Schnellzug - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Schnellzug is an express train in German-speaking countries, where it refers to trains that do not stop at all stations along a line. The term is used both generically and also as a specific train type

Train categories in Europe

Railway companies in Europe assign their trains to different categories or train types depending on their role. Passenger trains may be broadly split into long-distance and local trains; the latter having average journey times of under an hour and a range of less than 50 kilometres. Goods trains...

. In Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

and 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...

it is also referred to colloquially as a D-Zug, a short form of Durchgangszug ("through train"), and express train services were often given numbers preceded by the letter D.

On the railway networks operated by the Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

(DB), the Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) today, express trains are divided into categories such as Eurocity

EuroCity

EuroCity, abbreviated EC, denotes an international train service within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains with the "IC" label, "EC" trains are international trains that meet certain criteria. The EuroCity label replaces the older Trans Europ Express name for...

, Intercity

Inter-city rail

Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that cover longer distances than commuter or regional trains.There is no precise definition of inter-city rail. Its meaning may vary from country to country...

, Interregio

InterRegio

The InterRegio is a train service seen in some European countries. Mostly they are trains that run "from region to region", as best described by Swiss Federal Railways.-Switzerland:...

etc. The DB still occasionally runs D-Zug services in night train

Sleeping car

The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...

s (D-Nacht), especially those to its eastern European neighbours, and as relief trains. Museum services running on DB routes are also given D-Zug numbers.

The first express trains

The first German express train ran on 1 May 1851 between 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...

and Deutz am Rhein

Cologne-Deutz

Cologne-Deutz, often just Deutz, is an inner city part of Cologne, Germany and a formerly independent town.Lufthansa's headquarters are in Deutz.-History:...

(today part of Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

) and completed the journey in 16 hours. Three months later, on 1 August 1851, the first night train ran from Berlin to Bromberg. The Prussian state

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

demanded a country-wide network of night trains; consequently the various railway companies started up fast courier trains in the years that followed (1852 to 1854), from Berlin to Breslau, Frankfurt am Main, 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...

and Cologne. Passengers on the night-time courier trains between Berlin and Frankfurt had to pay a higher fare for the first time in order to compensate for the higher crew costs of night-time through trains.

Up to 1889 fast train services were given the letter S for Schnellzug (express train, plural: Schnellzüge ) or K for Kurierzug (courier train). From 1889 all such services in Germany were given the standard letter S.

Durchgangszug (D)

From 1892 a new train category with especially comfortable express coaches appeared: the Durchgangszug or D-Zug (plural: D-Züge). Originally these were trains in which one could walk right through from end to end by means of bellows-type corridor connectors between coaches and side corridors or centre aisles within coaches, unlike the hitherto usual compartment coach

Compartment coach

A compartment coach is a railway passenger coach divided into separate areas or compartments, with no means of moving between each compartment.- English origins :...

es with doors on each side of the compartment, but no access to the next coach.

The first D-Züge ran on 1 May 1892 on the following routes:

Berlin Potsdamer station
Berlin Potsdamer Platz railway station
Berlin Potsdamer Platz is a railway station in Berlin. It is completely underground and situated underneath the Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin. Regional and S-Bahn services call at the station.- History :...

–Paderborn
Paderborn
Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...

–Cologne Hauptbahnhof and
Berlin Potsdamer station–Nordhausen
Nordhausen
Nordhausen is a town at the southern edge of the Harz Mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Nordhausen...

–Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof
is the central station for Frankfurt am Main. In terms of railway traffic, it is the busiest railway station in Germany. With about 350,000 passengers per day the station is the second most frequented railway station in Germany and one of the most frequented in Europe.- Proto-history :In the late...

.

They comprised 1st and 2nd class coaches, dining

Dining car

A dining car or restaurant carriage , also diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant....

and sleeping car

Sleeping car

s (on night trains). They were meant to be not only very comfortable, but also particularly punctual. A supplement of 2 marks was payable on D-Zug services. In 1894, the first D-Zug with third class coaches ran between Berlin and East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

.

