A Schnellzug is an express train in German-speaking countries, where it refers to trains that do not stop at all stations along a line. The term is used both generically and also as a specific train type. In Germany and Austria it is also referred to colloquially as a D-Zug , a short form of Durchgangszug ("through train"), and express train services were often given numbers preceded by the letter D .
On the railway networks operated by the Deutsche Bahn (DB), the Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) today, express trains are divided into categories such as Eurocity, Intercity, Interregio etc. The DB still occasionally runs D-Zug services in night trains ( D-Nacht ), especially those to its eastern European neighbours, and as relief trains. Museum services running on DB routes are also given D-Zug numbers.
Germany
The first express trains
The first German express train ran on 1 May 1851 between Berlin and Deutz am Rhein (today part of Cologne) and completed the journey in 16 hours. Three months later, on 1 August 1851, the first night train ran from Berlin to Bromberg. The Prussian state demanded a country-wide network of night trains; consequently the various railway companies started up fast courier trains in the years that followed (1852 to 1854), from Berlin to Breslau, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg and Cologne. Passengers on the night-time courier trains between Berlin and Frankfurt had to pay a higher fare for the first time in order to compensate for the higher crew costs of night-time through trains.
Up to 1889 fast train services were given the letter S for Schnellzug (express train, plural: Schnellzüge ) or K for Kurierzug (courier train). From 1889 all such services in Germany were given the standard letter S .
Durchgangszug ( D )
From 1892 a new train category with especially comfortable express coaches appeared: the Durchgangszug or D-Zug (plural: D-Züge ). Originally these were trains in which one could walk right through from end to end by means of bellows-type corridor connectors between coaches and side corridors or centre aisles within coaches, unlike the hitherto usual compartment coaches with doors on each side of the compartment, but no access to the next coach.
The first D-Züge ran on 1 May 1892 on the following routes:
- Berlin Potsdamer station–Paderborn–Cologne Hauptbahnhof and
- Berlin Potsdamer station–Nordhausen–Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof.
They comprised 1st and 2nd class coaches, dining and sleeping cars (on night trains). They were meant to be not only very comfortable, but also particularly punctual. A supplement of 2 marks was payable on D-Zug services. In 1894, the first D-Zug with third class coaches ran between Berlin and East Prussia.
By 1917 almost all Schnellzüge in Germany had been gradually reclassified as D-Züge or converted to supplement-free fast-stopping trains, the so-called Eilzüge . The only standard fare trains which did not stop at all stations were the beschleunigte Personenzüge ( BP ) or "fast passenger trains". A few Schnellzüge remained in Bavaria where they attracted supplementary fares on the Munich-Mittenwald-Innsbruck line; these did not become D-Züge until 1929.
Fernschnellzug ( FD )
From 1923 very fast trains were grouped into a new Fernschnellzug ( FD-Zug ) or "long-distance express train" category and only offered 1st and 2nd class accommodation (e. g. FD Rheingold), whilst the majority of D-Züge at that time ran with 1st, 2nd and 3rd class coaches. FD services were withdrawn on 22 August 1939.
From 1933, FD trains were joined by express railcars of the Flying Hamburger type. These trains were classed as FDt or Fernschnellzug mit Triebwagen ("long-distance express train with railcar") and usually offered 2nd class accommodation only. These services ceased on 22 August 1939.
Military trains in the Second World War
During the Second World War a new train type, the so-called Schnellzug für Fronturlauber ("military express train", literally the "express train for those on leave from the front") or SF-Zug was created. These expresses took the shortest route between the Wehrmacht's operational theatres (including France, Greece and the Soviet Union) and the Deutsche Reich. Some SF-Zug services were open to the general public. This category was the SFR-Zug ( Schnellzug für Fronturlauber mit Reisezugteil or "military express with passenger section").
Because there were not enough SF-Zug services to meet the Wehrmacht's transportation requirements, numerous express trains were modified into DmW-Züge or Schnellzüge mit Wehrmachtsteil (express trains with military sections), in which the Wehrmacht reserved several coaches for its own use.
On 23 January 1945 all express train services in Germany were suspended. Only international trains from Berlin to Copenhagen and Prague continued to run until April 1945.
After the Second World War
On 22 September 1945 the first express trains to run after the end of the war worked in the US zone between Frankfurt am Main and Munich.
As early as 1952 the Deutsche Bundesbahn procured D-Zug coaches of the later UIC type X. Coaches of similar design were ordered by the ÖBB in 1957 and the SBB in 1969.
On 1 January 1968 the Deutsche Bundesbahn abolished the supplementary fare for D-Zug services for journeys over 80 kilometres and, from 1979, for journeys over 50 kilometres.
The demand for D-Zug links steadily reduced from 1979. In the 1982 summer timetable the supplement was abolished on most of the DB's D-Zug routes.
Within the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany, the Schnellzug remained the primary long-distance service. A two-tier supplementary fare (Zone I up to 300 kilometres - 3 marks, Zone II over 300 - 5 marks) was retained until the inception of the 1991 summer timetable.
Until the 1980s, the majority of express trains on domestic routes comprised eight-wheeled Rekowagen ("reconstructed coaches"), reinforced by 1st class Modernisierungswagen ("modernised coaches"). Modernisierungswagen and Y coaches were mainly employed in high-grade and international services. Not until the delivery of centre-door ( Mitteleinstieg ) and Halberstädter express coaches were the, by now obsolete, Rekowagen cascaded to less important duties.
Fernzug ( F )
For the 1951 summer timetable the DB introduced a new class of train: the Fernzug ("long-distance train"). These trains linked the economic centres of the German Federal Republic with one another. The trains were given the code letter F for Fernzug and operated until 1956 with 1st and 2nd class coaches; and thereafter exclusively with the (new) 1st class. The trains always included a dining car or coach with a buffet section that was managed by the DSG.
To begin with, on the Rhine railway, some trains were combined in up to four sets and operated using pre-war VT 04 and VT 06 and the new post-war VT 08 diesel multiple units. As well as DMUs, locomotive-hauled trains of 3 to 5 pre-war coaches were also used. These were steel-bodied, standard coaches ( Einheitswagen ) of various types. The interiors of the compartments and corridors of these coaches were refurbished and given new carpets. The external livery was changed from the standard bottle green to steel blue (RAL 5011). In addition the words Deutsche Bundesbahn or, if the coaches were only used on domestic routes, the initials DB were mounted on the sides in silver letters. In all at least 76 coaches were converted for this role. They included the coaches from the Henschel-Wegmann train.
With the delivery of new coaches of the later UIC Type X, the pre-war coaches were superseded in Fernzug service. The blue F-Zug livery was adopted later as the paint scheme for the new 1st class coaches.
For these very fast trains which stopped at just a few stations – as in FD times – a special Fernschnellzug supplement was payable. The Fernzüge were replaced in 1971 by Intercity trains.
The famous TEE Rheingold which ran from Amsterdam to Geneva and the Rheinpfeil (Dortmund to Munich) were both initially classed as F-Zug services between 1962 and 1965, before they were upgraded to the TEE category.
City-D-Zug ( DC ) <
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