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Deutsche Bahn
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Deutsche Bahn AG (short DB AG, DBAG or DB) is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company (AG). It came into existence in 1994 as the successor of the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany. It also gained ownership of former railway assets in West Berlin held by the VdeR.
The second step of the Bahnreform was carried out in 1999.
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Encyclopedia
Deutsche Bahn AG (short DB AG, DBAG or DB) is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company (AG). It came into existence in 1994 as the successor of the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany. It also gained ownership of former railway assets in West Berlin held by the VdeR.
The second step of the Bahnreform was carried out in 1999. All rolling track, personnel and real assets were divided among the holding and the five principal subsidiaries of DBAG: DB Reise & Touristik AG (long distance passenger service, later renamed DB Fernverkehr AG), DB Regio AG (regional passenger services, in the course of the reform under charge of the federal states), DB Cargo AG (freight services, later changed to Railion AG), DB Netz AG (operating the railway system), and DB Station & Service AG (operating the stations). This new organisational scheme was not least introduced to implement the European Community directive 91/440/EEC that demands access to railway system free of discrimination.
The group is the largest German railway enterprise and one of the largest transport corporations in the world. About two billion passengers are served each year.
DBAG has taken over the abbreviation and logo DB from the West German state railway Deutsche Bundesbahn, although it has modernised the logo, which is occasionally called "Dürrkeks" (after Heinz Dürr, the first chairman of the DB AG), a play on words meaning "meagre biscuit", referring to its shape and the sans-serif font, especially when compared to the older, more rounded Bundesbahn logo.
Originally DBAG was headquartered in Frankfurt am Main but moved to Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin in 1996, where it is located in a 26-story office tower designed by Helmut Jahn, at the eastern end of the Sony Center and appropriately named BahnTower. As the lease expires in 2010, DB had announced plans to relocate to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, but these plans changed, as the decision was made to lease the BahnTower for at least three more years. A move to Hamburg was briefly considered in 2005, but these plans were abandoned after political pressure.
History
While the railroad network in Germany dates back to 1835 when the first tracks were laid on a six-kilometre route between Nuremberg and Fürth, Deutsche Bahn has been a relatively recent development in German Railway history. Founded in January 1994 as a joint stock company, Deutsche Bahn was designed to operate both the railways of the former East and West Germany after unification in November 1989 as a single uniform privately-run company. In its brief but interesting history there are three main development periods in this unified German railway: Formation of Deutsche Bahn, Early years (1994-1999), and 2000 to present
Formation of Deutsche Bahn
high speed train on the Frankfurt-Cologne high-speed rail line, Germany]]
The foundation of Deutsche Bahn was the political and economic response to two very different challenges in the last decade of the 20th century: the fall of communism in East Germany and the political reunification of both East Germany and West Germany into a single unified Germany and the amalgamation of two very different railway networks Deutsche Reichsbahn in the east and Deutsche Bundesbahn in the west. Although the political reunification of the two German states had taken place unbelievably quickly, the alignment of two railway systems is another story and remains a constant challenge for the current German Government. The problem involves the condition of the East German railway infrastructure and its. While the system in West was modern, efficient and easily met the European Railway standards, it seemed in some places as if time had stood still for the system in the east. In 1990, only 30 percent (3,829 km) of the C network was electrified compared to 45 percent (11,700 km) of Deutsche Bundesbahnnetwork. In East Germany less than one third of the entire network had more than one track compared to almost 46 percent (12,300 km) in the West. Also, most of DR's infrastructure was out-of-date. 67 percent of the signal boxes were over 40 years old (In many cases, points and signal boxes were still operated by hand). 35 percent of the 8,224 bridges and viaducts were over 100 years old. Restrictions on maximum speed and load and lots sections with a temporary speed restriction made operations difficult and slow. DR trains chalked up twice as many kilometres per passenger a year than its West German counterpart
While not as severe as its East German counterparts, the situation for the Deutsche Bundesbahn was also dramatic. Heavy competition from road and air transport resulted in rail drastically losing its share of the market in terms of the overall traffic volume. Despite decreasing personnel costs and increasing revenues, DB had losses in the 80's that stood at DM 44 billion. The German government needed to find a way out of this financial dilemma. Yet none of the officials and their finds could produce any financial models for the railway's long-term success. Convinced that there was no future for Deutsche Bundesbahn, the German government set up a commission to explore the avenue of privtization. In July 1989, the Bundesbahn commission began developing a plan that would release Deutsche Bundesbahn from the German government as a budgetary risk and make them again viable mode of transportation in a growing, single European market. The response to this was deregulation while introducing new legal requirements that would make market-driven services and cost-conscious management possible.
With a unified Germany and new rail reform being passed, it would have been impossible for any government to have ignored the need for reform following reunification of the railway network. On December 2, 1993, an ammendment to the German constitution for a national railway went before the Bundestag. With 559 votes in favor, 12 against and 4 abstentions, the Bundestag cleared the way for a fundamental reform of the railway and thus Deutsche Bahn was born. On January 4, 1994, Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn were history.
Early years (1994–1999)
While Deutsche Bahn began in 1994, their early advancement came from their predecessors, mainly Deutsche Bundesbahn. Development of high speed rail began as far back as 1987. In 1991, the first high speed rail line opened between just north of Stuttgart and just south of Heidelberg.