By 1917 almost all Schnellzüge in Germany had been gradually reclassified as D-Züge or converted to supplement-free fast-stopping trains, the so-called Eilzüge. The only standard fare trains which did not stop at all stations were the beschleunigte Personenzüge (BP) or "fast passenger trains". A few Schnellzüge remained in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

where they attracted supplementary fares on the 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...

-Mittenwald

Mittenwald

Mittenwald is a German municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria.-Geography:Mittenwald is located approx. 16 kilometers to the south-east of Garmisch-Partenkirchen...

-Innsbruck

Innsbruck

- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

line; these did not become D-Züge until 1929.

Fernschnellzug (FD)

From 1923 very fast trains were grouped into a new Fernschnellzug (FD-Zug) or "long-distance express train" category and only offered 1st and 2nd class accommodation (e. g. FD Rheingold

Rheingold Express

The legendary Rheingold was a famous train riding between Hoek van Holland near Rotterdam and Basel, Switzerland, a distance of . It ran along the Rhine River via Arnhem, Netherlands and Cologne, Germany using special luxury coaches...

), whilst the majority of D-Züge at that time ran with 1st, 2nd and 3rd class coaches. FD services were withdrawn on 22 August 1939.

From 1933, FD trains were joined by express railcar

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...

s of the Flying Hamburger type. These trains were classed as FDt or Fernschnellzug mit Triebwagen ("long-distance express train with railcar") and usually offered 2nd class accommodation only. These services ceased on 22 August 1939.

Military trains in the Second World War

During the Second World War a new train type, the so-called Schnellzug für Fronturlauber ("military express train", literally the "express train for those on leave from the front") or SF-Zug was created. These expresses took the shortest route between the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

's operational theatres (including France, Greece and the Soviet Union) and the Deutsche Reich. Some SF-Zug services were open to the general public. This category was the SFR-Zug (Schnellzug für Fronturlauber mit Reisezugteil or "military express with passenger section").

Because there were not enough SF-Zug services to meet the Wehrmacht's transportation requirements, numerous express trains were modified into DmW-Züge or Schnellzüge mit Wehrmachtsteil (express trains with military sections), in which the Wehrmacht reserved several coaches for its own use.

On 23 January 1945 all express train services in Germany were suspended. Only international trains from Berlin

Berlin

to 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...

and Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

continued to run until April 1945.

After the Second World War

On 22 September 1945 the first express trains to run after the end of the war worked in the US zone between Frankfurt am Main and Munich

Munich

.

As early as 1952 the Deutsche Bundesbahn

Deutsche Bundesbahn

The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...

procured D-Zug coaches of the later UIC type X. Coaches of similar design were ordered by the ÖBB in 1957 and the SBB in 1969.

On 1 January 1968 the Deutsche Bundesbahn abolished the supplementary fare for D-Zug services for journeys over 80 kilometres and, from 1979, for journeys over 50 kilometres.

The demand for D-Zug links steadily reduced from 1979. In the 1982 summer timetable the supplement was abolished on most of the DB's D-Zug routes.

Within the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany, the Schnellzug remained the primary long-distance service. A two-tier supplementary fare (Zone I up to 300 kilometres - 3 marks, Zone II over 300 - 5 marks) was retained until the inception of the 1991 summer timetable.

Until the 1980s, the majority of express trains on domestic routes comprised eight-wheeled Rekowagen ("reconstructed coaches"), reinforced by 1st class Modernisierungswagen ("modernised coaches"). Modernisierungswagen and Y coaches were mainly employed in high-grade and international services. Not until the delivery of centre-door (Mitteleinstieg) and Halberstädter express coaches were the, by now obsolete, Rekowagen cascaded to less important duties.

Fernzug (F)

For the 1951 summer timetable the DB introduced a new class of train: the Fernzug ("long-distance train"). These trains linked the economic centres of the German Federal Republic

German Federal Republic

"German Federal Republic" was one of the derogatory terms used by the communist German Democratic Republic to refer to the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1950s until 1968, when they started using the propaganda term "BRD"....

with one another. The trains were given the code letter F for Fernzug and operated until 1956 with 1st and 2nd class coaches; and thereafter exclusively with the (new) 1st class. The trains always included a dining car or coach with a buffet section that was managed by the DSG.

