GERMANY

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[Administrator]

DB wins Kahlgrund regional contract

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Written by Keith Barrow



THE Bavarian Railway Authority (BEG) and Rhine-Main Transport (RMV) have awarded DB Regio a contract to operate regional services from Hanau to Kahl (Main) and Schöllkrippen for 12 years from December 2015.

DB Regio will operate an hourly service between Hanau and Schöllkrippen on weekdays and Saturday mornings, with a two-hourly service running at other times. The contract requires a conductor on every train and specifies up to 350 seats per train for peak services.

Services on the line are currently operated by Hessen State Railways (HLB) under a 10-year contract which began in 2005.

source: Railjournal

[Administrator]

Abellio backs out of German S-Bahn contract

Friday, October 18, 2013

Written by Keith Fender

GERMAN Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio is to take on the operation of the Mid-German S-Bahn Network Lot 2 concession after the winning bidder Abellio decided to withdraw from the contract with the states of Saxony Anhalt and Brandenburg and Leipzig area transport authority ZVNL.

The subsidiary of Netherlands Railways (NS) was awarded the contract to operate 5.6 million train-km per year in March this year and was due to begin running regional services from Leipzig to Magdeburg, Dessau, Lutherstadt Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt and Jüterbog/Falkenberg (Elster) in Brandenburg in December 2015. The operator was required to provide brand new trains, but these have not yet been ordered because of legal challenges initiated by DB, which led the court to order the partial reassessment of the bids.

Subsequently Abellio informed the contracting authorities in early October that it no longer intended to sign the contract, which should have been agreed by the end of September. It is likely that failure to sign the contract by the September deadline led Abellio to believe that it would no longer be able to obtain the train fleet and other facilities required in the relatively short period remaining before the start of operations.

The first phase of the Mid-German S-Bahn Network (Lot 1) will be launched in December this year with a major revision of regional services in and around Leipzig to coincide with the opening of the Leipzig Citytunnel, a new underground north-south rail link beneath the city centre. DB Regio was previously selected to operate these services and is introducing a fleet of brand new Bombardier built class 442 Talent 2 emus (pictured).

Having lost the original Lot 2 tender to Abellio, DB Regio has now agreed to take on the contract and has suggested it will be able to provide the new train fleet required in 25 months' time. DB has also welcomed the fact that the contract guarantees 270 jobs at its DB Regio Südost subsidiary for the next 15 years.

source: Railjournal

[Administrator]

European Commission takes Germany to court over accounting separation

21 Nov 2013

The European Commission announced on November 20 that it is to take Germany to the Court of Justice of the European Union, accusing it of failing to comply with rules on financial transparency in the rail sector.

The Commission claims that Germany’s current arrangements do not exclude the possibility of public funds intended for infrastructure and public service obligation trains being used to cross-subsidise passenger and freight services which are open to competition. This could give an unfair competitive advantage to bodies receiving the public subsidies.

The Commission considers that Germany has failed to comply with key provisions of the First Railway Package on financial transparency (directives 91/440/EEC and 2001/14/EC now replaced by the Rail Recast 2012/34/EU):

by failing to ensure that accounts for the infrastructure and operations are kept in a way which reflects the prohibition on transferring public funds for infrastructure to transport activities;
by failing to ensure that access charges may only be used to fund the business of the infrastructure manager;
by failing to ensure that public funds paid for the provision of passenger transport under public service obligations are shown separately in the accounts.

Separately, the Commission has told Italy to establish a permanent body to enforce passenger rights within two months or face referral to the court. Spain has been instructed to bring its national rules in line with EU legislation on railway interoperability including Directive 2008/57/EC.

source: RG

[Administrator]

Alstom opens high speed train delivery centre

03 Nov 2013


Euroduplex delivery centre at Belfort (Photo: Alstom Transport/C Lemontey)

Alstom officially opened a 'delivery centre' for Euroduplex double-deck high speed trainsets at its Belfort factory on October 24.

The delivery centre has been developed over four years as part of Alstom's strategy of exercising tighter control over its testing and commissioning cycles, and equipping itself to be able to supply SNCF with trainsets that can enter passenger service as soon as they are delivered.

The delivery centre has a 200 m inspection pit providing access to the brakes and running gear, while there is access to the roof operations along the whole length of a trainset.

source: RG