Riviera Express
As a Riviera-Express several long-distance trains are defined to be from 1900 to 1993 by various cities in northern Central and Western Europe ( Amsterdam , Berlin , Dortmund ) to Riviera drove. Until 1939 the Riviera Express was a luxury train operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) between Berlin and the Riviera and was considered one of the most famous luxury trains.
1900 to 1914
prehistory
The Prussian State Railways had let their contracts with the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits expire since around the middle of the 1880s , had not concluded any new ones and set up their own sleeping car services. They had also actively campaigned against a further expansion of the CIWL network and prevented the introduction of further luxury trains based on the model of the Orient Express . It was not until the mid-1890s that the CIWL achieved a change in this policy and in 1896 was able to run the Nord-Express as the first luxury train via Berlin. A year later, the North-South Brenner Express followed from Berlin, which, however, due to the negative attitude of the Italian Rete Adriatica, only traveled to Verona via the Brenner Railway , just about 50 km south of the then Austrian border station in Ala . Nevertheless, the train, like the Nord-Express, proved to be an economic success, which was also noted positively by the Prussian State Railways and led to a change in the previous policy towards the CIWL.
Now KED Berlin, together with CIWL, is actively involved in expanding the network of luxury trains from Berlin. First, a second luxury train was to run from Berlin to Italy, via the Gotthard Railway to Milan . However, the Gotthard Railway Company initially refused to deal with this CIWL planning, favoring its own Gotthard Express from Basel to Milan. In the meantime, the CIWL had managed to extend the north-south Brenner Express to Milan, so it also lost interest in a Rivierau train over the Gotthard. Instead, she started negotiations with Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM), which showed great interest in a train from Berlin to the Riviera.
Introduction of the Riviera Express
The luxury train, initially known as the Riviera-Berlin-Express , ran for the first time from Berlin via Erfurt , Frankfurt am Main , Ludwigshafen , Strasbourg , Belfort , Lyon and Marseille to Ventimiglia on December 1, 1900. The planning seems to have taken place relatively quickly, still in the Reich course book for November and December of this year, the train is not included. The formal contract between the CIWL and the railway administrations involved was only signed on November 8, 1901 by Georges Nagelmackers , the CIWL general director, and on December 5 of the same year by the president of the KED Frankfurt, which was to be the managing director of the Riviera Express, representing all participating railways signed. The train should only run in winter and early spring, the main season on the Riviera at that time.
From December 1, 1901, the train, now known as the Riviera Express , ran in two routes from Berlin and Amsterdam via Frankfurt and from there together via Ludwigshafen, Strasbourg and Lyon to the Riviera to Mentone . The contract provided for daily traffic and a joint tour from Frankfurt, but initially the Amsterdam and Berlin trains only ran on two different days of the week. The train only started in Frankfurt on three days of the week, with the number of trains starting in Berlin increasing over the years. From December 31, 1905, the train ran daily from Berlin and was now run from Frankfurt, as planned in 1901, together with the Amsterdam train section, which continued to run only two days a week, to Ventimiglia. In Germany, the Berlin part of the train was given train number L 20/19, which also carried the combined train to the then border station to France in Altmünsterol . The Dutch state spoor routes referred to the Amsterdam train section as L 31/32, from the Emmerich border station it was numbered L 178/177.
Compared to the north-south Brenner Express, which in the meantime also went to the Riviera, the Riviera Express had a more favorable travel situation despite the 1,819 km route to Nice. It left Berlin's Anhalter Bahnhof in the afternoon and took the passengers to Cannes and Nice in just one night, which were reached between 7 and 8 p.m. the following day. The north-south Brenner Express did not leave until late in the evening, but it required two night trips. A trip from Berlin to Cannes and back with the Riviera Express in 1904, including all surcharges, cost 418.40 gold marks - about half the average annual income of a German worker around 1900.
Train formation was also regulated in the 1901 treaty. Like all CIWL luxury trains before 1914, the Riviera Express consisted of a sleeping car , a dining car and a baggage car ; it only ran 1st class . The Amsterdam pulling part also received a from The Hague trains running saloon car , which was, however, carried only on the part of the day to Frankfurt. Another saloon car was used from 1902 on the PLM route from Bourg-en-Bresse to Ventimiglia . The baggage carts were not only used to transport passengers' luggage, the CIWL also used them to deliver fresh cut flowers to Germany. No details are known about the locomotives used.
