Lufthansa Airport Express
The Lufthansa Airport Express (short LHA ) was from 1982 to 1993 by the airline Lufthansa used train type of long-distance passenger traffic . It served as a replacement for short-haul flights on the connections from Düsseldorf and Stuttgart to Frankfurt am Main Airport .
Conception
The Lufthansa Airport Express was set up at the request of the German Ministry of Transport .
The main aim of the concept was to free up airport capacities for long-haul flights by relocating short-haul flights up to 300 kilometers away while at the same time protecting the environment.
Although the equipment and design of the trains were more in line with Lufthansa Business Class standards - only former 1st class vehicles were used - LHA passengers only had to pay the cheaper economy fare . The trains ran under both a train number and a Lufthansa flight number , and the luggage was checked straight through to the connecting flights . The Lufthansa Airport Express was only allowed to be used with flight tickets , whereby - as with air traffic - there was a feeder agreement with Condor Flugdienst and passengers from other airlines could also use the trains in the course of the interlining .
The trains replaced around 3,000 short-haul flights each year. In the last year of operation alone, 1992, 270,000 passengers used the trains. In direct reference to the LHA, the advertising slogan travel at flight level zero has also become a winged word for fast and comfortable train connections.
Train drivers and train drivers were provided by DB, the service staff by Lufthansa.
history
First connection from Düsseldorf to Frankfurt
From March 28, 1982 the electric multiple units of the 403 series received new honors as the Lufthansa Airport Express; from then on they drove on behalf of and painted by Lufthansa. The trains ran four times a day in each direction between Düsseldorf Central Station and Frankfurt am Main Airport , which required two round trips. There were intermediate stops in Cologne-Deutz , Cologne Central Station and Bonn Central Station . Operationally, they were classified as Trans Europ Express (TEE) until the summer of 1987, when the TEE train type finally disappeared from German rail traffic (regular TEE trains last ran in 1984):
- TEE 61/62 (from summer 1986: TEE 1001/1002) = LH 1001/1002
- TEE 63/64 (from summer 1986: TEE 1003/1004) = LH 1003/1004
- TEE 65/66 (from summer 1986: TEE 1005/1006) = LH 1005/1006
- TEE 67/68 (from summer 1986: TEE 1007/1008) = LH 1007/1008
After one year of operation, the continued operation of the trains was jeopardized on April 1, 1983 after the Federal Railroad wanted to increase the annual rent invoiced to Lufthansa for the trains from eight to eleven million Deutschmarks per year on this date. According to DB, the previous price barely covered the cost.
On March 27, 1983, the connection was extended to Düsseldorf Airport , with four daily train pairs over the entire route. From now on, the new terminus was the underground Düsseldorf Airport Station, and the Düsseldorf Central Station became an intermediate stop. At the end of 1983, the Federal Railroad and Lufthansa extended the cooperation for another two years until spring 1986.
A total of 171 seats were available per unit; after a renovation in 1988, the capacity was reduced to 151 seats. The average capacity utilization of the trains in the first three weeks in October 1983 was 80 passengers per train, compared to 30 passengers per train in the same period of the previous year. For Lufthansa to operate efficiently, 30 to 35 per day are sufficient. The punctuality at the destination station was around 90 percent in the first 18 months of operation. The LHA was particularly popular with travelers from overseas, who particularly appreciated the scenic drive on the left-hand Rhine route , whereby the Mainz Hauptbahnhof bottleneck and the two tunnels were partially bypassed by using the Mainz bypass.
In 1988, around 235,000 passengers boarded and disembarked the Lufthansa Airport Express at Frankfurt Airport Station.
Second connection from Stuttgart to Frankfurt
In the absence of other suitable multiple units, conventional car trains were used for the second route of the Lufthansa Airport Express; they consisted of a class 111 locomotive and three compartment cars of the Eurofima design (type Avmz 207). These wagons were around ten years old at the time and had previously been used as 1st class wagons in intercity trains operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn. The new connection was operated with a set, for this purpose, in addition to the locomotive (111 049-3), a total of four cars (three for the scheduled set and one as a reserve car) were repainted in the Lufthansa colors. In addition, the four cars in the Krefeld-Oppum repair shop were converted for the new purpose, with the two outer compartments of the previous nine being removed and replaced by a galley and a luggage compartment. After the renovation, each of the four cars only had 42 seats (previously 54) distributed over seven six-person compartments. The entire train thus offered a total of 126 passengers, and there was no differentiation between booking classes or car classes on the southern route.
The maximum speed of the locomotive-hauled Lufthansa Airport Express was 160 km / h (due to the 111 series locomotive used), but a higher speed was not necessary for this connection in view of the Mannheim – Stuttgart high-speed route, which was not yet opened at the time . Initially, two pairs of trains were offered a day, the journey time was two hours. In contrast to the north route, there were no intermediate stops on the south route.
The LHA connection Stuttgart – Frankfurt Airport, which was introduced in May 1990, also met with high demand, so the decision was made to expand the timetable offer when the high-speed line Mannheim – Stuttgart went into operation in June 1991 from two to a total of four daily train pairs. In particular, the shortened travel times to just 90 minutes should trigger a further boost in attractiveness for this second route of the Lufthansa Airport Express. In addition, it was still possible to drive the four train journeys in each direction with just one train set.
However, due to the higher speed and the pressure problems in the numerous tunnels of the new line, the previous vehicles could no longer be used. For this reason, new rolling stock from the inventory of the Deutsche Bundesbahn was adapted, the class 111 locomotive was replaced by a faster machine from the 103 series (200 km / h instead of only 160 km / h previously), the 103 101-2 was converted to the The Lufthansa colors were repainted, the cars previously used were returned to their original condition and returned to regular intercity service.
