GERMAN Rail’s DB Regio division has been awarded the Ostsee-Alster network contract to operate regional express services on the electrified line between Hamburg and Rostock for 14 years from December 2027 until 2041.
The contract, which was awarded by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg city state, attracted only two bidders with DB Regio submitting the winning offer.
The RE1 route between Hamburg and Rostock represents 3.3 million train-km a year. RE1 will be complemented by new RE2 Rostock - Lübeck and RE4 Schwerin - Lübeck services from December 2029 when electrification of the Lübeck - Bad Kleinen line and construction of a new connecting line west of Bad Kleinen has been completed. This will expand the total amount of services operated under the contract to 4.3 million train-km annually.
DB Regio will replace the existing locomotive-powered double-deck push-pull trains with a fleet of 18 new Alstom Coradia Stream EMUs. These will be ordered as nine five-car trains and nine three-car trains and will run in eight-car formations on some services between Hamburg and Büchen, although short platforms in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will preclude use of anything other than five-car EMUs east of Büchen.
