DB Regio AG is a
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...
of
Deutsche Bahn
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 ...
which operates
regional and
commuter train services in
Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in
Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100%
subsidiary
A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...
of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio business segment, which also includes DB Regionnetz Verkehrs GmbH and other independent subsidiaries.
The company as a mainly nationwide operational company is responsible for all regional transport activities (
rail and bus) of the DB Group in
Germany. This includes traffic in neighboring countries. For the maintenance of the vehicle fleet, the company operates its own workshops.
The company serves 310 lines with 22,800 trains and 295,000 stops every day. It has about ten million customers.
History
The DB Regio AG emerged in the course of the second stage of the rail reform on January 1, 1999, from the local transport division of Deutsche Bahn AG. Original plans were for them to be listed on the stock exchange by 2003. An
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
has not yet been implemented.
The articles of association for DB Regio GmbH were concluded on February 12, 1998, and the company was entered in the commercial register on April 6, 1998. Its sole purpose was the "preparation of the outsourcing of the local passenger transport division of Deutsche Bahn Aktiengesellschaft to a newly founded stock corporation in legal, economic and organizational terms". By resolution of April 27, 1999, the company was renamed Deutsche Bahn Erste Vermögensverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, the object of which was the "administration of its own assets and any activities that are conducive to the aforementioned purpose".
The spin-off of DB Regio Aktiengesellschaft was completed when it was entered in the commercial register on June 1, 1999. The company's purpose was: "Providing, marketing and coordinating transport services for rail and road public transport and the related services; Operation, maintenance, procurement and manufacture of vehicles of all types, in particular locomotives, railcars, railroad cars and buses and coaches; Managing businesses of related companies for their account as well as providing consulting services for third parties. "The company's share capital initially amounted to DM 800 million, which was divided into 80 million shares from various shareholders. The first chairman of the board was Klaus Daubertshäuser. The company's articles of association had already been adopted on November 24, 1998.
In the years 2001 to 2002 a changed management structure was implemented in the company. The previously centrally controlled company was replaced by nine independent national companies, to which the regional train and bus companies were subordinated. The aim of the restructuring was to improve profitability. 400 of the 700 jobs in the DB regional headquarters and around 2500 jobs in the entire company were saved. The regional rail and road traffic was transferred from January 2002 to nine regional lines (North, Northeast, Lower Saxony / Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Southwest, Southeast, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg). The market share of DB Regio in local rail passenger transport (SPNV) in Germany was 92 percent, in the remaining public transport it was seven.
In 2007, DB Regio achieved 70% of its turnover from payments made by the federal states for the provision of local public transport, 29% from ticket sales and 1% from other income. More recent figures are not published.
In 2008, the company founded DB Regio Rheinland GmbH for the first time for the Rhein-Sieg-Express. After winning the tender, around 180 employees from DB Regio NRW should switch to the subsidiary that is not bound by the collective agreement of the group and receive around a fifth less wages there, according to a press report. After protests, the company was merged again with DB Regio NRW in 2011. A sector collective agreement agreed in February 2011 is to apply to future DB Regio subsidiaries.
From 2004 to the end of 2010, the DB Stadtverkehr subsidiary founded for this purpose was responsible for operating bus and city traffic. In February 2010 it was announced that the two S-Bahn companies, S-Bahn Berlin GmbH and S-Bahn Hamburg GmbH, were to be subordinated to DB Regio in March of that year. On January 1, 2011, DB Stadtverkehr was dissolved and Regio Bus was created.
On January 1, 2015, the two regions Southwest and Rhine-Neckar were merged to form the new DB Regio Southwest region.
Another restructuring took place on January 1, 2017, in the course of which DB Regio Südwest and DB Regio Hessen were merged to form DB Regio Mitte.
In the late summer of 2016, the company announced that it would take part in the upcoming award procedures with smaller, more flexible units. Then the regional traffic Start Germany was founded, which participates with its regional subsidiaries in the respective tenders. The DB Regio subsidiary had its first successes in the Lower Elbe network in 2017.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, capacity utilization fell to around 70 percent of the previous level in 2020, according to Berthold Huber, Deutsche Bahn board member responsible for passenger transport.
Corporate structure
Unlike its long-distance counterpart
DB Fernverkehr, DB Regio does not operate trains on its own account. Services are ordered and paid for by the
Bundesländer or their
Landkreise. Some states have awarded long-term contracts to DB Regio (usually 10 to 15 years).
