German operating companies

Abellio Rail NRW GmbH

Abellio Rail NRW GmbH (ABRN), headquartered in Hagen, is one of the largest private rail companies in North Rhine-Westphalia.

ABRN currently offers a service volume of around 20.6 million train kilometres and carrying 62 million passengers per year. With the Ruhr-Sieg-Netz, the S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr and the Rhein-Ruhr-Express, ABRN sets the pace for millions of commuters on the Rhine and Ruhr. Abellio is also active in the cross-border Lower Rhine network between Arnhem and Düsseldorf and connects the Dutch province of Gelderland with the most populous German state. 1,052 colleagues work for the North Rhine-Westphalian company, which has received several awards for its service quality. ABRN started the second phase of the Rhine-Ruhr Express with the operation of the RE 1 line in June 2020, which connects the cities in North Rhine-Westphalia from Dortmund to Aachen.

Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland GmbH

Abellio also plays an important role in Central Germany. Since 2015, Abellio trains are running on the Saale-Thüringen-Südharz (STS) electric network and since December 2018 in the Dieselnetz Sachsen-Anhalt (DISA) network. Thousands of passengers are now able to travel with Abellio in the Harz and Börde regions and as well between the major cities of Erfurt and Magdeburg.

The large-scale construction works at the two major hubs of Halle and Köthen in Mitteldeutschland led to great difficulties in planning, unpunctuality and penalties.

WestfalenBahn GmbH

The company is based in Bielefeld and connects the cities of Braunschweig and Hannover in Lower Saxony with Bielefeld and Rheine in North Rhine-Westphalia. From Münster there is a direct connection via Meppen and Leer to Emden at the North Sea. The WestfalenBahn expanded its train service between Hannover and Braunschweig. On Sundays there is also a half-hourly service between the two largest cities in Lower Saxony. This corresponds to almost 1,000 additional trips per year.

Abellio Rail Baden-Wurttemberg GmbH

The company is located in Stuttgart. On June 9, 2019, the first phase, on December 8, 2019 the second phase and on June 13, 2020 the third and final phase of the concession were put into operation.

The train manufacturer was only able to deliver a very limited number of the 52 new trains ordered to Baden-Württemberg, so that several replacement concepts with third-party vehicles had to be used. Passengers and stakeholders have been patient with Abellio for several months after the start of the concession. However, as the manufacturer was still unable to deliver sufficient new trains, passenger complaints increased and the PTA, politicians and media reported increasingly critically on the bumpy start of the operation.

In Pforzheim, a three-track workshop with a total length of 120 meters and sidings for the Stuttgart network was put into operation at the end of 2019. This city in Baden-Württemberg near Stuttgart has a long tradition of trains and is ideally located within the network.