East Hanover Railways

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Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1944
Seat Celle , Germany
management Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Alexander Sterr; CEO: Jost Knebel; Board of Directors: Jan Behrendt
Number of employees 207 (as of 2017)
Branch Local rail, transport & logistics
Website www.ohe-ag.de

OHE 185 534 at the Ingolstadt freight center

The Osthannoversche Railways AG (OHE) is a majority-owned by Netinera befindliches railway company based in Celle .

As a railway infrastructure company , it has a 294-kilometer route network in north-eastern Lower Saxony , especially in the area of ​​the Lüneburg Heath . As a railway company (EVU), OHE carries out freight transports on its own routes and in the Deutsche Bahn network . The OHE's rail-based passenger traffic was gradually discontinued until 1977. Through its stake in the metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft , OHE has been indirectly involved in rail-based passenger transport since December 2003. Since December 2011, the OHE has been running its own local rail passenger transport on the Heidebahn and Uelzen – Bremen lines through its newly founded subsidiary Erixx GmbH .

history

Mergers

The OHE came into being in 1944 through the merger of several small railway companies in the northeastern Lower Saxony area. The establishment of a single railway company was not only economically motivated, but also strongly politically challenged. In the National Socialist German Reich , the network of the future OHE was located in the administrative district of Lüneburg , which belonged to the NSDAP -Gau East Hanover (congruent with the area of ​​the Reichstag constituency 15 , East Hanover) and also gave the company its name.

The Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG (OHE) in Celle emerged from the Kleinbahn Celle-Wittingen founded on June 21, 1902 , which was called Eisenbahn Celle-Wittingen AG from February 23, 1940 . This took over on March 27, 1944 the Kleinbahn Celle-Soltau, Celle-Munster , with which it was connected in the "operating group of Celler Kleinbahnen", and from then on ran the company Celler Eisenbahnen AG .

On July 10, 1944, the following railway companies were incorporated, for which the state small railway office of the province of Hanover had been in charge of operations from the early 1920s - for the two Winsener railways from 1933 :

At the same time, the

With this merger - especially in view of the difficult war situation - the efficiency and profitability of the small railways involved should be increased through a uniform line and joint operating resources. In 1944, the new company Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG owned a standard-gauge network of almost 340 kilometers. It was the most extensive of all non-federal railways for decades.

owner

When it was founded in 1944, the Prussian state and the province of Hanover were the main shareholders with a combined 53% stake. The districts of Celle, Fallingbostel, Gifhorn, Harburg (Winsen administration) and Lüneburg owned shares to varying degrees depending on the route sections there. The state of Braunschweig and the province of Saxony as well as the cities of Celle and Lüneburg along with a few smaller communities and a few private individuals should be mentioned with very low quotas. In the post-war period, the company was led by Dietrich Wersche .

Until the end of 2006, the OHE was state-owned - 40.2% of the state of Lower Saxony, 33.8% of the Federal Republic of Germany, 17.1% of districts, cities and municipalities from Lower Saxony and 8.9% of those that were also federally owned DB Regio AG . As a result of a privatization process initiated by the state of Lower Saxony in July 2006, the bidding consortium consisting of Arriva and Verkehrsbetriebe Bachstein received the bid for 30 million euros from the federal, state and DB Regio and later also those of the Harburg district and took over in March 2007 the approval of the parliaments, antitrust authorities and the VBL the majority of the shares. Arriva initially held 73.203% of the shares in OHE through Arriva Bachstein , which was founded on February 1, 2007 , of which Arriva Deutschland owns 86% and Verkehrsbetriebe Bachstein from Celle. After the purchase of Arriva Germany by Trenitalia , together with the financial investor Cube, Arriva Germany was renamed Netinera.

