The Münster–Rheine railway is a nearly 39 km long 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 distr ...
to
Rheine
Rheine () is a city in the district of Steinfurt in Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city in the district and the location of Rheine Air Base.
Geography
Rheine is on the river Ems, approx. north of Münster, approx. west of Osnabrück a ...
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 ...
. It is entirely double track and electrified.
It was opened 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 em ...
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 ...
in 1856 and is one of the
oldest railways in Germany.
History
The ''Royal Westphalian Railway'' (german: Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn, KWE) built its
main line from Hamm to Warburg in the early 1850s. In 1855, the KWE took over the ''Munster-Hamm Railway Company'' (''Münster-Hammer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft)'', together with its
line to Munster, which it then extended further north to Rheine. It opened its line on 23 June 1856, reaching Rheine station on the same day as both of the two sections of the
Hanoverian Western Railway The Hanoverian Western Railway was a line from the Löhne to Emden, built by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways in the mid-19th century in the west of the Kingdom of Hanover in the modern German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.
...
were completed to the station: the
line from Löhne and the
Emsland Railway
The Emsland line (German: is a railway from Rheine via Salzbergen, Lingen, Meppen, Lathen, Papenburg and Leer to Emden, continuing to Norden and Norddeich-Mole in East Frisia in the German state of Lower Saxony. The line is named after the Ems r ...
to the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
port of
Emden
Emden () is an independent city and seaport in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia and, in 2011, had a total population of 51,528.
History
The exact founding date of E ...
.
In 1879, the
Rhenish Railway Company
The Rhenish Railway Company (German language, German: ''Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', RhE) was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (CME) and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (BME) one of the railway companies that in the m ...
(''Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', RhE) opened
its own North Sea route from
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...
via Rheine to
Quakenbrück
Quakenbrück (Northern Low Saxon: ''Quokenbrügge'') is a town in the Osnabrück (district), district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Hase. It is part of the ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") of Ar ...
and so made the station one of the major railway junctions in north-western Germany.
Current operations
Two
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 f ...
service operate on the line: the RE 15 (the ''Emsland-Express'') and the RE 7 (
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 ...
), both hourly. The RB 65
Regionalbahn service (the ''Ems-Bahn'') runs at 30-minute intervals on the line. Every two hours
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 between
Norddeich Mole
Norddeich Mole is a railway station located in Norddeich, Lower Saxony, Germany. The station is located on the Emsland Railway. The train services are operated by Deutsche Bahn.
Norddeich Mole is a port for combined passenger and car ferrie ...
and
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
run on the line.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munster-Rheine Railway
Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia
Railway lines opened in 1856
1856 establishments in Germany
Münster (region)
Emsland (region)
Buildings and structures in Steinfurt (district)
nl:Spoorlijn Münster - Rheine