New contract for local and regional railways in Rhine-Ruhr
VRR, the public transport authority of the
Rhine-Ruhr conurbation (7.2 million inhabitants
on a 5,000km2 territory in Germany around
Düsseldorf and Essen), signed in July a new
contract with DB German railways for the
operation of local and regional railway
services.
The 15-year contract reaches a total
value of €6 billion. According to the contract,
DB will provide 44 million of regional
train.kilometres every year, and half of these
services will have to be tendered out by DB at
the end of the contract (2018).
The contract
also covers local S-Bahn railways, that will be
operated by DB itself (17 million train.kilometres
every year), but that will be tendered
out after 2018. DB commits itself to investing
€400 million into modernisation of rolling
stock during the length of the contract.
13 quality indicators, among them punctuality
and information, have been defined in the
contract so as to improve the quality of services
provided to passengers through financial
incentives.
It has also been agreed that all trains
shall have security staff on board after 7pm.
DB takes the commercial risk, meaning that it
will bear any evolution in fare revenues.
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Updated : September 9, 2004
