Albert Schweitzer (train)

Route placard (1983)
	Route placard from the TEE Albert Schweitzer.

*Albert Schweitzer*
Overview
Service type	Trans Europ Express (TEE)
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Germany ; France
First service	2 June 1980
Last service	27 May 1983
Former operator(s)	Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB); SNCF
Route
Start	Dortmund Hbf
Stops	12
End	Strasbourg-Ville
Service frequency	Daily, Monday to Friday
Train number(s)	TEE 8, 9
On-board services
Class(es)	First class only
Catering facilities	Restaurant car
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	15 kV AC, 16.7 Hz ; (Germany)
Route placard (1983)
	Route placard from the TEE Albert Schweitzer.

Last updated March 07, 2019

The Albert Schweitzer was a short-lived express train that linked Dortmund Hbf in Dortmund, Germany, with Strasbourg-Ville in Strasbourg, France. Introduced in 1980,^[1] it was operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the SNCF.

Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping locally. In some cases, trains run express where there is overlapping local train service available, and run local at the tail ends of the line, where there is no supplemental local service. During overnight hours, or other times where it is practical, express trains may become local, but still running to where an express train would terminate.

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof railway station in Dortmund, Germany

Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The station's origins lie in a joint station of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn and Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn which was built north of the city centre in 1847. That station was replaced by a new station, erected in 1910 at the current site. It featured raised embankments to allow a better flow of traffic. At the time of its opening, it was one of the largest stations in Germany. It was, however, destroyed in an Allied air raid on 6 October 1944.

Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin department. In 2016, the city proper had 279,284 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg and the Arrondissement of Strasbourg had 491,409 inhabitants. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 785,839 in 2015, making it the ninth largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014.

Albert Schweitzer, OM was an Alsatian theologian, organist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of Justification by Faith as secondary.

Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries.

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational hymn-singing and play liturgical music.

The Albert Schweitzer was a first-class-only Trans Europ Express (TEE) and operated on Mondays to Fridays only. It was intended mainly to provide transport between Bonn, then the capital of West Germany, and the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It was discontinued in 1983.^[2]

The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), is a former international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network comprised 45 trains, connecting 130 different cities, from Spain in the west to Austria in the east, and from Denmark to Southern Italy.

The Federal City of Bonn is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About 24 km (15 mi) south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region, Germany's largest metropolitan area, with over 11 million inhabitants.

The European Parliament (EP) is the only parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU) that is directly elected by EU citizens aged 18 or older. Together with the Council of the European Union, which should not be confused with the European Council and the Council of Europe, it exercises the legislative function of the EU. The Parliament is composed of 751 members (MEPs), that will become 705 starting from the 2019–2024 legislature, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world.

Route and timetable

Dortmund Hbf – Essen – Düsseldorf – Cologne (Köln) – Bonn – Darmstadt – Heidelberg – Karlsruhe – Strasbourg-Ville

The southbound train (TEE 9) was scheduled to depart from Dortmund at 6:35 and arrive in Strasbourg at 11:48. The northbound train (TEE 8) was scheduled to leave Strasbourg at 16:43 and reach Dortmund at 21:52.

Formation (consist)

The train's coaches were all from German Federal Railways (DB) and included a separate restaurant car, operated by the German Sleeper and Dining Car Company (in German: Deutsche Schlafwagen- und Speisewagen-Gesellschaft, or DSG).^[1] Throughout its route, the train was hauled by electric locomotives,^[1] from DB within Germany and from SNCF within France.

The German Sleeper and Dining Car Company was a subsidiary of Deutsche Bundesbahn with its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, that emerged from the Mitropa infrastructure left in West Germany in 1949. It existed until 1994 when it was combined with the East German Mitropa to form Mitropa AG.

An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor.

