Bedburg–Horrem railway (also known in German as the ''Erftbahn''—Erft Railway) is a line 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 States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
. The non-electrified main line was originally built as a line of the Bergheim District Railway and operated as a
metre gauge
Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre.
The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...
railway. Later, the line was converted to
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
.
The Erft Railway is listed as table 481 of the German railway timetable. It is served only by the ''Erftbahn''
Regionalbahn service.
Operations and history
The Bedburg–Horrem–Mödrath line was opened in 1896 as part of the Bergheim District Railway (''Bergheimer Kreisbahn'').
The line was built as a
metre-gauge
Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre.
The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...
line and was built by ''GmbH Lenz & Co'', which initially managed it. The line was opened between Mödrath and Zieverich (and continuing to Elsdorf) on 5 November 1896 for freight and on 20 February 1897 for passenger transport. The extension from Zieverich to Bedburg was opened on 8 May 1897. Although initially built as a narrow-gauge line, it had been designed to be upgraded to
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
. The track bed was correspondingly wide, it was laid with standard gauge sleepers at reduced spacing, and it used heavy rail. A third rail was installed in 1904. Passenger trains then ran on the narrow gauge track and freight trains ran on the standard gauge track.
In 1913, the Prussian state railway took over the Bergheim District Railway, as had been envisaged in the concession, and the narrow gauge operations were discontinued. After the First World War, the track was straightened largely within its own right of way and rehabilitated.
Passenger traffic was terminated on the Mödrath–Horrem section on 28 May 1972 and freight traffic was abandoned on 1 October 1978.
The Horrem–Quadrath-Ichendorf section was electrified because of its high freight traffic in 1983, but its catenary was dismantled in 1996.
As of 2 June 1991, trains ran through from Neuss to Horrem, continuing in the peak hour to Cologne. The rail service was extended throughout the day to Cologne from 15 December 2002.
On 1 November 2007, the rest of the line was also connected to the electronic signalling centre. At the same time, all older level crossings were upgraded to the state of the art with flashing lights. The crossing at Bahnhofstraße in Holzheim had been equipped with a full barrier and a gatekeeper who visually checked whether the tracks were free of vehicles; this is now done with a radar scanner.
Erft railway
The
Regionalbahn service (''Erft-Bahn'') operates from Bedburg to Horrem via Bergheim or to
Cologne Messe/Deutz (with a stop in Horrem on platform track 19, which is on the other side of the triangular junction from the main platforms). The service has the line number of RB 38 and is operated every half hour on the Bedburg–Horem section and hourly on the remainder 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 bus ...
NRW.
Between Horrem and Cologne, it runs along the
Cologne–Aachen high-speed line.
Until the timetable change on 10 December 2017, the RB 38 (''
Erft-Bahn
Bedburg–Horrem railway (also known in German as the ''Erftbahn''—Erft Railway) is a line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The non-electrified main line was originally built as a line of the Bergheim District Railway and operated ...
'') operated from Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof or Neuss (on weekends) via Bedburg to
Köln Messe/Deutz. This service, which is located in the area served by the ''Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg'' (Rhine-Sieg Transport association), was shortened to the Bedburg–Cologne section at the timetable change. the section beyond Bedburg was taken over at the timetable change by a new RB 39 (''Düssel-Erft-Bahn'') service operated by the private transport company
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 ...
. Passengers wishing to travel beyond Bedburg now have to transfer there. The reason for this division are plans of the authority that is responsible for rail services south of Bedburg, the ''Zweckverband Nahverkehr Rheinland'' (Rhineland local transport association), to electrify the Bedburg–Cologne section and operate it as an
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 co ...
service. Furthermore, first class has been dropped on the Erft-Bahn service, because of its low use and because trains are always crowded during the peak hour.
Rolling stock
Before the 1990s,
class 150 accumulator cars were operated on the line. In the 1990s,
class 212 diesel locomotives and later
class 215 and
218
Year 218 (Roman numerals, CCXVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Adventus (or, less frequently, year ...
locomotives were used together with
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. In the late 1990s, the locomotive-hauled trains were replaced with class
628 diesel multiple units. In 2003, two and three carriage class 643 (
Bombardier Talent
The Talent is a multiple unit railcar manufactured by Bombardier that was developed by Waggonfabrik Talbot in Aachen shortly before the company was acquired by Bombardier in 1995. The name ''Talent'' is an acronym in German for ''TALbot LEicht ...
) diesel multiple units was added; two carriage sets were used until the 2010/2011 timetable.
Currently RB 38 services are operated exclusively with class 628 diesel multiple units, mostly as coupled sets with four carriages. Single class 628 sets (two carriages) are used on the short shuttles between Düsseldorf/Neuss and Grevenbroich and between Bedburg and Horrem.
From December 2014 to December 2016 only
Bombardier Talent
The Talent is a multiple unit railcar manufactured by Bombardier that was developed by Waggonfabrik Talbot in Aachen shortly before the company was acquired by Bombardier in 1995. The name ''Talent'' is an acronym in German for ''TALbot LEicht ...
