RegioSprinter
Encyclopedia
The RegioSprinter is a German diesel railcar
built by Siemens-Duewag for rapid regional railway services. Originally the RegioSprinter was designated as a Regional Combustion-engined Railbus (Regional-Verbrennungstriebwagen or RVT) by Duewag AG
.
Developed as prototypes for fast regional railway services on the plains, the RegioSprinter still has the fastest acceleration of any multiple unit or railbus in Germany. Due to several technical and conceptual defect, however, only very few were built. Based on their experience with the Regiosprinter Siemens developed its successor, the Desiro, which was initially marketed as the Regiosprinter 2.
In 1999, all the Vogtlandbahn
vehicles were converted to meet tramway regulations (BO Strab), in order to be able to transfer to a tram line in the centre of Zwickau.
Two thirds of the vehicle has a low floor. The seats are arranged in a 2+3 configuration, there is no toilet due to the short journey distances envisaged. Late the Vogtlandbahn had to fit all its vehicles with toilets, because otherwise cross-border services to the Czech Republic
would not have been possible.
(Rur Valley Railway), which were deployed to the two sections of line radiating from Düren, replacing the Uerdingen railbus
es. Today (as at 2006), RegioSprinter are used on the following lines:
Under contract to DB Regio NRW there is also a railbus in service on the RB 39 route (Schwalm-Nette-Bahn) between Mönchengladbach Hbf
and Dalheim
.
Because the vehicle fleet of the Rur Valley railway has a large reserve, in past years RegioSprinters from this company have helped out on other private railways, for example on the Dortmund-Märkischen Eisenbahn, the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn and the VIAS.
From 1996 the Vogtlandbahn
bought a total of 18 vehicles for use on the lines from Zwickau
to Adorf/Vogtl. and Reichenbach im Vogtl. to Klingenthal
. Because the completion of these routes was repeatedly delayed after their refurbishment, the new vehicles initially worked the line from Zwickau to Bad Brambach
. At present the railbuses are in services on the following Vogtlandbahn lines:
Zwickau
Zentrum – Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf – Falkenstein/Vogtl. – Zwotental – Klingenthal
– Kraslice
(– Karlovy Vary
dolní n.) (KBS 539) Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf – Reichenbach (Vogtl) ob Bf – Herlasgrün – Plauen (Vogtl) ob Bf
– Adorf/Vogtl. (KBS 544) Hof – Schönberg/Vogtl.
– Mehltheuer
– Plauen (Vogtl) ob Bf – Herlasgrün – Falkenstein/Vogtl. – Zwotental – Adorf (Vogtl)
Until the timetable change in December 2006 the Vogtlandbahn's RegioSprinters were also on duty on the VB 7 line between Schönberg/Vogtland and Schleiz West. Services on this route were withdrawn on 9 December 2006 by the local public transport company of the free state of Thuringia.
Moreover in 2006 two of the railbuses (VT 36 and VT 39) were hired to the Prignitz railway, which used them on their lines in the western Ruhrgebiet due to a shortage of stock.
In 1999 the Nærumbanen
(LNJ) in the Copenhagen
area bought four RegioSprinter railbuses and deployed them on the line between Nærum
and Jægersborg.
Since 2002 operations have been run by Lokalbanen
A/S (LB), which took over several smaller railway companies in the Copenhagen area. The railbuses were owned at the time by the Hovedstadens Lokalbaner, which hired them to the LB.
Railcar
A railcar, in British English and Australian English, is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach , with a driver's cab at one or both ends. Some railways, e.g., the Great Western...
built by Siemens-Duewag for rapid regional railway services. Originally the RegioSprinter was designated as a Regional Combustion-engined Railbus (Regional-Verbrennungstriebwagen or RVT) by Duewag AG
DUEWAG
The DUEWAG AG was one of Germany's major manufacturers for rail vehicles. The business was sold in 1999 to Siemens transportation.- History :The company was founded in 1898 as Waggonfabrik Uerdingen AG in Uerdingen...
.
Developed as prototypes for fast regional railway services on the plains, the RegioSprinter still has the fastest acceleration of any multiple unit or railbus in Germany. Due to several technical and conceptual defect, however, only very few were built. Based on their experience with the Regiosprinter Siemens developed its successor, the Desiro, which was initially marketed as the Regiosprinter 2.
In 1999, all the Vogtlandbahn
Vogtlandbahn
The Vogtlandbahn is a private railway company in Germany, which runs diesel trains on regional lines in the states of Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Brandenburg, and Berlin and as well as routes into the Czech Republic...
vehicles were converted to meet tramway regulations (BO Strab), in order to be able to transfer to a tram line in the centre of Zwickau.
Design
The vehicles are designed with three sections. In the two, single-axled end modules are the driver's cabs and the drive units like those on trams. In the middle is a twin-axled, unmotored module.Two thirds of the vehicle has a low floor. The seats are arranged in a 2+3 configuration, there is no toilet due to the short journey distances envisaged. Late the Vogtlandbahn had to fit all its vehicles with toilets, because otherwise cross-border services to the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
would not have been possible.
Operations
Rurtalbahn
In 1995 the Dürener Kreisbahn bought a total of 17 RegioSprinter for the RurtalbahnRurtalbahn
Rurtalbahn is a railway company servicing the Rur valley from Linnich to Heimbach. Its major hub is Düren, from where two train lines run to the two destinations....
