History

The Elbe-Weser Railway and Transportation Co Ltd. was founded in 1981 by merging of the two traditional railway companies Wilstedt, Zeven & Tostedt Railway Ltd. (WZTE, founded in 1912) and Bremervörde & Osterholz Railway Ltd. (BOE, founded in 1907). Both railways had more than 80 years of experience in passenger and freight traffic. Between 1991 and 1993 we added other railway lines in the Elbe-Weser Triangle, merged with the Buxtehude-Harsefeld Railway Ltd. (1993) and established a network of 285km of track. Nowadays, that network carries passengers as well as freight.

The main terminal is in Bremervörde. The administration and the main depot of our extensive bus network are located at Zeven, where Travel Agencies are also located at Bremervörde and Harsefeld.

The Wilstedt, Zeven & Tostedt Railway was founded on August 21st 1912 to connect the rural areas between Wilstedt, Zeven and Tostedt.
The railway line (63,6 km) was opened on June 15th 1917, while connections to the national railway existed in Zeven and Tostedt. The tracks were mainly used for cargo- but also for passenger-transportation.
Due to too few passengers their transportation was step-by-step discontinued: between Wilstedt and Tarmstedt (31/05/1964), between Tarmstedt and Zeven (28/09/1964) and between Zeven and Tostedt (28/09/1971).

In 1969 the Wilstedt, Zeven & Tostedt Railway and the Bremerförde & Osterholz Railway started their cooperation and merged in 1981: The Elbe-Weser Railway and Transportation Co Ltd. was established.

The Bremervörde & Osterholz narrow-gauge railway Ltd. was established on October 15th 1907 with its headoffice in Bremervörde. The construction of the railtracks between Bremervörde and Osterholz (48 km) began immediately.
The regular connection between Bremervörde and Gnarrenburg was inaugurated on June 23rd 1909. Because of difficulties with the soil conditions in the Teufelsmoor (“devil’s moor”), the rest was finished only later on February 9th 1911.
The new railway eased and accelerated the journey to Bremen while Worpswede was discovered as a touristic site. Furthermore products of the glas-, brick- and peat-industries as well as agricultural products were transported.

The railway was renamed to “Bremervörde & Osterholz Railway” (BOE) in 1942. Due to rising demand the BOE and the German Bundesbahn opened up an express connection between the cities of Stade, Bremervörde, Osterholz-Scharmbeck and Bremen in 1952. This line was shut down nearly 20 years later on May 28th 1971 because the Bundesbahn got out of the joint venture. The lasting kilometres between Bremervörde and Osterholz had a service until March 18th 1978.

The BOE and the Wilstedt, Zeven & Tostedt Railway (WZTE) finally merged in 1981.

The WZTE has served the bus route between Zeven and Gnarrenburg (via Rhade – Aspe – Zeven; length: 28 km) from November 20th 1950 on with two used busses. Before, this route was served by the Joh. Brockmann & Son Company from Gnarrenburg. In 1951 the network was extended through the 50 km route from Rhade via Wilstedt to Bremen and in 1952 through the 24 km route from Zeven via Kirchtimke to Wilstedt.

In the 1960ies the bus route network has been extended. As a consequence the passenger numbers rose. New routes emerged: In 1963 from Ottersberg to Quelkhorn and in 1964 from Meinstedt via Wense and Heeslingen to Zeven. Also the BOE served bus routes, one from Osterholz-Scharmbeck to Quelkhorn and another from Gnarrenburg to Kuhstedt. For the first time in 1971 the WZTE counted more than one million passengers.

After the shutdown of the railway services between Zeven and Wilstedt (1964), Zeven and Tostedt (1971) and Bremervörde – Gnarrenburg – Osterholz (1978) this passenger transport was substituted by busses. With the merger in 1981 the EVB was responsible for all above mentioned bus routes. More bus routes were added gradually to the network.

The EVB purchased a 40 % share of the KVG Stadt in 1996 and a 100 % share of the Omnibusbetrieb von Ahrentschildt GmbH in 2005.

We fulfil all your travelling wishes in our EVB travel agencies.
The first EVB travel agency was opened up at the station of Zeven in 1989 to guaranty the passengers a better advice and an all-embracing service. From then on till 1999 we have offered information, tickets and a world-wide travel service to our customers there. In 1999 the EVB took over the travel agency Reyl in the centre of Zeven; the travel agency with a 16 years lasting experience is now the main EVB agency, while the dependency in the south of Zeven (station) was closed. In 1992 the second and in 1993 the third EVB travel agency have been opened in Bremervörde, respectively in Harsefeld. In Bremervörde new office-rooms are opening after the modernisation of the station in 2005.