Meridian (brand)

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Meridian logo
Railcar ET325 in Munich East

Meridian was a brand for a local transport offer of the Bayerische Oberlandbahn GmbH (BOB) belonging to Transdev . From the end of 2013 to 2020 train connections from Munich to Salzburg , Rosenheim , Kufstein and Holzkirchen were operated under this name . Since 2020 the trains have been running in the Chiemgau-Inntal network under the brand name Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB).

background

First Meridian logo (2013-2015)

On April 15, 2010, the Bavarian Railway Company (BEG) announced the tender for the "E-Netz Rosenheim". On December 9, 2010, the former Veolia Verkehr (today Transdev GmbH ) was awarded the contract for an initial 12 years from December 15, 2013 and thus dissolved the previous operator DB Regio Bayern (under the brand name Munich-Salzburg- Express ). The traffic is carried out by the Transdev subsidiary Bayerische Oberlandbahn GmbH. The traffic abbreviation of the Meridian reads on the letter M. The operational train type for DB Netz AG is DPN in passenger service.

On September 19, 2013, one of the six-part electric multiple units of the FLIRT vehicle family was presented for the first time at Rosenheim train station.

business

The operation under the name Meridian comprised the following routes:

Trains run every hour between Munich Central Station and Salzburg Central Station . Overall, the journey takes around two hours on the entire route. Only six-part trains are used on this route, mostly in double traction, occasionally as single multiple units. On weekdays the trains run in busy times as a triple unit to Rosenheim station , but sometimes also to Salzburg. In the rush hour , four pairs of trains run between Munich and Traunstein as repeater trips . Almost all trains run between Munich East and Rosenheim without stopping and serve all intermediate stations from Rosenheim, but there is a transfer option in Rosenheim to the trains Munich – Kufstein, which stop everywhere. At the end of the day, the Salzburger runs coupled with the Kufsteiner train between Munich and Rosenheim and stops at all train stations.

Trains run every hour between Munich and Kufstein , serving all intermediate stops between Grafing Bahnhof and Rosenheim. The connection is usually made with a single six-part Flirt 3 . In the rush hour, double tractions are also used, with the rear part of the train usually only going to Rosenheim. The journey takes about 90 minutes. In the morning and evening hours, the trains are coupled in Rosenheim as described above, the first and last 3 trains start and end in Rosenheim.

ET355 railcar on the Munich – Holzkirchen railway line

On the former S 27 between Munich and Deisenhofen , trains run every half hour from Monday to Friday. There is an hourly service on the Mangfall Valley Railway from Holzkirchen to Rosenheim. During rush hour, the Munich – Deisenhofen trains are extended every hour via Holzkirchen to Rosenheim, which means that the Mangfall Valley Railway runs every half hour. Three- and six-car trains are used on the route. The journey takes about 90 minutes on the entire route from Munich via Holzkirchen to Rosenheim.

During rush hour and on school days, individual additional trains run, for example from Prien am Chiemsee via Rosenheim to Holzkirchen and between Holzkirchen and Kufstein.

In the clock node Rosenheim the trains arrive on the half hour in the ten minute period from Munich, Salzburg, Kufstein, wooden churches and Wasserburg ( SüdostBayernBahn on), thereby ensuring in the ordinary operation in all directions connections.

For the maintenance and repair of the Meridian trains, capacities were created in the railway operations workshop of KSI GmbH & Co. KG (Competence Center for Rail Vehicle Maintenance) in Augsburg in 2016. KSI GmbH & Co. KG operates a railway depot on Firnhaberstraße southeast of Augsburg main station, in which the trains of the sister company Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB) have been serviced and cleaned since April 2012 .

In the area of ​​the Chiemgau-Inntal network, Transdev operates five customer centers in Bad Endorf, Holzkirchen, Munich Hbf, Rosenheim and Übersee. 

On April 9, 2020 it was announced that the brands BRB, BOB and Meridian would be merged. Since June 2020, the E-Netz Rosenheim, previously called the Meridian Network, has been operated as the Chiemgau-Inntal network under the name Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB).

vehicles

Stadler Flirt 3

2nd class area of ​​a Flirt 3 from Meridian
1st class area of ​​a Flirt 3 from Meridian, there is an information display in the entrance area

For the Rosenheim E-Netz, Veolia ordered a total of 35 Flirt 3 electric multiple units with a value of 200 million euros from Stadler . Seven multiple units are in three parts (cars 351–357) and have 158 seats, the other 28 multiple units are six-part (cars 301–328) and have 333 seats. In the peaks of traffic, triple trains are to run, which then have 999 seats. The first multiple unit completed test drives on the Velim Railway Test Ring from April 2013 .

By the beginning of May 2014, most of the 35 Meridian railcars were operational. They are used regularly on the corresponding routes. All trains have been in use since the end of June 2014, so there is also a direct connection to Munich on the Mangfall Valley Railway. The 35 multiple units were sold on July 31, 2014 for around € 200 million by the parent company Veolia to the leasing company Alpha Trains and leased back.

The electric multiple units of the FLIRT vehicle family, which the Meridian uses, come from the manufacturer Stadler in Berlin-Pankow. The maximum speed of the trains is 160 km / h, the equipment includes a multi-purpose area and a 1st class area. The fleet comprises 28 six-part multiple units with a length of 107 m and 333 seats, as well as seven three-part multiple units with a length of 59 m and 158 seats, whereby individual multiple units can be combined to multiple units with up to 999 seats and a total length of 321 m can.