Corporate subdivisions
The DB group (Deutsche Bahn AG) is divided into three main operations groups: DB Bahn, DB Netze, DB Schenker. All these subsidiaries are companies in their own right, although most of them are 100% owned by DBAG.
DB Bahn
DB bahn is group that manages that manages passenger travel within Germany. Originally called Reise and Touristik, this group includes the managaging, ticketing, servicing, and running of all Intercity Express, Euro City, Inner City, Regional, and Stadtbahn (or city trains)within Germany as well as the information and customer service side.
This division is divided into two separate parts DB Fernverkehr and DB Regio.
DB Regio
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 or their Landkreise. Competition for those state-sponsored services is somewhat more fierce than for long-distance services. Consequently, DB Regio has lost a considerable number of routes to its competitors. Some states have awarded long-term contracts to DB Regio (usually 10 to 15 years), which has sparked harsh criticism from anti-trust groups.
In January 2008, it was announced that, subject to regulatory approval, DB Regio would be taking over Laing Rail in the United Kingdom. This would mean that DB Regio would own Chiltern Railways and be joint operators of London Overground (with MTR Corporation) and Wrexham & Shropshire (with Renaissance Trains). In February 2009, DB Regio were shortlisted as a possible company to run the Tyne and Wear Metro service in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
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.
DB Fernverkehr operates all InterCityExpress and InterCity trains in Germany as well as several EuroCity trains throughout Europe. Unlike its sister companies DB Regio and Railion (formerly 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 (Veolia Verkehr most notably) combined amount to no more than 10-15 train per day.
DB Netz
Infrastructure and services, (including Information Technology) (DB Netz, DB Services, DB Fahrzeuginstandhaltung, DB Systel [formerly DB Telematik & DB Systems], DB Energie, DB Fuhrpark, DB Sicherheit, DB Kommunikationstechnik, DB ProjektBau, DB Station&Service)
DB Schenker Transport and logistics
DB Schenker is freight logistics sububsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. DB Schenker is one of the leading globally integrated logistics service providers. DB Schenker combines all transport and logistic activities of Deutsche Bahn employing over 88,000 staff spread across about 2,000 locations in about 130 countries. Currently it is
- No. 1 in Europe in rail freight
- No. 1 in Europe in combined transport
- No. 1 in Europe in land transportation
- No. 2 worldwide in air freight
- No. 3 worldwide in ocean freight
- No. 6 in global contract logistics
Its subusidaries include Bax Global, Schenker AG, Railion, Transfesa and the former EWS, now "DB Schenker Rail (UK).
Railion
Running as Railion, this company is the largest rail freight distribution company within Europe. Currently the company has over 100,000 shipments daily throughout Europe. This company employs 28,000 people
Railion GmbH has its head office in Mainz, and is the holding company for the five (as of 1st Jan 2009) national subsidiaries Railion Deutschland, Railion Nederland, Railion Danmark, Railion Italy and Railion Schweiz.
Foreign Firms
Deutsche Bahn also has interests abroad, owning rail freight company EWS in the UK (which also operates the British Royal Train ) and also has interests in Eastern Europe.
It is possible to obtain train times for any journey in Europe from Deutsche Bahn's website .
Members of the board
in Berlin, Germany]]
- Hartmut Mehdorn (Chairman since December 16, 1999)
- Diethelm Sack (Finance & Controlling)
- Margret Suckale (Human resources)
- Dr. Otto Wiesheu (Economy and politics)
- Roland Heinisch (Railway interconnection)
- Dr. Karl-Friedrich Rausch (Passenger traffic)
- Dr. Norbert Bensel (Transport and logistics)
- Stefan Garber (Infrastructure and services)
Dr. Werner Müller is the current director of the supervisory board (also at Degussa and Ruhrkohle AG).
Previous chairmen of the board were
- Heinz Dürr, 1994-1997, became director of the supervisory board afterwards.
- Johannes Ludewig, July 9, 1997-September 30, 1999
Codeshare with airlines
In conjunction with American Airlines, Emirates Airline, China Airlines, and Lufthansa, Deutsche Bahn operates the AiRail Service between Frankfurt International Airport and Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hanover, Mannheim, Munich, Nuremberg, and Stuttgart. Deutsche Bahn has the IATA designator 2A.
Privatisation project
The planned privatisation is subject of a highly controversial political discussion in Germany. Whereas the government claims the need for fresh capital and efficiency improvements in favour of the privatisation, the opponents fear a deterioration of service in many less economic sectors. The main question is whether privatisation should be carried out with the railway system (integrated model) or without (split model). A political trade-off is likely, with the split model as basis, but DBAG having the right to operate the railway system for 15 years. An open question is the matter of compensation for investments into the system during this time.
The Social-Democrat Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee was to present a law project before the council of ministers which envisioned selling 25% of DBAG beginning in 2008. At term, the state should retain control by owning a 51% stake. Deutsche Bahn AG is evaluated at €20 billion . However, the railways are evaluated at €200 billion.
In October 2007 the railroad engineer's strike was another problem for the privatisation plans. The engineers' union GDL has refused to accept the labor contracts between DBAG and other unions, claiming a 31% pay rise for its members. The strike was the first nationwide railway strike since 1992 .
Rolling stock
See also
External links
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