European Rail Travel - HKX - Breaking DB's monopoly?

Yesterday HKX (https://www.hkx.de/de/) started train service, several months earlier than planned, on the Hamburg-Osnabrück-Münster-Düsseldorf-Cologne line. Prices are well below DB's for now ranging from €10 - €60. Service is up to 3x daily using some old but refurbished Austrian trains and some trains borrowed from a regional operator.

DB, of course, has a monopoly on intercity train service and huge regulatory authority over regional rail ticket prices, as well as a firm grip on most of the intercity bus service in Germany, which they either operate themselves or is carried out by their partners. The most major exception up until recently was the Leipzig-Berlin-Rostock Interconnex train.

Several new non-DB intercity buses have also forced their way into the intercity market over the last year or two:
- DeinBus (http://www.deinbus.de/) operates Munich-Stuttgart-Tübingen, Freiburg-Singen-Konstanz and Freiburg-Tübigen-Stuttgart as well as demand-based "bus pooling" using a legal loophole to organize passengers online as a group to charter buses.
- MeinFernbus (http://meinfernbus.de/) are operating Munich-Friedrichshafen-Titisee-Freiburg and Munich-Freidrichshafen-Konstanz.
- bus2fly (http://www.bus2fly.de) have expanded Hamburg-Bremen Airport service. Prices are cheaper than the train, though Bremen Airport is realatively conveniat to the city, its hard to say if anyone is using the bus for intercity travel rather than just to reach the airport.
- Delux Express (http://www.delux-express.de) operates Luxembourg-Trier-Kaiserslautern-Mainz-Frankfurt Flughafen-Frankfurt with domestic ticket authority.

As well as the well-established service:
- Jade Express (http://www.fass-reisen.de/jade-express-linien.html) run Oldenburg-Berlin.
- Ab 9 Euro (http://www.touring.de/Nationale-Buslinien.14.0.html?L=0) by Deutsche Touring on the Hamburg-Hanover-Frankfurt-Manheim corridor.

Failed attempts at intercity competition with DB so far include:
- Interconnex trains Cologne-Berlin-Rostock and Dresden-Berlin-Stralsund.
- Autobahn Express buses between Dresden, Leipzig, Potsdam, Göttingen and Berlin.

Others looking to compete:
- MSM - planned late fall 2012 start of Cologne-Hannover-Berlin/-Hamburg train service.
- RegioJet / Student Agency - planned Prague-Dreseden-Berlin service with domestic ticket authority but have been pacified by DB bringing them on as a co-operator of bus services from Bavaria to the Czech Republic and as the future co-operator of the existing Prague-Dresden-Berlin trains instead of CD Czech Railways.
- SNCF - threatened to start competing service, though it seems they are more content cooperating with DB on ICE / TGV services.
- Megabus / Stagecoach - has made it clear that they are looking to compete in the intercity coach market across Europe and set services in Contental Europe this year including Polski Bus and Amsterdam-Brüssels-Paris service.


I am not convinced the privatization system is best for the consumer or tax payer, especially considering the poor quality service and heavily tax-payer subsidized results in the UK. Still, if DB is going to be run as a profit oriented company instead of a public service provider, I think its rather important that there are some more affordable options for the travelling public and that the government is proping up a monopoly that isn't interested in serving the public.

The huge amount of ride-share services, including many people who otherwise wouldn't drive, is I think, proof that mobility policy in Germany is not keeping up with needs. Interesting times to come for travelers.

HKX is not a serious competitor but it offers passengers a choice. Surely that's a good thing ?

Here in the UK our open access train firms score highly in passenger surveys even though they might be using older rolling stock and they operate less frequently. Passengers rate them better than the incumbent TOCs.

I am not convinced the privatization system is best for the consumer or tax payer, especially considering the poor quality service and heavily tax-payer subsidized results in the UK.