In the past, Meridian has repeatedly been criticized for technical defects on these trains. That is why an additional "maintenance point" was set up in Munich-Freimann. Repairs should be possible there faster, because in the past the Meridian trains first had to be driven to Regensburg, where the company operated a workshop. Since August 2016, the Meridian trains have been maintained in Augsburg and work on demand such as maintenance, cleaning, adding supplies and repairs has been carried out. The Meridian workshop is located in the immediate vicinity of the depot of the sister company Bayerische Regiobahn GmbH . The background to this is a series of incidents in the recent past. At the beginning of February 2016, the Bavarian Oberlandbahn announced that ten of the 35 trains were not operational due to various technical faults. After various measures, the trains were back on the rails a short time later.

The multiple units 325 and 355 were no longer operational after the railway accident in Bad Aibling . At the end of 2017, they were replaced by two identical trains that have been in service since January 2, 2018.

Replacement concept in the early days

Class 111 with n-wagons as a Meridian replacement train

According to media reports, the preparations for operation were difficult. At the start of December 15, 2013, Meridian only had 15 of the 35 train sets ordered because the manufacturer had not received the necessary approvals from the Federal Railway Authority on time. Veolia did not accept six of these 15 trains from the manufacturer Stadler due to many defects, some of which were safety-related. Of the nine Flirts delivered, four were out of service as of December 16 due to damage to the electronics, problems with the brake control and damage to the pantograph caused by operating errors.

A replacement concept based on the delivered and approved 15 sets was developed: Instead of the multiple traction-capable locomotives that were still missing at the start of operations, eight rented push-pull train sets were used. These include the class 111 locomotives with n-wagons from DB Regio, which were previously used on the Munich – Salzburg and Munich – Kufstein routes, as well as city ​​shuttle inland wagons from ÖBB , a double-decker shuttle train from Metronom and a double-decker multiple unit from Type Stadler KISS from ODEG . On the Mangfall Valley Railway came DMUs of type Desiro the Vogtlandbahn and type talent of Ostseelandverkehr and at times a EMUs of type Coradia Continental the NordWestBahn used. The former S 27 between Munich and Deisenhofen was EMUs of 423 series of the Munich S-Bahn operated.

Railway accident in Bad Aibling on February 9, 2016

On February 9, 2016 came up 6:50 on the railway line Holzkirchen Rosenheim at the level Bad Aibling two a clash Meridian trains. 12 people died, 89 were injured, including 26 seriously injured. The train drivers of both locomotives are among the dead.

The cause of the accident was found to be human error on the part of the responsible DB dispatcher, who provoked a collision between the two locomotives by setting the wrong signal. 

As a temporary replacement for the two railcars involved in the accident, a class 460 railcar of the Mittelrheinbahn was in use on the Munich – Deisenhofen line until mid-March 2016 , in order to bridge the resulting shortage. After the deadline, it was returned and replaced by two Coradia Continental multiple units from the Mitteldeutsche Regiobahn . In May 2016, National Express also provided a push-pull train set with old Reich and Bundesbahn cars, which remained in use until December 2017. The two replicated, identical Meridian train sets from Stadler have been in use since January 2, 2018. The replacement set from National Express is still in use today.

Web links

Commons : Meridian FLIRT  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Press conference on September 19, 2013. In: www.der-meridian.de. Retrieved July 28, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Extension of the railway operations workshop of KSI GmbH & Co. KG in Augsburg - Government of Upper Bavaria issues planning approval decision. In: www.regierung.oberbayern.bayern.de. Retrieved November 12, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Stefan Krog: New railway workshop in operation from the Augsburger Allgemeine from November 28, 2016, accessed on November 28, 2016.
  4. ↑ https://bahnblogstelle.net/2016/11/29/neue-werkstatthalle-in-betrieb-meridian-zuege-haben-jetzt-in-augsburg-instand-halte/
  5. ↑ Customer center & ticket partner. In: brb.de. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Bayerische Oberlandbahn GmbH, Bayerische Regiobahn GmbH: Three become one: Meridian, BOB and BRB brands. April 9, 2020, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Bayerische Oberlandbahn GmbH, Bayerische Regiobahn GmbH: Three becomes one: Meridian and BOB also became BRB. In: brb.de. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Stadler Pankow GmbH: Flirt 3 ( memento from June 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 1, 2014
  9. ↑ FLIRT 3 on test . In: Railvolution . No. 2 , 2013, p. 10 .
  10. ↑ Vehicles: Flirt switch from Veolia to Alpha Trains, news from August 5, 2014
  11. ↑ The FLIRT - Meridian. In: www.der-meridian.de. Retrieved July 28, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Münchner Merkur : Crisis talk due to defective meridian trains , article from February 4, 2016
  13. ↑ Last-minute admission - Meridian: Now the train roulette begins. tz, December 13, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 .
  14. ↑ EBA: Free travel for the "flirt". ( Memento of December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) EBA, December 13, 2013 (press release).
  15. ↑ Tomorrow the timetable change comes. rosenheim24.de, December 14, 2013, accessed December 14, 2013 .
  16. ↑ ovb-online.de on January 28, 2014: Partly without stopping to Munich. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 29, 2014 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ovb-online.de
  17. ↑ sueddeutsche.de: Railway accident in Upper Bavaria - CSU cancels Political Ash Wednesday due to train accident , from the Süddeutsche Zeitung on February 9, 2016, accessed on February 9, 2016.
  18. ^ Collision near Bad Aibling - four dead in a train accident in Bavaria on tagesschau.de, from February 9, 2016, accessed on February 9, 2016.
  19. ↑ Tramreport.de: Mittelrheinbahn hilft Meridian , from February 22, 2016, accessed on February 23, 2016.
  20. ↑ Tramgeschichten.de: Colorful on the Mangfall Valley Railway , April 4, 2016, accessed on April 10, 2016.
  21. ↑ Tramreport.de: [1] , from May 10, 2016, accessed on May 15, 2016.