Deutsche Bahn

The Deutsche Bahn Group is divided into various organizational units that perform their tasks with subsidiaries.

Arriva

Arriva North West Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TL in Liverpool in June 2013

Deutsche Bahn placed a bid in May 2010 for the UK-based transport company Arriva. Arriva runs bus and rail companies in 12 European countries. The merger was approved by the European Commission in August 2010, subject to DB divesting Arriva services in Germany (these are now run as Netinera). The merger became effective on 27 August 2010.[6]

Services in the UK formerly run as DB Regio are now operated by a new subdivision of the company, Arriva UK Trains. It operates the Chiltern Railways, and CrossCountry franchises as well as open-access operator Grand Central. It also operates the London Overground concession as Arriva Rail London. The former Tyne & Wear Metro operations, already started by DB Regio UK, ended in 2017, while Arriva Trains Wales services passed to Transport for Wales in 2018.

DB Fernverkehr

A Siemens Velaro ICE 3 long-distance high speed train of DB Fernverkehr

DB Fernverkehr AG is a semi-independent division of Deutsche Bahn that operates long-distance passenger trains in Germany. It was founded in 1999 in the second stage of the privatisation of German Federal Railways under the name of DB Reise & Touristik and renamed in 2003.

An IC2 Bombardier Twindexx /Doppelstock long distance Intercity Train also from DB Fernverkehr at Köln Hbf.

DB Fernverkehr operates all InterCityExpress and InterCity trains in Germany as well as in some neighboring countries and several EuroCity and EuroCityExpress trains throughout Europe. Unlike its sister companies DB Regio and DB Cargo, DB Fernverkehr still holds a de facto monopoly in its segment of the market as it operates hundreds of trains per day, while all competitors' long-distance services combined amount to no more than 10–15 trains per day.

Additionally DB Fernverkehr operates a few long-distance coach services throughout Germany, called IC Bus.

DB Regio

A Bombardier Talent 2 regional train of DB Regio in Bavaria

DB Regio AG is the subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn that operates passenger trains on short and medium distances in Germany. Unlike its long-distance counterpart, DB Fernverkehr, it does not operate trains on its own account. Traffic is ordered and paid for by the Bundesländer (states) or their respective SPNV-Aufgabenträger (Regional train operation supervisors).

Some states have awarded long-term contracts to DB Regio (usually 10 to 15 years), in others, DB Regio's operations are decreasing, in North Rhine-Westphalia, their market share is expected to be lower than 50%. DB Regio rail services are divided into several regional companies:

• DB Regio Nord for Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Bremen
• DB Regio Nordost for Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
• DB Regio NRW for North Rhine-Westphalia
• DB Regio Südost for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia
• DB Regio Hessen for Hesse
• DB Regio Südwest for Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, parts of Baden-Württemberg and Hesse
• DB Regio Baden-Württemberg for the rest of Baden-Württemberg
• DB Regio Bayern for Bavaria
• S-Bahn Hamburg
• S-Bahn Berlin
• RegioNetz (small, independent networks, like Erzgebirgsbahn, Gäubodenbahn, Kurhessenbahn, Oberweißbacher Bergbahn, Südostbayernbahn, Westfrankenbahn for easier organisation)

The bus services consist of 25 bus companies, which have subsidiary companies themselves.

Logistics

Freight train from DB Cargo in Germany

The Transport and Logistics division acted in the market with the business units DB Schenker Logistics and DB Schenker Rail, which were combined under the umbrella of DB Schenker, and the Intermodal division, which operates in combined transport. In 2016, rail freight transport was separated from logistics and DB Schenker Rail was renamed DB Cargo.

Foreign firms

DB Schenker Rail (UK) Class 67 hauling Chiltern Railways Mark 3 carriages at Leamington Spa on the Chiltern Main Line

DB also has interests abroad, owning the United Kingdom's largest rail freight operator, DB Cargo UK, which also operates the British Royal Train[9] and also has interests in Eastern Europe. It is possible to obtain train times for any journey in Europe from Deutsche Bahn's website.[10]

Trans-Eurasia Logistics is a joint venture with Russian Railways (RŽD) that operates container freight trains between Germany and China via Russia.