Riviera- and Lloyd-Express
On April 30, 1911, the Riviera Express ran under this name for the last time. He was from the winter of 1911/12 between Duisburg and Frankfurt and Mulhouse with the 1908 between Altona and Genoa launched and as a boat-train to the ships of the North German Lloyd all year trains running Lloyd Express merged and new as Lloyd and Riviera-Express referred . While the train numbers L 20/19 for the Berlin section remained unchanged, the Amsterdam section was given the new numbers L 174/173 on the German section.
Whereas the Lloyd-Express had previously operated all year round, the combined train was only operated in the winter season. The wing train from Amsterdam also ran daily during this time, the saloon car from The Hague was replaced by a sleeping car from The Hague to Genoa, where a sleeping car was now also being carried from Berlin. A sleeping car from Berlin to Chur and a sleeping car from Altona to Ventimiglia were also added. The Altona train part has already been delivered in Duisburg. With a total of nine sleeping cars and two baggage cars, the Lloyd and Riviera Express was the longest and heaviest luxury train operated by CIWL in the years before the First World War . The train ran on this tour for the following three years, in the winter season from January to April. On April 30, 1914, the Lloyd and Riviera Express ran for the last time before the outbreak of the First World War. CIWL and Norddeutscher Lloyd agreed in May 1914 that the train section from Altona would be discontinued, but the war prevented the train from running again in the winter of 1914/15.
1931 to 1939
After the First World War, German customers for the Riviera initially stayed away. With the increasing economic recovery, demand grew again at the end of the 1920s, so that at the International Timetable Conference in Warsaw in 1929 the Deutsche Reichsbahn , represented by the Reichsbahndirektion Karlsruhe , applied for the introduction of a luxury train from Berlin to the Riviera and to Italy. The CIWL responded positively to the application and the introduction was decided, but dragged on for over a year due to the complicated timetable coordination.
Despite the global economic crisis that had occurred in the meantime, the new Riviera-Napoli-Express ran for the first time from Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof to Cannes on January 3, 1931, with part of the train going to Naples . At the Anhalter Bahnhof there was an inauguration ceremony with invited guests, the departure order was given by Julius Dorpmüller , the Reichsbahn general director at the time .
In contrast to the pre-war train, the train no longer ran via Lyon and the PLM lines, but via Basel and the Gotthard Railway . Initially, the new train ran three times a week; in addition to the eponymous train parts from Berlin to the Riviera (to Cannes) and to Naples, it also received a sleeping car to Rapallo and one sleeping car each from Amsterdam to Ventimiglia and Naples. The Berlin and Amsterdam sections of the train were coupled on the outward journey in Mannheim , but separated on the return journey in Darmstadt . North of Cologne, the train went in the direction of Amsterdam on the left Lower Rhine route and the Kranenburg border station , while in the opposite direction it traveled the route via Emmerich and Duisburg . In Milan, the train parts to Naples and the Riviera were separated or combined, the latter in turn being led along the Riviera with the Vienna – San Remo – Nice – Cannes – Express coming from Vienna . The train thus ran a distance of almost 2,200 km from Berlin to Naples. Apart from the through sleeping and baggage cars, all parts of the train north of Basel and south of Milan each had a dining car. In contrast to the time before the First World War, the sleeping cars were not only in 1st but also in 2nd class.
Initially, the new train only ran in the period from January to April 1931. The Karlsruhe Directorate, as the train’s managing directorate, soon registered a very good line-up, after which the period from 1932 was extended to the end of May. However, the less popular sleeping car to Rapallo was given up in favor of another sleeping car to Cannes. A year later, after the summer break, the train ran without the train parts from Amsterdam and to Naples only from Berlin to Cannes, the days of traffic were also reduced to once a week and the name was changed to Riviera Express . During the following years, the train remained a purely seasonal train, which only ran from January to May during the winter season, which was much more popular at the time on the Riviera. He also drove a through car to Rome . The strict foreign exchange controls of the Third Reich had caused a significant drop in demand. The Riviera Express ran for the last time in May 1939, and the scheduled resumption of train service in January 1940 fell victim to the outbreak of the Second World War .
