DB AutoZug GmbH
Encyclopedia
DB AutoZug GmbH is a rail transport company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, based in Dortmund, which provides automobile (Motorail) and night passenger trains for Deutsche Bahn.
The night trains were operated with the sister company CityNightLine AG
(headquartered in Zurich
, Switzerland); CityNightLine AG later merge with DB NachtZug
DB AutoZug GmbH and CityNightLine
are subsidiaries of DB Fernverkehr AG which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of DB Mobility Logistics AG.
DB AutoZug GmbH is also responsible for the car transporter trains from Niebüll
- Westerland, known as the SyltShuttle, as well as the Schifffahrt und Inselbahn Wangeroogeshipping
(Island railway of Wangeroo).
on 1 April 1930. At first only the rich and privileged could afford cars and the market was small. In the 1950s, Britain and France started to run car transporter trains. In the Summer of 1956, the first true car train in Germany ran, via Hamburg
, Munich
and also Ostend
; the drivers travelled in a passenger car, whilst their automobile was carried by the same train. The German economic recovery in the 1960s brought an increase in travel and a corresponding increase in the number of cars transported, increasing eightfold to 80,000 by 1969, many holiday makers travelling to warmer more sunny parts of Europe. The numbers of cars transported peaked in 1973, at 185,550 vehicles; the oil crisis
put an end to this growth. In 1978, the Bundesbahn cut back by 40% its number of terminals due to a lack of demand. The increase in car ownership in the 1980s did little to help the rail-car transporter business - changes in lifestyle meant that people often expected to drive their cars all the way to their holiday destination (which represented most of the car by rail business). Additionally, the seasonal nature of the business meant that buying new wagons was not profitable. In this decade the number of people flying over to a holiday overtook those travelling by rail. Also in this decade, the transport of caravans and boats also ceased. After the merger of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn - in 1996 a new company was formed : DB AutoZug.
also came under the company's control. From 2002, the organisation became DB AutoZug GmbH, and a company in its own right.
Since the 1st of January 2003, the Euro Night and D-night trains have also become the responsibility of DB AutoZug GmbH.
In December 2007 DB NachtZug and UrlaubsExpress were branded together under the new name CityNightLine
. At the same time, the number of car-trains was reduced by around 1200 to approximately 920, and four of the nine terminals were closed.
2008 brought the procurement of new-car wagons to replace some of up to 40 years old. 2007, the company transported 183,000 vehicles and generated with a turnover of 60 million euros.
For holiday travel by car, the market share of the company is less than 0.5 percent, 70% of the customers are regulars, a quarter are pensioners. Statistically, customers have an above average income.
By the 2008 season, further changes in service were made: the terminal in Troisdorf
Germany closed, and services to Livorno
(Italy), Fréjus
(France) and Rijeka
(Croatia) no longer in operation, however in Alessandria
(Italy) a new terminal came into operation.
and the 'EuroNight
' and 'D-Nacht' services.
island of Wangerooge
.
which is connected to the mainland by the Hindenburgdamm
causeway, a man made construction carrying rail tracks but no road.
The night trains were operated with the sister company CityNightLine AG
CityNightLine
CityNightLine AG was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and the Czech Republic...
(headquartered in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland); CityNightLine AG later merge with DB NachtZug
DB NachtZug
City Night Line is a category of night trains in Europe. They were originally operated by the former railway company CityNightLine AG...
DB AutoZug GmbH and CityNightLine
CityNightLine
CityNightLine AG was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and the Czech Republic...
are subsidiaries of DB Fernverkehr AG which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of DB Mobility Logistics AG.
DB AutoZug GmbH is also responsible for the car transporter trains from Niebüll
Niebüll
Niebüll is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated near the North Sea coast and the border with Denmark, approx. 35 km northwest of Husum.-International relations:...
- Westerland, known as the SyltShuttle, as well as the Schifffahrt und Inselbahn Wangeroogeshipping
Wangerooge Island Railway
The single track Wangerooge Island Railway is an unelectrified narrow gauge railway with a rail gauge of 1,000 mm located on the East Frisian island of Wangerooge off the northwestern coast of Germany...
(Island railway of Wangeroo).
Background
The first car was transported by rail in Germany by the Deutsche ReichsbahnDeutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
on 1 April 1930. At first only the rich and privileged could afford cars and the market was small. In the 1950s, Britain and France started to run car transporter trains. In the Summer of 1956, the first true car train in Germany ran, via Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and also Ostend
Ostend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
; the drivers travelled in a passenger car, whilst their automobile was carried by the same train. The German economic recovery in the 1960s brought an increase in travel and a corresponding increase in the number of cars transported, increasing eightfold to 80,000 by 1969, many holiday makers travelling to warmer more sunny parts of Europe. The numbers of cars transported peaked in 1973, at 185,550 vehicles; the oil crisis
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
put an end to this growth. In 1978, the Bundesbahn cut back by 40% its number of terminals due to a lack of demand. The increase in car ownership in the 1980s did little to help the rail-car transporter business - changes in lifestyle meant that people often expected to drive their cars all the way to their holiday destination (which represented most of the car by rail business). Additionally, the seasonal nature of the business meant that buying new wagons was not profitable. In this decade the number of people flying over to a holiday overtook those travelling by rail. Also in this decade, the transport of caravans and boats also ceased. After the merger of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Reichsbahn - in 1996 a new company was formed : DB AutoZug.