Key persons

Richard Lutz, CEO of the DB Group

While the railway network in Germany dates back to 1835 when the first tracks were laid on a 6 km (3.7 mi) route between Nuremberg and Fürth, Deutsche Bahn has been a relatively recent development in German railway history. On January 1, 1994, Deutsche Reichsbahn and Deutsche Bundesbahn were merged to form one company, and so, they became Deutsche Bahn. At the same time, Deutsche Bahn adopted its current logo and DB abbreviation. Kurt Weidemann modernised the logo and typographer Erik Spiekermann designed a new corporate font known as DB Type. When Deutsche Bahn was formed in January 1994, it became a joint stock-company, and were designed to operate the railways of both the former East and West Germany after unification in October 1990 as a single, uniform, and private company.[11] There are three main periods of development in this unified German railway: its formation, its early years (1994–1999), and the period from 1999 to the present.

Originally, DBAG had its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main but moved to Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin in 1996, where it occupies a 26-storey office tower designed by Helmut Jahn at the eastern end of the Sony Center and named Bahntower. As the lease was to expire in 2010, DB had announced plans to relocate to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, and in 2007 a proposal for a new headquarters by 3XN Architects won an architectural competition which also included Foster + Partners, Dominique Perrault and Auer + Weber.[12] However, these plans were put on hold due to the financial crisis of 2008, and the Bahntower lease was extended.[13] Construction of the new headquarters building was started in 2017 under the title "Cube Berlin" according to the designs by 3XN. Finished in February 2020, the Cube will house the legal offices of Deutsche Bahn, but not become the main headquarters.[14]

• 
  Deutsche Bahn's second and former logo as Deutsche Reichsbahn used from April 1, 1920 to April 26, 1945.
• 
  Deutsche Bahn's third and previous logo as Deutsche Reichsbahn used from August 30, 1924 to December 31, 1993.
  This logo were used in tandem with the 1920 logo until April 27, 1945.
• 
  Deutsche Bahn's previous secondary logo as Deutsche Bundesbahn used from October 10, 1946 to December 31, 1993.
• 
  Deutsche Bahn's fourth and current logo since January 1, 1994.

• DB Fernverkehr
• DB Regio
• DB Cargo

Trains in Germany are classified by their stopping pattern:[20]

• Fernverkehr (long-distance trains), also Fernzug
  • ICE (Intercity-Express ) for high-speed long-distance train services between major cities and regions. Does also cross European borders to the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Austria.
  • EC (EuroCity) for IC trains that cross borders, and connects Germany with other countries. Can also be operated by foreign State Railways. Can have carriages from various European countries.
  • IC (InterCity) for long-distance semi-high-speed services, that connects regions and cities. Serves as a "mini ICE" with trains reaching high speed (average around 160 – 220 km/h) , but stops more frequently, and in smaller cities than ICE services. On some IC lines the trains go on older railways instead of the high speed lines the ICE takes. International IC services are usually operated As Euro-City.

• As like ICE, EC and (few) IC do cross European borders, train categories of other operators do so into Germany and are operated in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn:
  • ECE (EuroCity Express) for international high-speed rail services. Currently only one route from Frankfurt to Milan
  • TGV from France to Frankfurt and Munich via Stuttgart
  • RJ (Railjet) from Austria to Munich and Frankfurt as well as to Berlin

• Nahverkehr (local trains)
  • IRE (Interregio-Express) longer distance RE trains, that connects regions and cities. Serves as slower IC trains. IRE trains only exist in Baden-Württemberg and on the Hamburg–Berlin route
  • RE (Regional-Express) serves regions and connects cities, and does not stop at every Station on the route.
  • RB (Regionalbahn) stops at all stations on the route (except where S-Bahn is available) and is the most basic train service
  • S (S-Bahn) is rapid transit and most services stop at all stations. S-Bahn operate high-frequency services and are comparable with, for example, the London Overground

