Eurobahn GmbH & Co. KG is a railway operator in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, established in 1998. It operates 15 regional train services in 4 contracts in the state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, with cross-border services including

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It is owned by Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe, the rail authority for eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, where the majority of Eurobahn's services operate. Initially a joint venture between Keolis and Rhenus operating bus and rail services, it became a 100% Keolis subsidiary operating rail services in 2007. From 1 January 2022 until May 2025, it was owned by the law firm Noerr.

History

Company history

Eurobahn was founded as ''Eurobahn Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH & Co KG,'' later ''Rhenus Keolis'', in 1998 as a 60/40 joint venture between Keolis (then VIA-GTI) and Rhenus. In December 2007, the joint venture was dissolved; Rhenus taking ownership of the bus operations and two railway contracts under the name Rhenus Veniro, Keolis taking full ownership of Eurobahn, renaming the company as ''Keolis Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG''. In October 2021, Keolis announced its intention to sell the business and exit the German market. The business was sold to Team Treuhand, a subsidiary of Noerr law firm, effective 31 December 2021, while renaming it to its present name. In May 2025, Eurobahn was taken over for one symbolic Euro by Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe, the rail authority for eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, where the majority of Eurobahn's services operate.

Regional rail services

Overview: In May 2000, Eurobahn commenced operating two rail services in the East Westphalia-Lippe region (OWL) in

.Keolis Germany: yesterday, today & tomorrow
Eurobahn In 2013 the OWL contract was renewed until December 2028 with an additional two routes added. From December 2003 until December 2011, Eurobahn operated the Weser-/Lammetalbahn contract. On 14 December 2008, Eurobahn commenced operating the

Hellweg Net The Hellweg net consists of the four Regionalbahn lines in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia: RB 50 (Münster Hauptbahnhof, Münster – Lünen Hauptbahnhof, Lünen – Dortmund Hauptbahnhof, Dortmund), RB 59 (Dortmund – Unna station, Unn ...

services. In 2015, the contract was extended until 2030. In December 2009, Eurobahn commenced operating the Maas-Rhine-Lippe network until December 2026. In December 2017, Eurobahn commenced operating the Teutoburger Wald network until December 2032. Eurobahn was scheduled to commence operating Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn routes S1 and S4 under contract to

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (), abbreviated VRR, is a public transport association (Verkehrsverbund) in the Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It covers large parts of the Ruhr, Ruhr area, the Lower Rhine region including Düsse ...

(VRR) in December 2019. However with Eurobahn unable to recruit enough drivers before the contract commenced, VRR cancelled the contract with incumbent DB Regio awarded a short-term contract instead.

Long-distance rail services

From December 2000, Eurobahn operated an

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

long-distance rail service between Cologne and Bielefeld, using its Bombardier Talent rail cars offering fares as low as 40 DM, a third less than its competitor DB Reise & Touristik. Due to insufficient patronage, the service was withdrawn in January 2001. Since December 2016, Eurobahn is providing the train drivers for the

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

high-speed rail service (originally Thalys) for its German section between Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund.

Services

Eurobahn operate services on the following lines:

Current

Former

Eurobahn formerly operated the following services:

Rolling stock

The Eurobahn fleet consists of Bombardier Talents and Stadler Flirts.Our trains
Eurobahn

References

External links

{{Keolis, state=collapsed Keolis Railway companies of Germany Railway companies established in 1998 1998 establishments in Germany