DB AutoZug GmbH was a German rail transport company that provided automobile (
Motorail
A motorail train or accompanied car train (ACT) is a passenger train on which passengers can take their car or automobile along with them on their journey. Passengers are carried in normal passenger carriages or in sleeping carriages on longer ...
) and night passenger train services for
Deutsche Bahn AG
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
. It was based in Dortmund and was a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG. On 30 September 2013 the company was merged into DB AG's long-distance division
DB Fernverkehr
DB Fernverkehr AG ( German for "DB Long-Distance Traffic") 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 Deutsche Bahn, ...
.
Night trains were operated with the sister company
CityNightLine AG (headquartered in
Zurich, Switzerland);
until CityNightLine AG merged with
DB NachtZug
City Night Line, abbreviated CNL, was a train category of German railway company Deutsche Bahn for overnight passenger train services between Germany and neighbouring European countries. In late 2015, Deutsche Bahn announced that it planned to te ...
. DB AutoZug GmbH and
CityNightLine
CityNightLine AG (timetable and platform sign abbreviation: CNL) was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and ...
were subsidiaries of
DB Fernverkehr AG
DB Fernverkehr AG (German for "DB Long-Distance Traffic") 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 Deutsche Bahn, u ...
which in turn was a wholly owned subsidiary of
DB Mobility Logistics AG.
DB AutoZug GmbH was also responsible for the car transporter trains from
Niebüll
Niebüll (Mooring (North Frisian dialect), Mooring North Frisian: ''Naibel''; da, Nibøl) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated near the North Sea coast and the border with Denmark, approx. 35&n ...
-
Westerland, known as the SyltShuttle, as well as the
''Schifffahrt und Inselbahn Wangeroogeshipping'' (Island railway of Wangerooge).
History
Background
The first car transported by rail in Germany was carried by the
Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
on 1 April 1930. At first only the rich and privileged could afford cars and the market was small. In the 1950s, Britain and France started to run car transporter trains. In the Summer of 1956, the first true car train in Germany ran, via
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and also
Ostend
Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...
; the drivers travelled in a passenger car, whilst their automobile was carried by the same train. The German economic recovery in the 1960s brought an increase in travel and a corresponding increase in the number of cars transported, increasing eightfold to 80,000 by 1969, many holiday makers travelling to warmer more sunny parts of Europe. The numbers of cars transported peaked in 1973, at 185,550 vehicles; the
oil crisis put an end to this growth. In 1978, the Bundesbahn cut back by 40% its number of terminals due to a lack of demand. The increase in car ownership in the 1980s did little to help the rail-car transporter business - changes in lifestyle meant that people often expected to drive their cars all the way to their holiday destination (which represented most of the car by rail business). Additionally, the seasonal nature of the business meant that buying new wagons was not profitable. In this decade the number of people flying over to a holiday overtook those travelling by rail. Also in this decade, the transport of caravans and boats also ceased. After the merger of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn - in 1996 a new company was formed: DB AutoZug.
Company history and operations
Created in 1997 the DB brand AutoZug was responsible for the companies' private car transportation business. In 1999 the night trains of the Deutsche Bahn including the brands
UrlaubsExpress and
DB NachtZug
City Night Line, abbreviated CNL, was a train category of German railway company Deutsche Bahn for overnight passenger train services between Germany and neighbouring European countries. In late 2015, Deutsche Bahn announced that it planned to te ...
also came under the company's control.
[''Neuer Fahrplan: Ausgeschlafen, geneigt und schneller beim Sprint''. In: '']mobil
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
''. Mai 1999, S. 10. From 2002, the organisation became DB AutoZug GmbH, and a company in its own right.
From 1 January 2003 the Euro Night and D-night trains were the responsibility of DB AutoZug GmbH.
In December 2007 DB NachtZug and UrlaubsExpress were branded together under the new name
CityNightLine
CityNightLine AG (timetable and platform sign abbreviation: CNL) was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and ...
