
The Rhein-Hellweg-Express (RE 11) 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 a top speed of and an average speed of about as it calls at fewer stations than ''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 ...
(NRW), running from
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
via
Dortmund
Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...
,
Bochum
Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...
,
Essen
Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...
,
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 ...
and
Düsseldorf Airport
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 seventh-largest city in Germany, with a 2022 population of 629,047.
The Düsse ...
to
Düsseldorf Hbf
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 ...
. It is named after the
Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
and the Westphalian
Hellweg
In the Middle Ages, Hellweg was the official and common name given to main travelling routes in Germany. Their breadth was decreed as an unimpeded passageway a lance's width, about three metres, which the landholders, through which the Hellweg pa ...
. The line is part of the Rhine-Ruhr Express (RRX) network and is operated by
National Express
Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...
.
History
In 1988 the first regular interval regional rapid train service was established from Dortmund via Essen, Duisburg and
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 ...
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 ...
. This operated hourly on the
Cologne–Duisburg and
Dortmund–Duisburg lines, which even then were the most important railway lines for passenger traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia.
With the introduction of high-speed regional services in the early 1990s, this line was named the
NRW-Express
The NRW-Express is a Regional-Express rail service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Aachen Hauptbahnhof, Aachen via Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, Düsseldorf, Duisburg Hauptbahnhof, Duisbur ...
(originally numbered RSB 1; from 1995 it was redesignated as
Stadt-Express line SE 1) and ran from
Bielefeld
Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...
via Hamm, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne to
Aachen
Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants.
Aachen is locat ...
. With the extension of the service on the
Hamm–Bielefeld and
Cologne–Aachen lines, the service soon had insufficient capacity. Therefore, in May 1998 with the NRW-wide implementation of regional express lines, the NRW-Express (now RE 1) was supplemented by the
Westfalen-Express (RE 6) from Bielefeld via Hamm, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg to Düsseldorf so that on the northern section there were two Regional-Expresses per hour.
After the timetable change in December 2002, services on the central Ruhr axis between Hamm and Düsseldorf increased to five Regional-Express services in each two hour period. The NRW-Express was now shortened to run on the
Hamm Hamm may refer to:
Places
;Germany:
* Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, a city north-east of Dortmund
* Hamm (Sieg), a municipality in the eponymous ''Verbandsgemeinde'' in the district of Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate
* Hamm, Bitburg-Prüm, part ...
–
Aachen
Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants.
Aachen is locat ...
route, the ''
Westfalen-Express'' (RE 6) was established between Düsseldorf and
Minden
Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...
. The new ''Rhein-Hellweg-Express'' (RE 11) was introduced at two hourly intervals, running from Düsseldorf to Hamm and continuing on the
line to Paderborn.
When the timetable change in December 2010 there was an exchange of sections between the ''NRW-Express'', the ''Rhein-Hellweg Express'' and ''
Rhein-Haard-Express'' (RE 2):
*The section of the ''Rhein-Hellweg-Express'' from Hamm via
Soest and
Lippstadt
Lippstadt () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest town within the district of Soest. Lippstadt is situated about 60 kilometres east of Dortmund, 40 kilometres south of Bielefeld and 30 kilometres west of Paderborn.
Geo ...
to
Paderborn
Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...
was taken over by the ''NRW-Express''; this section continued to be operated only every two hours.
*The section of the ''Rhein-Hellweg Express'' between Duisburg and Düsseldorf (now operated hourly) was taken over by the Rhein-Haard-Express. In return, the ''Rhein-Hellweg Express'' ran (now also hourly) on the section between Duisburg and Mönchengladbach. The
Duisburg–Mönchengladbach line was for the first time connected directly to the eastern Ruhr region by Regional-Express services.
