Vias (company)

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VIAS GmbH
VIAS logo.svg
Basic information
Company headquarters Frankfurt am Main
Web presence www.vias-online.de
Reference year 2016
owner DSB Deutschland GmbH (50%)
Rurtalbahn GmbH (50%)
Managing directors Jochen Auler, Herbert Häner, Sebastian Nießen, Franz Reh (GF spokesman)
Transport network RMV , VRM , VRR
Employee 210 employees
Lines
Gauge 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
railroad 7 (+2)
number of vehicles
Railcar 26 Itino , 19 FLIRT , 3 Alstom Coradia LINT 41 , 13 Alstom Coradia LINT 54
statistics
Mileage 4.3 million train-km (+0.85 million train-km from 12/2017)
Length of line network
Railway lines 210 (Odenwaldbahn) + 135.8 (Rheingau line)dep1

The VIAS is a non-federal railway company , based in Frankfurt am Main . The owners of the company are 50% Rurtalbahn and 50% DSB Deutschland, a subsidiary of the Danish State Railways .

VIAS operates railway lines in the federal states of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. For the operational area, VIAS was divided into several companies:

  • VIAS GmbH
  • VIAS Logistik GmbH
  • VIAS Rail GmbH

The majority of these companies form VIAS.

VIAS is not a member of the tariff association of federal and non-federal railways in Germany (TBNE).

history

VIAS GmbH was founded in 2005 by Stadtwerke Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main mbH (VGF) and Rurtalbahn GmbH (RTB) from Düren with equal shares.

In March 2010, the Danish State Railways announced that they had taken over the share of VGF with the help of their subsidiary DSB Deutschland GmbH .

The sale had to take place on the basis of EC Regulation No. 1370/2007 , according to which VGF, as the internal operator of urban transport in Frankfurt am Main, is no longer allowed to participate in tenders elsewhere if , as the operator's company, it operates the local rail passenger transport (SPNV) in the City operates without tender.

On October 22, 2010, the Düren-based VIAS DN2011 GmbH was founded by the shareholders DSB Deutschland GmbH and RATH GmbH with the aim of providing rail transport services. This company was initially renamed VIAS Odenwaldbahn GmbH on February 19, 2014 and VIAS Rail GmbH on June 22, 2015 , with RATH GmbH becoming the sole shareholder in the meantime. As of December 13, 2015, VIAS Rail GmbH took over the local rail transport services in the Odenwald sub-network from VIAS GmbH.

Line network

Route network of the vias (2011)

Lines from the Rhine and Main to the Neckar

VIAS serves around 210 kilometers of route network on behalf of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV)

as follows:

line Route name Line route Contract term Vehicles in regular operation
RE  9 RheingauExpresss , bypassing Wiesbaden Central Station, runs on the tracks of the Taunus Railway and the Right Rhine Line Frankfurt Hbf - Frankfurt-Höchst - Mainz-Kastel - Wiesbaden-Biebrich - Eltville , only Monday - Friday; Daily start and end of operation from and to Rüdesheim (Rhine) train station December 10, 2018 - December 9, 2023 FLIRT
RB  10 RheingauLinie , runs on the tracks of the Taunus Railway , the Right Rhine Line , the Lahn Valley Railway and the Neuwied – Koblenz Railway Frankfurt Hbf - Frankfurt-Höchst - Mainz-Kastel - Wiesbaden Hbf - Eltville - Rüdesheim (Rhine) - Lorch (Rhine) - Lorchhausen - St. Goarshausen - Koblenz Hbf - Koblenz city center - Neuwied 12/12/2010 - 09/12/2023 FLIRT
RB  86 Odenwaldbahn Hanau Hbf - Seligenstadt (Hess) - Babenhausen (Hess) - Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach 12/11/2005 - 12/11/2027 Itino / Alstom Coradia LINT 54
RE  85 Frankfurt Hbf - Offenbach Hbf - Hanau Hbf - Seligenstadt (Hess) - Babenhausen (Hess) - Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach (- Höchst (Odenw) - Erbach (Odenw) )
RB  82 Frankfurt Hbf - Darmstadt North - Reinheim (Odenw) - Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach - Höchst (Odenw) - Erbach (Odenw) Itino
RE  80 Darmstadt Hbf - Darmstadt North - Reinheim (Odenw) - Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach - Höchst (Odenw) - Erbach (Odenw)
RB  81 Darmstadt Hbf - Darmstadt North - Reinheim (Odenw) - Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach - Höchst (Odenw) - Erbach (Odenw) - Eberbach
RB  66 Pfungstadtbahn Darmstadt Hbf - Darmstadt-Eberstadt - Pfungstadt December 10, 2011 - December 11, 2027