. At the same time, the number of car-trains was reduced by around 1200 to approximately 920, and four of the nine terminals were closed.
2008 brought the procurement of new-car wagons to replace some of up to 40 years old.
[''Deutsche Bahn streicht Angebot an Autozügen zusammen''](_blank)
In: ''Die Welt'', 1. November 2007 2007, the company transported 183,000 vehicles and generated with a turnover of 60 million euros.
For holiday travel by car, the market share of the company was less than 0.5 percent, 70% of the customers were regulars, a quarter were pensioners. Statistically, customers had an above average income.
[''DB Autozug hat viel mehr Potenzial als gedacht''. In: DB Welt, Ausgabe September 2008, S. 7]
By the 2008 holiday season, further changes in service were made: the terminal in
Troisdorf
Troisdorf () is a city in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (district), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Troisdorf is located approximately 22 kilometers south of Cologne and 13 kilometers north east of Bonn.
Division of the city
Troisdorf consi ...
Germany closed, and services to
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...
(Italy),
Fréjus
Fréjus (; ) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 54,458.
It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, effectively forming one urban agglomeration. The north of ...
(France) and
Rijeka
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...
(Croatia) no longer in operation, however in
Alessandria
Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin.
Alessandria ...
(Italy) a new terminal came into operation.
[Meldung ''Autozug-Angebot „gestrafft“''. In: ]Eisenbahn-Revue International
''Schweizer Eisenbahn-Revue (SER)'' ( en, Swiss Railway Review) is a Swiss trade journal for the rail transport industry.
History and profile
Appearing monthly since 1978, the SER is written by correspondents (some writing anonymously) in rail t ...
, Ausgabe Juli 2008, , S. 352
Other services
Night trains
![Hindenburgdamm, 218 315-0 mit dem Sylt Shuttle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Hindenburgdamm_mit_dem_Sylt_Shuttle.jpg)
Comprising the former
UrlaubsExpress and
DB NachtZug
City Night Line, abbreviated CNL, was a train category of German railway company Deutsche Bahn for overnight passenger train services between Germany and neighbouring European countries. In late 2015, Deutsche Bahn announced that it planned to te ...
and the '
EuroNight
EuroNight, abbreviated EN, is a European train category which denotes many main-line national and international night train services within the Western and Central European inter-city rail network. Overview
The classification and name were bro ...
' and '
D-Nacht' services.
Wangerooge Island Railway
DB AutoZug GmbH was also the controlling company for the SyltShuttle and the railway on the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
island of
Wangerooge
Wangerooge is one of the 32 Frisian Islands in the North Sea located close to the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It is also a municipality in the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony in Germany.
Wangerooge is one of the East Fri ...
.
SyltShuttle
The SyltShuttle is a car transporting service to the Island of
Sylt
Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...
which is connected to the mainland by the
Hindenburgdamm
The Hindenburgdamm or Hindenburg Dam is an 11 km-long causeway joining the North Frisian island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein. Its coordinates are . It was opened on 1 June 1927 and is exclusively a railway corridor. The companie ...
causeway, a man made construction carrying rail tracks but no road.
DB Autozug terminals
Germany
![Syltshuttle001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Syltshuttle001.jpg)
As of 2009 there are seven car/rail terminals in Germany
DB Autozug terminals in Germany
''dbautozug.de''
Rest of Europe
As of 2009 the European terminals were:
See also
* Motorail
A motorail train or accompanied car train (ACT) is a passenger train on which passengers can take their car or automobile along with them on their journey. Passengers are carried in normal passenger carriages or in sleeping carriages on longer ...
References
Main sources
Schifffahrt und Inselbahn Wangerooge
Shipping and Railway of Wangerooge Island. DB company website. ''siw-wangerooge.de''
CityNightLine
Company website ''citynightline.ch''
Company website ''autozug.de''
Company website ''syltshuttle.de''
External links
{{Authority control
Deutsche Bahn
Rail freight transport in Germany
Passenger rail transport in Germany
Night trains