Overall, there were further bottlenecks due to the timetable change. In the central Ruhr area between Hamm and Duisburg, three regional express lines (RE 1, RE 6 and RE 11) were now running at approximately 20-minute intervals. The Hamm–Dortmund section was reinforced by RE 3, the Bochum–Essen section by RE 16 and the Essen–Duisburg section by RE 2.
In the course of the development of the
Rhein Ruhr Express (''RRX'', an upgraded Regional-Express system) network, the Rhein-Hellweg-Express returned to its original route between Düsseldorf and Paderborn and was extended to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe at the timetable change on 11 December 2016. The section between Hamm and Kassel, however was only operated generally at two-hour intervals and some trains even in the afternoon peak terminated in Paderborn. Due to some remaining IC/ICE services on the line, there were unsatisfactory gaps in the regional services of up to four hours in both directions, especially at lunch time. Departure times also differed significantly, so the timetable was difficult for customers to remember since there are no regular services.
In the evenings, the RE 11 service from Düsseldorf ended in Dortmund. At the other end, some services only ran from Kassel to Hamm, so passengers were forced to change trains regularly to reach the Ruhr area or Düsseldorf.
Due to longer scheduled stays in Duisburg and Dortmund, the travel time of regional services between Paderborn and Düsseldorf increased by up to ten minutes compared to the previous operation by RE 1. The use of the class 425 sets significantly reduced the capacity of seating and standing places. The number of daily circuits serving the entire route was reduced from eight to seven. The section of
Eurobahn
Eurobahn GmbH & Co. KG is a railway operator in Germany, established in 1998. It operates 15 regional train services in 4 contracts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with cross-border services including Lower Saxony and the Netherlands.
...
's daily ''Dortmund-Kassel-Sprinter'' service from Hamm was integrated in RE 11.
The section of the RE 11 from Duisburg via Krefeld to Mönchengladbach that is no longer served by the RE 11 was replaced by the RE 42 (''
Niers-Haard-Express''), which was upgraded from the RB 42 and extended from Münster via Essen,
Mülheim
Mülheim, officially Mülheim an der Ruhr (, ; ; ) and also described as ''"City on the River"'', is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen. It is ho ...
, Duisburg and Krefeld to Mönchengladbach.
From the timetable change in December 2018 until 16 January 2022,
Abellio Rail NRW operated the line. It was transferred from DB Regio to Abellio as part of the Rhine-Ruhr Express. Due to Abellio's insolvency, Swiss Centralbahn and TRI Train Rental took over operations from 17 January to 27 February 2022.
National Express
Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...
has been operating the route since 28 February 2022.
Due to work at Dortmund Hauptbahnhof as well as on the line between Soest and Hamm, all trains were diverted via Unna and Dortmund-Hörde from November 2022 until April 2023. The Kamen, Kamen-Methler and Dortmund Hauptbahnhof were not served during this period, with the exception of a few trips at the end of the day; Hamm was only served by a few trains terminating there. Instead of Hamm, the trains were split and combined in Unna. The diversion was initially scheduled to last until December 2022, but in fact lasted until 14 April 2023.
Due to the increase in passenger numbers following the extension of the line to Kassel, NWL and NVV planned to increase service to an hourly frequency with the timetable change in December 2020. Due to staff recruitment problems, construction work, and the insolvency of the operator Abellio, the implementation had to be postponed several times until the timetable change in December 2023. For this purpose, services on the RB 89 and RE 17 lines between Paderborn and Kassel were replaced. Hourly timetable gaps now exist only for two Intercity train pairs.
In addition, National Express has almost completely cancelled services on the Hamm–Düsseldorf section due to a lack of staff. Passengers arriving from Kassel must change trains in Hamm to continue to Düsseldorf. In May 2024, it was announced that this extensive cancellation would last until 2 August 2024. In July, this was extended to 1 September 2024, and in August again to 6 October 2024. On 24 September, it was extended to 14 December 2024, and on 2 December 2024, it was extended to 15 June 2025.
