be viable.
economics
The Locomore company bore the economic risk in operating the long-distance train "Locomore" on its own. Part of the economic risk was also borne by the owner and lessor of the modernized Locomore passenger coaches, SRI Rail Invest GmbH . Also, the involved Heros Rail Rent GmbH as the lessor of supplementary coaches used by locomore claims to a certain share of the economic risk by the company locomore his car after the unusual on the market rental model pay-by-use made permanently available.
The operating costs of the Locomore long-distance train between Berlin and Stuttgart varied depending on the day and the existing boundary conditions (such as wagon usage) and could be up to 30,000 euros per operating day. This also included fixed costs that were incurred on days when the long-distance train was not running. The operating costs consist, among other things, of train path and station costs, personnel costs , fees for the operation of the train by Hector Rail , electricity costs and maintenance costs.
Part of the economic losses that had accrued up to April 2017 already accumulated in the Christmas and New Year's traffic, which is usually very travel-intensive and high-turnover, as the Locomore company was initially only able to operate its own long-distance train with four of its own wagons, the other four were still being modernized in Romania. With four carriages (which were in use every day without a break, despite defects), only about 240 seats could be reserved, which means that even if the train was fully booked (for example, all trips to Berlin until New Year 2017 were already booked on Christmas 2016) 1000 ticket sales per day required to break even could be achieved (negative contribution margin ).
The company was also surprised by the asymmetry of the number of passengers, with very heavy weekends (despite two additional reinforcement cars with barely sufficient fleet), while the trips in the middle of the week received very little response and did not allow for any economically viable operation. Locomore tried to solve this problem by ceasing operations in the middle of the week and by increasing the fleet of cars from originally eight to fourteen in April 2017 for weekend and holiday operations.
Due to the shutdown of operations in the middle of the week, it was hardly possible for the company to sensibly address and build up a group of customers that was also important for Locomore: Commuters and thus stable paying regular customers with up to ten guaranteed trips per working week (frequent travelers). In particular in the Hessian area, which is important for this and which is timed appropriately in the timetable (with a relatively high number of served train stations), morning and evening inland traffic is weak. Despite the unfavorable general conditions, the company continued to try to attract regular customers in the southern Hessian region. The so-called “5-ticket south-west” was offered for this purpose.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ FAZ.net May 11, 2017
- ↑ a b Application for insolvency: Statement from Locomore ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2017 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. In: Locomore.com on May 11, 2017, accessed on May 11, 2017.
- ↑ Start-up wants to overtake the railway with just one train. In: Handelsblatt.de, date November 13, 2016, accessed April 7, 2017.
- ↑ a b "We are often faster than our timetable" - an interview with Locomore boss Ladewig. In: Allianz Pro Schiene dated February 2, 2017, accessed on April 10, 2017.
- ↑ Locomore starts on the Stuttgart – Berlin route. In: spiegel.de , Spiegel Online , November 3, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ↑ Orange Revolution In: taz.de of December 13, 2016, accessed on April 12, 2017.
- ↑ Stefan Mayr: Zug dwarf challenges Deutsche Bahn. In: sueddeutsche.de , Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 14, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ↑ Locomore - really better than the train? In: swr.de , Südwestrundfunk , December 14, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ↑ a b FAQ. ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2016 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. In: locomore.de , accessed on July 12, 2016.
- ↑ Locomore runs on 100% green electricity. ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2016 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. Press release Naturstrom AG. In: naturstrom.de , accessed on December 8, 2016.
- ^ A b Sara Vogt: Rail threatens competition in long-distance transport . In: Südwest Presse . December 10, 2015, ZDB -ID 1360527-6 , p. 6 ( online ).
- ↑ Stretch. In: locomore.com , accessed January 15, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e f Locomore operating update and balance sheet April 6, 2017. ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2017 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. In: locomore.com , accessed April 7, 2017.
- ↑ Train connection Berlin-Rügen from 2018 at the earliest. In: ndr.de , accessed on April 7, 2017.
- ↑ a b Long-distance train company Locomore wants to be in the black soon. In: Yahoo News (AFP) April 6, 2017, accessed April 9, 2017.