(class 644) sets were used on the whole line between Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof and Köln Messe/Deutz in coupled sets and additional services ran between Bedburg and Horrem and between Grevenbroich and Neuss in the peak as previously. From the timetable change in December 2016 to the middle of 2017, there were also a few class 628 sets operating between Bedburg and Horrem, as some of the class 644 sets were being renovated. These were repainted, received new seat cushions and headrests and were thoroughly cleaned.
The class 644 sets remain on the new RB 38 service after a thorough refurbishment. It had been planned to runs triple sets on the "long RB 38" (Bedburg–Cologne) route, but this plan failed because the platforms in Glesch, Paffendorf and Zieverich were not long enough.
Outlook
In the 1990s, it was planned (as part of a network targeted for 2015) to extend the
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 ci ...
network from Horrem via Bedburg to Düsseldorf.
The plans for the extension of the S-Bahn on the northern section of the line have not been pursued further by 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, includ ...
(VRR), which is responsible for the northern part of the route (Düsseldorf–Bedburg). This part of the route has been operated by VIAS since December 2017 and the track is shared in Bedburg.
The ''Zweckverband Nahverkehr Rheinland'' (Rhineland local transport association, NVR) still plans to upgrade the southern section of the line by around 2020, including electrification and a
flying junction
A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is "gr ...
in Horrem to connect to the existing S-Bahn line to Cologne. The NVR is pursuing the goal of relieving the
Hohenzollern Bridge
The Hohenzollern Bridge (german: Hohenzollernbrücke) is a bridge crossing the river Rhine in the German city of Cologne (German: ''Köln''). It crosses the Rhine at kilometre 688.5. Originally, the bridge was both a railway and road bridge. ...
in Cologne by eliminating the RB 38 services. This would involve running
line S 12 services over the Erft Railway from Horrem to Bedburg. The section of the S 12 from Horrem to Düren was taken over by
line S 13 and
line S 19 from the timetable change in December 2015. A feasibility study from 2012 confirms this option as having a high cost-benefit ratio, partly because part of the cost for the necessary rehabilitation of the line would have had to be invested in maintaining the current operations anyway. Subject to an agreement with the VRR, the S-Bahn service would later replace the Regionalbahn service to Grevenbroich.
A planning agreement was signed with the state in August 2017.
Route
The Erft Railway runs next to the
Erft
The Erft () is a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It flows through the foothills of the Eifel, and joins the Lower Rhine (left tributary). Its origin is near Nettersheim, and its mouth in Neuss-Grimlinghausen south of the Josef Cardinal ...
from Bedburg to Bergheim. The line crosses the Erft shortly before Bergheim. Otherwise, the Erft is not in the immediate vicinity of the railway tracks. The railway is a single-track branch line.
Bedburg station
![Bf-bedburg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Bf-bedburg.jpg)
Bedburg station is located at line-kilometre 21.2 and was opened in 1869. The line to Horrem was opened in 1897 and the
Bedburg–Ameln railway, which was popularly known as the ''Amelner Johännchen'' (Ameln Johnny), commenced operations in 1898. Bedburg station was located at line-kilometre 0.2 of this line. The traffic on the line to Ameln was closed on 17 March 1953 as it was no longer profitable.
The Düren–Bedburg section was closed in 1995 and dismantled in 1995 to allow the expansion of the Hambach open cast mine. The remaining gravel on the former routes is a reminder of the once extensive track infrastructure. Bedburg had two signal boxes ("Bnf" and "Bsf"). "Bsf" was taken out of service in 1995 with the decommissioning of the section to Düren and demolished after a fire. "Bnf" took control of the remaining turnouts and signals until it was taken out of service with the commissioning of the electronic interlocking in 2007.
Glesch station
![Bf-glesch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Bf-glesch.jpg)
A halt was built the village of
Glesch
Bergheim ( Ripuarian: ''Berchem'') is a German town, some twenty km west of Cologne and the capital of the Rhein-Erft-Kreis (district). The town's Niederaußem district is one of the most important suppliers for energy from lignites in Europe.
...
by the Bergheim District Railway in 1897 at its current location at line-kilometer 2.5. The line ran at this point close to the Fortuna-Garstorf open-cast mine.
Paffendorf station
![Bf-paffendorf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Bf-paffendorf.jpg)
The line passes the
Hambach Railway (''Hambachbahn'') of
RWE
RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...
Power, which is used exclusively for the transport of coal and overburden. Immediately after, the railway reaches the halt of Paffendorf at line-kilometer 4.1. The RWE Power Information Centre is located at the local palace (''Schloss'').
Zieverich station
![Bf-zieverich](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Bf-zieverich.jpg)
The two-part halt of
Zieverich
Bergheim ( Ripuarian: ''Berchem'') is a German town, some twenty km west of Cologne and the capital of the Rhein-Erft-Kreis (district). The town's Niederaußem district is one of the most important suppliers for energy from lignites in Europe.