What you are describing is different from the franchising model operated in the UK. For the most part, the privately-owned train operators (in fact, some of them are owned or part-owned by DB) in the UK have government-granted monopolies on their routes. In general, they don't actually compete with each other like these German private operators do.

So, in the UK you have a model where you have the disadvantages of privatisation - private profits being extracted from the system - without the advantages (i.e.: competition). We have also seen that while private operators receive the rewards of operating successfully and efficiently, they do not bear the risk of failure - such as when National Express was able to walk away from their loss-making East Coast franchise, leaving the government and taxpayer to pick up the pieces.

Under this UK model, I think your concerns about cost are valid: privatisation has not brought savings to the taxpayer in the UK. However, IMO it is for the most part incorrect to describe UK TOCs as providing a "poor quality service". On time performance has improved steadily since 2001, and is now over 93% across all TOCs. Not sure DB provide comparable figures, but I would be surprised if it were significantly better. And this is on a rail network which is significantly "denser" than in Germany: more trains operating on less track. Of course, this has been achieved with significant investment from taxpayers, so private operators can't be given all the credit.

Personally I think the franchise model works well on regional and commuter railways, however the major intercity routes (ECML, WCML, channel tunnel) should be opened to full competition. These are the most profitable routes by far and there's no reason competition on them wouldn't bring innovation, high quality services, and cheaper tickets - while still providing a return for the taxpayer (which in turn can be used to subsidise unprofitable regional routes..)

What you are describing is different from the franchising model operated in the UK. For the most part, the privately-owned train operators (in fact, some of them are owned or part-owned by DB) in the UK have government-granted monopolies on their routes. In general, they don't actually compete with each other like these German private operators do.

So, in the UK you have a model where you have the disadvantages of privatisation - private profits being extracted from the system - without the advantages (i.e.: competition). We have also seen that while private operators receive the rewards of operating successfully and efficiently, they do not bear the risk of failure - such as when National Express was able to walk away from their loss-making East Coast franchise, leaving the government and taxpayer to pick up the pieces.

Under this UK model, I think your concerns about cost are valid: privatisation has not brought savings to the taxpayer in the UK. However, IMO it is for the most part incorrect to describe UK TOCs as providing a "poor quality service". On time performance has improved steadily since 2001, and is now over 93% across all TOCs. Not sure DB provide comparable figures, but I would be surprised if it were significantly better. And this is on a rail network which is significantly "denser" than in Germany: more trains operating on less track. Of course, this has been achieved with significant investment from taxpayers, so private operators can't be given all the credit.

Personally I think the franchise model works well on regional and commuter railways, however the major intercity routes (ECML, WCML, channel tunnel) should be opened to full competition. These are the most profitable routes by far and there's no reason competition on them wouldn't bring innovation, high quality services, and cheaper tickets - while still providing a return for the taxpayer (which in turn can be used to subsidise unprofitable regional routes..)

Point taken on the complicated development of things in the UK, especially the franchise system on intercity. I guess we will see how things pan out around Europe (at least in Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, and Sweden where there is already intercity competition).

I largely agree with seperating out regional and intercity services, with regional being franchise (since competition is harder and would also mean a loss in service quality as customers would probablly be insentivised to have loyalty to one operator, and each operator would likely be able to operate less frequently than the first), and the intercity allowing competition. Still, a combine ticketing system for booking regional connections to all intercity lines, and onward travel on intercity lines where there is only one operator, has to be found. Indeed, for the time being DB (and the ÖBB and Trenitalia) has a huge and unfair advantage on this point, as well as decreasing the quality of service that would be offered to passengers through more frequent trains.

And of course the infrastructure needs to be seperated out and subsidized at at least the rate motorways are by the state. A lot of EU countries seem to have this bit well underway.

My biggest worries otherwise are around labor, and using foreigen or private train crews to undermine the labor conditions, not that this has happened yet, but when there is substaintial competition industrial action takes on a different character.