The Mittelhessen-Express is a train service operated by

DB Regio AG DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio b ...

in the German state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

on the Main-Weser Railway and the

Dill Railway The Dill Railway (German: ''Dillstrecke'') is a 73 km-long double-track electrified railway line, which runs from Giessen in Hesse to Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 2002 InterRegio trains operated the connection to Düsseldorf, Nord ...

, which was put into operation at the commencement of the 2007 timetable on 10 December 2006. After a re-tender of operations for twelve years, operations of the services from 11 December 2011 were taken over by the DB Regio Hessen GmbH, a newly formed wholly owned subsidiary of

DB Regio DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio bus ...

. The operation of

Bombardier Talent 2 The Talent 2 is a multiple unit railcar manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. The train began production in 2008 and first entered service with Deutsche Bahn in 2011. Despite having the same name as the original Talent, designed by Wag ...

electric multiple units were intended to be used from the beginning of the contract, but were delayed by problems in obtaining certification for their operation from the

Federal Railway Authority The German Federal Railway Authority (german: Eisenbahn-Bundesamt, ) has been the independent federal authority for the regulation of the railways in Germany since 1 January 1994. It is under the supervision and direction of the Federal Minist ...

as on other routes.

Route

The Mittelhessen-Express runs on the

Treysa Treysa, an independent town until 1970, is the biggest ''Stadtteil'' of the German town Schwalmstadt. It was incorporated into Schwalmstadt in December 1970. The location around Treysa and Schwalmstadt is called Schwalm. The historic city lie ...

–

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

–

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

(RB41) and

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German- Dutch holiday road ...

–Giessen–Frankfurt (RB 40) routes. Trains coming from Treysa and Dillenburg are normally coupled together in Giessen and run together for the rest of the route. In the opposite direction the trains are uncoupled at Giessen. On Sundays and on Saturday afternoons and evenings trains are not coupled or uncoupled. On the common section the Mittelhessen-Express stops only at the stations of Frankfurt West, Friedberg,

Bad Nauheim Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. As of 2020, Bad Nauheim has a population of 32,493. The town is approximately north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a wor ...

and

Butzbach Butzbach () is a town in the Wetteraukreis district in Hessen, Germany. It is located approximately 16 km south of Gießen and 35 km north of Frankfurt am Main. In 2007, the town hosted the 47th Hessentag state festival from 1 to 10 June ...

. Since the beginning of the 2010 timetable, the Mittelhessen-Express has stopped every two hours in Bad Vilbel and at stops that were previously served only by Regionalbahn trains between Giessen and Friedberg.

Rolling stock

The two sections of the Mittelhessen-Express consist of class 425 electric multiple units. During peak hour two (three between Giessen and Frankfurt) units are coupled together. Some trains are also operated by the shorter class 426 sets either individually or together with class 425 sets. Some of the vehicles were previously used on the

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

– Eichenberg–

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and

Bebra Bebra () is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Bebra lies some south of Kassel on the Fulda. The town is easy to find on most maps thanks to its prominent location on the ''Fuldaknie'' ...

–Eichenberg–Göttingen lines, where the services were operated by

Cantus Verkehrsgesellschaft Cantus Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH (which translates roughly as Cantus Transport Company Ltd), based in Kassel is a joint subsidiary of Hessische Landesbahn (HLB) and Hamburger Hochbahn (HHA). The word ''cantus'' refers to a steel rail-wheel tyre ...

. Other vehicles were acquired from

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. They were rebranded as ''Mittelhessen-Express'' for the new service. Hoists are available near the cabs for the loading of passengers’ wheelchairs.

Operations

The Mittelhessen-Express runs every hour during the week, but from Saturday afternoon it runs every two hours. Trains on Saturday evening and on Sunday run every two hours alternately via Marburg to Treysa or via Wetzlar to Dillenburg. Trains stops in Giessen for between three and seven minutes (depending on destination and direction) for coupling/uncoupling operations. In Treysa it is possible to continue towards Kassel with a change to the next

Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

service. The wait is 11 minutes for the Regional-Express services, while the wait for an Intercity service has risen from the original 4 to 34 minutes. A wait for the next

RegioTram Kassel The Kassel RegioTram is a tram-train light rail system in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Kassel's tram-train system follows the Karlsruhe model, and has been in full operation since 2007. With special RegioTram tramcars, continuous trips between the ...

service of 23 or 31 minutes is rather unattractive. In Dillenburg it is possible to continue on an RE towards

Siegen Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...

after a 15 minutes wait. The Mittelhessen-Express concept was originally intended to provide for connections to Regionalbahn services, but these are narrowly missed under the current implementation.

Route

Rolling stock

Operations

See also