The Riviera Express was one of the fastest long-distance trains running through Germany in the 1930s . In 1931 the travel time between Berlin and Cannes was 28 hours and 42 minutes, which corresponded to an average speed of 70.3 km / h. On the flatter German sections, the train last reached a speed of 100 km / h, for example between Berlin and Leipzig or between Mannheim and Basel. As a train number, he received the numbers L 20/19 from the Reichsbahn, which had been used by the predecessor until 1914. In the few years of its existence, however, the Amsterdam train section was listed in the timetable with the new numbers L 120/119. The Swiss SBB and the Italian FS ran it until 1932 as the train BN / NB, and according to the name change, then until 1939 as the train BR / RB. On the short French section to Cannes, the PLM referred to the train as L 54/53.
As with all luxury trains operated by CIWL overnight, the train's fleet consisted exclusively of sleeping, dining and luggage cars. In the first few years, the Riviera-Neapel-Express carried up to six sleeping cars, after the discontinuation of the train parts from Amsterdam and Naples, usually only three sleeping cars. The new express locomotives of the DR series 01 were used on locomotives by the Reichsbahn between Berlin and Frankfurt during the entire existence of the train , the DR series 39 was only used in the event of breakdowns . In front of the Amsterdam train section as well as on the short section between Frankfurt and Mannheim, locomotives of the DR class 17.0-1 drove . South of Mannheim, the Offenburg depot used the earlier Badische IV h , now known as the 18.3 series, until 1933 , then also the 01 series. The SBB used their SBB Ae 4/7 as planned , while the FS operated their various three-phase AC locomotives west of Genoa .
After the Second World War
The Riviera Express as a luxury train from Berlin to the Riviera was not reintroduced after the end of World War II. After tourism to Italy and the Mediterranean increased significantly in the 1950s, the CIWL and the participating state railways reintroduced the Riviera Express in 1957, but now as a normal express train from Cologne via the Gotthard to Ventimiglia. The French Riviera, originally the main destination of the Riviera Express, was no longer reached. After a few years, the train route was extended to Amsterdam. In addition, the train received through cars from Dortmund and was run as a pure sleeper and couchette train . At times the train between Frankfurt and Milan was coupled with the Italia-Express from Stockholm to Rome. In the 1970s, the northern departure station changed several times between Dortmund and Amsterdam. Since 1971 the train has consistently carried the train number D 205/206.
The Riviera Express was last used since the late 1980s as a seasonal train and with limited days of traffic, also recognizable by the train number D 1205/1206 raised by a thousand. In the 1993 summer schedule, it still ran from Dortmund on Fridays from May 23 to September 24, from Dortmund to Karlsruhe together with the Italia Express to Rome. In the opposite direction, the train left Ventimiglia on Saturdays. With the 1994 summer timetable, the Riviera Express was not used again.
literature
- George Behrend: History of Luxury Trains. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1977, ISBN 3-280-00918-9 .
- Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, ISBN 3-88255-673-0
- Albert Mühl, Jürgen Klein: Traveling in luxury trains. The International Sleeping Car Society. EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2006, ISBN 3-88255-696-X
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, p. 5
- ^ A b Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, pp. 18-19
- ↑ Labor and Social Affairs 1900 on chroniknet.de (accessed on October 6, 2012)
- ^ Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, p. 20
- ^ Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, p. 34
- ^ Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, p. 32
- ^ A b c Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, pp. 161-162
- ^ A b Albert Mühl: International luxury trains . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1991, p. 164
- ^ Fritz Stöckl : Rolling Hotels, Part 1: The International Sleeping Car Company . Series of publications Die Eisenbahnen der Erde, Volume VIII, Bohmann Industrie- und Fachverlag, Vienna / Heidelberg 1967, p. 55
- ^ Deutsche Bundesbahn / Deutsche Reichsbahn: Kursbuch 1993/94 , May 23, 1993 to May 28, 1994, Mainz / Berlin 1993, Table E7