Shareholders:

Route network

The following routes form the main network:

route Length
km		 Surname category annotation
Celle - Soltau 58.9 Falkenbergbahn F1
Beckedorf - Munster 23.9 Örtzetalbahn Z2
Lueneburg South - Soltau 57.1 Mountain railway Z1
Lueneburg North - Bleckede 23.0 Geestrandbahn Z2 separated from the rest of the OHE network by the DB tracks
Winsen (Luhe) - Hützel 41.1 Luhebahn Z1
Winsen (Luhe) - March shaft 16.0 Elbmarschbahn Z2
Celle - Wittingen 51.0 Lachtalbahn Z1
without connection to the main network:
Wunstorf - Mesmerode 6.0 Z3 since 2000, formerly Steinhuder Meer-Bahn StMB
Overall network 291.2

Disused routes:

route Length
km		 Surname annotation
Soltau - Neuenkirchen 12.0 Closed down in 1996, partially dismantled in 2006, from May 2014 Neuenkirchener Draisinenbahn (section)
Beedenbostel - Mariaglück 5.6 Salt railway Shut down in 2005, dismantled
Marschacht - Niedermarschacht 1.1 Elbmarschbahn Decommissioned in 1996, dismantled
Wittingen - Oebisfelde 28.9 Ohretalbahn Rüben – Oebisfelde 1945, Radenbeck – Rorien 2004, Wittingen – Radenbeck 2016 closed
Celle - Wietzenbruch 4.3 Acquired by DB in 1998 , shut down in 2005, dismantled in 2006

In November 2005, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Labor and Transport granted the OHE the permanent cessation of traffic on the Ohretalbahn from route km 14.2 (Radenbeck). Minus the disused lines, the total length of the OHE lines at the beginning of 2009 is 291.2 km.

The infrastructure charging system in 2009 the OHE regulates access to its network to other utilities. It offers standard paths for traffic that begins or ends in its network. Newly added are cheaper thoroughfares for traffic that have their source and destination outside their network. This is primarily intended to promote seaport hinterland traffic.

Freight transport

Freight traffic played an important role in the past: In 2006, 1.4 million tons of wood, building materials, chemical products, fertilizers and also military equipment for the Munster and Bergen military training areas were transported on the company's own network . Since 2004, the OHE has been operating throughout Germany as an EVU, in 2006 it was able to transport 1.6 million tons (2005: 0.95 million tons), mainly in block train traffic .

In addition, the OHE also served freight traffic points in single wagon traffic on Deutsche Bahn routes of around 100 kilometers in length :

route length
Munster - Uelzen 34 km
Celle - Uelzen 53 km
Soltau - Visselhövede (- Langwedel) 18 (45) km
total 105 (132) km

These routes border on the OHE route network and were mostly served as a regional partner of DB. In the past, other routes were used which are now unprofitable or which are again operated by DB itself. The decline in traffic meant that 2011 and 2012 were among the worst in OHE history. Therefore, restructuring measures were carried out, which led to the separation of operations and the network and on September 1, 2012 to the establishment of the subsidiary OHE Cargo AG .

With the 2013/14 timetable change, the OHE completely stopped carrying out freight traffic on its route network. Since then, the operation of the loading points and connections has been ensured by DB Cargo . The withdrawal from rail freight transport that was initiated was completed at the beginning of October 2015 by the decision of the OHE Supervisory Board to dissolve OHE Cargo GmbH by the end of 2016 .

Since October 1, 2016, Havelländische Eisenbahn AG (HVLE) has taken over the remaining shunting services of OHE.

passenger traffic

The OHE owns the maintenance center for the trains of the metronom railway company

Former passenger traffic

Passenger traffic took on a significant volume , especially during the Second World War and in the following years. It retained its importance on some routes until the 1970s. This can be seen in the express train connections that u. a. served the Sunday excursion traffic. From the summer of 1977, there were no more OHE passenger trains in the timetable.

The shutdown dates of passenger traffic:

July 1, 1945 - Rieten - Oebisfelde
May 22, 1955 - Beedenbostel - Mariaglück (factory traffic remained until 1958)
May 28, 1961 - Soltau - Neuenkirchen
May 22, 1966 - Winsen - Niedermarschacht
May 31, 1970 - Hermannsburg - Munster (camp) and Salzhausen - Hützel
3rd June 1973 - Bleckede - Alt Garge
May 26, 1974 - Steinhorst - Wittingen and Wittingen - Rorien
5th July 1974 - Winsen - Salzhausen
June 1, 1975 - Bergen - Soltau
June 26, 1975 - Soltau - Hützel - Schwindebeck
May 30, 1976 - Celle North - Bergen and Beckedorf - Hermannsburg
June 23, 1976 - Celle North - Steinhorst
May 22, 1977 - Lüneburg - Bleckede and Lüneburg - Schwindebeck

