The Main-Sieg-Express 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 operated by the German states 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 ...

(NRW) and

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

from

Siegen Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...

via

Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. It is operated by the

Hessische Landesbahn Hessische Landesbahn (Hessian State Railway, HLB) is a regional transport company owned by the German state of Hesse, based in Frankfurt am Main. It provides bus and rail passenger transport services and, to a lesser extent, rail freight services i ...

(Hessian State Railway, HLB).

History

On 25 June 2008, the

Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) is a transport association that covers the public transport network of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area in Germany. Its head office is located in Hofheim im Taunus. Organisation and area covered The RMV ...

(Rhine-Main Transport Association, RMV) and the ''Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe'' (Local transport association of Westphalia-Lippe, NWL) announced in a joint press statement that Hessische Landesbahn has won a Europe-wide tender and would take over the operation of the service for 13 years with effect on 12 December 2010. Until the commencement of the 2010/2011 timetable in December 2010,

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 ...

Hesse had been operator of this service, which, after the elimination of long distance services between Siegen-Weidenau and Frankfurt in 2001, had originally been established as an Interregio-Express. In the early years, however, the Regional-Express service was characterised by a much longer journey time than the Interregio service due to capacity problems on the Main-Weser Railway. Travel times with a change in Gießen were up to 20 minutes faster than direct Main-Sieg-Express services. A change in the timings of

Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

service IC 26 between Frankfurt and Giessen in December 2009 allowed the Main-Sieg-Express to run with shorter travel times, almost as fast as the InterRegio timings. Before the change of operators in 2010, the service was operated by DB Regio NRW every two hours via Giessen to Cologne.

Route

The Regional-Express operates from Siegen to Giessen as RE 99 on the Dill line stopping in

Haiger Haiger is a country town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The nearest city is Siegen, about 25 km north of Haiger. Geography Location Haiger lies about 5 km west of Dillenburg, and 20 km southeast of Siegen on the eastern ...

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen (region), Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German-N ...

, Herborn and

Wetzlar Wetzlar () is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center, the un ...

. In Giessen, from Monday to Friday, it is coupled together with a set from

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

, which is designated as RE 98, and reverses to run on the Main-Weser Railway to Frankfurt with a stop at Friedberg.

Rolling stock

The service is operated with Stadler FLIRT electric multiple units. Five carriage sets are operated between Siegen and Frankfurt, while the Marburg–Giessen set is operated with three carriage sets. Before December 2010, the Siegen-Frankfurt line had been operated for many years with class 111 locomotives hauling five or six double deck carriages, or alternatively, with class 110 locomotives hauling six

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.

Operations

Services run every day at least once every two hours over the whole route. Train runs hourly on the Siegen-Gießen section, but there are periods on weekends when services do not run every hour. A section of the train is detached/attached to run between Marburg and Giessen only between Monday and Friday. Since the change to the 2011/2012 timetable on 11 December 2011, the Marburg section of the train stops regularly in Friedelhausen and Niederweimar except for the late-night through train from Marburg to Siegen. In addition, a fast connection is provided for commuters in the peaks on the Dill line to Frankfurt. A service called ''RE-Sprinter'' is operated from Monday to Friday during the peaks in each direction, which runs on the Dutenhofen–Gießen-Bergwald route, which is otherwise used only by freight trains. This eliminates the time-consuming change of direction in Gießen. A significant reduction in travel time is currently achieved only on the evening train to Siegen. The morning train to Frankfurt uses the time saved to make additional intermediate stops in Frankfurt. The RE-Sprinters are the only passenger trains on the Main-Weser Railway that are not scheduled to stop in Friedberg.

Notes

External links