The designation of the lines corresponds to the numbering of the RMV .

Vias-Itino in Frankfurt Central Station
Vias Flirt at the entrance to the Mainz-Kastel train station

Since the start of operations in the Odenwald, 22 brand-new diesel multiple units of the type Bombardier Itino have been available for operation, which are provided by the vehicle management region Frankfurt RheinMain GmbH (fahma) . Maintenance takes place in the workshop of Odenwaldbahn-Infrastruktur GmbH in Michelstadt , which is also the center of operations. Four more vehicles of the same type were re-ordered by RMV in August 2007 due to insufficient space and delivered in spring 2010. These were also intended for the operation on the reopened Pfungstadtbahn that began with the 2011/2012 timetable change .

With the 2010/2011 timetable change in December 2010, VIAS also took over local traffic with the RheingauLinie on the right-hand Rhine route between Neuwied , Koblenz Hbf (and city ​​center ), Wiesbaden Hbf and Frankfurt Hbf (RMV line 10). For this purpose, 5 three-part and 14 four-part electric multiple units of the Flirt type were ordered.

In December 2013, VIAS Rail GmbH was awarded the contract to operate the Odenwald and Pfungstadt railways following a tender. The new contract is valid from December 2015 for 12 years. The existing Itino vehicles will continue to be used, although capacity adjustments have been made for some journeys. In addition to the driver, at least one train attendant is present on all journeys .

With the start of operations at VIAS, leaflets were distributed, among other things , criticizing the fact that when Deutsche Bahn started operations in the Odenwald network, around 150 employees were transferred and only 50 new employees were hired at VIAS. The figures ignore the fact that the control and safety technology was converted, which made numerous jobs at DB Netz superfluous. Vias operates exclusively as a railway company, the track systems and other infrastructure used remain in the possession of the railway infrastructure company DB Netz AG .

In August 2019, the RMV announced that the passenger demand in the Odenwald network has increased by more than 50 percent to 15,000 since the VIAS went into operation and the introduction of the improved timetable concept. Since the possibilities for expanding capacity on the existing infrastructure have largely been exhausted, RMV and local partners are looking for ways to expand them in a feasibility study.

Lines in North Rhine-Westphalia

On March 26, 2015 the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr and Nahverkehr Rheinland announced that VIAS would be using the North Rhine-Westphalian regional train lines RB 34 ( Schwalm-Nette-Bahn from Mönchengladbach to Dalheim ) and RB 38-Nord ( Erft-Bahn from Düsseldorf via Grevenbroich to Bedburg ). The RB 38 has not been used continuously since the timetable change mentioned, passengers have to change trains in Bedburg. The northern part that VIAS operates has been renamed RB 39. The reason for this is that the Rhineland local transport is planning to electrify the Bedburg – Cologne section and operate it as an S-Bahn , but the Rhein-Ruhr transport association, as the northern authority, rejected electrification for "traffic and economic reasons". Twelve new Alstom Coradia LINT vehicles (nine LINT 54H and three LINT 41H) will be used on the two lines . On April 16, 2015, the twelve-year transport contract was signed with the new operator VIAS.

