FOLLOWING a European tender, Rhine-Ruhr Transport Authority (VRR) has acquired 48 class 422 EMUs used on Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn services from German Rail (DB) subsidiary DB Regio.
FOLLOWING an international tender, the public transport authorities of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Braunschweig have selected Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland as preferred bidder for both lots of the Saxony-Anhalt Diesel Network regional concession.
GERMANY's largest long-distance bus operator MeinFernbus-Flixbus has revealed plans to launch open-access passenger rail operations, although not initially in its domestic market.
GERMAN open-access operator Hamburg-Cologne (HKX) officially launched its new service from Frankfurt to Hamburg on December15.
BAVARIAN Railway Company (BEG) confirmed on December 16 that it will conclude two contracts to operate the Nuremberg S-Bahn network with National Express after the regional high court in Munich ruled that the operator has provided sufficient financial performance guarantees in compliance with the terms of the original tender.
ALSTOM confirmed on December 15 that it has signed a €160m contract with Hessen State Railways (HLB) to supply 30 Coradia Continental EMUs for the Südhessen-Untermain regional network in central Germany.
THE first pre-series class 490 EMU for the Hamburg S-Bahn network is nearing completion at Bombardier's Hennigsdorf plant north of Berlin, and according to the manufacturer is due to begin testing next month.
NATIONAL Express launched its first passenger operations on the German mainline network on December 13, when it took over the operation of two regional routes in North Rhine Westphaila from DB Regio.
GERMAN Rail (DB) finally started passenger operation of its new IC2 double-deck push-pull inter-city trains with the launch of the 2016 timetable on December 13.
RAILFREIGHT capacity on lines into the port of Hamburg will be increased significantly on December 13 following the completion of infrastructure upgrades which will enable maximum train lengths to be increased from 740m to 835m.
