The Deutsche Bahn AG (abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is a German railway company. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a private joint-stock company (AG), with the Federal Republic of Germany being its single shareholder.
As the number one long-distance passenger transport service in Germany, Deutsche Bahn can get you around the country with minimum fuss. Travel is made easy when the majority of your journeys are with one well-organised provider, and with over 13 million passengers travelling on the service every day, DB certainly lives up to its reputation as a reliable service.
SNCF meaning "National Company of French Railways" is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic along with Monaco, including the TGV, on France's high-speed rail network. Its functions include operation of railway services for passengers and freight (through its subsidiaries SNCF Voyageurs and Rail Logistics Europe), as well as maintenance and signalling of rail infrastructure (SNCF Réseau). The railway network consists of about 35,000 km (22,000 mi) of route, of which 2,600 km (1,600 mi) are high-speed lines and 14,500 km (9,000 mi) electrified. About 14,000 trains are operated daily.
Trenitalia is Italy's main train operator. It is government owned and was created in 2000. Its long distance trains are FRECCE (or arrows) and Intercity trains. Trenitalia's high-speed trains, the Frecciargento and Frecciarossa can travel up to 250 km/h and 300 km/h respectively Intercity and night trains are slower, but cheaper. Trenitalia offers a first and second-class service on its long distance trains. Trenitalia also runs services to and from Rome Fiumicino International Airport, served by Leonardo Express, as well as journeys within the Cinque Terre, served by the Cinque Terre Express.
SBB CFF FFS - SBB stands for ‘Swiss Federal Railways’, the national railway company of Switzerland – it’s also called CFF (Chemins de Fers Fédéraux Suisses) and FFS (Ferrovie Federali Svizzere) in France and Italy respectively. Not only does SBB cover the main train routes across Switzerland, it also connects some rail lines in Germany, Italy and France.
Connecting major Swiss cities like Geneva, Bern, Zurich and Basel as well as the country’s airports, SBB provides a modern and extensive rail network, making the train the best mode of transport to discover Switzerland and take in its breath-taking views between mountains, lakes and hills.
ÖBB stands for “Austrian Federal Railways” - OEBB in English.
ÖBB runs a huge range of train types - from overnight sleeper trains to high-speed cross-border services and regional trains. ÖBB operates several different passenger services, including the high-speed Railjet and Intercity-Express, the Nightjet sleeper service and suburban commuter services.
Hungarian State Railways (Hungarian: Magyar Államvasutak, MÁV) is the Hungarian national railway company, with divisions "MÁV START Zrt." (passenger transport), "MÁV-Gépészet Zrt." (maintenance) and "MÁV-Trakció Zrt.". The "MÁV Cargo Zrt" (freight transport) was sold to Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) in 2007. The head office is in Budapest.
The railway network consists of 7,893 km, its gauge is 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge and 3,060 km are electrified.
Hungary is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC country code for Hungary is 55.
Slovenian Railways (Slovene: Slovenske železnice, SŽ), the state railway company of Slovenia was created in 1991 from the Ljubljana division of the former Yugoslav Railways after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Slovenia is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Slovenia is 79.
Polish State Railways is the dominant railway operator in Poland. The company was founded when the former Polskie Koleje Państwowe state-owned enterprise was divided into several units based on the need for separation between infrastructure management and transport operations. PKP S.A. is the dominant company in PKP Group collective that resulted from the split, and maintains in 100% share control, being fully responsible for the assets of all of the other PKP Group component companies. The group's organisations are dependent upon PKP S.A., but proposals for privatisation have been made.
VR Group, commonly known as VR, is a government-owned railway company in Finland. VR's most important function is the operation of Finland's passenger rail services with 250 long-distance and 800 commuter rail services every day. With 7,500 employees and net sales of €1.251 million in 2017, VR is one of the most significant operators in the Finnish public transport market area.
SJ (formally SJ AB) is a government-owned passenger train operator in Sweden. SJ was created in 2001, out of the public transport division of Statens Järnvägar, when the former government agency was divided into six separate government-owned limited companies. In 2018 SJ carried 31.8 million passengers.
Rail transport in Sweden uses a network of 15006.25 km of track, the 22nd largest in the world. Construction of the first railway line in Sweden began in 1855. The major operator of passenger trains has traditionally been the state-owned SJ AB, though today around 70% of all rail traffic consists of subsidised local and regional trains for which the regional public transport authorities bear responsibility. Passenger traffic has increased significantly since the turn of the millenium, and in 2019 Sweden ranked number five in the world (as measured in passenger kilometres per capita) and number three in the European union, as well as number sixth in the world when measured by passenger share (third in the E.U.).
Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko, a.s. (ZSSK) (English: The Railway Company of Slovakia) is Slovak state-owned passenger train company based in Bratislava.
In 2002 a company Železničná spoločnosť was established as a successor of personal and cargo transport part of the Železnice Slovenskej republiky. In 2005 this new company was further split into "Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko, a. s." providing Passenger transport services and "Železničná spoločnosť Cargo Slovakia, a. s." (ZSSK CARGO or ZSCS) providing cargo services.
České dráhy (English: Czech Railways), often shortened to ČD, is the major railway operator in the Czech Republic providing regional and long-distance services.
The company was established in 1993, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, as a successor of the Czechoslovak State Railways. It is a member of the International Railway Union (UIC Country Code for the Czech Republic is 54), Community of European Railways and the Organization for Railway Cooperation (Asia and Europe). With twenty-four thousand employees ČD Group is the fifth largest Czech company by the number of employees.
Nederlandse Spoorwegen is a Dutch company, the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. Founded in 1938, NS provides rail services on the Dutch main rail network (Dutch: hoofdrailnet). The Dutch rail network is the busiest in the European Union, and third busiest in the world after Switzerland and Japan.
NS serves 1.1 million travellers with its 4800 scheduled domestic trains per day.
Renfe (from the Spanish acronym Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles - Spanish National Railway Network), also known as Renfe Group, and officially Renfe-Operadora, is the state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains on the 1,668 mm (5 ft 5+21⁄32 in) Iberian gauge, the 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge and the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge Spanish railway networks.
National Railway Company of Belgium (Dutch: Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen, or NMBS; French: Société nationale des chemins de fer belges, or SNCB; German: Nationale Gesellschaft der Belgischen Eisenbahnen) is the national railway company of Belgium. The company formally styles itself using the Dutch and French abbreviations NMBS/SNCB. The corporate logo designed in 1936 by Henry van de Velde consists of the linguistically neutral letter B in a horizontal oval.
The Bulgarian State Railways (Bulgarian: Български държавни железници, romanized: Balgarski darzhavni zheleznitsi, abbreviated as БДЖ, BDZ or BDŽ) are Bulgaria's state railway company and the largest railway carrier in the country, established as an entity in 1888. The company's headquarters are located in the capital Sofia.