Deutsche Bahn
The group is divided into several companies, including "DB Fernverkehr" (long-distance passenger), "DB Regio" (local passenger services) and "DB Cargo" (rail freight). The Group subsidiary "DB Netz" also operates large parts of the German railway infrastructure, making it the largest rail network in Europe. The company generates about half of its total revenue from operating rail transport. The other half of the business comprises the further transport and logistics businesses, as well as various service providers. The company generates part of its revenue through public transport contracts; as well as support services for infrastructure maintenance and expansion . Company profile. The Deutsche Bahn Group is divided into various organizational units that perform their tasks with subsidiaries. Personenverkehr. DB Personenverkehr is the group that manages passenger travel within Germany. Originally called "" ("English": Travel and Tourism), this group is responsible for the managing, servicing and running of German passenger services. This group is divided into three business areas: , and Arriva. Arriva. placed a bid in May 2010 for the UK-based transport company Arriva. Arriva runs bus and rail companies in 12 European countries. The merger was approved by the European Commission in August 2010, subject to DB divesting Arriva  services in Germany (these are now run as ). The merger became effective on 27 August 2010. Services in the UK formerly run as are now operated by a new subdivision of the company, Arriva UK Trains. It operates the Chiltern Railways, and CrossCountry franchises as well as open-access operator Grand Central. It also operates the London Overground concession as Arriva Rail London. The former Tyne & Wear Metro operations, already started by DB Regio UK, ended in 2017, while Arriva Trains Wales services passed to Transport for Wales in 2018. DB Fernverkehr. is a semi-independent division of that operates  long-distance passenger trains in Germany. It was founded in 1999 in the second stage of the privatisation of German Federal Railways under the name of and renamed in 2003. Additionally operates a few long-distance coach services throughout Germany, called "". DB Regio. DB Regio AG is the subsidiary of that operates passenger trains on short and medium distances in Germany. Unlike its long-distance counterpart, , it does not operate trains on its own account. Traffic is ordered and paid for by the (states) or their respective (Regional train operation supervisors). Some states have awarded long-term contracts to (usually  10 to 15 years), in others, DB Regio's operations are decreasing, in North Rhine-Westphalia, their market share is expected to be lower than 50%. The bus services consist of 25 bus companies, which have subsidiary companies themselves. Infrastructure. DB Netze. The infrastructure division is divided into the "DB Netz" (rail infrastructure), DB Station&Service (stations and services) and DB Energie (Energy) business units. DB Engineering & Consulting. "DB Engineering & Consulting", which is responsible for construction supervision, construction planning and maintenance, is also assigned to this department without being part of a business area. Via its subsidiary DB Engineering&Consulting, DB signed  a memorandum of understanding with Iranian rail operator Bonyad Eastern Railways (BonRail) in May 2017 and shortly after a consulting contract with Islamic Republic of Iran Railways; both projects were abandoned after the United States imposed new sanctions against Iran and said firms doing business with Iran would be barred from doing business with the United States. The California High-Speed Rail Authority's (CHSRA) board approved on 15 November 2017 an early train operator contract with DB Engineering & Consulting USA. The firm is the U.S. arm of Deutsche Bahn AG. As early train operator, DB Engineering & Consulting will assist  CHSRA with planning, designing and implementing the state's high-speed rail program. In Germany, DB E&C acts as a planning office and in construction supervision for Deutsche Bahn construction sites. Logistics. The Transport and Logistics division acted in the market with the business units DB Schenker Logistics and "DB Schenker Rail", which were combined under the umbrella of DB Schenker, and the Intermodal division, which operates in combined transport. In 2016, rail freight transport was separated from logistics and "DB Schenker Rail" was renamed DB Cargo. In cooperation with the logistics provider , DB offers the transport of shipments weighing  up to 20 kg on its EC/IC/ICE trains. Foreign firms. DB also has interests abroad, owning the United Kingdom's largest rail freight operator, DB Cargo UK, which also operates the British Royal Train and also has interests in Eastern Europe. It is possible to obtain train times for any journey in Europe from 's website. Trans-Eurasia Logistics is a joint venture with Russian Railways (RŽD) that operates container freight trains between Germany and China via Russia. History. Background: the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The railway network in Germany dates back to 1835 when the first tracks were laid  on a route between Nuremberg and . The Deutsche Reichsbahn operated from 1920 through the Weimar and Nazi eras until 1949. when it was split between East and West Germany into two successor entities, Deutsche Reichsbahn and Deutsche Bundesbahn, respectively. They remained separate throughout the Cold War when there were two separate German states. The German reunification begun in 1990 and fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for the companies to reunite. On 1 January 1994 and were merged to form one company, and so, they became , the successor organisation to the Reichsbahn. At the same time, adopted its  current logo and "DB" abbreviation. modernised the logo and typographer designed a new corporate font known as DB Type. When Deutsche Bahn was formed in January 1994, it became a joint stock-company, and were designed to operate the railways of both the former East and West Germany after unification in October 1990 as a single, uniform, and private company. There are three main periods of development in this unified German railway: its formation, its early years (1994–1999), and the period from 1999 to the present. Originally, DBAG had its headquarters in but moved to in central Berlin in 1996 , where it occupies a 26-storey office tower designed by at the eastern end of the Sony Center and named . As the lease was to expire in 2010, DB had announced plans to relocate to , and in 2007 a proposal for a new headquarters by 3XN Architects won an architectural competition which also included Foster + Partners, and . However, these plans were put on hold due to the financial crisis of 2008, and the lease was extended. Construction of the new headquarters building was started in 2017 under the title "" according to the designs by 3XN. Finished in February 2020 , the Cube will house the legal offices of Deutsche Bahn, but not become the main headquarters. 1999 to present. The second step of the (railway reform) was carried out in 1999. All rolling stock, track, personnel, and real assets were divided between the subsidiaries of DBAG: (long-distance passenger service, later renamed (operating the stations). This new organisational scheme was introduced not least to implement European Community directive 91/440/EEC that demands access to railway systems free of discrimination. In December 2007, DB reorganised again, bringing all passenger services into its arm, logistics under and infrastructure and operations under . The  DB is owned by the Federal Republic. By the Constitution, the Federal Republic is required to retain (directly or indirectly) a majority of the infrastructure (the present ) stocks. In 2008, it was agreed to "float" a portion of the business, meaning an end to the 100% share the German Federal Republic had in it, with a plan that 25% of the overall share would be sold to the private sector. However the onset of the financial crisis of 2007–08 saw this cancelled. In 2014, the Jewish community of Thessaloniki demanded that the , which is the successor of the , should reimburse  the heirs of Greek Holocaust victims of Thessaloniki for train fares that they were forced to pay for their deportation from Thessaloniki to and Treblinka between March and August 1943. In June 2018 controversy grew in the United Kingdom over widespread cancellations of railway services and numerous delayed services operated by Deutsche Bahn in Britain, under its Northern brand. This resulted in Britain's Minister of Transport, Chris Grayling, setting up an enquiry into whether the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary had breached its contractual agreement to provide railway services in the north of England. He warned that if the company was  found to be in breach of its contractual agreements it could be banned from running railway services in the United Kingdom. Train categories. Trains in Germany are classified by their stopping pattern: Train categories no longer used include: In the early days of DBAG, the most basic train categories, which were in use since the early days of rail travel in Germany, were also used: There are several other operators in Germany which sometimes offer other categories, also, a local transport authority or tariff associations might brand the trains in a different way than DB does. For example, in the  Nuremberg region, RE and RB trains are not differentiated, but called R instead. In some regions, such as , private operators do use the RE and RB labels, in others, such as Saxony, they do not. In online and print information systems of DB, private trains officially labelled RB and RE by their operators, might get a different label, for example "ABR" for trains operated by Abellio, though on platforms, trains and maps or timetables issued by the local transport authority overseeing regional train services, these abbreviations usually do not appear. Codeshare agreements. In conjunction with Emirates, China Airlines, TAM Airlines , Turkish Airlines, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and , operates the AIRail Service between Frankfurt Airport and Köln Hauptbahnhof/Bonn Hauptbahnhof, , , Hamburg, Hanover, , Munich, Nuremberg, and . has the IATA designator 2A. Tickets. DB offers two different pricing models: Local trains (S, RB, RE, IRE) also accept tickets issued by local transport associations, which can also be used on buses, trams, and U-Bahn trains. DB offers concessionary fares with the "BahnCard", which is available as "BahnCard 25" (25% discount on Flexpreis and Sparpreis), "BahnCard 50" (50% discount on Flexpreis and 25% discount on Sparpreis), and "BahnCard 100" (unlimited travel on all Deutsche Bahn  trains, a few private train companies and also in many local transport associations). Other special tickets, such as Interrail or the "Länder-Tickets", give unlimited journeys on local trains and in many transport associations within a state, are also available. These Länder-Tickets offer group tickets, where up to five people can travel on a single ticket.