When delivered by Jenbacher Werke in 1998, their design was a breakthrough; the seventeen 5-car Integral units operated by Bayerische Oberlandbahn (now BRB Oberland) for 22 years. At the end of last year, they were replaced by the newly-delivered Alstom Lint DMUs. Where did the Integral units go?
The answer is – they went north. Regiobahn, in North Rhine-Westphalia, won a contract to operate trains on line S28 and new electric trains were ordered. Yet, the electrification is delayed, which created the need for extra diesel trains and Integral units were hired to step in. Since the winter timetable change in 2020, they can be seen between Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, Neuss, and Kaarster See.
Regiobahn values the low-floor section with level access, the wide doors, and their high capacity of 364 passengers. There are 150 seats in second class, twelve more in first class. The Integrals have a high-enough acceleration for the S-Bahn line – the trains to run every thirty minutes on average.
Unit VT 111 was captured in Hahnenfurth, between Wuppertal and Düsseldorf, by Christian Kapteina in its updated dark-grey, red and white livery. These are the standard colours of Regiobahn. However, they have not been applied to all the Integral units yet. Some still feature the BOB livery, with blue at the bottom in stead of the grey.
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