Keolis

Keolis opened its first regional rail service in December 2008 on the Hellweg network in the eastern part of Germany’s Ruhr region. Hellweg Netz comes under the trade name eurobahn and is part of the railway division of Keolis Deutschland.

In December 2009, the network eurobahn was extended when Keolis opened the Maas-Rhein-Lippe line in the western Ruhr. Today Keolis is the third largest private train operator in Germany.

The eurobahn project was an investment risk, especially as it is the first 100% Keolis-owned network. Also because Germany, unlike other European countries requires new operators to replace everything we had to start from scratch.

First of all, that meant replacing the rolling stock. For this Keolis selected FLIRT (standing for 'fast light innovative regional train') produced by Stadler rail in Berlin 4-body motor vehicles as the most appropriate. And since eurobahn is one of the only electric networks operated by a private operator in Germany, we also had to build a new maintenance depot for electric trains in the town of Hamm.

Finally, most of the Deutsche Bahn personnel decided to stay with the public operator after privatisation. This required Keolis to recruit and train nearly 100% of the 180 drivers and on-board staff. Many of the new recruits came from unemployment agencies.

The new German operations are further proof of Keolis' growing regional rail expertise, which now accounts for 60% of its international turnover.

Key figures:

Hellweg Netz:

• 5.6 million train kms
• 310 kms of track
• 4 lines served
• 25 trains

Maas-Rhein-Lippe:

• 3.3 million train kms
• 263 km of track
• 2 lines served
• 18 trains