Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft


Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Bremen, Uelzen, Wolfsburg and Lüneburg. Services listed on the timetables are abbreviated ME.
The company's logo, depicting a swinging pendulum, is often rendered in lower case as metronom.

History

At the end of the 1990s, the three participating States of Germany—Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen—agreed to replace Regional-Express services on the routes between Hamburg and Bremen and Hamburg-Uelzen operated by DB Regio with their own railway company.
The company was founded in February 2002 under the name of MetroRail. The ownership structure has remained unchanged and consists of three companies that represent the individual states and were based almost exclusively in the public domain. Specifically, these are the NiedersachsenBahn GmbH, the BeNEX GmbH and the Bremer Straßenbahn AG. The NiedersachsenBahn GmbH acts as an operating company and is a union of the railways Osthannoverschen AG , based in Celle and the railways and transport companies Elbe-Weser GmbH of Zeven.
In autumn 2003, the company was renamed after a dispute with Metro AG and their current name and the logo were adopted. For 14 December 2003 the operation was established on the lines Hamburg-Bremen and Hamburg-Uelzen.
In April 2007, the majority of the OHE was sold, by the state of Lower Saxony, Germany and the DB Regio AG, after a bidding process to the British transport company Arriva Bachstein GmbH, in which the Arriva Germany GmbH is involved with 86%. As a result, Arriva indirectly controls 30.7% of the capital of the Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft and so is its largest shareholder.
Metronom doesn't own vehicles or maintenance resources. All locomotives and railway carriages are rented by the state transport company Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen mbH and are maintained in the depot of OHE Uelzen by personnel of the manufacturer Bombardier Inc. and the OHE. This depot was built specifically for the maintenance of the metronom trains and is located in the north of Uelzen, in the so-called Dannenberger Bogen. The maintenance of the trains by the Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser for the Lower Elbe Railway takes place in Bremervörde, for this the trains are transferred partly through the route of the former Buxtehude Harsefelder Eisenbahn and partly through the section of the Stade-Bremervörde Moor Express, at the latter three complete units coupled together.
With the monitoring and disposal of its trains, the railway company metronom has also mandated the OHE. From Celle the OHE staff controls around the clock the entire company operations and initiates appropriate measures to stop irregularities.

Operations

The company operates the following services.
LineRouteContract dates
Uelzen – Celle – Hannover – Northeim – GöttingenDecember 2005 – December 2017
Hamburg – Winsen – Lüneburg – UelzenDecember 2010 – December 2018
Hamburg – Tostedt – Rotenburg – BremenDecember 2010 – December 2018
Hamburg – Buxtehude – Stade – CuxhavenDecember 2007 – December 2018
Hannover - Lehrte - Gifhorn - WolfsburgDecember 2015 – December 2025
Hildesheim - Braunschweig - WolfsburgDecember 2015 – December 2025
Hamburg – Winsen – LüneburgDecember 2010 – December 2018
Hamburg – Tostedt – Rotenburg – BremenDecember 2010 – December 2018

Fleet

Names of Metronom locomotives