To begin with, on the Rhine railway, some trains were combined in up to four sets and operated using pre-war VT 04 and VT 06 and the new post-war VT 08 diesel multiple units. As well as DMUs, locomotive-hauled trains of 3 to 5 pre-war coaches were also used. These were steel-bodied, standard coaches (Einheitswagen) of various types. The interiors of the compartments and corridors of these coaches were refurbished and given new carpets. The external livery was changed from the standard bottle green to steel blue (RAL

RAL (color space system)

RAL is a color matching system used in Europe. In colloquial speech RAL refers to the RAL CLASSIC system, mainly used for varnish and powder coating.- RAL CLASSIC:...

5011). In addition the words Deutsche Bundesbahn or, if the coaches were only used on domestic routes, the initials DB were mounted on the sides in silver letters. In all at least 76 coaches were converted for this role. They included the coaches from the Henschel-Wegmann train

Henschel-Wegmann Train

The Henschel-Wegmann Train was a unique passenger express train operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Germany, which ran non-stop express services between Berlin and Dresden from June 1936 to August 1939...

.

With the delivery of new coaches of the later UIC Type X, the pre-war coaches were superseded in Fernzug service. The blue F-Zug livery was adopted later as the paint scheme for the new 1st class coaches.

For these very fast trains which stopped at just a few stations – as in FD times – a special Fernschnellzug supplement was payable. The Fernzüge were replaced in 1971 by Intercity

Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)

Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...

trains.

The famous TEE Rheingold
Rheingold
Rheingold may refer to:* Rheingold, mystic treasure mentioned in the Nibelungenlied* Das Rheingold,a 1869 opera by Richard Wagner, based on the mystic treasure* Rheingold , 2003* Rheingold...

which ran from Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

to Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

and the Rheinpfeil (Dortmund

Dortmund

Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....

to Munich

Munich

) were both initially classed as F-Zug services between 1962 and 1965, before they were upgraded to the TEE category.

City-D-Zug (DC)

The City-D-Zug (DC) was introduced by the Deutsche Bundesbahn in its 1973 summer timetable. These trains were supposed to connect three times a day to the economic centres linked by the IC network, as feeder trains to that railway system. However the concept was not a success because they were timetabled to meet the two-hourly IC trains that only had 1st class services, leaving 2nd class passengers hanging around for their connexions.

In addition the coaching stock of DC-Züge was no better than the general standard for normal express trains. An initiative to develop special luxury coaches specifically for the DC-Zug was dropped in favour of the Eurofima project with its standard, high-comfort coaches (Eurofima-Wagen
Eurofima coach
The Eurofima coach, or European Standard Coach , is a passenger car designed for use on international railway routes in Europe. It was commissioned by the European Company for the Financing of Railroad Rolling Stock ....

) for six European countries. In 1978 the DB axed this train category. Many trains continued to run on as normal D-Züge, several of them being integrated into the Interregio
InterRegio
The InterRegio is a train service seen in some European countries. Mostly they are trains that run "from region to region", as best described by Swiss Federal Railways.-Switzerland:...

network 10–15 years later (e.g. the Emden–Münster–Hagen–Gießen–Frankfurt/Main service).

FernExpress (FD)

The FernExpress was a train type with 1st and 2nd class passenger classes and the historic abbreviation FD, which was introduced by the DB for its 1983 summer timetable. These trains, which had individual names, mainly linked the Hamburg area or the Ruhrgebiet with holiday resorts in southern Germany. Some also travelled abroad.

The 2nd class coaches in these trains all comprised former non-airconditioned IC compartment coach

Compartment coach

A compartment coach is a railway passenger coach divided into separate areas or compartments, with no means of moving between each compartment.- English origins :...

es of the Bm type, that became available when they were replaced in Intercity

Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)

services by the new air-conditioned open coach

Open coach

An open coach is a railway passenger coach that does not have compartments or other divisions within it and in which the seats are arranged in one or more open plan areas with a centre aisle. The first open coaches appeared in the first half of the 19th century in the USA. The prototype for their...

es. The all 1st class coaches were also taken from the IC fleet, the restaurant cars comprised QuickPick buffet cars, later also the half-buffet cars, type ARmz²¹⁸. They were joined in most cases by second class through coaches to other holiday destinations.

