Private company
Logo: ™/®Abellio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3
Public transit operator in Germany
Abellio Deutschland is a public transit operator in Germany operating bus and rail networks. Headquartered in Berlin, it is a subsidiary of the Dutch state-owned Abellio.2 It is part of Abellio Transport Holding B.V.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0
Last updated Oct 20, 2026.
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Abellio Deutschland is a public transit operator in Germany operating bus and rail networks. Headquartered in Berlin, it is a subsidiary of the Dutch state-owned Abellio.2
Abellio Deutschland is part of a group headed by Nederlandse Spoorwegen. 21 entities, 4 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.
Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.
Abellio Deutschland was formed by the Essen public transit company (EVAG, today part of Ruhrbahn) in 2004. In 2005, British investment company Star Capital Partners purchased a 75% share in Abellio from the City of Essen. In December 2008, both sold their shares to NedRailways. The Abellio brand was later rolled out to replace the NedRailways brand internationally.
From Wikipedia’s article on Abellio Deutschland, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4
As of December 2016, Abellio Deutschland operated 18 lines over 978 kilometres with a fleet of 86 trains.
Abellio Rail NRW was founded in September 2005. It operated several regional railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia. The NRW network stretched from Gelsenkirchen to Bochum, from Essen to Siegen and Iserlohn via Hagen as well as from Wuppertal to Solingen via Remscheid (line S7).
In December 2016, it commenced operating along the Lower Rhine network between Arnhem in the Netherlands and Düsseldorf / Mönchengladbach and Bocholt. From December 2018, it has operated the Rhine-Ruhr-Express with the Rhein-Hellweg-Express (RE11) and since June 2020, it has operated the NRW-Express (RE1). Both were supposed to run until December 2033.
In December 2016, Abellio NRW commenced operating a 12-year concession to operate Niederrhein-Netz services using the Oberhausen–Arnhem railway covering the Rhein-IJssel-Express (RE19), Arnhem – Zevenaar – Emmerich – Wesel – Oberhausen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf Airport – Düsseldorf and the Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn (RB35), Mönchengladbach – Krefeld – Wesel. In April 2017 the former was extended into the Netherlands to Arnhem.
In December 2019, it commenced operating lines S2, S3 and S9 of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn network with 29 Stadler Flirts.
On 31 January 2022, Abellio Rail NRW ended its operations. The different contracts were awarded in emergency tenders to other rail companies:
Rhein-Ruhr-Express (RE1, RE11): National Express
Ruhr-Sieg-Netz (RE16, RB46, RB91): DB Regio NRW
S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr (S2, S3, S9, RB32, RB40, RE49): DB Regio NRW
Der Müngstener (S7): VIAS Rail
Niederrhein-Netz (RE19, RB35): VIAS Rail
Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland commenced operating the Saale-Thuringia-Südharz (STS) electric network since December 2015 on a 15-year contract, over ten lines with a route length of 575 kilometres. The network extends from Halle to Erfurt, Eisenach and Kassel as well as from Leipzig to Erfurt and Saalfeld. In December 2018, Abellio Deutschland commenced operating 12 routes in Saxony-Anhalt. These are being operated by 52 Alstom Coradia Lints.
From June 2019 Abellio took over some regional train lines in Baden Württemberg under a 13-year contract. Initially a fleet of 43 Bombardier Talent 2s were ordered. This was later increased by five.
Abellio operated the following regional routes in Baden-Württemberg:
RB 17a Stuttgart - Mühlacker - Pforzheim (- Bad Wildbad*/Wilferdingen-Singen)
RE/RB 17b Stuttgart - Mühlacker- Bretten - Bruchsal - Heidelberg
RB 17c Stuttgart - Mühlacker - Bretten - Bruchsal
RE 10a Mannheim - Mosbach-Neckarelz - Heilbronn - Stuttgart - Tübingen
RE 10b Mannheim - Sinsheim (Elsenz) - Heilbronn - Stuttgart - Tübingen
RB 18 Osterburken - Heilbronn - Stuttgart - Tübingen
IRE 6 Stuttgart - Tübingen
On 1 January 2022, Abellio Rail Baden-Württemberg was taken over by the state-owned Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-AG (SWEG).
Abellio Deutschland owned a 25% share in WestfalenBahn that was founded in 2005. In July 2017 this was increased to 100%.
In April 2013, Abellio Deutschland announced it would focus on rail transport and sell its three bus companies. In November 2013 VM and Werner were sold to Transport Capital with 220 buses. The remaining KVG business was sold to Rhenus Veniro and the District of Bautzen in October 2014 with 84 buses.
From Wikipedia’s article on Abellio Deutschland, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4
From Wikidata.1
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