As a replacement for rail traffic, OHE set up bus routes. As early as 1927/28, the management of the Celle Kleinbahnen took over the management of Kraftverkehr Celle-Stadt und Land GmbH (KVC); At that time, the company operated four bus routes with a total length of 87 km with six power buses . Today the OHE owns 61% of the shares. Over the years, OHE also had Verkehrsbetrieb Osthannover GmbH (VOG) as a wholly owned subsidiary, Verkehrsgesellschaft Landkreis Gifhorn (VLG) (25.2%) and the 60% stake in Kraftverkehr GmbH (KVG) in Stade who u. a. Serves urban and overland transport in the Lüneburg area.

Museum railway traffic

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verkehrsfreunde Lüneburg eV (AVL) offers journeys in historical vehicles on the OHE route network under the name " Heide-Express ".

Current passenger traffic

OHE has a stake in metronom through its subsidiary NiedersachsenBahn GmbH . In addition, OHE operates the Uelzen depot and maintains the metronom vehicles on behalf of Bombardier . Another depot is located in Celle and a repair shop in Bleckede .

The OHE won the tender for the Heide-Kreuz consisting of the Heidebahn and the Uelzen – Bremen railway line and started its operation in December 2011. The duration of the assignment is eight years. For this purpose, she founded the new subsidiary Heidekreuzbahn GmbH on April 18, 2011 , which was renamed Erixx GmbH a little later .

Management of other railways

From 1959, after the Lower Saxony State Railway Authority had been dissolved, the OHE ran a number of railway companies in the state of Lower Saxony for decades, namely:

It also operates the 15-kilometer Bomlitz – Walsrode railway line for the Dow Wolff Cellulosics plant .

workshops

The OHE operates a depot at the Celle Nord station and a railway repair shop in Bleckede. Here, own and third-party vehicles are subjected to the necessary inspections and repaired. Since 2003 it has also been operating the newly built Uelzen depot , where the vehicles of the metronom railway company and erixx are serviced and maintained.

vehicles

past

A large number of different steam locomotives were taken over from the previous railways. In 1946/49, 22 steam locomotives were acquired from the Deutsche Reichsbahn in order to be able to drive the increased transport services with their own locomotives. They continued under their old series designation with a new number (series 55 , 56 , 75.6 , 76 , 91 , 92 ). At the same time, the existing locomotives were given new names: three-axle locomotives were classified as class 89, four-axle locomotives as class 92. In 1949, two locomotives from the Südostbahn from Switzerland were added to the inventory, which were taken over by Krupp after the electrification of the railway . The two 1'D-h2t locomotives were assigned to the 98 series and carried the numbers 112 and 113. In 1965 the last steam locomotive was decommissioned.

OHE also took over 13 railcars from its predecessor, including four Wismar rail buses . 1954–1959 seven MaK open- plan railcars and one Esslingen railcar were procured, which modernized passenger transport and were in use until the end.

present

DE-AC33C - Blue Tiger from OHE
185 546 in Lollar

In 2010, the OHE operated a fleet of over 30 diesel locomotives of various power levels, so that all sizes were available from shunting locomotives to large diesel locomotives for journeys on the DB network. In recent years the locomotive types used have been standardized, but there is still a variety of different locomotives available. While MaK rod locomotives used to form the backbone of the vehicle fleet, most recently more modern variants of the MaK standard series ( G 1202 , G 1204 and G 1205 ) were in service with the OHE. It also included three originally 1600 hp G 1600s , a further development based on the DB class 290 , and two lower- powered locomotives of this type have since been sold. The originally three twin-engined Deutz large diesel locomotives of the type DG 2000 CCM are no longer at OHE, their successors were the locomotives of the type "Blue Tiger", most of which were also sold on. Many of the locomotives used have been extensively modernized and supplemented with new engines, radio remote control and, in some cases, multiple traction systems.

