Notes

Hagen is the home of Abellio Rail NRW, a private railroad company (recently bought by dutch government railway NS), who won the franchise for a total of four lines in the vicinity. Apart from a few LINTs for the so-called “Glückaufbahn”, they only use the Stadler FLIRT (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train), in both three- and two-car configurations. Their silver-black-red design can be seen as boring, but I like it. I’m not too fond of their interior branding. Futura is always great, but any Helvetica mixed in looks like you couldn’t find the right font. Oh well.

Here, a three-car one is parked at the exit of the depot. According to the signs, it will operate the RB40 line from Hagen to Essen central. Right next to it is a large hardware store, separated from the sharply rising line by a yellow fence. I had thought about cropping this picture so that you couldn’t see it (and only the cab of the train), but apart from proving that I wasn’t trespassing, the fence also adds some welcome color to the composition. What do you think?