Netinera (formerly Arriva Deutschland) is a

railway company A railway company is a company within the rail industry. It can be a manufacturing firm or an operator. Some railway companies operate both the trains and the track, while, particularly in the European Union, operation of the track is undertaken ...

operating in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was founded as a subsidiary of British Arriva plc in 2003 and initially headquartered in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. After the acquisition of

Regentalbahn The Regentalbahn (''Regentalbahn AG – Die Länderbahn'') is railway company based in Bavaria, and is owned by Ferrovie dello Stato and the Luxembourg infrastructure fund ''Cube'', through the German holding company of Netinera. It runs railway ...

in 2004, the company's seat was located to Regentalbahn's head office at

Viechtach Viechtach is a town in the district of Regen in Bavaria in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most p ...

in Bavaria. In the following years, many administrative and management positions were seated in Berlin, where the company headquarters were officially moved to in early 2023. With

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 ...

's purchase of

Arriva Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

ruled that Deutsche Bahn would have to shed Arriva's German operations in order to comply with competition rules.

Keolis Keolis is a multinational transportation company that operates public transport systems. The company manages bus, rapid transit, tram, coach networks, rental bikes, car parks, water taxi, cable car, trolleybus and funicular services. Based ...

Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. It pr ...

and

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estate ...

expressed interest in buying the business. It was sold to a

(51%) and French-Luxembourg investment fund Cube (49%) consortium. It was renamed Netinera in March 2011. In December 2020, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane purchased Cube's shareholding.

Bus

In 2005 Arriva bought Sippel which operates buses in

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 ...

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

and

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...

. After losing several public contracts, Sippel closed at the end of 2021. It went to buy Verkehrsbetriebe Bils in 2006, which operates buses in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...

Warendorf Warendorf (, Westphalian: ''Warnduorp'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and capital of Warendorf District. The town is best known today for its well-preserved medieval town centre, for horse-riding, and the opportunities it prov ...

and

Hamm Hamm (, Latin: ''Hammona'') is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of 2016 its population was 179,397. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway. Hamm railwa ...

and later in the year it acquired Neißeverkehr which operates buses in the Neiße region. With the purchase of a majority stake in Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen (OHE) in April 2007, OHE's bus subsidiaries Cebus in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

and KVG Bus in

Stade Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is l ...

also became part of Arriva.

Rail

In 2004 Arriva acquired

Prignitzer Eisenbahn Netinera (formerly Arriva Deutschland) is a railway company operating in Germany. It was founded as a subsidiary of British Arriva, Arriva plc in 2003 and initially headquartered in Hamburg. After the acquisition of Regentalbahn in 2004, the compa ...

(PEG), which operated several lines in Germany around

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

and

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

. Since 2012, PEG is mainly a holding company. Among it's assets is a 50 % stake in

Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn GmbH (''ODEG''; literally "East German Railway") is a joint venture, founded in June 2002, of the Prignitzer Eisenbahn (part of the Netinera Group) and BeNEX, with each company owning 50% of the joint venture. It operates pas ...

(ODEG), which operates regional passenger services on various lines in the Northeast of Germany. In October 2004 it purchased a 77% shareholding in

with its subsidiary Vogtlandbahn, which operates regional rail services in southern and eastern

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, northern and southern

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 ...

, eastern

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

as well as parts of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. In 2006 its shareholding was increased to 97%. In April 2007, a company held by Arriva (95,34 %) and Verkehrsbetriebe Bachstein (4,66 %) acquired an 86% stake in the Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen (OHE) with the remaining 14% held by local municipalities. OHE is a majority shareholder in the

Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Brem ...

which operates regional train services on the

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

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 to

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Hanover to

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 Hanover to

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's hea ...

lines.

Erixx Erixx GmbH (stylized as erixx) is a private railway company operating regional train service in Lower Saxony and Bremen, northern Germany. It is wholly owned by OHE AG. Since 11 December 2011, Erixx operates on behalf of the public transport co ...

is fully owned by OHE and likewise operating regional passenger train services, albeit on more local lines. In September 2012, Netinera ordered 63

Alstom Coradia Lint The Alstom Coradia LINT is an articulated railcar manufactured by Alstom since 1999, offered in diesel and hydrogen fuel models. The acronym ''LINT'' is short for the German ''"leichter innovativer Nahverkehrstriebwagen"'' (light innovative loca ...

s which would be used on regional passenger train services in

Rheinland-Pfalz Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

under the umbrella of a new subsidiary called

Vlexx Vlexx GmbH (stylized in lowercase in its logo) is a rail transport company based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany and a subsidiary of the Regentalbahn, which in turn has been part of the Italian state railway Ferrovie dello Stato (FS ...

. Operations started in December 2014 and were extended in December 2020.

References

External links

Netinera's official website
{{Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, state=collapsed Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Railway companies of Germany Railway companies established in 2003 2003 establishments in Germany