Since 2003, metronom has connected the northern regions of Lower Saxony, Hamburg, and Bremen with its yellow-blue double-decker trains. The metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a non-federal railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony. The company operates five lines under the metronom brand on 390 route kilometers in public local transport (ÖPNV). The ME 146-12 is part of the second delivery series of eight locomotives of the TRAXX type P160 AC2, built in 2005, which is based on the crash-optimized locomotive body of the DB series 185.2.