VIAS GmbH has been on the following routes in NRW since the timetable change in December 2017:

line Line name Line route Contract term Vehicles in regular operation
RB 34 Schwalm-Nette railway Mönchengladbach - Dalheim 10.12.2017 - 09.12.2029 Alstom Lint 41H
RB 39 Düssel-Erft Railway Düsseldorf - Neuss - Grevenbroich - Bedburg 10.12.2017 - 09.12.2029 Alstom Lint 54H and 41H

criticism

Odenwaldbahn

VIAS GmbH was criticized after the Odenwald network went into operation because the trains in rush hour traffic were too busy. However, the company cannot be held responsible for this, as the vehicle model, the number of vehicles and the capacities were specified by the RMV as the responsible body. He had underestimated the increase in passenger numbers in the run-up to the tender. The new timetable concept with significantly more direct connections to Frankfurt and overall shorter journey times attracted so many new customers that the new ITINO vehicles were referred to as "Sardino" by passengers. In 2006, as many passengers took advantage of the offer as the RMV had forecast for 2012. The situation has been improved somewhat since 2010 by providing four more vehicles. However, the problem of capacity utilization can only be completely resolved in the long term, as the vehicle model and the length of the platform allow a maximum of three units. The use of additional trains fails, especially because of the busy infrastructure in the Frankfurt area.

Rheingau line

Although the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund ordered additional train connections for the weekends in the summer months in autumn 2018, VIAS GmbH reports that it will not be able to introduce the half-hourly service between Frankfurt main station and Assmannshausen near Rüdesheim for 2019 due to a lack of train drivers. In the past few years, when the weather was nice, it was often so overcrowded that passengers were not taken and had to wait an hour for the next train.

Web links

Commons : Vias  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b OREGmbH: Additional vehicles on the Odenwald Bahn: public transport mobility portal . In: www.odenwaldmobil.de. Archived from the original ; accessed on June 13, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Annual financial statements for the VIAS financial year. In: Federal Gazette. VIAS GmbH, accessed on January 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ DSB acquires fifty per cent of German train operator ( Memento from June 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Düren District Court file number: HRB 6597, new entries. Joint register portal of the federal states, 2013-07-17, accessed 2015-09-10
  5. ^ Düren District Court file number: HRB 6597, changes. Joint register portal of the federal states, 2014-03-05, accessed 2015-09-10
  6. ^ Düren District Court file number: HRB 6597, changes. Joint register portal of the federal states, 2015-07-09, accessed 2015-09-10
  7. ↑ VIAS . In: Bahn-Report . tape 33 , no. 197 , September 1, 2015, ISSN  0178-4528 , p. 28 ( website [accessed September 10, 2015]).
  8. ↑ RheingauLinie - RE9 + RB10 timetable download (valid from December 15, 2019 - December 12, 2020) , PDF file 0.829 MB
  9. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: press release of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbundes )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rmv.de
  10. ↑ Eurailpress: The 500th Flirt for Vias ( Memento from November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Stadler press release on the Vias website of September 25, 2008
  12. ↑ The old operators are also the new operators ( Memento from December 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). RMV press release, accessed on December 18, 2013
  13. ↑ Rhein Main Verkehrsverbund, press release, making Odenwaldbahn fit for the future, 07.08.2019
  14. ↑ VIAS takes over the Erft-Schwalm network. (No longer available online.) In: vrr.de. Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr , March 26, 2015, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 30, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / mediencenter.vrr.de
  15. ↑ VRR and NVR award RB 34 and RB 38 to new operators. In: nvr.de. Local transport Rhineland , March 26, 2015, accessed on March 30, 2015 .
  16. ↑ VIAS takes over Erft-Schwalm-Netz - transport contract for twelve years with new operator. In: vrr.de. Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr , April 18, 2015, accessed on April 18, 2015 .
  17. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: region-odenwaldkreis.de )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.region-odenwaldkreis.de
  18. ↑ Small request from the Greens to the Odenwaldbahn (PDF)
  19. ↑ Wiesbadener Kurier from April 27th, 2019: Rheingau line stays at hourly due to lack of train drivers
  20. ↑ Wiesbadener Kurier from August 25, 2018: Too full, too short, too stuffy - criticism of overcrowded Vias trains between Rheingau and Frankfurt