The FD train, Königssee, between Hamburg and Berchtesgaden also included a so-called Kinderland-Wagen ("children's world coach") that had a large children's play area. The Allgäu between Dortmund and Oberstdorf and the Berchtesgadener Land between Dortmund and Berchtesgaden also incorporated such coaches later on.

The demise of FD-Züge came in the early 1990s as more and more IR, IC and ICE trains served the holiday regions.

FD-Züge in summer 1983:

210/211 Wörthersee: Klagenfurt–Dortmund
220/221 Donau-Kurier: Wien–Dortmund
264/265 Mozart: Wien–München–Straßburg–Paris Est
702/703 Bodensee: Konstanz-Dortmund
712/713 Allgäu: Oberstdorf–Dortmund
722/723 Berchtesgadener Land: Berchtesgaden–Dortmund
780/781 Königssee: Berchtesgaden–Hamburg

FD-Züge in summer 1988:

1902/1903 Bodensee: Konstanz-Dortmund
1912/1913 Allgäu: Oberstdorf-Dortmund
1916/1917 Tegernsee: Tegernsee-Dortmund
1920/1921 Bayerischer Wald: Passau-Dortmund
1922/1923 Berchtesgadener Land: Berchtesgaden-Dortmund
1970/1971 Schwarzwald: Seebrugg-Hamburg
1980/1981 Königssee: Berchtesgaden-Hamburg
1982/1983 Alpenland: Oberstdorf-Hamburg

Expresszug (Ex)

The East German Deutsche Reichsbahn has had the train category Ex (Expresszüge) since the 1950s. These were express trains with few stops, similary to the DB's F-Zug services, but offering both 1st and 2nd class. An Expresszug supplement was payable in addition to the Schnellzug fare. After it had disappeared during the 1960s in domestic services, it was re-introduced in the 1969/70 timetable with the arrival of the DR Class VT 18.16 express DMUs.

Ex-Züge in the DR in 1972:

2/3: Leipzig-Berlin
6/7: Leipzig-Berlin
54/55 Vindobona: Vienna-Berlin
121/122 Berlinaren: Berlin-Malmö (not available for domestic services)
147/148 Karlex: Karlovy Vary-Berlin
154/155 Hungaria: Budapest-Berlin
311/312 Neptun: Berlin-Copenhagen (not available for domestic services)
347/348 Karola: Karlovy Vary-Leipzig (only in summer)

The international trains were converted in the years that followed to normal D-Züge again.

The most famous representatives of the Expresszug category were the Städteexpress trains introduced in 1976. In 1987 the new category Interexpress (IEx) emerged for international service, to which normal D-Zug fares applied.

Austria

The first Austria

Austria

n express train (Schnellzug) ran in 1857 from 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...

to 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...

. In Austria they emerged later than in Germany, because the railway companies shied away from their higher running costs. In 1861 the first express train ran from Vienna to Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, in 1862 express services began on the Vienna to Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

line via Prague

Prague

and in 1868 the first express ran from Vienna via Krakau and Lemberg to Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

. In 1887 3rd class coaches appeared in express trains for the first time, whilst the Hungarian expresses were made up exclusively of 1st and 2nd class accommodation until 1912.

Later, in addition to the usual Schnellzug, the Expresszug (Ex) category was introduced along with ÖBB Class 4010 express multiple units (Triebwagenschnellzug orTS). These have been replaced in recent years by the new Eurocity

EuroCity

and Intercity

Intercity

Intercity or Inter-city means "between cities". It can refer to inter-city transportation by rail, bus, truck or airline. There are many transport companies with Intercity or Inter-city as their brand.* Inter-city rail services...

train types. In night services, most Schnellzüge have become 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...

trains.

