TUI-FerienExpress
The TUI FerienExpress was a type of train operated by the tour operator TUI , which mainly served domestic and foreign destinations on night routes.
The concept
In order to be able to offer travelers a single source for travel to their holiday destination with package tours , TUI decided at the end of the 1970s to have its own night trains built. The train sets were built from scratch and implemented according to our own plans and were used from 1978 onwards. They were used as wing trains to and from Hamburg and Dortmund , from where they went weekly to the most important holiday areas with direct connections.
Domestic German routes were served with two weekly day / night trips, foreign destinations (Austria, Switzerland, Italy, etc.) could be reached with a further two round trips with night / night trips per week. This concept led to a very good utilization of the train units. At the destination stations, the travelers were welcomed by local tour guides and mostly taken to their vacation quarters by bus , similar to what passengers were used to with package tours .
Goals in the summer season
- Venice
- Pesaro
- Bolzano
- Meran
- Siófok
- Rijeka
- Twill
- Klagenfurt
- Villach
- innsbruck
- Mittenwald
- Imperia / Ventimiglia
- Pisa / Livorno
- Port Bou / Cerbère
Winter season goals
Furnishing
The trains were painted in a striking beige, carmine red, pastel orange and nut brown color, which was based on the so-called pop paint scheme of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. The equipment corresponded to a high level. All couchette -Abteile had only four (instead of six) berths. Each compartment was also equipped with a child seat and a cot. In addition to ten four-bed compartments, each car had a two-bed compartment with a sink.
The interior of the passenger car was designed by Karl-Dieter Bodack , in the typical style of the 1970s in warm brown and orange tones. Unoccupied seats could be turned into small tables by folding the backrest, and there were small lockers for valuables in each compartment.
All vehicles were fully air-conditioned. The escort staff offered various services for the travelers . In addition to drinks, small snacks and breakfast were served in the compartment.
Each TUI-FerienExpress also had a car called “TUI treff” with a bar and dining area in the middle of the train. In addition, there were occasional events such as children's activities or social evenings that were intended to shorten the journey for travelers.
Between 1979 and 1980 Waggon Union built ten Bcvmh 05-90 couchette cars for 200 km / h, twenty Bcvmh 05-70 couchette cars for 160 km / h, one WGtmh 09-90 meet-up car for 200 km / h for the TUI-FerienExpress two wagons WGtmh 09-70 for a top speed of 160 km / h.
Train composition
Originally, three train sets were used, each with ten couchette cars and a meeting car in the middle of the train. A holiday express thus offered space for 420 travelers. In later years, the train sequence varied depending on the occupancy and season. The trains were combined or divided on the way to serve different destinations.
End and whereabouts of the car
Due to the great success of the TUI-FerienExpress, the Deutsche Bundesbahn stepped up its activities in holiday travel, so that the TUI-FerienExpress gradually lost customers. In 1993 TUI sold its train sets, which were meanwhile in need of renovation, to the Dutch State Railways (NS). 29 couchette cars were overhauled and painted steel blue. Two meeting cars were sold to DBAG and used until 1998, the third vehicle went to NS as a spare parts donor. All of the club cars have now been dismantled. A couchette car went to the Mittelthurgau travel agency , which converted it into an exhibition car; Today it is owned by the Freundeskreis Eisenbahn Köln , which painted it in the Rheingold colors (cobalt blue / ivory).
The NS couchette cars were used in scheduled international night trains until 2002, after which some 200 km / h wagons drove temporarily for the CityNightLine on the routes from Amsterdam to Zurich and Munich , as CNL's own wagons were not yet approved at that time for the NS network. They were also repainted and labeled for these missions.
In 2003/2004 the Dutch company Euro Express Trein Charter took over all 29 couchette cars from NS. It uses the wagons in its seasonal trains Alpen Expres , Ski-Trein and AutoSlaap Trein or rents them to other companies, such as the TTC for its trains Autotrein , Bergland Expres and Lourdes Express . The cars initially remained in the NS or CNL appearance and were then partially repainted in the purple EETC color scheme. EETC ceased operations in 2015 and sold the wagons to the MSM Group and Train Rental International in 2016.
The succession
Most of the former routes of TUI FerienExpress were served in the summer season until 2007 and in the winter season until 2008 by UrlaubExpress trains operated by DB subsidiary DB NachtZug / DB Autozug . At the end of the 2008 winter season, all tourist night train connections were discontinued. Only a few extensions of Citynightline trains remained in the winter season beyond their destinations in Munich and Zurich, from Hamburg and Amsterdam to Brig and from Amsterdam and Copenhagen to Innsbruck.
Seasonal night-time connections between northern and western Germany and the Alpine region comparable to the TUI-FerienExpress are now operated under the name UEX Urlaubs-Express , among others with former TUI carriages from MSM .
Web links
literature
- Karl-Dieter Bodack : Timetables and train tickets in long-distance transport of the DB . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 4/2002, ISSN 1421-2811 , pp. 197–205.