Evening all!

I took the following two photos this afternoon, which I could imagine those of you with an interest in Continental railways might like to see...

With VIAS having taken over regional passenger workings from Frankfurt to Koblenz and Neuwied via Wiesbaden, today was the first weekday where they had to prove themselves under full load, so to speak. This here was set 304, a class 427 three-segment FLIRT working the VIA25015 service to Frankfurt Central which I captured at Höchst. The destination display says, "Welcome!"

Likewise, Hessische Landesbahn were in the same situation. This here was a formation of 427 043 and a class 429 five-segment set whose number escapes me at present, standing by to work the joint HLB24966/24968 service to Marburg and Siegen, with the train being split at Gießen and the two sets then departing in opposite directions for the remainder of their trips.

Although I do miss the looks of the buffers on the VIAS and HLB sets – which the Swiss FLIRTs have, as well as the small number of DB AG sets operating in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – they do look sharp, I must say. Interestingly, HLB chose to have their FLIRTs equipped with rear view mirrors – which, if nothing has changed without my knowing about it, but may only be used while trains are not moving under current German railway laws and thus may only be folded out at stations – just like the SBB sets, while VIAS preferred external cameras, which you can spot just at the edge of the blue and green trim stripes above the windows.