Intercity compartment cars of the Eurofima design were converted for the new train from June 1991, but this time three cars of the Avmz 107 class, which had previously been pressure-proof for intercity service on new lines. However, their renovation was much more extensive than the 1989 models. The two outer compartments were again given up in favor of a luggage compartment and a galley, but the compartment structure of the donor trolley was also loosened up a little by wall openings. The result was a mixture of compartment cars and open -plan cars with two so-called large compartments (one with 15 and one with 10 seats) and two classic compartments, which however only had five seats. The three cars converted in this way were now called the Avmz 106 and from then on only had 35 seats (compared to 54 for the donor car). New seats were used, which largely corresponded to those of the first ICE generation . In addition to the three compartment cars, four 2nd class open seating cars of the pressure-proof type Bpmz 293.2 were converted for the Lufthansa Airport Express, they now offered space for 39 passengers and were designated as Bpmz 296.
As a rule, the trains were driven with one Avmz and two Bpmz. Since the turnaround time in Stuttgart was very short and it was not possible to supply the cars, the sets in the station were replaced. The arriving train pulled up to the cars that were already waiting on the track. While the locomotive was being coupled to this new set, the arriving train was withdrawn so that the track was free for the exit.
The expansion of the service, which took place in 1991, was successful, around 11,000 travelers were transported monthly. The travel time from Stuttgart to Frankfurt Airport was shortened again for the 1992 summer timetable, from 90 to 85 minutes.
Cessation of operations
However, due to corrosion damage to the vehicles on the Düsseldorf – Frankfurt route and the increasing competition from the Intercity Express service of the Deutsche Bundesbahn on the Stuttgart – Frankfurt route, Lufthansa pulled away again in the first half of the 1990s after almost ten years Rail transport sector back.
Despite lower operating costs (than comparable short-haul flights) and high passenger numbers, the Lufthansa Airport Express was discontinued on May 23, 1993. Another reason for the discontinuation is that the trains appeared at the back of the travel agencies' reservation systems, which were tailored to short travel times, making sales more difficult. At the same time, the offer was in competition with the later introduced Rail & Fly , which, with its faster intervals and many more destinations, offered much greater flexibility than the Airport Express trains, which run to two destinations four times a day.
Vehicle use
| model series | Start of use | End of mission |
|---|---|---|
| 403 | March 1982 | May 1993 |
| 111 049 | May 1990 | October 1991 |
| Avmz 206 | May 1990 | October 1991 |
| 103 101 | May 1991 | May 1993 |
| Avmz 106 & Bpmz 296 | May 1991 | May 1993 |
Succession
In place of the Airport Express trains, special first-class contingents were initially used on board EuroCity or Intercity trains that ran via Frankfurt Airport. As a follow-up project, Lufthansa has been holding special seats in regular ICE trains between Cologne, Frankfurt and Stuttgart since 1993 and to this day; this cooperation with Deutsche Bahn AG is marketed under the name AIRail and is based on the code- sharing principle.
On the Frankfurt – Stuttgart route, the previous trains continued to run under DB management and the name Airport Express , with an extended turnaround time in Stuttgart, so that a set of four cars was sufficient. In 1995 the offer was reduced to two pairs of trains and discontinued entirely in October 1995.
The cars on the second connection were converted for the tourist train in the mid-1990s and are now used again in intercity trains.
Others
At Frankfurt Airport, the trains ran from today's regional train station . The airport train station was specially designated as Terminal E and included in the signposts in the airport area. With the abandonment of operations, this terminal designation was dropped; today, E designates one of the two areas in Terminal 2.
Web links
- Documentation on www.drehscheibe-online.de by Rolf Köstner: The multiple units of the ET 403 series as LH-Express , The LH-Airport-Express - Part 1 - 111 049 and Avmz 206 between Frankfurt and Stuttgart and The LH-Airport-Express - Part 2 - 103 101 and Avmz / Bpmz between Frankfurt and Stuttgart
- Information on the Lufthansa Airport Express at http://berlin.bahninfo.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Wilhelm Bender : The connection of the Frankfurt airport to the railway network . In: Railways in the Frankfurt RheinMain region , Hestra-Verlag, Darmstadt, 2002, ISBN 3-7771-0304-7 , p. 152 f.
- ↑ Without a source
- ↑ Josef Mauerer: Last flight altitude zero. In: railway magazine . No. 3 , 2018, ISSN 0342-1902 , p. 60 .
- ↑ Report Airport Express is rolling towards the siding . In: Die Welt , November 11, 1982
- ^ Announcement Lufthansa-Airport-Express turns 1 year old . In: Railway technical review . 32, No. 6, 1983, p. 371
- ↑ a b Report Lufthansa Airport Express runs for two more years . In: Railway technical review . 12, No. 12, 1983, p. 787.
- ↑ Without a source
- ↑ The ET 403 at www.hochsitzszuege.info
- ^ Gunter Pietsch: Connection of major airports to the rail network of the DB . In: The Federal Railroad . tape 65 , no. 11 , 1989, ISSN 0007-5876 , pp. 952-954 .
- ↑ Götz Gleitsmann: The InterCity cars of the DB (part 2) . Railway Illustrated 04/1993. Schünemann publishing house.
- ↑ Josef Mauerer: Last flight altitude zero. In: railway magazine . No. 3 , 2018, ISSN 0342-1902 , p. 63-64 .
- ↑ Josef Mauerer: Last flight altitude zero. In: railway magazine . No. 3 , 2018, ISSN 0342-1902 , p. 64 .