How the Ruhr region manages his railways ?
News of Mediarail.be - Signalling technician and railways observer
See also the Trainworld on facebook of Mediarail.be, also Twitter and LinkedIn
28/02/2016
The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) is a regional public transport authority that ensures the integration of public transport (prices, offers, quality ...), and which finance and provides grants to operators, whether train, tram or bus . The zone managed extends to the Ruhr, the Niederrhein, to part of the Bergisch Land and the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf, totaling 8.2 million people. Founded in 1986 as an association of public transport companies, VRR has gradually gained duties and responsibilities and is now seen as a mobility service that acts upstream, in cooperation with service providers to form an integrated transport system. This authority has nearly 49 rail lines and 935 bus lines, for a traffic of about 4 million passengers every day.
As everyone knows, in Germany, regional transport, including
railways services, depends on the Lander, which award contracts and grants to
operaters of their choice, and not only to the national DBAG. As a buyer of
rail services for regional and local passengers, VRR's mission is to regularly
control trains services and the compliance to the contractually agreeded
quality standards. As such, the VRR produces an annual barometer of all rail
providers. The edition 2015 has now been published. It shows the state of rail
passenger transport in the region of the Ruhr. For the tenth time, it provides
an overview of the quality of service in the interests of transparency which
would make the envy in other Member States of Europe. The annual report
provides information on the punctuality and condition of vehicles, shows how
travelers appreciate the achievements in the regional rail transport and
highlights the quality of sales services. What can we see?
It is noted here that private providers seem to hold the top
of the podium, with respect to the DB, but with some variations. As in previous
years, the current report shows that the procedure for awarding regional
railway lines has a positive effect on the quality of the offer: the assigned
lines in competitive tenders are still highly rated by users than those under
"bulk" contract of the DB. The barometer below delivers the details:
Services and seating
VRR has questioned travelers on various standards of quality
and the level of satisfaction by railway line. Evaluation is curiously denoted
as "one" ( "very good") to "six" (
"unsatisfactory"). So you must have a low score to get the highest
notes. Overall, users are more satisfied with the performance of public
services over the previous year. Only six of 49 lines operated by the VRR get a
worse rating than 2014. On this quotation, DB seems to record the lowest scores,
as shown in the table below, with an average of 2.27. By contrast, Abellio
(subsidiary of the Dutch NS) is second with 1.87 and the gold is obtained by
Regiobahn, a private subsidiary owned by several cities of the Ruhr, with a
score of 1.67, the best of the table. As noted in the report, an
"increase" of satisfaction is thus denoted while the extremes scores
of 2014 extended between 1.70 and 2.83. So there is progress, and VRR
attributed this to competitive pressure between providers.
VRR has seen however an increase in the number of trains
where seating capacity was less than expected. If some of the passengers seem
satisfied, the report, however, gives a negative rating for lines RE2, RE11, RB
27, RB 42 and RB 48 to DB Regio AG and the line RE3 from the private company
Eurobahn. Passengers assess better the state of the vehicles than before:
modern vehicles or a new interior design certainly have a positive effect on
the satisfaction. The report also highlights that the overhaul of the Ruhr-Sieg
network (RE 16, RB 40 and RB 91) with Flirt trainsets of two or three cars
managed by Abellio, begins to show its effects. On other lines, the reason for
the sharp improvement in the overall score can be explained by the use of new
trains. Since the last timetable change in December 2014, the S6 line earns
3.31 percentage points thanks to the introduction of the class ET 422,
replacing old hauled trains. On the S68 line, rising of 1.97 points is
certainly due to the modernization of class ET420.
Punctuality and
infrastructure
On the side of infrastructure, if it is still necessary to
prove, remains important in punctuality, even in Germany. Martin Husmann, the
CEO of the VRR, clearly explains the reasons: ‘(the network) was neglected in the past. For years, the DB Group has
not adequately maintained his tracks and few investments were undertaken for
the technical update. This means that passengers today suffer
disproportionately of many construction sites, causing many delays and
cancellations.’ The regional express trains have certainly enhanced their
punctuality rate compared to 2014, but the average remains around 84%. The
S-Bahn, where the distance is shorter, has a better time performance. The end
of 2015 was marked mainly by the fire of the Mülheim signal box, causing chaos
for several weeks. Thalys has even postponed its service to Dortmund until
April 2016. ‘This shows once again the
importance of investing in the maintenance and the expansion of the
installations to face to this kind of event with more skill’ insists Martin Husmann.
The futur
VRR is booming. By the end of 2016, the lines with high
potential like Cologne-Düsseldorf-Bochum and Dortmund - Düsseldorf will spend
from two to three trains per hour in Regional services. The frequency on the
Duisburg-Essen line will spend from four to five trains per hour, which can
leave thoughtful. Abellio will operate with a cross border service between
Arnhem, the Netherlands, and Dusseldorf, thus connecting the Dutch city to the
Ruhr area.