Switzerland

In Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

the Schnellzug train category was not entirely dropped from the SBB network until the timetable change on 12 December 2004, when it was replaced by the terms RegioExpress
RegioExpress
The RegioExpress is a fast regional train in Switzerland, run by the Swiss Federal Railways or by other private railways ....

and InterRegio
InterRegio
The InterRegio is a train service seen in some European countries. Mostly they are trains that run "from region to region", as best described by Swiss Federal Railways.-Switzerland:...

which can be used in all its official languages. One year later the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) followed suit. This process had started a long time before, when the Schnellzug category began to be replaced initially by the InterCity

InterCity

InterCity is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe...

type, some of which have become InterCity-Neigezug (ICN) or Intercity tilting trains of the SBB RABDe 500

SBB RABDe 500

The RABDe 500 , is a Swiss passenger train which debuted in 2000, in time for Expo.02 held in western Switzerland in 2002...

class.

Italy

Until its demise on 9 June 2007 the Diretto in 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...

was one of the most important categories, filling the gap between local and long-distance traffic. The Diretto had the role of travelling directly from A to B, but served medium-sized stations (unlike the InterCity). The Diretto can be compared to the Austrian Regionalexpress (REX) services.

In former years there was also the Rapido long-distance, supplementary fare service, which only stopped at important stations. This type of train was later replaced by the Intercity.

The express train today

Occasionally the D-Zug category is still used today for day trips with special trains. In the bulk of railway services in Germany, Austria and Switzerland it only exists as a successor to the Schnellzug in the form of trains like the ICE, the Intercity

Intercity

and the Interregio

InterRegio

The InterRegio is a train service seen in some European countries. Mostly they are trains that run "from region to region", as best described by Swiss Federal Railways.-Switzerland:...

trains (whose original designation during the planning phase wasXD), the latter having been replaced meanwhile in Germany by Intercity services.

International

The first luxury express train was the Orient Express

Orient Express

The Orient Express is the name of a long-distance passenger train service originally operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. It ran from 1883 to 2009 and is not to be confused with the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service, which continues to run.The route and rolling stock...

which ran for the first time on 5 June 1883 from Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

to Vienna. It was followed on 9 May 1896 by the Nord Express

Nord Express

The "Nord Express" was a train service introduced in 1896 by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, a Belgian night train company...

from Paris to Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. These expresses only had first class accommodation, and could only be used on payment of a high supplement. They were therefore only within the reach of a small group of customers.

Special variations

Within Germany, apart from the DB the Cologne-Bonn Railways ran Schnellzüge on its network until 1975. These trains achieved journey times between Cologne and Bonn that were comparable to those of the DB. A D-Zug supplement was payable on these trains.

Night trains

The DB still occasionally runs D-Züge in night services, especially to Germany's eastern European neighbours (D-Nacht). Some of the supposed D-Nacht-Züge comprise only a few through coaches, which are coupled to other night train

Sleeping car

s. This train category does however have the advantage that they are not bound by the fare regulations of night trains, but are treated as normal long-distance services. As a result they are used inter alia in southern Germany as a substitute for late IC connexions that are operated by DB Autozug rather than DB Fernverkehr. Many night trains run as D-Nacht services into Germany's eastern European neighbours. One provider of night express trains is 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...

.

Sources

Wilfried Biedenkopf: Die Zeit der leichten F-Züge (1951 – 1971). In: Jahrbuch für Eisenbahngeschichte 33 (2001), S. 5 - 16.
Thomas Frister u. a.: Wagen für Europa. Die Geschichte der 26,4-m-Wagen. In EK-Special 74, EK-Verlag, Freiburg (2004)
Scharf, Hans-Wolfgang: Vom Fernschnellzug zum Intercity. EK-Verlag, Freiburg (1983)
Rico Bogula: Internationale Schnellzüge in der DDR - 1949 bis 1990. EK-Verlag, Freiburg (2007) http://www.ekshop.de

External links

There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

The first express trains

Durchgangszug (D)

Fernschnellzug (FD)

Military trains in the Second World War

After the Second World War

Fernzug (F)

City-D-Zug (DC)

FernExpress (FD)

Expresszug (Ex)

Austria

Switzerland

Italy

The express train today

International

Special variations

Night trains

See also

Sources

External links