A contract to operate the Thuringia electric network in central Germany is to be jointly tendered by the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the relevant public transport authorities. The contract will run from December 2030 to December 2043 and covers the following regional express (RE) and stopping train (RB) services:
- RE1: Göttingen - Gera
- RE2: Erfurt - Glauchau ( - Chemnitz)
- RE3: Erfurt - Altenburg
- RB11: Eisenach - Erfurt
- RB20: Eisenach – Naumburg, and
- RB21: (Erfurt -) Weimar - Jena - Göschwitz ( - Gera).
The total volume is 7.4 million train-km each year. The tender will be run as an open competition, with price is the core criterion. Bids must be submitted by December 18.
Northwest Germany
Information for the tender for regional services on the partial networks of Emsland and Mittelland in northwest Germany has been released by the regional transport authorities. The contract will run from December 2030 to December 2040 and covers the following services:
- RE15 Emden - Rheine - Münster
- RE60 Rheine - Osnabrück - Hannover - Brunswick
- RE62 Rheine - Osnabrück - Löhne, and
- RE70 Brunswick - Hannover - Bielefeld.
The total volume is 6.2 million train-km per annum and bidders will be permitted to use existing rolling stock, subject to minimum specifications to be defined by the public transport authorities that will launch the tender in August 2026.
Frankfurt extension
The public transport authority for the Frankfurt am Main area (RMV) has stated its intention to extend by three years the current contract with German Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio for operation of S-Bahn services on the partial Gallus network that includes the following routes:
- S3: Bad Soden - Niederhöchstadt - Frankfurt Rödelheim - Frankfurt West - Frankfurt main station - Frankfurt South
- S4: Kronberg - Niederhöchstadt - Frankfurt West - Frankfurt main station - Frankfurt South
- S5: Friedrichsdorf - Bad Homburg - Frankfurt Rödelheim - Frankfurt West - Frankfurt main station - Frankfurt South, and
- S6: Friedberg - Bad Vilbel - Frankfurt West - Frankfurt main station - Frankfurt South - Langen - Darmstadt.
The current contract is due to expire on December 8 2029 and RMV had planned to launch a new tender, including a requirement to provide new rolling stock. However, delays with infrastructure and signalling improvement projects around Frankfurt have meant that delivery of new trains by 2029 is now impossible, forcing RMV to extend the current contract to December 2032. At present DB Regio operates a fleet of 71 class 423 EMUs for these services and this is expected to rise to 79 trains by 2029.
RMV expects DB Regio to be the only bidder for the new tender. Earlier this year DB launched a tender for up to 400 trains based on its S-Bahn 2029+ concept that will provide new fleets for major German cities including Munich and Stuttgart, as well as Frankfurt. RMV is therefore expecting to run the tender as a negotiation without competition.
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