Hessische Landesbahn

Logo Hessische Landesbahn

Hessische Landesbahn (Hessian State Railway, HLB) is a regional transport company owned by the German state of Hesse, based in Frankfurt am Main. It provides bus and rail passenger transport services and, to a lesser extent, rail freight services in Hesse and across the state’s borders through its subsidiaries and affiliates.

Company

The management of Hessische Landesbahn is supervised by Veit Salzmann. The districts and the State of Hesse are represented by four people on the Supervisory Board and the employees also have four seats on the Board.

Structure

Hessische Landesbahn GmbH operates as the holding company of three subsidiaries:

• HLB Hessenbahn GmbH operates rail services;
• HLB Hessenbus GmbH operates bus services;
• HLB Basis AG provides the resources for the transport operators; it is a railway infrastructure company, it owns most of the vehicles operated and it operates vehicle workshops.

HLB Hessenbus and HLB Hessenbahn are 100 per cent owned subsidiary, HLB Basis is almost 85% owned by HLB, while the remaining shares are mostly owned by local authorities.^[1]

History

The company was founded in 1955 as a holding company of several non-government-owned railways in Hesse, which operated as an integrated railway company with its own rail infrastructure, stations, etc., as well as operations on this infrastructure.

In the course of the separation of infrastructure and operations in 2005, three of the four subsidiaries of HLB: the Frankfurt-Königsteiner Eisenbahn, the Butzbach-Licher Eisenbahn and the Kassel-Naumburger Eisenbahn were united under the holding company of the Frankfurt-Königsteiner Eisenbahn, since trading as HLB Basis, as the common infrastructure operator.

Train services

VT 301 of the HLB running towards the Kahlgrund Railway in Hanau

GTW 2/6 in Hanau Nord station

FLIRT 429 045 of the HLB in Gießen.

The subsidiaries of the Hessische Landesbahn operate 3.8 million train kilometres each year over 237.5 kilometres of line and 10.34 million vehicle kilometres each year over 1,013 km of bus route.

The main line of the HLB originally was the Königstein Railway between Königstein and Frankfurt-Höchst of the former Frankfurt-Königsteiner Eisenbahn (Frankfurt-Königstein Railway, FKE), known as the K-Bahn and part of the Frankfurter Verkehrsverbund (Frankfurt Transport Association, FVV).

In the 1990s, the HLB subsidiaries operated a number of local lines acquired from Deutsche Bahn in north and middle Hesse. Since 11 December 2005, HLB multiple units have operated on the Kahlgrund Railway from Hanau to Schöllkrippen in the Bavarian Spessart. Besides railways it operates buses and tram lines.

Since December 2010, HLB has also run on the main line Frankfurt–Gießen–Siegen/Marburg routes (RMV lines 30/40, the Main-Sieg-Express) and, since December 2011, it has operated Regionalbahn services on the RMV lines 25, 35 and 52 on the Limburg–Gießen, Gießen–Alsfeld–Fulda and the Fulda–Gersfeld routes.

Investments

HLB Basis AG has a 50% interest in Regionalbahn Kassel (RBK), with the remainder held by Kasseler Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (KVG). The KVG operates the Kassel–Waldkappel railway, which combines rail freight and tram traffic. The RBK, in turn, holds 49% of Regionaltram Betriebsgesellschaft, a joint venture with Deutsche Bahn, which, as RegioTram Kassel, operates tram-trains in the Kassel area.

Through other subsidiaries the HLB operates passenger transport services beyond the Hessian borders in four of the six neighbouring states:

• in Rhineland-Palatinate, together with Westerwaldbahn GmbH, in vectus Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH (HLB 74.9%),
• in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, together with Westerwaldbahn GmbH and Kreisbahn Siegen-Wittgenstein, in HellertalBahn GmbH (HLB 33%),
• in Lower Saxony and Thuringia, together with BeNEX, a subsidiary of the Hamburger Hochbahn, in Cantus Verkehrsgesellschaft (HLB 50%),
• in Thuringia, together with Erfurter Bahn (EB), in the Süd-Thüringen-Bahn GmbH (HLB 50%).

Fares

Hessische Landesbahn is a member of the Tarifverband der Bundeseigenen und Nichtbundeseigenen Eisenbahnen in Deutschland (Fare association of federally and non-federally owned railways in Germany). Tickets for travel on Deutsche Bahn trains can therefore also be used on HLB trains.

