Regionalverkehre Start Deutschland GmbH is a German railway company that operates local rail passenger transport in Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The company is owned by Deutsche Bahn through DB Regio.

According to its own statements, the company would like to act “lean and dynamic” like a start-up company^[1] and thus meet the increasing cost and performance pressure in German local rail passenger transport. This came about, among other things, as a result of the liberalisation of local transport in Germany and the associated tenders in German states. The DB Regio company has lost many routes under this pressure in recent years.^[2]

Regionalverkehre Start Deutschland was the first network to take over the operation of the Hamburg Hbf–Cuxhaven (RE 5) line from December 2018 to December 2027 with its subsidiary Verkehrsgesellschaft Start Unterelbe, based in Cuxhaven. This line was previously operated by Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft. 8 diesel locomotives and 38 double-decker carriages from the state-owned LNVG vehicle pool, which were already in use on the route, were leased for these operations. The previous Metronom employees were also offered a job.^[3][4] As before, the trains were maintained by the manufacturer Bombardier (now part of Alstom) in Bremervörde.^[5]

The Lower Saxony Regional Transport Company (LNVG) and the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Transport Company (NWL) initially awarded the Lower Saxony-Central diesel network to DB Regio in September 2020.^[6] In November 2020, it was announced that the network would be transferred to Regionalverkehre Start Deutschland, which began operations in December 2021.^[7]

The network comprises two sub-networks that were previously awarded separately: lines RB 37 (Bremen Hbf–Soltau–Uelzen) and RB 38 (Hannover Hbf–Soltau–Buchholz (Nordheide)–Hamburg-Harburg) were previously operated as the Heidekreuz by erixx, the Heidesprinter. The Weser-/Lammetalbahn network with lines RB 77 (Hildesheim Hbf–Hameln–Löhne–Bünde) and RB 79 (Hildesheim–Bodenburg) was previously operated by NordWestBahn.

Alstom Coradia LINT vehicles from the LNVG vehicle pool continued to be used. The headquarters of Start Niedersachsen Mitte has been in Soltau since November 2021. There is a branch in Hanover and Hildesheim.^[8] As of 2021, around 170 employees are employed.^[9]

After taking over the network, Start Niedersachsen was criticised because its operations had become unreliable. There were increasing numbers of cancelled services, delays and missed connections, and passengers were not well informed. Start was threatened with a warning from the responsible authority, the Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG).^[10][11] Ultimately, in November 2022, Start Niedersachsen received a contractual penalty of €2.7 million for cancelled and delayed trains.^[12]Start has appealed against the penalties imposed because the vehicles leased to Start by the LNVG, as the owner, are not in an age-appropriate and very poor condition.

After problems with maintenance processes due to the poor general condition of the vehicles, there were again significant outages from June 2023, and many trains only ran for a shortened period.^[13] Start Niedersachsen-Mitte had to stop train services on the RB 37 line (Uelzen–Langwedel railway) for several weeks.^[14] In July 2023, Start Niedersachsen-Mitte received a warning from the Lower Saxony State Local Transport Company (LNVG).^[15] The passenger association Pro Bahn called on the Lower Saxony State Local Transport Company to terminate the contract with Start Niedersachsen-Mitte and prepare for emergency operations.^[16] In response to renewed restrictions, particularly on line RB 37 (Bremen–Soltau–Uelzen), Pro Bahn reiterated its demand in February 2024 that the LNVG should not shy away from terminating the transport contract, after the previous warning had not led to a stabilisation of the situation and the situation remained unreasonable.^[17] The LNVG again called on Start to get the problems with vehicle maintenance under control.^[18] Start rejected the allegations and once again pointed out the very poor general condition of the vehicles when they were taken over from the previous operators.

In March 2024, the Lower Saxony Regional Transport Company (LNVG) published key figures on operational quality, in which Start Niedersachsen Mitte performed poorly compared to other transport companies.^[19] In 2023, most trains in the Start Niedersachsen Mitte network were cancelled in the LNVG area,^[19] the lowest reliability in terms of short-term cancellations in the LNVG area in 2023 was shown by lines RB 37 (Bremen Hbf–Soltau–Uelzen) and RB 77 (Hildesheim Hbf–Hameln–Löhne–Bünde).^[20] The line RB 38 (Hannover Hbf–Soltau–Buchholz (Nordheide)–Hamburg-Harburg) had the lowest punctuality rate (up to 5 minutes) of all lines examined in 2023 (68%^[20] compared to 86%^[19] of local trains in Lower Saxony as a whole). Due to the poor performance, the LNVG called on the DB Group to intervene at Start Niedersachsen Mitte.^[19]

In March 2022, the Rhein-Main Transport Association (RMV) announced that Start would take over operations in the Taunus network from December 2022. This includes the services on lines RB 11 (Bad Soden am Taunus – Frankfurt (Main) Höchst), RB 12 (Frankfurt (Main) – Königstein (Taunus)), RB 15 (Frankfurt (Main) (HVZ) – Bad Homburg – Brandoberndorf) and RB 16 (Bad Homburg – Friedberg (Hess)); these lines were previously operated by Hessische Landesbahn. 27 new trains from the Alstom Group of the iLINT class with hydrogen propulsion were to be used. Since not enough new vehicles were delivered for the start of operations, Start also leased vehicles (including Deutsche Bahn Bombardier Talent sets from Dortmund) in the first few months.^[21]

In December 2022, the takeover of the Taunus network led to significant mobility restrictions in the Hochtaunus district;^[22] rail traffic was temporarily completely suspended.^[23] An as yet unspecified IT problem ensured that passengers were not informed about replacement buses either online or on the display boards at the stations during the rail outage.^[23] The project partners RMV, Alstom (provider of the hydrogen vehicles) and Infraserv (provider of the hydrogen) also reported in a joint press release about considerable difficulties in taking over operations due to technical problems with the hydrogen trains.^[23]

After months of restrictions due to the increasing deterioration of the hydrogen trains, the RMV has had to award the operation of the RB 11 line to the S-Bahn Rhein-Main instead of to Start Regionalverkehre Deutschland from 25 September 2023 "until further notice".^[24]

In December 2021, the Rhine-Ruhr Transport Association (VRR), the Westphalia-Lippe Local Transport Association (NWL) and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Waterways announced that from December 2026, Regionalverkehre Start Deutschland would operate the hourly regional express line Maas-Wupper-Express (RE 13) between Hamm, Hagen, Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, Mönchengladbach, Venlo and Eindhoven with multi-system-capable Stadler Flirt vehicles.^[25] The line is currently operated by Eurobahn and only runs between Venlo and Hamm.

On 7 July 2023, Nahverkehrsservice Sachsen-Anhalt (NASA) awarded Regionalverkehre Start Deutschland GmbH the contract for the diesel network Saxony-Anhalt (DISA II) – now with the new name Central Germany.^[26] Operations will begin with the timetable change in December 2024 and will run for 8 years.

57 Alstom Coradia LINT 41 will be used, of which 54 will be taken over as part of the tender due to the insolvency proceedings of the previous operator Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschlands, three vehicles are rented.^[27] These will continue to be maintained by Verkehrs Industrie Systeme Halberstadt.^[28]