Route
The ''Rhein-Hellweg Express'' runs daily every hour (every two hours between Hamm and Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe) and uses five railway lines:
*The
Kassel–Warburg railway
The Kassel–Warburg Railway is a line that connects Kassel in the north of the German state of Hesse with Warburg in eastern Westphalia. The line was opened in 1848 and is one of the List of the first German railways to 1870, oldest railways in G ...
(built by the
Frederick William Northern Railway Frederick may refer to:
People
* Frederick (given name), the name
Given name
Nobility
= Anhalt-Harzgerode =
*Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670)
= Austria =
* Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from ...
of the
Electorate of Hesse
The Electorate of Hesse (), also known as Hesse-Kassel or Kurhessen, was the title used for the former Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel after an 1803 reform where the Holy Roman Emperor elevated its ruler to the rank of Elector, thus giving him ...
) throughout, which is also used by other regional and long-distance services,
*The
Hamm–Warburg railway
The Hamm–Warburg railway is a 131 km long main line railway in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is part of an east-west line, known as the ''Mid-Germany Connection'' (), and is served by Intercity (Deutsche Bahn), InterCity t ...
(built by the Cologne-Minden-Thuringian Connection Railway Company until its bankruptcy and completed by the
Royal Westphalian Railway Company
The Royal Westphalian Railway (, KWE) was a German rail company established in 1848 with funding from the Prussian government, which later became part of the Prussian State Railways. The network eventually extended about 315 km from Rheine v ...
) throughout, which is also used by other regional and long-distance services,
*The
Dortmund–Hamm railway
The Dortmund–Hamm Railway is an important and historically significant railway in Germany. It is a major axis for long distance passenger and freight trains between the Ruhr and the north and east of Germany. It is the part of the trunk line ...
(built by 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 is also used by three other Regional-Express services and long-distance trains,
*the
Ruhr line from Dortmund to Duisburg (built by the
Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company
The Bergisch-Markisch Railway Company (, BME), also referred to as the Berg-Mark Railway Company or, more rarely, as the Bergisch-Markische Railway Company, was a German railway company that together with the Cologne-Minden Railway (''Cöln-Min ...
), using the long-distance tracks, which is also used by regional and long-distance trains,
*The
Cologne–Duisburg railway
The 64 km long Cologne–Duisburg railway is one of the most important lines in Germany. It is the main axis for long distance and urban passenger rail services between Cologne and the Ruhr, served by Intercity Express, Intercity, Regional ...
(built by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company) from Duisburg to Düsseldorf. The Rhein-Hellweg-Express uses the so-called local tracks or the S-Bahn tracks, as does the
Rhein-Haard-Express (RE 2), the
Rhein-Emscher-Express
The Rhein-Emscher-Express (RE 3) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Düsseldorf via Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund to Hamm. It connects with the rest of the regional rail network o ...
(RE 3), 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-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) and, in some sections, the S-Bahn. 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 Hauptbahnhof, Aachen via Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof, Düsseldorf, Duisburg Hauptbahnhof, Duisbur ...
(RE 1) and 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) use the long-distance tracks.
Operator
The line was operated by
DB Regio
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 ...
NRW under a special contract with the North Rhine-Westphalian public transport associations. DB Regio NRW had the contract to operate the line until the timetable change on 13 December 2015. The contract included provisions for services every two hours between Hamm and Paderborn; this section became part of the RE 1 at the timetable change in December 2010, committing operations on this line to run permanently with a sixth double-deck coach.
As part of the so-called RRX interim contract, operations from December 2016 until the commissioning of RRX rolling stock were provided by DB Regio. From the timetable change on 9 December 2018,
Abellio Rail NRW took over operations on the line. This subsidiary of
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
(, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938.
The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...
won the contract for the operation of the NRW-Express as Lot 1 of the Rhein-Ruhr-Express.
