The Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn (RB 35) is a

Regionalbahn The ''Regionalbahn'' (; lit. Regional train; abbreviated ''RB'') is a train categories in Europe, type of Regional rail, local passenger train (stopping train) in Germany. It is similar to the Regionalzug (R) and Regio (Swiss railway train), R ...

service in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. It runs hourly between

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

and

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

with

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

. Its name refers to the

Emscher The Emscher () is a river, a tributary of the Rhine, that flows through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its overall length is with a mean outflow near the mouth into the lower Rhine of . Description The Emscher ha ...

river (which runs near Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen) and the

Lower Rhine Lower Rhine (, ; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between Bonn in Germany and the North Sea at Hook of Holland in the Netherlands, including the '' Nederrijn'' () within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta; alternat ...

(which the service crosses between Duisburg-Hochfeld Süd and Rheinhausen-Ost).

History

Before 2016, there was already a service numbered as RB 35, operating under the name of ''Der Weseler''. It ran mainly between Wesel and Duisburg Hbf and was extended during the peak hour from Duisburg to

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

and once a day to

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, as well as from Wesel to Emmerich and it thus functioned to relieve the

Rhein-Express The Rhein-Express is a Regional-Express (RE 5 (RRX)) service, which generally follows the Rhine () river. It runs daily every hour from 5 am to 9 pm from Wesel via Oberhausen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, Remagen and Andernach to Koblenz, ...

(RE 5). From the timetable change of 2016, the route was extended beyond Duisburg to Mönchengladbach, which complemented the northern section of the

Rhein-Niers-Bahn The Rhine-Niers-Bahn (List of regional railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia, RB 33) is a Regionalbahn service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It connects Essen Hauptbahnhof, Essen Hbf, Duisburg Hauptbahnhof, Duisburg Hbf on the R ...

. The RE 5 was shortened to run on the Wesel–Duisburg–Düsseldorf–Köln–Bonn–Koblenz section and the section from Emmerich to Wesel was removed from the joint operations of the RE 5 and the RB 35; and now forms part of the

Rhein-IJssel-Express The Rhein-IJssel-Express () is a Regional-Express service in German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Dutch province of Gelderland. It runs from Düsseldorf to Arnhem, with a section splitting at to serve Bocholt. VIAS operates the servic ...

(RE 19) service. The section from Oberhausen to Wesel was replaced by a section from Oberhausen to Gelsenkirchen at the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn's timetable change in December 2019. Since then the new

Wupper-Lippe-Express The Wupper-Lippe-Express is an hourly Regional-Express service in German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which forms part of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn. It connects Wesel station, Wesel with Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof via Oberhausen Hauptbahnhof, Oberhaus ...

(RE 49) from Wesel to Wuppertal has replaced the section between Oberhausen and Wesel.

Operations

The line only runs from Monday to Friday between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. Together with the Niers-Haard-Express (RE 42) and the

(RB 33), three services an hour are operated on the Duisburg–Mönchengladbach section. The section between Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen is also served by the Rhein-Emscher-Bahn (RB 32), which stops at all intermediate stations (replacing a service of the S 2), producing a half-hourly service. In Gelsenkirchen there is a direct connection to the Rhein-Haard-Express (RE 2) and the Niers-Haard-Express (RB 42) towards

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

, although the connections are not at the same platform.

Operator

The line is operated by

VIAS The Vias GmbH (stylized VIAS) is a rail service company based in Frankfurt (Germany). The name of the company was taken from the Latin word via for ''way'' and the letter ''S'' for service. It operates rail services in the states of Hesse, Rhine ...

. VIAS replaced

Abellio Rail NRW Abellio Deutschland is a public transit operator in Germany operating bus and rail networks. Headquartered in Berlin, it is a subsidiary of the Dutch state-owned Abellio. History Abellio Deutschland was formed by the Essen public transit com ...

in early 2022 after the latter's insolvency. Until 10 December 2016, the operator was

DB Regio NRW DB Regio AG () is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and therefore part of the DB Regio business segment, which also includes DB Regionn ...

Rolling stock

Stadler FLIRT Stadler FLIRT (, ) is a passenger multiple unit trainset made by Stadler Rail of Switzerland. The baseline design of FLIRT is an electric multiple unit Articulated car, articulated trainset that can come in units of two to twelve cars with two t ...

3 sets are used on the line. Abellio acquired a total of 21 railcars of this class for lines RE 19, RE 19a and RB 35. The operator maintains a workshop in the immediate vicinity of

Duisburg Hauptbahnhof Duisburg Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of Duisburg in western Germany. It is situated at the meeting point of many important national and international railway lines in the Northwestern Ruhr valley. Lines The station is situat ...

for rolling stock maintenance.

Railway lines used

The service uses the following railway lines: *

Duisburg–Dortmund railway The Duisburg-Dortmund Railway is an important and historically significant railway in Germany. It is a major axis for long distance and regional passenger freight transport in the northern Ruhr. It is served by Intercity-Express, InterCity, Regi ...

from Gelsenkirchen to Duisburg * the whole length of the

Duisburg-Ruhrort–Mönchengladbach railway The Duisburg-Ruhrort–Mönchengladbach railway is a historically significant, but now partly abandoned line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The line was built by the Ruhrort-Crefeld District Gladbach Railway Company (, RCG), foun ...

Notes