Vogtland Railway

Vogtland Railway

Basic information
Company headquarters	Viechtach
Web presence	www.vogtlandbahn.de
owner	The Länderbahn GmbH
Managing directors	Wolfgang Pollety
Transport network	Verkehrsverbund Vogtland , Verkehrsverbund Mittelachsen , Verkehrsverbund Mittelthüringen
Lines
Gauge	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
railroad	4th
Operating facilities
Depots	Neumark (Sachs)

A RegioSprinter of the Vogtlandbahn near the Irfersgrün stop

The Vogtlandbahn ( original spelling : Vogtlandbahn ) is a brand of Länderbahn GmbH in the Regentalbahn group .

history

The Vogtlandbahn was created out of the efforts of the Free State of Saxony to increase the attractiveness of the Zwickau - Falkenstein - Klingenthal and Herlasgrün - Falkenstein - Adorf railway lines as model routes . On November 23, 1997, the Regentalbahn began operating under the Vogtlandbahn brand . On January 1, 1998, the new subsidiary Vogtlandbahn GmbH was founded, which took over the brand.

Vogtlandbahn GmbH expanded strongly in the following years and established other brands that were marketed in connection with the company name. For example, the Trilex trains also bore the Vogtlandbahn brand name for a long time .

In 2015 the Vogtlandbahn GmbH was renamed "Die Länderbahn GmbH". Since then, the Vogtlandbahn brand has been limited to the core network.

The “Vogtland” competition network, last announced in spring 2010, includes the Hof - Falkenstein - Adorf, Mariánské Lázne - Plauen ob Bf - Zwickau center, Weischlitz - Gera and Zwickau center - Kraslice routes with 3.16 million train kilometers annually. The concession runs until December 2027.

Lines

Current lines

line	course	length	Stations	Start of operations
RB 1	Zwickau (Sachs) center - Zwickau (Sachs) main station - Lengenfeld - Auerbach - Falkenstein - Zwotental - Klingenthal - Kraslice	73 km	23	Zwickau Hbf - Klingenthal: November 23, 1997 Zwickau center - Zwickau Hbf: May 28, 1999 Klingenthal - Kraslice : May 28, 2000
RB 2	Zwickau Stadthalle - Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf - Werdau - Reichenbach ob Bf - Plauen (Vogtl) ob Bf (- Hof Hbf) / - Bad Brambach - Cheb (Eger)			Zwickau Hbf - Plauen (Vogtl) above train station: October 13, 1996 Plauen (Vogtl) above train station - Hof Hbf: May 28, 2000
RB 4	Gera Hbf - Greiz - Elsterberg - Plauen (Vogtl) center - Weischlitz (- Adorf (Vogtl))			Exchange traffic: July 1, 2002 Total traffic: December 14, 2003
RB 5	Mehltheuer - Plauen (Vogtl) above Bf - Herlasgrün - Auerbach - Falkenstein - Zwotental - Klingenthal - Kraslice			Plauen (Vogtl) ob Bf - Falkenstein: November 23, 1997

Between Zwickau, Falkenstein and Klingenthal, Kraslice and between Falkenstein and Plauen, the trains mostly run every hour. At the weekend, the offer on these sections of the route is temporarily reduced to every two hours.

The multiple units of the lines VB 1 and VB 5 coming from Zwickau and Hof - Plauen previously operated as a unit to Zwotental, where they were separated again (" winged ") and continued their journey separately to Kraslice and Adorf. The same thing happened in the opposite direction. This had the advantage that twice as many passengers could be carried on the Falkenstein - Zwotental section. In addition, coupling the two trains together offered the operational advantage that two train paths did not have to be ordered for these vehicles and one driver could drive the two coupled vehicles alone .

The trains on line VB 2 ran every two hours between December 12, 2004 and December 13, 2008 to the center of Zwickau. These circuits began or ended in Adorf and were driven with "RegioSprinter" railcars. The trains that ran from Zwickau to the Czech Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad) began and ended at the Zwickau main train station, as they were driven with "Desiro" railcars that were not suitable for the BOStrab due to their higher weight and lack of equipment -Operation in the city center were suitable. The core stretch of the line from Zwickau main station to Adorf was served every hour, the outer branches to Zwickau center and Mariánské Lázně every two hours.

With the timetable change on December 11, 2016, Vogtlandbahn renamed all line numbers from VL 1, VL 2, VL 4, VL 5 to RB 1, RB 2, RB 4 and RB 5.

history

RegioShuttle double traction in the upper Plauen train station

After starting with two lines, the Vogtlandbahn expanded quickly. The Zwickau – Klingenthal line was extended from the initial network at the beginning of the 2000 summer timetable after 55 years of division across the German-Czech border to Kraslice (Graslitz), and individual trains from 2003 to Sokolov (Falkenau) on the Egertal Railway .

After the extension of the Zwickau - Plauen - Bad Brambach line via the Czech Cheb (Eger) to Marktredwitz, the Plauen - Hof line could also be extended to Weiden from June 10, 2001 and to Regensburg from December 15, 2002 . Today these routes are served by trains of other brands of the Länderbahn.

When the timetable changed on December 14, 2003, the Vogtlandbahn handed over the operation of the Gera - Weida - Zeulenroda - Mehltheuer route to DB Regio AG and received all traffic on the Elstertalbahn Gera - Greiz - Weischlitz , which they previously only alternated with the German Had operated railway.

With the timetable change on December 8, 2006, the Vogtlandbahn had to give up the service of a route for the first time without replacement. The utilization rate between Schönberg and Schleiz did not develop positively, so that the local transport service company Thuringia, as the responsible authority, was not prepared to order further operation. There was no connection with the cut in regionalization funds that had been decided a few months earlier, as the closure had already been planned.

The Vogtlandbahn was able to gain traffic in northeast Bavaria. On behalf of DB Regio Nordostbayern , since December 2006 until agilis took over the Upper Franconian diesel network in June 2011, Vogtlandbahn trains were on the routes (Hof -) Münchberg - Helmbrechts and Lichtenfels - Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg , partly alongside Deutsche Bahn, but also as Sole provider, in use in regional rail transport .

With the timetable change on December 8, 2012, the scheduled passenger train service between Zwotental and Adorf, which last only took place on weekends, ended.

vehicles

Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 railcars are used on the network . RegioSprinter from Duewag were also used up to December 2019, but they had recently reached a great age and had equipment that was no longer sufficient for modern requirements.

Zwickau model

Railcar VT 45 with BO-Strab equipment at the end of the line in Zwickau center

A special feature of the Vogtlandbahn network is the connection of trains from Zwickau main station via tram tracks to the vicinity of the central main market. Since the Vogtlandbahn route network is mostly not electrified, the trains - unlike the Karlsruhe model , for example - do not run on the electricity of the tram, but with their usual diesel drive.

Individual evidence

↑ Vogtlandbahn - Imprint. Retrieved September 9, 2019 .

[1] Vogtlandbahn - Imprint. Retrieved September 9, 2019 .