Lines

The following lines, using the numbering of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund are operated by the Hessische Landesbahn:

Service	Line name	Route	Concession period	Normal rolling stock
Current route network
R 9	Main-Weser-Bahn	Schwalmstadt-Treysa – Wabern – Kassel Hbf	14.12.2014 – 7.12.2024[2]	FLIRT[3]
SE 12	Königstein Railway	Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Frankfurt-Höchst – Königstein im Taunus	?? – 14.12.2019	VT 2E, LINT 41/H
RB 13	Soden Railway	Frankfurt-Höchst – Bad Soden am Taunus
SE 15	Taunus Railway	Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Bad Homburg – Friedrichsdorf – Brandoberndorf
RB 15		Bad Homburg – Friedrichsdorf – Brandoberndorf
RB 16	Friedrichsdorf–Friedberg railway	Friedrichsdorf – Friedberg	24.05.1998 – 14.12.2019	GTW 2/6
SE 20	Main-Lahn-Bahn	Limburg (Lahn) – Niedernhausen – Frankfurt-Höchst – Frankfurt (Main) Hbf (a daily pair of train services)	Dec. 2014 – Dec. 2019 (provisionally)[4]	GTW 2/6 from Dec 2015 Desiro (from line RB 56)[5]
RB 21	Main-Lahn-Bahn, Ländchesbahn	Limburg (Lahn) – Niedernhausen – Wiesbaden Hbf
RB 25	Lahn Valley Railway	Limburg (Lahn) – Wetzlar – Gießen	11.12.2011 – 9.12.2023	LINT 41
RB 29	Unterwesterwaldbahn	Limburg (Lahn) – Montabaur – Siershahn	Dec. 2014 – Dec. 2030	LINT, GTW 2/6, 629
RE 30	Main-Weser Railway	Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Gießen – Marburg (Lahn) (– Stadtallendorf)	12.12.2010 – 9.12.2023	FLIRT
RB 31	Friedberg–Mücke railway	Friedberg – Wölfersheim-Södel	30.05.1999 – 14.12.2019	GTW 2/6
SE 32	Main-Weser Railway, Beienheim–Schotten railway	Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Friedberg – Nidda	30.05.1999 – 9.12.2012
RB 32	Beienheim–Schotten railway	Friedberg – Nidda	30.05.1999 – 14.12.2019
RB 33	Friedberg–Hanau railway	Friedberg – Nidderau – Hanau	11.06.2001 – 30.06.2012
RB 35	Vogelsberg Railway	Gießen – Grünberg – Alsfeld – Lauterbach – Fulda	11.12.2011 – 9.12.2023	LINT 41
RB 36	Lahn-Kinzig Railway	Gießen – Hungen – Nidda – Glauburg-Stockheim – Gelnhausen	?? – 14.12.2019
RE 40 RE 99	Main-Weser Railway, Dill Railway (Main-Sieg-Express)	Frankfurt (Main) Hbf – Gießen – Wetzlar – Dillenburg – Siegen	12.12.2010 – 9.12.2023	FLIRT
RB 40 RB 95	Sieg-Dill-Bahn	Dillenburg – Siegen (– Betzdorf – Au(Sieg) until Dec. 2015)	Dec. 2014 – Dez. 2030	LINT, GTW 2/6
RB 52	Fulda–Gersfeld Railway	Fulda – Gersfeld	11.12.2011 – 9.12.2023	LINT 27, LINT 41
RB 56	Kahlgrund Railway	Hanau Hbf – Kahl am Main – Alzenau – Schöllkrippen	11.12.2005 – 12.12.2015	Desiro
RB 90	Oberwesterwald-Bahn	Limburg (Lahn) – Westerburg - Altenkirchen – Au (Sieg) (– Betzdorf – Siegen (– Kreuztal) until Dec. 2015)	Dec. 2014 – Dec. 2030	LINT, GTW 2/6
RB 91	Ruhr-Sieg-Bahn	Siegen – Finnentrop (a single daily pair of services)	Dec. 2014 – Dec. 2030	LINT, GTW 2/6
RB 92	Biggesee-Express	Finnentrop – Olpe	Dec. 2014 – Dec. 2030	LINT, GTW 2/6
RB 93	Rothaarbahn	Bad Berleburg – Erndtebrück – Siegen (– Betzdorf until Dec. 2015)	Dec. 2014 – Dec. 2030	LINT, GTW 2/6
Future services
RB 41 RB 96	Hellertalbahn	Betzdorf – Herdorf – Haiger – Dillenburg	Dec. 2015 – Dec. 2030	LINT, GTW 2/6

Notes

1. Beteiligungsbericht 2005 Landkreis Kassel (in German). Landkreis Kassel. p. 66.
2. "NVV schreibt R9 Kassel – Treysa erneut aus" (in German). 29 October 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
3. "Stadler liefert vier weitere FLIRT an die HLB". Eisenbahnjournal (in German). 15 December 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
4. "Dienstleistungsauftrag D-Hofheim am Taunus: Öffentlicher Schienentransport/öffentliche Schienenbeförderung". 24 December 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
5. "Ab Mitte Dezember: Abends bessere Zugverbindungen". Nassauische Neue Presse (in German). Retrieved 26 February 2015.

External links

• "Website" (in German). Hessischen Landesbahn GmbH. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
• Rollingstock list of HLB and at privat-bahn.de