They certainly seem to have the most creative solutions to secure their schedule slots.

>>132636

Mixed trains in first-world countries in 2016?!? What sorcery is this?

When will the insatiable DB monster get an heart attack from the excessive fatty foods?

>>132640 -- Look up Rhaetian Railways. Their Stadler Allegra EMUs are built to power mixed trains.

>>132636 -- I can't see a driver in the seat. You sure the VT628 is not deadheading?

>>132633 -- Anything labelled DB Schenker is a museal candidate now that they are to become DB Cargo.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/freight/single-view/view/db-schenker-rail-rebrands-as-db-cargo.html

Where does DB get all the money for these buyouts? Isn't the rail in urgent need of billions invested in modernization?

>>132647
You answered your own question there. By not spending it on infrastructure and working aircon, they can spend it on buying things out!

>>132644 -- Okaaayyy... that's just freaky. This 628 is part of a rolling-road train called the Sylt Shuttle plus. It is unhitched in, I think, Niebüll and continues from there to Bredstedt and even Hamburg.

The usual way to travel on the Sylt Shuttle is to drive your car onto an autorack and then sit there and wait until it's time to drive off at the other end. The trains are hauled by two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_218 diesel locomotives. The Sylt Shuttle plus adds the railbus.

Pic shows view from the https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylt-Shuttle over the Wadden Sea.

>>132650
Even more freaky is the reason for doing this: Over the past years, DB and RDC have been fighting over track usage rights on the line to Sylt to operate the highly profitable autorack trains.
Normally, if two companies want to run equal trains, the available slots are divided equally as well.
Now DB came up with this brilliant idea: By coupling a DMU at the end, uncoupling it on the mainland in Niebüll and letting it run further to Bredstedt, DB's line it technically 20 kilometers longer and as the regulatory body prioritizes longer lines, this gives the DB more slots.
With all the shunting, the so-called Sylt Shuttle Plus takes about 20 minutes longer than the normal regional trains, so they run practically empty.

RDC meanwhile only got a handful of slots, though they currently lack rolling stock anyway.

It is as well that the railway net is not an RPG or DB would almost certainly get flattened into the ground with the banhammer.

>>132652

>Not owning your own rail

Euro freight. Not even once.

>>132654
To be fair owning the actual infrastructure isn't always great. Conrail spent most of it's existence removing redundant rail lines that served absolutely no purpose in the deindustrialized Northeast.

>>132655
Conrail is a terrible example since it started out as a government owned corporation.

>>132656
I wasn't making a point for or against public or private ownership of railways. I was simply stating that the operators owning their own railways can result in areas being served by redundant corridors.

>>132654 -- It is mostly the smaller European railcos that own track nowadays. Mainlines are the property of companies like Network Rail in the UK, Banedanmark in Denmark, SNCF Réseau in France and DB Netz in Germany. Train operators then pay for access to the rail, hopefully fairly enough that everyone is similarly happy/unhappy.

>>132657
Then the railroad gets rid of it. Conrail was a terrible example because it was 5 or 6 failed east coast railroads that were all thrown together.

Of course it had duplicate routes, and it did eventually shed them. A European railroad not owning its own track is a by-product of state ownership for so long and then the fantastic late 20th century idea to privatize railroads. Except only sort of. You'll privatize the profits, and keep the maintenance and property publicly owned and have the people subsidize those losses. Everybody wins, except the common man.

>>132661
conrail's not exactly an example of optimal planning either, plenty of cases of "we know this line is profitable, but we can't afford to maintain it, and we don't want a competitor to have it, so start the bulldozers and pull it all up".