The headquarters of DB Regio in Frankfurt, located at Europa-Allee 70–76, is responsible for business development and focuses on the framework and service functions for the regional units when concluding transport contracts and tenders.
The headquarters of DB Regio in
Frankfurt is responsible for the business development and focuses on the framework and service functions for the regional units in the conclusion of transport contracts and tenders. In addition, it supports the regions in the areas of price and revenue
management,
marketing and
traffic planning
Transportation planning is the process of defining future policies, goals, investments, and spatial planning designs to prepare for future needs to move people and goods to destinations. As practiced today, it is a collaborative process that i ...
. In addition, the
S-Bahn Berlin
The Berlin S-Bahn () is a rapid transit railway system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under this name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff area ''Berliner Stadt-, Ring ...
,
Hamburg,
Munich,
Rhein-Main and
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
are coordinated and controlled by the headquarters.
Rail division (''DB Regio Schiene'')
The rail division is divided into seven regions. In addition, there are five urban commuter trains (
S-Bahn), which are run directly from the headquarters, as well as the independent regio networks (
RegioNetz).
*Regions:
**DB Regio Baden-Württemberg (''
Baden-Württemberg'')
**DB Regio Bayern (''
Bavaria'')
**DB Regio Mitte (''
Hesse,
Rhineland-Palatinate,
Saarland'') (was created on January 1, 2017, through the merger of DB Regio Hessen and DB Regio Südwest)
**DB Regio Nord (''
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
,
Hamburg,
Lower Saxony,
Schleswig-Holstein'')
**DB Regio Nordost (''
Berlin,
Brandenburg,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern'')
**DB Regio NRW (''
North Rhine-Westphalia'')
**DB Regio Südost (''
Saxony,
Saxony-Anhalt,
Thuringia'')
*
S-Bahn:
**
S-Bahn Berlin
The Berlin S-Bahn () is a rapid transit railway system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under this name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff area ''Berliner Stadt-, Ring ...
**
S-Bahn Hamburg
The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the ...
**
S-Bahn München
**
S-Bahn Rhein-Main
The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The network compris ...
**
S-Bahn Stuttgart
*DB RegioNetz Verkehrs GmbH:
**
Erzgebirgsbahn
The Erzgebirgsbahn (sometimes abbreviated as EGB) is a German railway company and a DB Regio, RegioNetz subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn. It operates in the Ore Mountains (German: ''Erzgebirge'') region of southern Saxony, near the towns of Chemnitz an ...
(''
Saxony'')
**
Kurhessenbahn (''
North Hesse
North Hesse (german: Nordhessen) describes the northern part and historical heart of the German federated state of Hesse. The region is – unlike the name Lower Hesse – not a historical territory and also has no established, standard and offic ...
and
North Rhine-Westphalia'')
**
Oberweißbacher Bergbahn
The Oberweißbacher Bergbahn is a German railway in the Thuringian Highland, Thuringia. Since 1922 it connects Obstfelderschmiede (Mellenbach-Glasbach) with the village Cursdorf. The train consists of 1.351 km broad gauge cable railway and a ...
(''
Thuringia'')
**
SüdostBayernBahn (''
Lower Bavaria and
Upper Bavaria'')
**
Westfrankenbahn
The Westfrankenbahn (WFB for short) is a RegioNetz of the Deutsche Bahn AG based in Aschaffenburg.
History
The Westfrankenbahn was founded on January 1, 2006.Magazin " der schienenbus", Heft 6/2006, Seite 77 – Streckenmeldung Kursbuchstrec ...
(''
Lower Franconia and northern
Baden-Württemberg'')
Bus division (''DB Regio Bus'')
The bus division includes 23 bus companies, which in turn own majority interests in other bus companies. With about 725 million passengers and a traffic volume of 8.4 billion passenger kilometers, DB Regio Bus is one of the largest providers of German bus transport. Nationwide, around 13,400 buses are used. As of 2014, the market share in the regular bus market in Germany is about 9 percent.
