The Rhein Weser Express (RE 6) 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 route 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 ...

, connecting some of the most important cities in

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

(among others

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 ...

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 ...

and Hamm) with the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

(especially

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 ...

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 ...

Neuss Neuss (; written ''Neuß'' until 1968; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It is primarily known for its ...

and

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 ...

). Cologne, Neuss, Düsseldorf and Duisburg lie on 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 ...

while Minden lies on the

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

. Until the timetable change in December 2016, this service was called the ''Westfalen-Express'' and ended in Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof. 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

Until the timetable revision of 2002, the NRW-Express (RE 1) operated with five, and sometimes up to eight, double-deck carriages from

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 ...

to Bielefeld. In 2002 services were extended to Minden and at the same time the service was split into two routes. The ''Westfalen-Express'' was established, taking over the Hamm–Bielefeld–Minden section and extending to Düsseldorf. This change was intended in particular to improve the timeliness of the entire service. A service called line RE 6a was put into operation as a pre-operation for the Rhein-Ruhr-Express on 13 December 2015. For the first time, Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof was regularly connected with Cologne/Bonn Airport, serving on the way Neuss Hauptbahnhof, Dormagen, Cologne Hauptbahnhof, with some services also stopping in Köln Messe/Deutz in the peak. This interim line was scheduled to be operated with double sets of class 425 EMUs. The reason for the temporary separation of RE 6 and RE 6a was the lack of emergency brake connections between the double-deck cars used on line RE 6 (Minden–Düsseldorf), which were not allowed to run through the Cologne Airport loop. At the change of timetable in December 2016, the rolling stock was replaced by retrofitted double-decker trains, the RE 6 was extended to Cologne/Bonn Airport and the line RE 6a service was discontinued. The RE 6 services has been named the ''Rhein-Weser-Express'' since its extension. Since the timetable change in December 2019, the Rhein-Weser-Express has been operated by National Express with Siemens Desiro HC EMUs.

Route

The ''Rhein-Weser-Express'' runs on a total of four railway lines: *all of the Hamm–Minden line (which carries all forms of regional and long-distance passenger services and freight traffic over a four-track route.) *all of the Dortmund–Hamm (which carries all forms of regional and long-distance passenger services) *all of the Dortmund-Duisburg line (on the long-distance tracks, which carry all regional and long-distance services), *the Cologne–Duisburg line between Duisburg and Düsseldorf. In this four to six track section the Rhein-Weser-Express uses the

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

tracks or the so-called local tracks where they exist, along with the Rhein-Haard-Express (RE 2) and the Rhein-Emscher-Express (RE 3), the Rhein-Hellweg-Express (RE 11) and the Rhein-IJssel-Express (RE 19). Only the NRW-Express (RE 1) and the Rhein-Express (RE 5) use the long-distance tracks. * the Mönchengladbach–Düsseldorf railway between Düsseldorf and Neuss (together with other regional services), * the Lower Left Rhine Railway between Neuss and Cologne (together with other regional and S-Bahn services and freight trains). * the Hohenzollern Bridge between Cologne Hbf and Köln Messe/Deutz (together with all regional and long-distance trains), * the Sieg Railway between Köln Messe/Deutz and the Cologne Airport Northwest junction (together with all regional and long-distance trains), * the Cologne Airport loop to Cologne/Bonn Airport (together with all S-Bahn, regional and long-distance trains). Like the ''Rhein-Emscher-Express'', the ''Rhein-Weser-Express'' runs for a large part of its route of 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 (, CME). Between Dortmund and Duisburg, however, it uses the more developed and more centrally located route through the Ruhr built by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (''Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', BME).

Rail services

Since the timetable change in December 2010, the ''Rhein-Weser-Express'' has run during the day at hourly intervals from Minden to Düsseldorf (extending to Cologne/Bonn Airport since December 2016), over the whole route between 0700 and 2200. Until the timetable change in December 2010 some services in the off-peak lengths turned around in Dortmund, Bielefeld or Hamm. Frequencies are increased by other services: the ''NRW-Express'' also runs between Hamm and Cologne and the '' Rhein-Hellweg-Express'' (RE 11) runs between Hamm and Düsseldorf, the

Ems-Börde-Bahn The Hellweg net consists of the four Regionalbahn lines in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia: RB 50 (Münster – Lünen – Dortmund), RB 59 (Dortmund – Unna – Soest), RB 69 (Münster – Hamm – Bielefeld) and RB 89 (Münster – ...

(RB 69) runs between Bielefeld and Hamm, the

Weser-Leine-Express The Weser-Leine-Express (RE 70) is the name used in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) for a Regional-Express service that connects the Ostwestfalen-Lippe, east Westphalian regional centre of Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof, Bielefeld and Minden station, Minden ...

(RE 70) and the Porta-Express (RE 78) run between Bielefeld and Minden. Large sections of the RE 6 proceeds parallel with S-Bahn lines and it has some of the character of a fast S-Bahn service and is perceived by passengers accordingly. Until 2016, the service 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, using

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 double-deck carriages, mostly hauled by class 146.0 locomotives. Class 111 electric locomotives were regularly substituted on the route. The maximum speed of 160 km/h can be reached on long sections. The average speed is 84.5 km/h. Since the timetable change in December 2019, the Rhein-Weser-Express has been operated by National Express with Siemens Desiro HC EMUs. The ''Rhein-Weser-Express'' is linked with the rest of the transport network in North Rhine-Westphalia and

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Dortmund, Hamm, Bielefeld, Herford,

Löhne Löhne (; , ) is a town in the district of Herford, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Löhne is situated on the river Werre, approx. 8 km north of Herford and 20 km south-west of Minden Minden () is a middle-sized to ...

and Minden.

Tenders of the route

Four public transport associations are involved in the operation of the ''Rhein-Weser-Express'': the

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (), abbreviated VRR, is a public transport association (Verkehrsverbund) in the Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It covers large parts of the Ruhr, Ruhr area, the Lower Rhine region including Düsse ...

(transport association of the Rhine-Ruhr, VRR, the ''Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ruhr-Lippe'' (transport community of Westphalia-Lippe), ''Zweckverband SPNV Münsterland'' (regional rail transport association of Münsterland, ZVM) and ''Verkehrsverbund OstWestfalenLippe'' (transport association of East Westphalia-Lippe, VVOWL). The "large traffic" contract (''große Verkehrsvertrag'') that covers the route between Dortmund and Düsseldorf was terminated by the VRR on 12 June 2008 without notice, since then DB has operated this branch under direction. On 19 December 2008 the Administrative Court of Gelsenkirchen ruled that the termination of the "large traffic" contract had been unlawful. The North Rhine-Westphalian authorities submitted a joint tendering schedule, according to which the RE 6 line was to be tendered together with the RE 5 Rhein-Express. Operation for the RE 6 was to commence on 11 December 2016. Within the framework of the so-called "Rhein-Ruhr-Express" interim contract, services were provided by DB Regio from December 2016 until the start-up of the Rhine-Ruhr Express services. Since the timetable change in December 2019, the Rhein-Weser-Express has been operated by National Express with Desiro HC rolling stock.

References

External links