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Bombardier Talent 2 - S-Bahn Nuremberg at the station Neumarkt. (Wikiphoto: Credit Ivanowitsch)
British firm takes over German city train network
Published: Tue, 2015-02-10 09:45-
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A blow to DB
A British rail operator is set to take over the S-Bahn commuter rail system in the southern German city of Nuremberg. Deutsche Bahn has said earlier it will compete for every train it can keep in Bavaria.
National Express Rail has won a deal to operate S-Bahn train service in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg from 2018 to 2030 - taking a bit of track on Deutsche Bahn's (DB) railroad map. In the UK, the parent company National Express Group runs trains and the main scheduled national coach service.
- This is a great success for the whole group and a growth opportunity that will double our turnover in Germany," National Express Rail CEO Tobias Richter told DW.
National Express is also to take over regional rail services in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, as of December 2015.
Though DB, the German national rail operator, already runs services in Britain, and in 2010 took over Arriva, one of the UK's biggest bus and rail firms, British train operators have until now not managed to make similar inroads in Germany.
The loss of the Nuremberg S-Bahn comes as a blow to Deutsche Bahn, which operates almost all of Germany's S-Bahn commuter service trains.
Richter cautioned that the "final decision has not yet been made" as National Express Rail expects DB to appeal the decision by the Bavarian public transport authority. "But we're prepared and optimistic," he said to Deutsche Welle.
Source: Deutsche Welle
Av Markku Björkman
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