For heavy line service, OHE recently used three DH 1504 (2000 hp) locomotives, three Siemens ER 20 (2700 hp) locomotives and a Bombardier DE-AC33C (Blue Tiger, here called Red Tiger ) locomotive with 3300 PS a. The company's own vehicles were supplemented by locomotives from various leasing companies, through which four locomotives from the G 2000 series (3000 hp) and one locomotive from the G 1700-2 series (2300 hp) were rented over the long term . In addition, several Bombardier TRAXX F140 AC electric locomotives were operated. Since December 2014, two Siemens Vectron vehicles have also been part of the fleet.

After the cessation of freight traffic in 2015, these locomotives were sold or parked.

For the Heidekreuz , 27 new LINT 41 railcars were purchased by the LNVG and made available to the OHE. The OHE has been active since December 2011 with the brand name Erixx .

literature

  • Ingo Hütter, Thorsten Bretschneider: The East Hanoverian Railways. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-88255-730-5 .
  • Henning Bendler: Bleckede railway repair shop. Vehicle maintenance on the Elbe with over 100 years of tradition. WIEKRA Edition, Suhlendorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-940189-02-8 .
  • Jens Jahnke: The Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG - a chronicle. WIEKRA Edition, Suhlendorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-940189-01-1 .
  • Hubert Schumacher: Alpine trip with obstacles - With the OHE over the Brenner. WIEKRA Edition, Suhlendorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-940189-00-4 .
  • Hans Wolfgang Rogl: The large-capacity diesel railcars of the Osthannoverschen Eisenbahnen AG in prototype and model. Wiekra, Suhlendorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-019449-8 .
  • Hans Wolfgang Rogl: The red tigers of the Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG in prototype and model. WIEKRA Edition, Suhlendorf 2006, ISBN 3-00-020062-2 .
  • Ingo Hütter, Thorsten Bretschneider, Wolfgang Uhl: From the small rail network to the East Hanoverian railways. Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1997, ISBN 3-927587-71-0 .
  • Hans Wolfgang Rogl: The East Hanoverian Railways. Alba, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-87094-232-0 .

Web links

Commons : Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Open to new challenges. Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen, accessed on March 21, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Annual financial statements 2017
  3. ↑ Annual financial statements 2017
  4. ↑ Press release of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Finance of December 21, 2006 "Evaluation of the offers in the OHE bidding process completed"
  5. ↑ Arriva Bachstein GmbH founded - Article on public transport competition
  6. ↑ soltau-fallingbostel.de  ( page no longer available , 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. (PDF).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.soltau-fallingbostel.de  
  7. ↑ a b cf. OHE, Das Trassenpaissystem TPS 2009, p. 4f (with route network map). (PDF) Retrieved January 16, 2009 .
  8. ↑ The categorization follows the old route price system 2005 of the OHE: Category F1 stands for remote control route, Z1 for routes in train control operation , Z2 for peripheral routes that are operated in the simplified train control procedure and Z3 for island routes in the simplified train control procedure.
  9. ↑ See OHE, annual financial statements as of December 31, 2006 (new version). April 4, 2008, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  10. ^ Timon Heinrici: Strategy without freight traffic . In: Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung . March 7, 2013 ( dvz.de [accessed October 5, 2015]).
  11. ↑ razyboard.com
  12. ↑ OHE wants to close cargo division. October 5, 2015, accessed October 5, 2015 .
  13. ↑ railway magazine . No. 11 , 2016, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 28 .
  14. ↑ lnvg.de (PDF) from February 15, 2011.
  15. ^ Alfred Moser: The steam operation of the Swiss railways 1847-2006 . 7th edition. Birkhäuser, Basel 2006, ISBN 3-03300948-4 , p. 318 .
  16. ↑ railway magazine . No. 3 , 2015, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 20 .
  17. ↑ Stefan Hennigfeld: OHE founds Heidekreuzbahn for Heidekreuz. In: Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de. September 19, 2011, accessed October 7, 2011 .
  18. ↑ Jürgen Eikelberg: Erixx, the Heidesprinter. In: Eisenbahnjournal Zughalt.de. September 19, 2011, accessed October 7, 2011 .