Hamburg-Köln-Express GmbH (HKX) was a Cologne-based

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 ...

train operating company In the railway system of Great Britain, a train operating company (TOC) is a railway undertaking operating passenger trains under the collective National Rail brand. TOCs have existed since the privatisation of the network under the Railways ...

providing long-distance railway passenger services in Germany. It was founded in October 2009 as a joint venture by

Railroad Development Corporation The Railroad Development Corporation is an American railroad holding company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It operates several short line railroads outside the United States and acts as an investor, with management and institutional investor ...

(RDC) Deutschland GmbH, an affiliate of USA-based Railroad Development Corp.,

Locomore rail GmbH & CO Locomore (identifier LOC) was a German railway company that operated a higher-speed inter-city rail open access service between four of the most populous German metropolitan areas A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densel ...

. KG, and British railway investor Michael Schabas. D-A-Independent inter-city rail

Starting on 23 July 2012, HKX operated regular services between Hamburg-Altona and

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. The journey took about 4h 20min, similar to that of services operated by DB but with lower fares."Wir sind billiger". ''WirtschaftsWoche'' Nr. 15. 12 April 2010. On 24 March 2018, Flixmobility, the parent company of

Flixbus FlixBus (; styled FLiXBUS) is a German brand that offers low-cost Intercity bus service, intercity coach services in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. It is owned by , which also operates FlixTrain, FlixCar, , and Greyhound Lines. F ...

, took over HKX's operations and the route was rebranded as a Flixtrain route, complementing the former

Locomore Locomore (identifier LOC) was a German railway company that operated a higher-speed inter-city rail open access service between four of the most populous German metropolitan areas in 2016-2017 i.e. the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region, Rhine-Neckar, ...

train service operated by

Leo Express Leo Express, formerly known as Rapid Express, is an open-access train operator in the Czech Republic, established in 2010. It launched inter-city services in November 2012 on the Prague–Ostrava route, on which state-owned operator Czech Rai ...

on behalf of Flixmobility since 2017.

Start

Services were initially planned to start in August 2010 but this was postponed as there were unresolved pathing conflicts between

Keolis Keolis is a French transportation company that operates public transport systems all over the world. It manages bus, rapid transit, tram, coach networks, rental bikes, car parks, water taxi, cable car, trolleybus, and funicular services. B ...

and HKX in the access application process with DB infrastructure affiliate

DB Netz DB Netz () was a major subsidiary of that owned and operated a majority of the German railway system. It was one of the largest railway infrastructure managers by length (33,291 km as of 2019) and transport volume of its network. On 1 Janu ...

. After Keolis withdrew its applications in April 2010, a framework contract was signed in June 2010 with a planned expiry date of December 2015. As of March 2012 the proposed service had still not had its safety case approved by the

Federal Railway Authority The German Federal Railway Authority (, ) 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 Ministry for Digital and Transpo ...

. HKX began selling tickets on 4 July 2012 and started operation on 23 July 2012.

Operations

HKX operated at least one train each way each day, from Fridays to Mondays. Fares for the entire route ranged from €20 to €60. The Hamburg-Köln-Express called at most intermediate stations also served by DB long-distance trains, but left out

Düsseldorf Airport Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the seventh-largest city in Germany, with a 2022 population of 629,047. The Düsse ...

and

Bremen Hbf Bremen Hauptbahnhof (German for ''Bremen main station'') is a railway station in the city of Bremen in northwestern Germany. It is the most important rail station for both the city and state of Bremen; InterCityExpress, Intercity, EuroCity, City ...

. HKX used the freight line bypassing Bremen, reducing journey times to Hamburg. An additional stop at nearby Sagehorn was planned but never introduced. The trains called only at Osnabrück, Münster, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Duisburg, and Düsseldorf. On 14 March 2012

Veolia Verkehr Transdev Germany is the largest private operator of passenger buses and trains in Germany. It is a subsidiary of Transdev. History In 1997, Aktiengesellschaft für Industrie und Verkehrswesen was purchased by a CGEA Group (60%) EnBW (40%) cons ...

, a subsidiary of

Veolia-Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a France-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. Transdev was formed on 3 April 2011 via the merg ...

, signed an agreement to operate the services under contract to HKX. Veolia provided drivers and locomotives. For a time, services were operated using former Rheingold coaches hauled by leased

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

ES 64 U2 "Taurus" type electric locos, which were planned to be replaced by refurbished Class 4010 type trainsets formerly owned by

ÖBB The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...

. From December 2015 onwards, the coaches were from ''Bahn Touristik Express'', which also operated the trains under contract to HKX. The locomotive was still a leased ES 64 U2 "Taurus". Services ran at speeds of up to 160 km/h.

Company's founders

Deutschland GmbH (75%) is based in Berlin and is a 100% subsidiary of the

(RDC). RDC is a Pittsburgh-based railway investment and management company founded in 1987 by

Henry Posner III Henry Posner III is an American transport executive and investor working in the field of rail transport. Posner received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Princeton University in 1977, and received a Master of Business Administration ...

and Robert A. Pietrandrea which has invested in railway operations all over the world. Locomore rail GmbH & CO. KG (17.5%) is a railway traffic enterprise in Berlin with the focus on long-distance traffic. Michael Schabas (7.5%) is a railway investor in London.

Management

Eva Kreienkamp, CEO and CFO, was responsible for business development, strategy, marketing, sales and communication, finances, controlling, legal issues, purchase, and human resources, and was also managing director, RDC Deutschland GmbH. In June 2014, she left the company. Carsten Carstensen, COO, responsible for railway operations and service operation, took over the CEO post after Kreienkamp left, and had been managing director of Locomore Rail GmbH until 2012.

References

External links