Central Thurgau travel agency

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Travel agency Mittelthurgau / travel agency Mittelthurgau Fluss- und Kreuzfahrten AG
legal form Corporation
founding 1969/2001
resolution (2001)
Seat Weinfelden , Switzerland
management Stephan Frei, manager
Number of employees 40 (2017)
Branch tourism
Website www.mittelthurgau.ch

The Mittelthurgau Fluss- und Kreuzfahrten AG travel agency in Weinfelden is the largest provider of river cruises in Switzerland . The tour operator is part of the holding company Twerenbold Service AG.

Field of activity

The travel agency is now a company specializing in river cruises. A large part of the river trips are carried out with the company's own Excellence fleet. These nine ships (2017) are being marketed exclusively and are sailing on rivers in France, Germany and the Netherlands, on the Danube to the Danube Delta and in Russia. Although the ships are operated by Swiss Excellence River Cruise GmbH , the Mittelthurgau Fluss- und Kreuzfahrten AG travel agency is registered as the owner. In addition, river trips and cruise arrangements are offered worldwide on ships of other companies.

history

TEE observation car from the Mittelthurgau travel agency

The Mittelthurgau travel agency was founded in 1969 as a subsidiary of the Mittelthurgaubahn MThB (95 percent) and the Frauenfeld-Wil-Bahn (five percent). In June 1982, the company bought five former TEE observation cars from the Apfelpfeil company , which were running in the Rheingold . These were used to offer train journeys throughout Europe with partners. For example, in 1981 the “Polar Express” went to Narvik ; it consisted of cars and observation cars that were formerly used in trains of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL), such as the Orient Express . In 1982 the ailing Intraflug AG was taken over along with its rolling stock (35 cars, 24 of which were operational). This gave the company the brand name and fleet of vehicles for the “ Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express ” and the “Churchill-Pfeil” ( SBB RAe 4/8 1021 ) that was not operational at the time . 15 cars of the «Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express» were adapted to the extent that they could run on the Russian broad gauge (16 broad-gauge swap bogies were already available). From 1983 they were used on the Trans-Siberian Railway as a hotel train in the style of the Belle Epoque.

Since 1997, Viking River Cruises and MThB have owned 50% each in the Mittelthurgau travel agency. In 2001 the company was granted debt restructuring moratorium and was split up. While MThB took over the rail section, the river shipping department and the brand name “Reisebüro Mittelthurgau” were sold to Twerenbold Reisen.

Excellence Queen in Cologne

For Twerenbold this was the entry into the tourist segment of ship travel. From 2005 the company began to invest in its own ships. The shipping company Swiss Excellence River Cruise GmbH, based in Basel , was founded and construction of the first river ship began. The first ship that was built for the company is today's Excellence Rhône ( Rhone / Saône operational area ). The second ship followed in 2010 was the Excellence Royal , which was initially on the Rhine , Main , Danube and Moselle , but is now mainly used on the Seine . Construction of the third ship, the Excellence Queen , began in 2011. It replaced the identical Excellence Royal on the Rhine, Main, Danube and Moselle. In 2012 the former MS Swiss Coral was extensively rebuilt and becomes Excellence Coral , which is mainly used on German rivers and waterways such as Elbe , Oder , Havel and the Kiel Canal . The Excellence Princess , built in 2014, was named “River Ship of the Year” at the Hamburg Cruise Congress in 2015. It is mainly used on the Danube, but can pass the Main-Danube Canal . In 2015 the company invested in Russia and converted the former MS Lavrinenkov in a shipyard in Rostov to the Excellence Katharina , which is used on the Volga and adjacent waterways

In 2016 Excellence took over two ships, the two twin cruisers Excellence Melodia and Excellence Allegra (both built in 2011, formerly TUI Melodie and TUI Allegra). They are used on the rivers Rhine, Main, Moselle and Danube. A year later a newly converted ship, the Excellence Pearl , was put into operation (formerly MS Rembrandt, built in 2003). The Excellence Pearl is a smaller, but therefore very manoeuvrable ship and opens up new, rarely traveled waterways. It is used on the Saar , Neckar , Moselle, Rhine, the IJsselmeer and in Friesland .

Two more ships are planned for 2019, the Excellence Countess and the Excellence Baroness. Like the Excellence Princess, the Excellence Countess is built by the shipping company itself.

Railway vehicles that were owned by the Mittelthurgau travel agency

Since the estate moratorium in 2001, the Mittelthurgau travel agency no longer owns any rail vehicles.

  • RAe 4/8 "Churchill-Pfeil" double railcar (in service again from 1996)
  • five Rheingold observation cars
  • at least 24 operational NIOE «Nostalgie-Istanbul-Orient-Express» -cars mostly from CIWL stocks. Matching 16 swap bogies for Russian broad gauge.
  • French dining car No. 3354 «La Présidentielle»
  • French dining car "L'Aquitaine"

Web links

Commons : Reisebüro Mittelthurgau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Excellence River Cruises - On the way on Europe's rivers. Retrieved November 2, 2017 .
  2. River trips worldwide: from the Amazon to the Yangtze. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
  3. Swiss Railway Review 4/81, page 143
  4. Railway Amateur 12/2011, p. 601
  5. Swiss Railway Review 1–2 / 1993, page 63
  6. Press release on presseportal.ch
  7. The company history of the Mittelthurgau travel agency at a glance. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .