City Night Line
City Night Line (abbreviated CNL, body colors: white / red ) is a type of train for night trains in Europe. The former railway company CNL AG operated these trains. She was like the DB AutoZug GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of DB AG and long-distance transport was taken on January 1, 2010 by DB AutoZug. In September 2013 DB AutoZug was dissolved and merged with DB long-distance transport.
History
In 1998, the night train business of Deutsche Bahn with the types of train EN ( Euro Night ) and UEx ( Holiday Express) outsourced by DB long-distance transport in the DB AutoZug. A year later, the City Night Line a 100 % subsidiary of DB long-distance transport was based in Zurich, which was a joint venture between DB, ÖBB and SBB to date. It was conducted in personal union with the DB Auto Train. Thus, the responsibility lay for all overnight train genres that still form the core of the City-Night -line network, from this point on in one hand. Service, rolling stock and prices CityNightLine and their German counterparts, however, were continued separately.
Parallel to the business integration, the DB night trains were renamed night train car train in the train type DB. The timetable change on 15 December 2002, the DB night train offer had been extended to 20 trains .. With the advent of low cost airlines and the expansion of the international high-speed network, the DB saw in rail transport, the need to align the night trains to the changing requirements of the transport market. The goal was, the night journey transports to establish as a complementary product to the high-speed transport over long distances ( between 800 and 1500 km). To achieve this, the existing train categories City Night Line ( CNL ), DB night train (NZ) and holiday Express ( UEx ) in the new product City Night Line ( CNL ) have been integrated. In parallel, the product was integrated into the pricing and marketing of the respective country of departure. The line network has been redesigned according to the purpose: parallel connections for long-distance transport were deleted, extended lines targeted and given strong seasonal and tourist destinations in favor of daily connections.
As part of the bundling of the offer older coaches were decommissioned. The entire fleet of sleeping, lying and resting chair car has since fully air conditioned. The cars were given a uniform appearance in white with red ribbon window. Doors are all white. The service has been standardized across all lines.
Features of the trains
City Night Line trains are formed from compartment or open seating car with reclining seats, couchette cars, sleeping cars, dining cars. All lines offer a special compartment for passengers with reduced mobility. To facilitate the luggage capacity, either combined or Liege-/Gepäckwagen seat cars are used with special Gepäck-/Fahrradabteil.
The sleeping cars were specially developed for City Night Line. Currently, two types are used: the double-deck sleeping car (type 171.X and 172.X ) and the so-called Comfortline (type 173.1 ). The cars are air-conditioned and offer each compartment two, sometimes three beds, in the so-called deluxe version with private bathroom ( shower, wash basin and toilet). Otherwise, located in each compartment, a sink, shower and toilet are in the hallway. Laptop connections exist only in the newer Comfortline. The compartments are provided with a "normal" beds.
Beds in the sleeping car ( with child protection)
Beds in a sleeper ( bunk - Eco)
Beds in a sleeper ( double-deck Deluxe)
The lying and sitting cars were rebuilt from existing types of the German Federal Railways and Deutsche Reichsbahn. The couchette cars are equipped with four or six chairs and are available in three subspecies in use, which differ in their additional functions:
- Couchette (type 248.5 )
- Couchette compartment with for passengers with reduced mobility (type 249.1 )
- Half luggage couchette (type 874.1 )
Couchette ( 6 occupancy)
Compartment for passengers with reduced mobility
Multi-purpose compartment for bikes, skis etc.
( Type 236.9 six seats per compartment ) and open seating cars with reclining seats ( types 875.X ) used in the car seat compartment cars are.
Transport supply
The goal of the City Night Line network line is to complement the European long-distance network to long travel distances. Travel times of more than six hours are shifted in the night and can be covered in your sleep so without additional loss of time.
The City Night Line trains will be driven in a coaches system. They run from their common starting station a part of the line together as a train, are separated in a train station and coupled together with other trains, which they then go to the different target Stations. The same applies analogously in the opposite direction.
For example, the trains on the Amsterdam - Munich and Amsterdam - Zurich travel together to Mannheim. There, they are separated. The tensile member to Munich is combined with a coming train from Paris to Munich, the tensile member to Zurich with one coming from Hamburg CNL. With the change to the timetable year 2009/2010 the number of shunting operations has been reduced to one per network.
Rates and Prices
Germany
The CNL traffic is collectively Product Class IC / EC (formerly Product class B), the second highest of the three product classes of the DB assigned to passenger transport. For the CityNightLine all low prices of long-distance transport and the corresponding Rabattierungsmöglichkeiten ( rail card ) apply.
The now customary special offers long-distance traffic ( for example, the Lidl Ticket or Tchibo ticket) are usually, but not always in the City Night Line. Attention is drawn to the respective offer prices.
Tickets can be purchased no earlier than three months before the first day of validity. For group tours of the flow is up to twelve months if the corresponding schedule is already known.
In addition to ticket a reservation is required (exception see above). It also serves as compensation for the additional services overnight and differs depending on the comfort category.
Other countries
In the Netherlands the City Night Line is generally sold on the so-called global prices, as they apply in Germany for transit traffic. Travelers with a ticket (eg InterRailers ) Reservations can also purchase one.
Analog Netherlands
Analog Germany. Due to the high proportion of transit, that is traveling to the Netherlands, the Czech Republic or Denmark, the share of global fare tickets is however high.
In France the trains are sold by the SNCF logic. It is a global pricing system with certain country- specific characteristics (eg senior or junior rates ). A special feature is that a 1st class ticket is required for a couchette in 4- occupancy.
The principle is similar to France, with the specific national features.