Netinera

alex (Arriva-Länderbahn-Express)

vlexx

Netinera Deutschland GmbH – the group's German holding company

Die Länderbahn GmbH – operator behind alex, vogtlandbahn, oberpfalzbahn and trilex

erixx GmbH and erixx Holstein GmbH – regional services in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein

vlexx GmbH – regional services in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland

Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn (ODEG) – stake focused on Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Netinera Move GmbH – company within the group's wider environment

Regentalbahn GmbH – long-established Bavarian railway within the group's wider environment

Bus companies – scheduled services in several German states

History at a glance

2000sA European transport group brings several German regional railways together under one roof. Today's structure with its many brands takes shape during this phase.

2010When Deutsche Bahn takes over this group, the competition authorities demand the sale of the German arm – to keep competition in regional rail alive.

2011The German business goes to a consortium led by the Italian state railway holding company and is renamed Netinera. Practically nothing changes on the trains themselves.

2010sThe group reorganises its railways: Die Länderbahn brings together southern and eastern German services under brands such as alex, vogtlandbahn and trilex.

2020sThe ownership stakes within the consortium shift several times; the Italian parent group remains the controlling shareholder.

How to recognise Netinera

Does the train really belong to Netinera?

Tick off everything that applies to the vehicle in front of you.

The name Netinera appears on no vehicle – you'll only ever see a brand
alex is one of the few regional brands with locomotive-hauled trains rather than railcars
vogtlandbahn, trilex and oberpfalzbahn all belong to the same operating company
erixx and vlexx operate in completely separate regions but belong to the same group
The data panel shows the operating company – that's where every brand name resolves
Each brand has its own look; the colour reveals the brand, not the group
On cross-border services to the Czech Republic, separate national companies come into play

Strengths and weaknesses

What the company stands for

Very many different brands of the same group to collect all across Germany
alex offers locomotive-hauled regional trains – a rarity in German local rail
Cross-border services bring foreign fleets within reach
Regional services run to a fixed schedule and are therefore easy to plan around
Wide range from small railcars to double-deck multiple units

Where it falls short

The group name appears nowhere on the vehicle – identification is pure research work
Brands get merged, renamed, or disappear with new tenders
Ownership stakes change and are difficult to trace publicly
No freight operations – a whole spotting segment falls away
There's no reliably up-to-date public source for fleet sizes

Updated: August 2026 – You could travel across Germany for a whole year, photograph hundreds of regional trains, and never once see the name Netinera. Yet a substantial share of those trains belong to it: as alex in the Upper Palatinate, as erixx on the heath, as vlexx on the Nahe, as trilex in Upper Lusatia. The group is everywhere – and visible nowhere.

Collect brands, document companies

Note which brand you saw – and which company is behind it.

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4.4(35 ratings)

A group that competition law created

The group owes its existence to a condition imposed by regulators. When Deutsche Bahn took over a European transport group in 2010, it would also have gained that group’s German regional railways with it – becoming even more dominant in its own home market. The competition authorities therefore demanded that the German business be given up.

In 2011 it went to a consortium in which the Italian state railway holding Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane took the leading role. The new name Netinera was an invention with no history, and that’s exactly how it’s used to this day: as a bracket in the background, not as a brand on the train.

2010antitrust condition requiring separation

2011renamed to Netinera

severalregional brands under one roof

0trains carrying the group name

The holding company Netinera Deutschland has its own entry in operator directories, but is practically never visible on the train itself. That’s typical of holding companies: they need the formal role for contracts, financing and vehicle procurement, while operations sit with the subsidiaries. That’s exactly why noting “Netinera” in a sightings list gets you nowhere – it tells you as little as “a regional train”.

Which brand belongs to which company

For passengers, the variety of brands is intentional: every transport authority wants its own face for its network, and a regional name sells better than a corporate abbreviation. For identification purposes, that’s the main difficulty.

Brand	Region	Operating company	Vehicle character
alex	Bavaria and Bohemia	Die Länderbahn	locomotive-hauled carriage sets
vogtlandbahn / trilex	Saxony, Czech border area	Die Länderbahn	diesel railcars
oberpfalzbahn	Upper Palatinate	Die Länderbahn	diesel railcars
erixx	Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein	erixx GmbH	diesel railcars
vlexx	Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland	vlexx GmbH	diesel railcars
ODEG	Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn	railcars and double-deck multiple units

The third column is the decisive one. It tells you what will be shown in the data panel – and it explains why three brands in three different states can carry the same keeper.

The brand is the starting point, not the result

Note the brand name first, since it's readable from a distance and immediately narrows down the candidates. But don't stop there: only the keeper marking in the data panel tells you which company is running the train. Brands disappear, vehicle numbers stay.

In five steps from brand to operator

Read the brand name

It's written large on the front and side. That gives you the region and the likely company in one step.

Check the train formation

Railcar, or locomotive with coaches? Locomotive-hauled regional trains are rare and a strong clue for a particular brand.

Find the data panel

Located on the side, in the lower third. The country code, keeper marking and twelve-digit number sit together there.

Watch for cross-border services

On services to the Czech Republic, a separate national company comes into play – the country code gives it away.

File the sighting independently of the brand

Save the vehicle number and the date. You can note the brand as an extra, but it shouldn't carry the entry.

How many of the group's brands have you already got?

Tick off what you've documented – the calculator shows how far along you are within this corporate family.

alex

vogtlandbahn, trilex or oberpfalzbahn

erixx

vlexx

ODEG

The brand line-up changes with tenders – check before a trip whether a brand is still running.

Where you actually notice anything at trackside

The honest answer: nowhere. There’s no house colour, no shared logo and no shared vehicle type. The only level where the group affiliation becomes visible is the data panel – and even there it’s the subsidiary, not the holding company, that’s shown.

A special case is alex: because it runs with a locomotive and coaches rather than a railcar, it stands out visually from almost everything else moving in German regional rail. Diesel locomotives such as the Siemens ER 20 hauling classic passenger coaches are a rarity today – and a good reason for a dedicated trip.

The remaining networks are railcar territory. erixx serves routes between the heath and the coast, vlexx operates several hundred kilometres further southwest, and the eastern German services run again under their own name. For a collecting trip, that means: you won’t get this whole group in a single weekend. It makes sense to take on one network per trip and document several vehicle numbers there at once, rather than ticking off brands. If you’re in Saxony, this combines well with Dresden Hauptbahnhof, where long-distance and freight traffic converge alongside the regional brands.

Six brands, one collection tracker

With Traintrack you can see at a glance which networks you're still missing.

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4.4(35 ratings)

Does this regional train belong to the group?

It belongs to the group if …

one of its brands is shown on the front or side
the keeper marking matches one of its companies
the train runs on a network served by one of these companies

Look closer if …

the network was recently re-tendered
a vehicle has obviously been taken over from a previous operator
the train is running as a replacement service for another operator

It doesn't belong if …

the data panel shows a different keeper marking
it's a freight train
only a network association logo, but no brand name, is on the vehicle

The middle column applies especially often in regional rail. Vehicles migrate between operators after re-tenders, because they often belong to the transport authority or a procurement company rather than to the operator itself. The guide to the sightings log describes how to build a clean archive out of this.

Branch lines are easy to underestimate

Many of this group's networks run on single-track lines with unguarded level crossings and poorly visible curves. There, a train is heard later and arrives sooner than you'd expect. Stay at publicly accessible locations and keep your distance – the rules are set out in Keeping a safe distance from the track.

Verdict

Netinera is proof that a large group can be practically invisible to spotters. There’s no house colour, no logo and no lettering – only half a dozen regional brands that seem to have nothing to do with each other, yet belong to the same family.

To understand the group, you therefore have to work on two tracks: recognising brands to orient yourself, and noting keeper markings to document it.

In short

Netinera is a holding company with no train operation of its own. Only the brands are visible – alex, erixx, vlexx, ODEG and the Länderbahn brands. The identification only becomes solid via the data panel.

Collecting regional rail that's always changing

Vehicle number instead of brand name – that way every sighting stays valid even after the next tender.

4.8(23 ratings)

4.4(35 ratings)

Summary

This group is the best German example of a corporate group staying completely invisible at trackside.
The variety of brands is no accident but a consequence of the tendering system: every transport authority wants its own face for its network.
If you want to collect this group, work by brand; if you want to document it, work by keeper marking.
Its origin story shows just how strongly competition law has shaped the map of German regional rail.

Frequently asked questions

Why doesn't Netinera appear on any train?

Because the group is a holding company. It holds stakes in companies that hold the transport contracts and operating licences, and those companies present themselves in the market under regional brands. For passengers, the brand name is the face of the service. The group name shows up at most in the small print, never on the vehicle.

Which brands belong to the group?

Among others alex, vogtlandbahn, oberpfalzbahn and trilex – all under the roof of Die Länderbahn. On top of that come erixx in Lower Saxony, vlexx in Rhineland-Palatinate, and ODEG in the east. The line-up changes with tenders and shareholdings.

Who owns Netinera?

The controlling shareholder is the Italian state railway holding Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. The group was created in 2011, after Deutsche Bahn took over a European transport group and had to give up its German arm at the demand of the competition authorities. Shareholdings within that original consortium have shifted several times since.

What is alex, and why is it special?

alex is a train brand in the Bavarian-Bohemian area and one of the few regional rail services in Germany with locomotive-hauled trains. Instead of a railcar, diesel locomotives such as the Siemens ER 20 haul classic carriage sets. For spotters, that's a genuine reason to head to the Upper Palatinate – such trains are becoming ever rarer in local rail.

Does ODEG belong to the group?

The Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn is a stake in which other shareholders are also involved. Constructions like this are exactly why you should never treat shareholding information as permanent: stakes get sold without anything changing on the vehicle. For a sighting, what counts is which company is shown in the data panel.

Does the group also run freight services?

No, the focus is clearly on passenger transport by rail and by road. If you see a locomotive from a group company hauling freight wagons, it's a transfer move, a hire arrangement, or a special case. Freight services are handled by entirely different companies.

How do I recognise on the platform that a train belongs to the group?

Not directly – and that's the actual point. You recognise the brand, and you then have to match it to the company. The route runs via the data panel: it shows the keeper marking of the operating company. The guide Who's actually running it? explains how to approach this systematically.

Which vehicles do the companies use?

A broad cross-section: diesel railcars of the Regio-Shuttle and GTW families on branch lines, LINT railcars on several networks, double-deck multiple units in the east, and locomotive-hauled trains at alex. There's no public source with reliably accurate unit numbers.

What happens to a brand when a network is re-tendered?

It can disappear. Brands are tied to transport contracts; if a company loses the network, the brand loses its purpose. Sometimes the new operator even takes over the vehicles and repaints them. That's why sightings lists sorted by brand become unusable in the medium term – more on this in the article on timetable changes.

Where can I see as many of the group's brands as possible?

Not at any single place – the networks are deliberately spread far apart. For the southern German brands, Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof is a good bet, for the eastern German ones Dresden Hauptbahnhof or Berlin Ostkreuz. Anyone wanting to collect the whole group should plan several trips.

Log vehicles from Netinera

Company, vehicle, location and date logged in seconds – and visible to the community.

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4.4(35 ratings)

The operational level in the railway operator database

Who actually runs the trains, with keeper markings and identifying features on the vehicle.

Netinera Deutschland GmbH

Netinera Deutschland GmbH is a holding company in German regional transport with a foreign ownership background. You'll almost never meet the name on the platform – services run under other brands.

Other

Netinera Move GmbH

Netinera Move GmbH carries a name that deliberately leaves its purpose open. Such companies often stand ready in regional transport when an operation needs to be taken over at short notice.

Die Länderbahn GmbH

Die Länderbahn is a case of its own: the company name rarely appears on the train. To identify it, you need to understand the difference between brand and company.

Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn GmbH (ODEG)

Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn GmbH (ODEG) is a regional passenger operator. Door layout, floor height and interior layout tell you more about the train than any livery.

erixx GmbH

erixx GmbH appears as a lower-case regional brand in local rail traffic. This page explains what an SPNV brand is and how to tell brand and company apart.

vlexx GmbH

vlexx GmbH operates in local passenger rail services. Anyone who wants to understand the trains should know how running time, supplements and buffers work together in the timetable.

Typical vehicles

Siemens ER 20

The Siemens ER 20 Eurorunner is one of the few modern diesel locomotives in Germany that also hauls passenger trains – with a diesel-electric three-phase drive.

Class 646 (Stadler GTW 2/6)

The GTW 2/6 of Class 646 is unmistakable: a narrow drive module sits between the two car body sections. Here's how to identify it reliably in the field.

Class 650 (Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1)

The Regio-Shuttle RS1 of Class 650 is Germany's most distinctive single-part diesel railcar. Here's how to recognise it by its front, windows and roof.

Class 642 (Siemens Desiro Classic)

The Class 642 is the Siemens Desiro Classic: two-car, low-floor, with a Jacobs bogie in the middle. Here's how to recognise it reliably and tell it apart cleanly.

Class 622 (Alstom Coradia LINT 54)

The LINT 54 of Class 622 is the longer of the two-part LINT variants – the one case where counting carriages alone isn't enough to identify it.

Stadler KISS (Class 445 / 446)

The KISS is Stadler's double-deck multiple unit. It shares the German class numbers 445 and 446 with a rival design – it's the construction that separates the two, not the number.

Where you will find Netinera

Spotting locations where you will regularly come across vehicles from this organisation – with viewpoints, the best light and coordinates.

Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof

Nuremberg is one of the few big German stations where high-speed traffic, regional services and heavy freight genuinely run side by side. Add a museum landscape within walking distance – and a marshalling yard that sorts half of southern Germany's freight traffic.

Dresden Hauptbahnhof

Dresden Hauptbahnhof combines two terminal platform halls with elevated through tracks in between - and over it all lies a membrane roof that diffuses daylight evenly instead of breaking it into hard stripes. Add to that the Elbe valley line towards the Czech Republic: eastern Germany's most interesting international connection.

Berlin Ostkreuz

At Ostkreuz, the ring line and the Stadtbahn cross on two levels, one above the other – plus regional trains towards Brandenburg and an S-Bahn service that practically never stops. For spotters, this is Berlin's most productive local-traffic spot, and unlike at the Hauptbahnhof, daylight reaches everywhere here.

All spotting locations in Europe →

München Hauptbahnhof

München Hauptbahnhof is one of the largest terminus stations in Europe – and, at the same time, a major building site that has dragged on for years. If you know where the Starnberg and Holzkirchen wing stations start and where the S-Bahn disappears to, you can still pull a complete cross-section of southern German traffic out of it.

More companies

Group

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS)

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.

Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn (ODEG)

ODEG is one of the big competitors in regional services across eastern Germany – and a special case when it comes to finding a parent group. The company behind the brand doesn't have one owner, but two, coming from completely different worlds.

alex (Arriva-Länderbahn-Express)

The alex looks like a long-distance train: a locomotive, carriages, services running as far as Prague. In fact it's contracted local service. And the company name inside the brand name hasn't belonged to the owner for a long time – a fossil from an earlier group structure.