...
, built in 1897, is located in greenery at line-kilometre 6.1. The trains running towards Cologne and towards
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 th ...
do not stop at the same platform. The line towards
Elsdorf Ost, which was also built by the Bergheim District Railway, branched off here until 1967.
Bergheim station
Bergheim station was opened in 1897 at line-kilometre 7.6. The old station had an electromechanical dispatcher’s signal box "Bf" (E 43) in the entrance building with
semaphore signals
Railway semaphore signal is one of the earliest forms of fixed railway signals. This semaphore system involves signals that display their different indications to train drivers by changing the angle of inclination of a pivoted 'arm'. Semaphore ...
as entry and exit signals. Three to four tracks were available for train crossings. There was a three-track railcar shed on tracks 9-11. The platform-less track 12 ran from the back of the railcar shed; this allowed only entrances and exits from or towards Horrem. Tracks 7 and 8 were sidings that lay between the main tracks and the railcar shed. Two dead-end tracks ran from track 1 towards the entrance building, including track 13, which ended at a head loading ramp. The whole station could be seen on a sharp left turn approaching from Horrem.
In 1988, the station was relocated, but the old entrance building was preserved in its original place. Commissioning of the new station took place on 18 April 1988. The platform tracks in Bergheim (Erft) station were put into operation on 27 June 1988. It is located in a new position with straight platform tracks 1 and 2, which have external platforms. Except for the loading track to the head loading ramp, all the other tracks and the railcar shed have been dismantled. The entrance building was demolished at the beginning of 2017 as part of reconstruction work.
The old "Bf" signal box was closed on 28 October 2007, when the control of operations on the track was taken over by the Köln-Ehrenfeld
computer-based interlocking Computer-based interlocking is railway signal interlocking implemented with computers, rather than using older technologies such as relays or mechanics.
General
CBIs are mostly implemented in two parts; a section that implements the safety and f ...
, which is controlled from the Duisburg operations centre. The remaining loading track was disconnected.
In the past, branch lines branched off in Bergheim to Bedburg (Erft), Horrem and Rommerskirchen and from Zieverich to Elsdorf Ost. There was also a siding to the Martinswerk aluminum plant and a railcar depot. Passenger trains ran via Horrem to Kerpen among other places.
Quadrath-Ichendorf station
![BahnhofQuadrathIchendorf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/BahnhofQuadrathIchendorf.jpg)
The halt of
Quadrath-Ichendorf has existed since the line's opening in 1897 at line-kilometre 18.7. From 1983 to 1996, the line was electrified to the Martinswerk junction in Quadrath-Ichendorf. At this point, the
Strategic Railway Embankment from Neuss branched off the Erft Railway.
Horrem station
Horrem station
Horrem station is a station in the Kerpen district of Horrem in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a railway junction of the Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway and the Erft Railway (Horrem–Bedburg, connecting with Neuss). The tri ...
is located at line-kilometre 15.9 of the Erft Railway and connects with the
Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway
The Cologne–Aachen high-speed line is the German part of the Trans-European transport networks project ''high-speed line Paris–Brussels–Cologne''. It is not a newly built railway line, but a project to upgrade the existing railway line whic ...
. Horrem station is now the terminus of the Erft Railway; the extension of the line to Mödrath was closed in 1978 and has since been dismantled. The Erft Railway is connected with the high-speed line at the station via a
rail triangle. Trains beginning and ending in Horrem stop on the western curve towards Aachen and the trains running to and from Cologne stop on the eastern curve. Horrem is therefore a "triangular" station.
Horrem is a station of the
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 ci ...
and is served by lines S 12 (Horrem – Cologne – Siegburg/Bonn – Au (Sieg)), S 13 (Düren – Cologne –
Cologne/Bonn Airport
Cologne Bonn Airport (german: Flughafen Köln/Bonn 'Konrad Adenauer') is the international airport of Germany's fourth-largest city Cologne, and also serves Bonn, former capital of West Germany. With around 12.4 million passengers passing throu ...
–
Troisdorf
Troisdorf () is a city in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis (district), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Troisdorf is located approximately 22 kilometers south of Cologne and 13 kilometers north east of Bonn.
Division of the city
Troisdorf consi ...
) and S 19 (Düren – Cologne – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Troisdorf –
Au (Sieg)). In addition, the Erft-Bahn, 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 ...
and the
Rhein-Sieg-Express
The Rhein-Sieg-Express is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate running from Aachen via Düren, Cologne, Troisdorf, Siegburg and Betzdorf to Siegen. It is operated by DB Regio NRW.
Histor ...
stop in Horrem. Long-distance trains currently pass through the station without stopping.
The line to Mödrath crossed the main line to Düren west of the station on a bridge.
References
Notes
Sources
*
External links
*
*
{{coord missing, North Rhine-Westphalia
Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia
Railway lines opened in 1896
Standard gauge railways in Germany
1896 establishments in Germany
Buildings and structures in Rhein-Erft-Kreis