*''Weser-Ems-Bus'' (''
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
'')
*''Autokraft'' (''
Schleswig-Holstein'')
*''Südniedersachsenbus'' (''
Lower Saxony'')
*''Westfalenbus'' (''
North Rhine-Westphalia'')
*''Ostwestfalen-Lippe-Bus'' (''
North Rhine-Westphalia'')
*''Rheinlandbus'' (''
North Rhine-Westphalia'')
*''Rhein-Nahe-Bus'' (''
Rhineland-Palatinate'')
*''Rhein-Mosel-Bus'' (''
Rhineland-Palatinate'')
*''Busverkehr Hessen'' (''
Hesse'')
*''Südwestbus'' (''
Baden-Württemberg'')
*''Rhein-Neckar-Bus'' (''
Baden-Württemberg'')
*''Regiobus Stuttgart'' (''
Baden-Württemberg'')
*''
Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee
Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee, formerly DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee, is a transport company that operates bus services in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of DB Regio, itself a subsidiary of Deutsch ...
'' (''
Baden-Württemberg'')
*''Südbadenbus'' (''
Baden-Württemberg'')
*''Oberbayernbus'' (''
Bavaria'')
*''Untermainbus'' (''
Bavaria'')
*''Ostbayernbus'' (''
Bavaria'')
*''Frankenbus'' (''
Bavaria'')
*''DB Regio Bus Ost GmbH'' (''
Brandenburg'')
*''Busverkehr Märkisch-Oderland'' (''
Brandenburg'')
*''Busverkehr Oder-Spree'' (''
Brandenburg'')
*''BEX Bayern Express & P. Kühn GmbH'' (''
Berlin'')
Sweden
ÖstgötaTrafiken has given DB Regio Sverige a contract to operate local trains for 10 years from December 12, 2010.
UK
Since Deutsche Bahn's purchase of
Arriva in January 2010, DB Regio's operations in the United Kingdom are now known as
Arriva UK Trains.
Ticket offers
In addition to the standardized local transport tariffs of the respective transport authorities, who are responsible for ordering the individual transports, DB Regio also offers comprehensive flat-rate tickets. In 1995 such a flat-rate ticket was introduced for the first time with the Schöne-Wochenende-Ticket. This is a permanent special offer and entitles up to five people to travel on all DB Regio local trains throughout Germany on Saturdays or Sundays. Travel in local public transport in almost all transport associations is also included.
Package offers in the individual regions are referred to as country tickets. The country tickets allow journeys throughout the region at a flat rate. These tickets are available in single and multi-person versions. The first national ticket was introduced in
Bavaria in 1997. Over ten million country tickets are sold every year.
In 2009 the Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket was introduced. It closes the gap between the beautiful weekend ticket, valid nationwide, but only on weekends, and the country tickets, which are also valid during the week, but are regionally limited.
Fleet
Rounded numbers, taken fro
* 1,300 locomotives
* 5,300 passenger cars
* 3,100 multiple units
See also
*
S-Bahn
*
Berlin S-Bahn
*
Dresden S-Bahn
*
Hamburg S-Bahn
The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the s ...
*
Hanover S-Bahn
The Hanover S-Bahn (in German: ''S-Bahn Hannover'') is an S-Bahn network operated by DB Regio and Transdev Hannover in the area of Hanover in the German state capital of Lower Saxony. It went operational shortly before Expo 2000 and is focused o ...
*
Magdeburg S-Bahn
*
Mitteldeutschland S-Bahn
S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland represents an enlargement of the previous Leipzig-Halle S-Bahn. It is an Railway electrification system, electric rail public transit system operating in the metropolitan area of Leipzig-Halle, Germany. This S-Bahn (Germa ...
(
Leipzig /
Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the Germany, German States of ...
)
*
Munich S-Bahn
*
Nuremberg S-Bahn
*
Rhein-Main S-Bahn
The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The network comp ...
(
Frankfurt /
Mainz /
Wiesbaden)
*
Rhein-Neckar S-Bahn (
Ludwigshafen
Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...
/
Mannheim /
Heidelberg /
Karlsruhe)
*
Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn (
Ruhr Area /
Düsseldorf /
Cologne)
*
Rostock S-Bahn
*
Stuttgart S-Bahn
The Stuttgart S-Bahn is a suburban railway system (S-Bahn) serving the Stuttgart Region, an urban agglomeration of around 2.7 million people, consisting of the city of Stuttgart and the adjacent districts of Esslingen, Böblingen, Ludwi ...
References
External links
*
Official DB Regio website
{{Authority control
Deutsche Bahn
Railway companies of Germany
German companies established in 1999
Railway companies established in 1999