EC Albert Schweitzer

In June 2001, a EuroCity service was introduced with the name Albert Schweitzer, linking Frankfurt with Lyon via Strasbourg.^[3] In late 2002, the route was altered at its east end to originate and terminate in Stuttgart instead of Frankfurt. The EC Albert Schweitzer was still serving this route, Stuttgart – Strasbourg – Lyon (and vice versa), in summer 2003,^[4] but in September 2003 SNCF discontinued use of train names generally,^[5] and this EC service became unnamed.

EuroCity, abbreviated as EC, is a cross-border train category within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains allocated to the lower-level "IC" (InterCity) category, EC trains are international services that meet 20 criteria covering comfort, speed, food service, and cleanliness. Each EC train is operated by more than one European Union or Swiss rail company, under a multilateral co-operative arrangement, and all EC trains link important European cities with each other.

Frankfurt is a metropolis and the largest city of the German federal state of Hesse, and its 746,878 (2017) inhabitants make it the fifth-largest city of Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne. On the River Main, it forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring city of Offenbach am Main, and its urban area has a population of 2.3 million. The city is at the centre of the larger Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, which has a population of 5.5 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr Region. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2013, the geographic centre of the EU is about 40 km (25 mi) to the east of Frankfurt's central business district. Like France and Franconia, the city is named after the Franks. Frankfurt is the largest city in the Rhine Franconian dialect area.

Lyon Prefecture and commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Lyon is the third-largest city and second-largest urban area of France. It is located in the country's east-central part at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, about 470 km (292 mi) south from Paris, 320 km (199 mi) north from Marseille and 56 km (35 mi) northeast from Saint-Étienne. Inhabitants of the city are called Lyonnais.

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References

Notes

1 2 3 Thomas Cook International Timetable (March 1 – April 5, 1980, edition), pp. 66–67, 556. Peterborough, UK: Thomas Cook Publishing.
↑ Thomas Cook Continental Timetable (May 29 – June 30, 1983, edition), p. 6.
↑ "Summer services from June 10" (changes taking effect). Thomas Cook European Timetable (May 2001 edition), p. 532; also p. 550. Thomas Cook Publishing.
↑ Thomas Cook European Timetable (May 2003 edition), pp. 73, 229, 232, 437, 565.
↑ "What's new this month". Thomas Cook European Timetable (September 2003 edition), p. 3.

Bibliography

Goette, Peter (2008). TEE-Züge in Deutschland[TEE Trains in Germany]. Freiburg i.B.: EK-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88255-698-8. (in German)
Malaspina, Jean-Pierre; Mertens, Maurice (2007). TEE: la légende des Trans-Europ-Express[TEE: The Legend of the Trans Europ Express]. Auray: LR Presse. ISBN 978-29-03651-45-9. (in French)
Malaspina, Jean-Pierre; Mertens, Maurice (2008). TEE: la leggenda dei Trans-Europ-Express[TEE: The Legend of the Trans Europ Express]. Salò: ETR – Editrice Trasporti su Rotaie. ISBN 978-88-85068-31-5. (in Italian)
Mertens, Maurice; Malaspina, Jean-Pierre; von Mitzlaff, Berndt (2009). TEE - Die Geschichte des Trans-Europ-Express[TEE - The History of the Trans Europ Express]. Düsseldorf: Alba Publikation. ISBN 978-3-87094-199-4. (in German)

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[cooks_1980apr-1] 1 2 3 Thomas Cook International Timetable (March 1 – April 5, 1980, edition), pp. 66–67, 556. Peterborough, UK: Thomas Cook Publishing.

[cooks1983jun-2] Thomas Cook Continental Timetable (May 29 – June 30, 1983, edition), p. 6.

[cooks2001may-3] "Summer services from June 10" (changes taking effect). Thomas Cook European Timetable (May 2001 edition), p. 532; also p. 550. Thomas Cook Publishing.

[cooks2003may-4] Thomas Cook European Timetable (May 2003 edition), pp. 73, 229, 232, 437, 565.

[cooks2003sep-5] "What's new this month". Thomas Cook European Timetable (September 2003 edition), p. 3.