Train categories no longer used include:

• MET (Metropolitan) was a luxury train service between Hamburg and Cologne. The two special MET train sets are now used for IC and ICE services, and does still have a comfort level above the regular IC and ICE coaches
• IR (InterRegio), set between RE and IC was meant to connect cities and regions at a lower price, but also be used for local traffic. Replaced partly by IC, RE and IRE
• SE (Stadt-Express) operated as a mixture of RE and RB: trains skipped many stations in urban areas but made all stops in the countryside. Rebranded as RE and RB. In some regions, such as Rhine-Main (Frankfurt, Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund), the local transit authority advertised trains as SE. Internally, DB classified them as either RE or RB, but even DB trains display "SE" on their destination boards. This ceased in December 2016.

In the early days of DBAG, the most basic train categories, which were in use since the early days of rail travel in Germany, were also used:

• D (D-Zug or Schnellzug, abbreviated from Durchgangszug) was the express train category and used to be the highest train category. It was replaced by IC and the even faster ICE. The trains of the SyltShuttle plus car shuttle service connecting the island of Sylt with the mainland are still officially referred to as D trains
• E (Eilzug) was the semi-fast service offering faster journeys than normal passenger trains but not at such long distances and speed as D trains, though there were some quite long running E trains. No direct successor, would be located between RE and IC
• N (Nahverkehrszug), the most basic form of train service stopping at all stations. When all local train services were vertaktet, i.e. operating at a fixed interval (mostly one train per hour), they were rebranded as RB

There are several other operators in Germany which sometimes offer other categories, also, a local transport authority or tariff associations might brand the trains in a different way than DB does. For example, in the Nuremberg region, RE and RB trains are not differentiated, but called R instead. In some regions, such as Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg, private operators do use the RE and RB labels, in others, such as Saxony, they do not. In online and print information systems of DB, private trains officially labelled RB and RE by their operators, might get a different label, for example "ABR" for trains operated by Abellio, though on platforms, trains and maps or timetables issued by the local transport authority overseeing regional train services, these abbreviations usually do not appear.

In conjunction with Emirates, China Airlines, TAM Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and Lufthansa, Deutsche Bahn operates the AIRail Service between Frankfurt Airport and Köln Hauptbahnhof/Bonn Hauptbahnhof, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Mannheim, Munich, Nuremberg, and Stuttgart. Deutsche Bahn has the IATA designator 2A.[21]

DB offers two different pricing models:

• The Flexpreis (originally Normalpreis): gives full flexibility, i.e., all trains on the given date can be used on the chosen route
• The Sparpreis or Super-Sparpreis is the cheaper, advanced fare. Prices for long-distance journeys start as low as €19.90, but Sparpreis tickets are only valid on ICE, IC or EC trains noted on the ticket.

Local trains (S, RB, RE, IRE) also accept tickets issued by local transport associations, which can also be used on buses, trams, and U-Bahn trains.

DB offers concessionary fares with the BahnCard, which is available as BahnCard 25 (25% discount on Flexpreis and Sparpreis), BahnCard 50 (50% discount on Flexpreis and 25% discount on Sparpreis), and BahnCard 100 (unlimited travel on all Deutsche Bahn trains, a few private train companies and also in many local transport associations).

Other special tickets, such as Interrail or the Länder-Tickets, give unlimited journeys on local trains and in many transport associations within a state, are also available. These Länder-Tickets offer group tickets, where up to five people can travel on a single ticket.[22]

• DB Fernverkehr
• DB Regio
• DB Cargo
• Rail transport in Germany
• Railway electrification system
• Transport in Germany

Media related to Deutsche Bahn at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• DB Corporate Home Page
• DB travel portal