Company history and operations
Created in 1997 the DB brand AutoZug is responsible for the companies private car transportation business. In 1999 the night trains of the Deutsche Bahn including the with the brands UrlaubsExpress and DB NachtZugDB NachtZug
City Night Line is a category of night trains in Europe. They were originally operated by the former railway company CityNightLine AG...
also came under the company's control. From 2002, the organisation became DB AutoZug GmbH, and a company in its own right.
Since the 1st of January 2003, the Euro Night and D-night trains have also become the responsibility of DB AutoZug GmbH.
In December 2007 DB NachtZug and UrlaubsExpress were branded together under the new name CityNightLine
CityNightLine
CityNightLine AG was a Swiss night train service. CNL had right of passage grants in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. It served stations in Belgium, France, Italy and the Czech Republic...
. At the same time, the number of car-trains was reduced by around 1200 to approximately 920, and four of the nine terminals were closed.
2008 brought the procurement of new-car wagons to replace some of up to 40 years old. 2007, the company transported 183,000 vehicles and generated with a turnover of 60 million euros.
For holiday travel by car, the market share of the company is less than 0.5 percent, 70% of the customers are regulars, a quarter are pensioners. Statistically, customers have an above average income.
By the 2008 season, further changes in service were made: the terminal in Troisdorf
Troisdorf
Troisdorf is a town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis , in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Troisdorf is located approx. 22 kilometers south of Cologne and 13 kilometers north east of Bonn.-Division of the town:...
Germany closed, and services to Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
(Italy), Fréjus
Fréjus
Fréjus is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, effectively forming one town...
(France) and Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
(Croatia) no longer in operation, however in Alessandria
Alessandria
-Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum...
(Italy) a new terminal came into operation.
Night trains
Comprising the former UrlaubsExpress and DB NachtZugDB NachtZug
City Night Line is a category of night trains in Europe. They were originally operated by the former railway company CityNightLine AG...
and the 'EuroNight
EuroNight
EuroNight, abbreviated EN, denotes all main-line national and international night train services within the European inter-city rail network. Unlike the equivalent day-running counterparts EuroCity and InterCity trains, the EuroNight trains tend to run during the nighttime and are equipped with...
' and 'D-Nacht' services.
Wangerooge Island Railway
DB AutoZug GmbH is also the controlling company for the SyltShuttle and the railway on the North SeaNorth Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
island of Wangerooge
Wangerooge
Wangerooge is one of the 32 Frisian Islands in the North Sea located close to the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It is also a municipality in the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony in Germany.Wangerooge is one of the East Frisian Islands...
.
SyltShuttle
The SyltShuttle is a car transporting service to the Island of SyltSylt
Sylt is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Frisia...
which is connected to the mainland by the Hindenburgdamm
Hindenburgdamm
The Hindenburgdamm is an 11 km-long causeway joining the North Frisian island of Sylt to mainland Schleswig-Holstein. Its coordinates are . It was opened on 1 June 1927 and is exclusively a railway corridor...
causeway, a man made construction carrying rail tracks but no road.
Germany
As of 2009 there are seven car/rail terminals in Germany| Location | State |
|---|---|
| Berlin-Wannsee | Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union... |
| Düsseldorf Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the... |
Nordrhein-Westfalen |
| Hamburg-Altona | Hamburg Hamburg -History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808... |
| Hildesheim Hildesheim Hildesheim is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the district of Hildesheim, about 30 km southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste river, which is a small tributary of the Leine river... |
Niedersachsen |
| Lörrach Lörrach Lörrach is a city in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss border. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. The biggest industry is the chocolate factory Milka... |
Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants... |
| München-Ost | Bayern |
| Neu-Isenburg Neu-Isenburg The “Huguenot Town” of Neu-Isenburg with its outlying centres of Gravenbruch and Zeppelinheim is found in the Offenbach district in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany, right near Frankfurt am Main... |
Hessen |
Rest of Europe
As of 2009 the European terminals are:| Country | Location |
|---|---|
| France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
Narbonne Narbonne Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea... |
| Avignon Avignon Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the... |
|
| Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
Alessandria Alessandria -Monuments:* The Citadel * The church of Santa Maria di Castello * The church of Santa Maria del Carmine * Palazzo Ghilini * Università del Piemonte Orientale-Museums:* The Marengo Battle Museum... |
| Bozen Bozen Bozen may refer to:*Bolzano, a bi-lingual northern Italian provincial capital city of which Bozen is the official German name*Bözen, a Swiss municipality*Bożeń, a village in Poland*Bozen Green, a village in Hertfordshire, England... |
|
| Verona Verona Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona... |
|
| Trieste Trieste Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city... |
|
| Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
Innsbruck Innsbruck - Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus... |
| Salzburg Salzburg -Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for... |
|
| Villach Villach Villach is the second largest city in the Carinthia state in the southern Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 58,480.-History:... |
|
| Vienna Vienna Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre... Service via OBB terminal |
Main sources
- Schifffahrt und Inselbahn Wangerooge Shipping and Railway of Wangerooge Island. DB company website. siw-wangerooge.de
- CityNightLine Company website citynightline.ch
- DB AutoZug Company website autozug.de
- DB AutoZug SyltShuttle Company website syltshuttle.de