SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN minister of transport, Dr Bernd Buchholz, and the managing directors of German operator Erixx Holstein, Dr Lorenz Kasch and Frank Silzer, signed a 13-year contract for the operation of regional services on three non-electrified lines in the east of the German state at a ceremony at Lübeck main station on February 21.
Erixx Holstein will take over the routes from 11 December 2022. Erixx Holstein is a wholly-owned subsidiary of OHE, which is majority owned by Trenitalia subsidiary Netinera Deutschland.
The routes, which are currently operated by DB Regio, include:
- RB76 Kiel main station - Kiel-Oppendorf
- RE83 Kiel main station - Plön - Lübeck main station - Büchen - Lüneburg, and
- RB84 Kiel main station - Plön - Lübeck main station (all stations service).
The 210km network serves 32 stations and carries around 15,000 passengers daily.
From May 2023, the DMUs currently used on these services will be replaced by 26 new Stadler Flirt Akku battery-electric multiple units ordered by regional public transport authority NAH.SH in 2019. Each two-car train will seat 131 passengers.
“This brings us a step closer to our goal of making local passenger rail transport in Schleswig-Holstein climate-neutral by 2030,” Buchholz says.
