The Rhein-Emscher-Express (RE 3) is a

Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...

service in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhab ...

(NRW), running from

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

via

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 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 River (a tributary of the Rhine), it li ...

and

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is th ...

Hamm Hamm (, Latin: ''Hammona'') is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of 2016 its population was 179,397. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway. Hamm railwa ...

. It connects with the rest of the regional rail network of NRW in Düsseldorf, Duisburg,

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European ...

Wanne-Eickel Herne () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen. History Like most other cities in the region, Herne (ancient Haranni) was a tiny village until the ...

, Dortmund and Hamm. In addition, it connects in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Dortmund and Hamm with long-distance services.

History

The ''Rhein-Emscher-Express'' has been operating since the introduction of the integrated regular interval timetable in North Rhine-Westphalia (called ''NRW-Takt'') in 1998. It first ran from

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladba ...

via

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...

, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund to Hamm. The Duisburg–Mönchengladbach section was dropped in exchange for an extension from Duisburg to Düsseldorf in the timetable change in December 2002. Since then the ''Rhein-Emscher-Express'' has run entirely on the

trunk line In telecommunications, trunking is a technology for providing network access to multiple clients simultaneously by sharing a set of circuits, carriers, channels, or frequencies, instead of providing individual circuits or channels for each clie ...

of the

Cologne-Minden Railway Company The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...

, which was opened in 1846 and 1847. As of 15 December 2019, in connection with a change to the Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn, a new Regionalbahn service line RB 32, the '' Rhein-Emscher-Bahn'', was added to the timetable, which runs parallel to the RE 3 between Dortmund and Duisburg, serving the stops between Gelsenkirchen and Oberhausen that were formally served by a branch of S-Bahn line S 2, including Essen Zollverein Nord.

Route

The Rhine-Emscher-Express runs daily every hour over the tracks of three railway lines: *The whole Dortmund–Hamm railway, which is also used by three other Regional-Express services and long-distance trains, * the whole Duisburg–Dortmund railway, shared with the Rhein-Emscher-Bahn (RB 32) and partly with the Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn (RB 35) and

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...

line S 2, *The Cologne–Duisburg railway between Duisburg and Düsseldorf. In this four to six track section, the ''Rhein- Emscher-Express'' uses the S-Bahn tracks or the so-called "local" tracks where they exist, along with the

Rhein-Haard-Express The Rhein-Haard-Express (RE 2) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Osnabrück via Münster, Recklinghausen, Gelsenkirchen, Essen and Duisburg to Düsseldorf. The Haard-Bahn (RB 42) o ...

(RE 2), the

Rhein-Weser-Express The Rhein-Weser-Express (RE 6) is a Regional-Express service route in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, connecting some of the most important cities in Westphalia (among others Minden, Bielefeld and Hamm) with the Ruhr (especially Dort ...

(RE 6), the

Rhein-Hellweg-Express The Rhein-Hellweg-Express (RE 11) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Hamm via Dortmund, Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf Airport to Düsseldorf Hbf. It is named after the Rhine a ...

(RE 11) and the Rhein-IJssel-Express (RE 19). Only the

NRW-Express The NRW-Express is a Regional-Express rail service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Aachen via Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund to Hamm as line RE 1. The line is part of the Rhine-Ruh ...

(RE 1) and the

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

(RE 5) use the long-distance tracks.

Rail services

The RE 3 runs hourly every day from Düsseldorf to Hamm. It runs parallel with

Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ...

lines over large parts of its route and it has some of the character of a fast S-Bahn service and is perceived by passengers accordingly. RB 32, the ''Rhein-Emscher-Bahn'', runs parallel to the RE 3 between Dortmund and Duisburg each hour, also stopping at Essen Zollverein Nord, Essen-Bergeborbeck and Essen-Dellwig. The passenger rail transport was operated by

DB Regio DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio ...

NRW until 12 December 2009, using class 425 electric multiple units in coupled sets since the introduction of the winter timetable of 2008. Previously the service had been operated with

push–pull train Push–pull is a configuration for locomotive-hauled trains, allowing them to be driven from either end of the train, whether having a locomotive at each end or not. A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected vi ...

s of five refurbished

Silberling Silberling is the colloquial name for the n-coaches of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, a type of regional passenger coach of which more than 5,000 units were built from 1958 to 1981. Nearly all of the coaches have undergone extensive modernisation � ...

carriages or four double-deck carriages with a class 111 electric locomotive. The average speed is only 63 km/h. The reason for this is the frequent stops between Dortmund and Hamm. The current operator of this service and the

Maas-Wupper-Express The Maas-Wupper-Express (RE 13) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from the Dutch border town of Venlo to Hamm in Westphalia. Route Together with the Wupper-Express (RE 4) and Rhine-Ruhr S- ...

Eurobahn Eurobahn is a railway operator in Germany, established in 1998. It operates regional train services in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with cross-border services including Lower Saxony and the Netherlands. Initially a joint venture between K ...

, a subsidiary of

Keolis Keolis is a multinational transportation company that operates public transport systems. The company manages bus, rapid transit, tram, coach networks, rental bikes, car parks, water taxi, cable car, trolleybus and funicular services. Based ...

. Operations are carried out using 4 four-carriage and 14 five-carriage Stadler FLIRT electrical multiple units with a top speed of 160 km/h, rented from

Angel Trains Angel Trains is a British rolling stock company (ROSCO). Together with Eversholt Rail Group and Porterbrook, it is one of the three original ROSCOs. Angel Trains was established in March 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. In No ...

. In the period from 13 December 2009 to 11 December 2010 (during ''

RUHR.2010 Ruhr.2010 – Kulturhauptstadt Europas was the name of the campaign in Germany's Ruhr region that earned it recognition as a European Capital of Culture in 2010. This was the first time a region was considered, as Essen represented all 53 towns ...

'', when Essen was a European Capital of Culture), the RE 3 had an additional stop at Essen-Zollverein Nord (formerly ''Essen-Katernberg Süd'') to improve access to the

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

at the

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (German Zeche Zollverein) is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The first coal mine on the premises was founded in 1847, and mining activities took plac ...

. On 7 January 2010, the station was officially renamed ''Essen-Zollverein Nord'', but since the timetable change in December 2010, ''Rhein-Emscher-Express'' services again skip the station.

Operator

Two North Rhine-Westphalian municipal transport associations, the

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (), abbreviated VRR, is a public transport association ( Verkehrsverbund) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It covers most of the Ruhr area, as well as neighbouring parts of the Lower Rhine region, inclu ...

("Rhine-Ruhr Transport Association", VRR) and the Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ruhr-Lippe ("transport community of Westphalia-Lippe", ZRL) are involved in the operation of the service. The franchise for operating the service together with the ''Maas-Wupper-Express'' from the timetable change on 13 December 2009 was put out to tender. The winner was ''Rhenus Keolis GmbH'', beating

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 co ...

, ''DB Regio NRW GmbH'' and other railway companies.

Notes

External links