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The Osterath–Dortmund-Süd railway is a historically significant 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 ...
. Parts of it are closed, much of it is now used for freight only, but several sections are still used for
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 ...
, Regionalbahn or
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 ...
services. The nearly 76 kilometre long line was built in three stages between 1866 and 1874 by 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 ...
(german: Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE), creating a third major east-west line through the
Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , 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 2,800/km ...
area. It was intended to compete effectively with the established and profitable lines of its competitors—the Duisburg–Dortmund line of 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 ...
and the Ruhr line of
Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company The Bergisch-Markisch Railway Company (german: Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME), also referred to as the Berg-Mark Railway Company or, more rarely, as the Bergisch-Markische Railway Company, was a German railway company that togethe ...
, but it was not successful.


History

The Rhenish Railway concentrated for a long time left on the territories next to the Rhine, leaving the Ruhr area with its coal mines and emerging industries to be opened up by the ''Cologne-Minden'' and the ''Bergisch-Märkische'' railway companies. The RhE wanted to penetrate this lucrative market and began building the Rurh line from its Osterath station on its Lower Left Rhine line. Between the port of Mülheim and Essen's ''Graf Beust'' colliery, the line used the route of a horse-hauled railway operated by the colliery from 1853 to 1865.


Current situation

Little passenger traffic developed on the line due to the parallel railway of the ''Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company''. Passenger services were abandoned on the section between Mülheim-Heißen and Essen-Kray-Nord in 1959, between Essen-Kray Nord and Bochum Präsident in 1965 and between Bochum Präsident and Bochum-Langendreer in 1979. Until 30 May 1986,
accumulator railcar A battery electric multiple unit (BEMU), battery electric railcar or accumulator railcar is an electrically driven multiple unit or railcar whose energy is derived from rechargeable batteries driving the traction motors. Prime advantages of thes ...
s of class 515 ran between Duisburg-Rheinhausen and Hohenbudberg Siedlung. Then the Rhenish line from Krefeld-Linn to the former Hohenbudberg marshalling yard was completely dismantled along with the yard. Instead, the line now uses the parallel route of the Ruhrort-Crefeld District Gladbach Railway Company (''Ruhrort–Crefeld−Kreis Gladbach Eisenbahngesellschaft''). Four services operate each hour on the RhE line between Duisburg and Rheinhausen: the line from Mönchengladbach is served by the
Niers-Haard-Express The Rhein-Haard-Express (RE 2) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), running from Osnabrück via Münster, Recklinghausen, Gelsenkirchen, Essen and Duisburg to Düsseldorf. The Haard-Bahn (RB 42) ope ...
(RE 42), the
Rhein-Niers-Bahn The Rhine-Niers-Bahn ( RB 33) is a Regionalbahn service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It connects Essen Hbf, Duisburg Hbf on the Rhine with Mönchengladbach on the Niers, Aachen and Heinsberg (sections of timetable routes 420, 4 ...
(RB 33) and the
Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn The Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn (RB 35) is a Regionalbahn service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It runs hourly between Gelsenkirchen and Duisburg with Mönchengladbach. Its name refers to the Emscher river (which runs near Dui ...
(RB 35) services and the Der Niederrheiner (RB 31) service connects with the Lower Rhine Railway. After crossing over the Rhine on the
Duisburg-Hochfeld Railway Bridge The Duisburg–Hochfeld railway bridge (german: Duisburg-Hochfelder Eisenbahnbrücke) spans the Rhine in the German city of Duisburg on the Duisburg-Ruhrort–Mönchengladbach line. The first bridge was built by the Rhenish Railway Company and p ...
, which was destroyed in the Second World War and then rebuilt, all passenger trains leave the main line and continue on the branch line built in 1870 to
Duisburg Hauptbahnhof Duisburg Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the city of Duisburg in western Germany. It is situated at the meeting point of many important national and international railway lines in the Northwestern Ruhr valley. Lines The station is situat ...
. The section of the Rhenish line from Duisburg-Hochfeld Süd to
Mülheim (Ruhr) Hauptbahnhof Mülheim (Ruhr) Hauptbahnhof is a railway station for the city of Mülheim in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was renamed as a Hauptbahnhof in 1974 at the time of the rebuilding of the Dortmund–Duisburg line as part of the establ ...
was closed down in several stages and where it is still open it is used mainly for freight operations. As part of the merger that created the
University of Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen (german: link=no, Universität Duisburg-Essen) is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded ...
there were brief but inconclusive discussions on creating a direct transport link on the route from Duisburg-Neudorf via Speldorf, Mülheim Hauptbahnhof and Heißen to Essen Nord, connecting the two campuses. Meanwhile, the overall line between Speldorf and Mülheim Hauptbahnhof was dismantled. In Essen, the line has been interrupted several times, the bridges over Segeroth-Strasse and Hans-Böckler-Strasse were demolished and the new Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard was built on the line’s embankment. The Essen-Nord station and its two signal boxes have been decommissioned and demolished and in its place the new university district has been built. The main line from Essen-Nord to Essen-Kray Nord has been closed along with Essen-Nord station and signals have been removed from the station platforms at Essen-Kray Nord station. Essen-Kray Nord and the Goldschmidt plant can still be accessed via Essen-Nord. The Rhenish line east of Essen-Kray station running towards Bochum has also been demolished. Thus the railway bridge of the Rhenish line over the A40 in Bochum-Stahlhausen has already been removed during the upgrading of the autobahn. The easternmost section of the line between Dortmund Dorstfeld (high level) and Dortmund Süd station has been upgraded for the S-Bahn S 4 and extended to Dortmund Lütgendortmund and is served by the S-Bahn at 20-minute intervals. From Dortmund Süd, the S 4 uses the line to Welver of the former
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 ...
(''Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn'', KWE) to Unna-Königsborn and then the
Fröndenberg–Kamen railway The Fröndenberg–Kamen railway is a single-track, partially electrified and partially disused railway line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It runs from Fröndenberg via Unna station, Unna to Unna-Königsborn station, Unna-Königsb ...
to
Unna station Unna station is the main passenger station in the Westphalian city of Unna in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The other stations in the city that are served by regular passenger services are Unna-Königsborn, Unna West, Massen, Lün ...
. The low level of Dortmund-Dorstfeld station is connected by S-Bahn services from
Dortmund Hauptbahnhof Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The station's origins lie in a joint station of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn and Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn which was built north of the city centr ...
: line S 1 runs to Essen Hauptbahnhof on the Bergisch-Märkische line and line S 2 runs to
Herne station Herne station was opened in the inner city of Herne in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1847 together with the Cologne-Minden trunk line. It was located between the village of Herne, which had about 1,000 inhabitants, and the moat ...
on the line to Dortmund-Mengede. File:DR_Class_243_Gz_Ge-Wat.jpg, Freight train in Gelsenkirchen-Wattenscheid in 1993 File:132-09-Bochum-Nord.jpg, Bochum-Nord station in 1995


Notes


External links

''NRW rail archive of André Joost'': *''Original line:'' ** ** ** ** ** *Connecting line to the CME trunk line: ** ** ** ** *''Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (new):'' ** *''Other sites:'' ** {{DEFAULTSORT:Osterath-Dortmund Sud railway Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia Railway lines opened in 1866 1866 establishments in Prussia