Interregio-Express

The Interregio-Express (IRE) is a local public transport railway service operated by the Deutsche Bahn which is only available in the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin (until December 2024 also on the High Rhine Railway line, which passes through Switzerland).

Furthermore, the new train type was often wrongly referred to in the early days as an InterRegionalExpress or ironically as an InterRegioErsatz (InterRegio substitute).

In Hesse in 2001 differences arose between the DB AG, which designated inter alia the Frankfurt–Gießen–Kassel and Frankfurt–Gießen–Siegen as InterRegioExpress routes, and the RMV, which steadfastly refused to adopt this new train category and even today uses the defunct StadtExpress term.

Moreover, until spring 2006 old Class 112-hauled Interregio coaches in classic blue livery were also used on the Karlsruhe–Pforzheim-Stuttgart line as IRE trains.

The delivery of newer double-decker coaches and Class 146 locomotives however means that that type of train formation belongs to history.