Due to the insolvency of Abellio Rail NRW and the resulting early termination of the transport contract,
National Express Germany
National Express Germany is a railway operator in Germany. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British transport company Mobico Group.
National Express gained its first regional rail contracts in February 2013 and commenced operations on 13 ...
replaced Abellio in 2022. Between 17 January 2022 and 27 February 2022, the transport services were briefly provided by Centralbahn and TRI Train Rental.
Following a new tender, National Express was awarded the contract for operation until December 2033.
Rolling stock

Before the introduction of
clock-face scheduling
A clock-face schedule, also cyclic schedule, is a timetable system under which public transport services run at consistent intervals, as opposed to a timetable that is purely driven by demand and has irregular headways. The name derives from the ...
, the supplementary trains between Bielefeld and Duisburg or Düsseldorf were usually made up of four to five
Silberling
The n-Wagen ("n-coaches") are a type of passenger coach used by Deutsche Bundesbahn and subsequently Deutsche Bahn. With two double-leafed doors per side to enable a high passenger throughput rate, the coaches were conceived for short dwell ...
coaches, pulled by electric locomotives of classes
class 110,
141 or
143.
While the RE 11 operated on a regular-interval basis between Bielefeld and Düsseldorf, the trains initially generally consisted of class 110 locomotives and four Silberling coaches, later also as push-pull trains with
control car
A control car, cab car (North America), control trailer, or driving trailer (UK, Ireland, Australia and India) is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or t ...
s. From around the beginning of the 21st century, it ran with Class 111 locomotives and four double-decker carriages of the classes 751, 756, and 761. With the change to the route between Paderborn and Düsseldorf, n-carriage trains initially ran for a short time, with one
class 112 locomotive at each end, shortly afterwards as a five-car Silberling coach push-pull train with class 111 locomotives.
However, it was quickly realized that passenger volumes required higher capacity, so class 112 locomotives (sometimes also class 111) were deployed with four new double-decker carriages. The carriages were air-conditioned and approved for a top speed of . The line reached an average speed of . The route change in December 2010 to the service between Hamm and Mönchengladbach initially did not change rolling stock deployment.
From 21 February 2011, in addition to the double-decker trains,
class 425 electric multiple units were used on the Rhein-Hellweg Express, these had previously been modernised for use on this service. Double-deck trains remained operating on the line until the completion of the conversion to operation with class 425 EMUs. It has been operated with
Siemens Desiro HC railcars since 2018.
Since 9 December 2018, Abellio has been operating Siemens Desiro HC RRX railcars in double traction between Düsseldorf and Hamm. Between Hamm and Kassel, services operate in single traction. The weakening and strengthening of train services takes place at Hamm station.
During the interim service due to the Abellio insolvency from 17 January 2022 to 27 February 2022, Centralbahn and TRI Train Rental operated two alternating sets with Class 111 locomotives and two or three double-decker carriages, as well as two sets with
ES 64 F (class 182) locomotives and compartment cars between Essen and Kassel.
The Centralbahn sets operated as
push-pull trains, sometimes with control cars or with two locomotives in sandwich traction, while the TRI Train Rental sets did not have a control car and had to reverse at the terminal stations.
See also
*
List of regional rail lines in North Rhine-Westphalia
The List of regional rail lines in North Rhine-Westphalia provides a list of all Regional-Express and Regionalbahn railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia. The passenger rail service in North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the densest train services i ...
*
List of scheduled railway routes in Germany
NB: The scheduled routes given here are based primarily on the timetable of the Deutsche Bahn dated 9 December 2007.In addition the list of routes (see external links) reflects those of the German Regional Railway (''Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn'') ...
Notes
External links
*
* {{cite web , url=http://www.zrl.de/fahrplan/dokumente/RE11.pdf , title= Rhein-Hellweg-Express timetable, publisher= zrl.de , language=German , accessdate= 10 September 2011
Rail services in North Rhine-Westphalia
Named DB Regio services