The Münster–Hamm railway is an almost 36 kilometre-long, continuous double-track and electrified main line railway from

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

to Hamm 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 inha ...

. It was one of Germany's oldest railways, built by the ''Munster Hamm Railway Company'', which was established for this purpose, and opened on 26 May 1848.

History

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 ...

(german: Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) built its

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 ...

directly across

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) 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 regio ...

, bypassing the region around the town of Münster. The ''Munster Hamm Railway Company'' (''Münster-Hammer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', MHE) was established to build a branch line to connect with the CME line. This line was opened on 26 May 1848 for passengers and on 8 July 1848 for freight traffic. The company and line were taken over in 1855 by the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n government-funded

Royal Westphalian Railway Company The Royal Westphalian Railway (german: Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn, 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 eventuall ...

(KWE). The line was extended in the following year to Rheine as the Münster–Rheine line.

Operations

Although, formerly individualNot repeated through the day

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 ...

services ran on the line, it is now mainly used by regional (

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 ...

and regionalbahn) services running through western Westphalia and southern Münsterland. It is served by: *the hourly

Rhein-Münsterland-Express The Rhein-Münsterland-Express (RE 7) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The hourly service initially runs to the south east from Krefeld via Neuss to Cologne and then turns to run to the northeast vi ...

(RE7) with stops in Hamm,

Drensteinfurt Drensteinfurt (in low German ''Stewwert'') is a town in the district of Warendorf, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated approximately 15 km north of Hamm and 20 km south of Münster. The villages Rinkerode in the north an ...

, Münster-Hiltrup and

Münster Hauptbahnhof Münster Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in the city of Münster in Germany. History The original Münster station was opened in 1848 by the Münster-Hamm Railway Company, when it opened by the Münster–Hamm railway to the then capit ...

. *every half-hour during the day Monday to Friday, otherwise hourly, the Ems-Börde-Bahn (RB69/89) with stops at all stations.

Notes

External links

NRW rail archive of André Joost: * trecken/2931.htm Description of line 2931 Münster ↔ Hamm * trecken/2011.htm Description of line 2011 Lechtenberg junction ↔ Kanal * trecken/2920.htm Description of line 2920 Feldmark junction ↔ Hamm Rbf Hvn {{DEFAULTSORT:Munster-Hamm Railway Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia Münster (region) Buildings and structures in Hamm Railway lines opened in 1848 1848 establishments in Prussia nl:Spoorlijn Münster - Hamm