Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company[1] based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Bremen, Lüneburg and Uelzen, and from Uelzen to Hannover and Göttingen. Services listed on the timetables are abbreviated ME. Furthermore, the company operates services from Wolfsburg to Hannover and Hildesheim under its other brand Enno.[2]
The company's logo, depicting a swinging pendulum, is often rendered in lower case as metronom (the German word Metronom literally meaning metronome).
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 (69.9%), the BeNEX GmbH (25.1%) and the Bremer Straßenbahn AG (5.0%). The NiedersachsenBahn GmbH acts as an operating company and is a union of the railways Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen (OHE) (60%), based in Celle and the railways and transport companies Elbe-Weser GmbH (Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser) (40%) 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 does not own vehicles or maintenance resources. All locomotives and railway carriages are rented by the state transport company Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen mbH (LNVG) 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 (e.g. delays, road closures, personnel failures, vehicle interference).
Operations
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€ 163.2 million (2009)
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