(Rur Valley Railway), which were deployed to the two sections of line radiating from Düren, replacing the Uerdingen railbus
Uerdingen railbus
The Uerdingen railbus is the common term for the multiple units which were developed by the German firm of Waggonfabrik Uerdingen for the Deutsche Bundesbahn and private railways after the Second World War. These vehicles were diesel-powered, twin-axle railbuses of light construction...
es. Today (as at 2006), RegioSprinter are used on the following lines:
- Southern Rurtalbahn: DürenDürenDüren is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, capital of Düren district. It is located between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur.-Roman era:Celts inhabited Düren's area before the Romans. They called their small settlement Durum . After the Celts other Germanic tribes settled this area...
– Heimbach - Northern Rurtalbahn: Düren – JülichJülichJülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Jülich is well known as location of a world-famous research centre, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and as shortwave transmission site of Deutsche Welle...
– LinnichLinnichLinnich is a town in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the river Rur, approx. 10 km north-west of Jülich.-Economy:Linnich is the home of SIG Combibloc the specialist for aseptic carton packaging....
(from Jülich part of the Jülich–Dalheim railway) - Börde railway: Düren – ZülpichZülpichZülpich is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany between Aachen and Bonn. It belongs to the district Euskirchen.The town is commonly agreed to be the site with the Latin name of Tolbiacum, famous for the Battle of Tolbiac, fought between the Franks under Clovis I and the Alamanni; the...
– EuskirchenEuskirchenEuskirchen is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating back over 700 years, having been granted town-status in 1302....
(exclusively tourist traffic at weekends)
Under contract to DB Regio NRW there is also a railbus in service on the RB 39 route (Schwalm-Nette-Bahn) between Mönchengladbach Hbf
Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof
is a railway station in the city of Mönchengladbach in western Germany.-Overview:The station is the largest railway station in the city and, along with Rheydt Hbf, one of the two Hauptbahnhof stations in Mönchengladbach...
and Dalheim
Dalheim
Dalheim is a commune and town in south-eastern Luxembourg. It is part of the canton of Remich, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher....
.
Because the vehicle fleet of the Rur Valley railway has a large reserve, in past years RegioSprinters from this company have helped out on other private railways, for example on the Dortmund-Märkischen Eisenbahn, the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn and the VIAS.
Vogtlandbahn
Vogtlandbahn
The Vogtlandbahn is a private railway company in Germany, which runs diesel trains on regional lines in the states of Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Brandenburg, and Berlin and as well as routes into the Czech Republic...
bought a total of 18 vehicles for use on the lines from Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
to Adorf/Vogtl. and Reichenbach im Vogtl. to Klingenthal
Klingenthal
Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlovy Vary.The Aschberg towers above the...
. Because the completion of these routes was repeatedly delayed after their refurbishment, the new vehicles initially worked the line from Zwickau to Bad Brambach
Bad Brambach
Bad Brambach is a municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany....
. At present the railbuses are in services on the following Vogtlandbahn lines:
Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
Zentrum – Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf – Falkenstein/Vogtl. – Zwotental – Klingenthal
Klingenthal
Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlovy Vary.The Aschberg towers above the...
– Kraslice
Kraslice
Kraslice is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic.-Geography:The town is situated on the southern slopes of the eastern reaches of the Ore Mountains, some 5 km from the neighbouring German town of Klingenthal....
(– Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...
dolní n.) (KBS 539) Zwickau (Sachs) Hbf – Reichenbach (Vogtl) ob Bf – Herlasgrün – Plauen (Vogtl) ob Bf
Plauen
Plauen is a town in the Free State of Saxony, east-central Germany.It is the capital of the Vogtlandkreis. The town is situated near the border of Bavaria and the Czech Republic.Plauen's slogan is Plauen - echt Spitze.-History:...
– Adorf/Vogtl. (KBS 544) Hof – Schönberg/Vogtl.
Mehltheuer
Mehltheuer is a village and a former municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of the municipality Rosenbach....
– Mehltheuer
Mehltheuer
Mehltheuer is a village and a former municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of the municipality Rosenbach....
– Plauen (Vogtl) ob Bf – Herlasgrün – Falkenstein/Vogtl. – Zwotental – Adorf (Vogtl)
Until the timetable change in December 2006 the Vogtlandbahn's RegioSprinters were also on duty on the VB 7 line between Schönberg/Vogtland and Schleiz West. Services on this route were withdrawn on 9 December 2006 by the local public transport company of the free state of Thuringia.
Moreover in 2006 two of the railbuses (VT 36 and VT 39) were hired to the Prignitz railway, which used them on their lines in the western Ruhrgebiet due to a shortage of stock.
Nærumbanen (Denmark)
Nærumbanen
Nærumbanen is a short railway in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, now part of the Lokalbanen system. It runs light trains that connect to the S-train system at Jægersborg and serve mainly local neighborhoods in Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality and Nærum in Rudersdal.-Stations:-Operations:Despite...
(LNJ) in the Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
area bought four RegioSprinter railbuses and deployed them on the line between Nærum
Nærum
Nærum is a suburb of Copenhagen. 16km North of the city center. 5230 people live in Nærum, most of whom live either in low-rise concrete blocks or single-family houses. Nærum is situated on Nærumbanen, a single track train line which connects the suburb with central Lyngby and Jægersborg station....
and Jægersborg.
Since 2002 operations have been run by Lokalbanen
Lokalbanen
Lokalbanen A/S is a Danish company responsible for train operation and related passenger services on various railways around Copenhagen. Owned by the Greater Copenhagen Authority , Lokalbanen was established in 2001 following HUR's acquisition of the share of the railway lines previously owned by...
A/S (LB), which took over several smaller railway companies in the Copenhagen area. The railbuses were owned at the time by the Hovedstadens Lokalbaner, which hired them to the LB.
External links
- Photo gallery at Paul-Zimmer.de
- Photo gallery on the European Railway Server
- Reisebericht: Cross-border railway experiences in the Vogtland
- There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany