Groups & holding companies

Abellio

Abellio was the overseas arm of the Dutch state railway and ran several regional networks in Germany. After the restructuring of its German business, contracts and vehicles moved on – but the traces on the vehicles are still readable today.

Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG)

founded 1929

The BVG is Berlin's largest local transport operator – and yet it doesn't own a single S-Bahn train. Anyone wanting to correctly attribute vehicles in Berlin must first understand where the line runs between the BVG, S-Bahn Berlin and the VBB fare network.

Captrain

Captrain is not a railway but an umbrella brand: under it run several legally independent freight railways in different countries, each with its own licence. Seeing a Captrain locomotive therefore doesn't yet tell you which company is running the train.

Deutsche Bahn AG

founded 1994

Deutsche Bahn AG doesn't run a single train itself. It's a holding company under which dozens of independent companies hold their own licences, rolling stock and transport contracts. Spotting the red DB logo doesn't tell you the operator.

Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln (HGK)

founded 1992

HGK operates Cologne's ports, its own railway lines within the city and a European inland shipping business. But its freight trains mostly run under the name of a joint venture – which is why HGK rarely appears on the locomotive you're photographing.

Hamburger Hochbahn

founded 1911

Hamburger Hochbahn is the Hanseatic city's municipal transport operator: the U-Bahn and a large part of the bus network. The S-Bahn belongs to a different group, and the hvv logo on the door tells you nothing about the operator – it only stands for the fare system.

Hessische Landesbahn (HLB)

The Hessische Landesbahn is a group of several companies: one for passenger services, one for freight, one for its own infrastructure. The train usually just says HLB or a brand name – you only find out the operating company from the data panel.

Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG)

In Munich, three abbreviations sit side by side and are constantly confused: MVG is the municipal operator, MVV the fare association, SWM the parent group. And the S-Bahn, which many people simply lump in with the rest, belongs to an entirely different company.

Netinera

founded 2011

Netinera is one of Germany's largest regional-transport groups – yet you'll never find its name on a train. Services run under brands like alex, vogtlandbahn, erixx, vlexx and ODEG, each backed by its own company.

Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen (OHE)

founded 1944

OHE is one of the last big non-federal railways in northern Germany: it owns its own lines in the Lüneburg Heath and runs freight services on them and far beyond. Its owner, though, is no longer based in Lower Saxony.

SWEG Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-AG

founded 1971

The SWEG Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-AG is majority-owned by the state of Baden-Württemberg but runs under a name many mistake for a private railway. Services aren't operated by the AG itself but by operating companies – and these carry different names on paper and on the vehicle.

Transdev Deutschland

Transdev Deutschland is the German national arm of a French mobility group – and almost never appears under this name on the platform. The group works with a whole range of regional operating companies, each holding its own licence and its own brand name.

Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe (VBK)

The Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe run the city's trams and buses, while the sister company AVG handles the railway services. The two work so closely together that you can hardly tell them apart at the vehicle – legally, though, they're two completely separate worlds.

VTG

founded 1951

VTG leases out freight wagons instead of running trains. So the logo on the tank wagon names the wagon's owner – not the company running the train. Once you know the difference, you read a freight train rake completely differently, keeping keeper and operator neatly apart.

Westfälische Verkehrsgesellschaft (WVG)

Westfälische Verkehrsgesellschaft is a municipal holding company that bundles several transport companies in the Münsterland and Ruhr-Lippe area. Only one of them still runs trains today – the others carry the railway reference only in their name.

ÖBB Rail Cargo Group

The Rail Cargo Group is ÖBB's freight division – and at the same time an umbrella brand that holds no licence of its own. Trains are actually run by Rail Cargo Austria and a string of national companies whose codes appear in the data panel, while only RCG is written on the outside.

Stern & Hafferl Verkehrsgesellschaft

founded 1894

Stern & Hafferl runs several electric local railways in Upper Austria, plus boats, buses and power stations. That's why you rarely see the company name on its railcars, only the line name – and the overhead line carries DC current instead of the 15 kilovolts used on the ÖBB network.

Hupac

founded 1967

Hupac organises combined transport through the Alps: its own wagons, its own terminals, its own timetable. The locomotive in front almost always belongs to somebody else. That's exactly why a Hupac train is identified by its wagons, never by the loco at the front.

Rhätische Bahn (RhB)

founded 1889

The Rhaetian Railway is one of the few railways in Europe where network, operations and brand sit in a single hand. It combines several originally independent lines, runs on metre gauge with no rack, and operates two completely different electrification systems on the same network.

SBB Cargo International

founded 2011

SBB Cargo International was founded for a single purpose: through freight trains between northern Europe and Italy. The company is majority-owned by SBB, but not entirely – and despite its name, it doesn't run any traffic within Switzerland.

Lineas

Lineas grew out of the Belgian state railway's freight business and is now majority private. The group runs through its own national subsidiaries in several countries – and because Belgium runs on DC, multi-system locomotives here aren't a luxury, they're a requirement.

CFL cargo

founded 2006

CFL cargo is the freight group of the Luxembourg state railway, born out of a joint venture with the steel industry. From one of the smallest rail networks in Europe, its reach extends through Germany to Denmark – each via its own national company.

Transdev

founded 2011

Transdev is a French mobility group that operates bus, tram, metro and rail services in several countries – almost always under local brands rather than its own name. In its home market of France, of all places, it wasn't allowed to run passenger trains for decades.

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS)

founded 1905

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane is the state holding company behind Trenitalia, RFI and Mercitalia. It doesn't run any trains itself, but it holds the network, passenger services, freight and even the national road network under one roof - and operates through subsidiaries in several European countries.

Mercitalia

founded 2017

Mercitalia bundles the freight business of the Italian state holding company. The parent company doesn't run anything itself – Mercitalia Rail operates in Italy, and TX Logistik north of the Alps. The same train can therefore carry two completely different company names depending on the country.

Arriva

founded 1997

Arriva runs regional services in several European countries and belonged to Deutsche Bahn for a time. The group had to give up its German activities in the process – yet it's precisely a German train name that still carries the group's name today.

Go-Ahead Group

founded 1987

The Go-Ahead Group is a British transport group that wins regional network contracts on the European mainland and runs them through national subsidiaries. That's why its trains almost never carry the name "Go-Ahead" – instead they carry the name of the network, the commissioning body, or a joint venture.

Mobico Group (National Express)

founded 1988

The Mobico Group has only carried that name since 2023; the trains in North Rhine-Westphalia still say National Express. The group itself doesn't operate anything, its German rail subsidiary doesn't own its trains – on the Rhine-Ruhr-Express, brand, operator and owner fall apart more than almost anywhere else.

PKP Cargo

founded 2001

PKP Cargo is the freight arm of the Polish state railway holding – and a special case: unlike most groups, the company runs trains itself while also holding stakes in subsidiaries at home and abroad. On the track you'll find one of Europe's oldest electric-locomotive fleets.

ČD Cargo

founded 2007

ČD Cargo is the freight subsidiary of the Czech state railway and only came into being in 2007. Its vehicle fleet is considerably older: most of it dates from well before that. Add to that a quirk of the network – two electrification systems meeting in the middle of the country.

Lokaltog

founded 2015

Lokaltog brings together the remaining private railways on Zealand and Lolland. Unlike the big Danish operators, the company owns its own routes – and runs on them exclusively with diesel multiple units, in the middle of an otherwise heavily electrified country.

Green Cargo

founded 2001

Green Cargo emerged in 2001 from the freight division of the Swedish state railway and is still wholly state-owned today. The company runs one of Europe's last nationwide wagonload networks – and operates outside Sweden through its own companies with their own licences.