ITALIAN open-access railfreight operator Nordcargo has been rebranded DB Schenker Rail Italia, bringing it into line with other DB Schenker Rail subsidiaries outside Germany.
BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG transport authority (NVBW), together with transport authorities in southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Bergstrasse, and Saarland have selected DB Regio for a contract to operate Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn Lot 1 for 17 years from December 2016.
Low-price long-distance buses are proving stern competition to rail operations across Germany to the extent that Veolia's InterConnex service was withdrawn in December. Christian Schreyer, Veolia Verkehr's CEO, outlined his views on the situation to Kevin Smith.
GERMAN Rail's (DB) next-generation long-distance train the ICx made its first appearance on the German mainline network at the end of December, when the first ICx set was hauled from Bombardier's Henningsdorf plant near Berlin to Siemens' Wildenrath test centre in North Rhine Westphalia.
BLS, Switzerland, announced on January 6 that it has reached an agreement with German Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Schweiz Holding, part of DB Schenker Rail, to buy back its 45% stake in BLS Cargo for an undisclosed sum.
THE Bavarian Railway Authority (BEG) has signed a direct award contract with DB Regio subsidiary Südostbayernbahn for the operation of regional services on the so-called Mühldorf Star network, which encompasses non-electrified lines in southeastern Bavaria from December 2015.
THE government of the German state of North Rhine Westphalia has signed three financing and implementation agreements with Rhineland Transport Authority (NVR) and German Rail (DB) for the long-planned extension of Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn Line S13 from Troisdorf to Bonn Oberkassel.
GERMAN Rail (DB) board member for infrastructure and services Dr Volker Kefer has unveiled details of plans to spend a minimum of €28bn over the next four years on maintenance and investment in Germany's mainline rail network.
VEOLIA Transport has sent an open letter to German federal transport minister Mr Alexander Dobrindt calling for the end of discrimination against rail in the German transport market, particularly in the long-distance arena, where trains have faced an onslaught from cheaper buses since the liberalisation of the German bus market in January 2013.
THALYS, which operates high-speed services between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne and Essen, will become an independent company on March 31 2015 for the first time since it was set up as a purely commercial entity in 1996.