- ↑ Competition for Deutsche Bahn - Locomore starts between Stuttgart and Berlin. In: rp-online.de , Rheinische Post , December 13, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ↑ Timetable 2016. ( Memento of the original dated June 12, 2016 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. In: locomore.com , accessed December 23, 2016.
- ↑ a b Locomore runs daily again from Friday. In: Mannheimer Morgen , accessed on April 7, 2017.
- ↑ a b SRI hands over Intercity car to Locomore In: sri-rail-invest.de , December 20, 2016, accessed on March 14, 2017.
- ↑ Locomore starts with nine cars between Stuttgart and Berlin. In: eurailpress.de , September 23, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ↑ Locomore Passenger Car Bmz. ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2016 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. In: InnoTrans .de , accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ↑ Rail competitor Locomore - the train with the retro feel. In: faz.net , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 15, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ^ Locomore Rail Challenge - An early train. In: Handelsblatt .de , December 15, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ↑ a b HEROS passenger coaches in permanent use at Locomore. In: heros-rail.com from February 27, 2017, accessed on April 8, 2017.
- ↑ Hector Rail locomotive class 242. ( Memento of the original from July 5, 2016 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. Usually a Siemens ES64U2 with the serial number 242.517 and the proper name Fitzgerald was used as the locomotive . In: hectorrail.com , accessed on December 23, 2016 (PDF; 1.6 MiB).
- ^ A b Leo Express: New connection from Stuttgart to Berlin . In: train travel blog . August 16, 2017 ( zugreiseblog.de [accessed August 16, 2017]).
- ↑ Czech rail operator Leo finalizes rescue mission for German challenger Locomore. Politico, August 15, 2017, accessed August 16, 2017 .
- ↑ a b FAQ - How next. August 16, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
- ↑ 2. CHANCE for long-distance train Stuttgart-Berlin. August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 25, 2017 .
- ↑ Flixbus and Locomore forge a pact against the railway. August 16, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
- ^ Long- distance train from Stuttgart to Berlin. Around 70,000 Locomore tickets sold. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . December 1, 2017, accessed December 1, 2017 .
- ↑ About Locomore. Locomore GmbH & Co. KG, 2016, accessed on January 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Locomore temporarily drives less. In: stuttgarter-nachrichten.de. January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017 .
- ↑ Finally the time has come: three more Locomore cars have arrived. Facebook, March 10, 2017, accessed March 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Railway competitor files for bankruptcy. In: zeit.de
- ↑ FAQ - Bankruptcy. Retrieved May 13, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d Talks with investors are currently in the "hot" phase , in: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung (online) from June 27, 2017, accessed on June 27, 2017
- ↑ Five investors have a specific interest in Locomore , in: AFP / Yahoo Finance from May 29, 2017, accessed on May 29, 2017
- ↑ Leo Express is interested in Locomore in: handelsblatt (online) from May 28, 2017, accessed on May 29, 2017
- ↑ Train traffic at Locomore remains interrupted until the middle of July ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Donaukurier (online) from June 26, 2017, accessed on June 27, 2017
- ^ Business operations ceased , in: SWR.de from August 2, 2017, accessed on August 2, 2017.
- ↑ Private railway is to run from Berlin to Stuttgart for 22 euros. In: morgenpost.de , Berliner Morgenpost , January 27, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016.
- ^ Status of crowdfunding. ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2016 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. In: locomore.com , accessed April 10, 2017.
- ↑ Schwabenexpress is looking for guests In: taz.de from April 6, 2017, accessed on April 10, 2017.
- ↑ Seats still available from December 26-31 , 2016 in many sections ( memento of the original from May 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: locomore.com from December 18, 2016 (with updates from December 27, 2016), accessed on April 12, 2017.
- ↑ Pierre Daniel Bertholdt: New business models for long-distance passenger rail transport based on the platform concept, Freie Universität Berlin 2018
- ↑ Locomore is fighting with a series of breakdowns "If it doesn't work, it's not up to you" In: Hessenschau from January 18, 2017, accessed on April 10, 2017.
