Abellio (transport company)

Abellio operates public transport services in Europe, with both bus and rail networks. It was founded as NedRailways in 2001, before being renamed Abellio in October 2009. Abellio is the international arm of the Dutch government rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

Its current operations are:

Germany
Abellio operates several regional railway lines in the German state of Northrhine-Westfalia as well as owning several bus companies throughout Germany, through Abellio Deutschland.

Buses
Abellio entered the UK bus market in May 2009 purchasing the Travel London and Travel Surrey businesses from National Express and rebranding them Abellio London and Abellio Surrey in October 2009. Both operate in the South East of the United Kingdom.

Rail
Abellio have a 50% shareholding in Serco-Abellio that has bid for a number of UK rail franchises, operating the Merseyrail franchise since July 2003 and the Northern Rail franchise since December 2004. Serco-Abellio also lodged unsuccessful bids for the Wales & Borders and West Midlands franchises.

Abellio have also bid for a number of franchises in their own right, operating the Greater Anglia Rail Franchise since February 2012. Abellio has been shortlisted to bid for the Essex Thameside and Thameslink Southern Great Northern franchises. Abellio also lodged unsuccessful bids for the South Western (in partnership with FirstGroup), London Overground, South Central and InterCity West Coast franchises.

Czech Republic
Abellio bought the established bus enterprise PROBO BUS a.s. and run its network in the Czech Republic since 2009. It consists of regional bus transport in Beroun District and surroundings and some long-distance bus lines between Prague and South and West Bohemia.

Abellio CZ a.s. founded in July 2011 is a Czech daughter of Abellio Transport CZ Holding B.V. Since 2011 April 1, their member of board is Petr Moravec, formerly general manager of Veolia Transport Česká republika and manager of personal transport of Czech Railways (ČD). In spring of 2012, Abellio CZ lodged an extensive complaint about wrong assignment of the tender to running of fast train line Ostrava – Krnov – Olomouc. The complaints were completely rejected.

In November 2013, Abellio sold their Czech subsidiary Abellio CZ and a bus company PROBO BUS to DB Mobility Logistics AG of Deutsche Bahn group and ïnstalled attorneys of ARRIVA holding Česká republika s.r.o. to their board.