Line S 4 is 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 ...

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 ...

, running from to the

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

suburb of Dortmund-Lütgendortmund. It is operated 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 ...

on behalf of

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 ...

. It is operated at 30-minute intervals (15-minute intervals in the peak between Dortmund-Lütgendortmund and ) using class 422 four-car electrical multiple units. Line S 4 runs over several lines: * from Dortmund-Lütgendortmund to Dortmund-Germania over the new S-Bahn line (2213), opened by

Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...

on 2 May 1993, * from Dortmund-Germania to Dortmund Stadthaus over the Rhenish Ruhr line, opened 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 ...

on 19 November 1874, * from Dortmund Stadthaus to Unna-Königsborn over the Welver–Sterkrade line opened by the

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 ...

on 15 May 1876, * from Unna-Königsborn to

Unna Unna is a city of around 59,000 people in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the seat of the Unna district. The newly refurbished Unna station has trains to all major cities in North Rhine Westphalia including Dortmund, Cologne, Münster, Hamm, D ...

over the Fröndenberg–Kamen line opened by the

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

between 2 January 1899 and 1 November 1900. S-Bahn services commenced between old Lütgendortmund station and Unna station on 3 June 1984. The section from Germania to old Lütgendortmund station was closed on 31 August 1987 and operations on the new line to Lütgendortmund commenced on 23 May 1993. Extension of the S 4 line from its current western end in the tunnel at Dortmund-Lütgendortmund was formerly planned to be implemented with a target of opening it in 2015. This would have included an extension of the single-track tunnel to the immediate south of Dortmund-Bövinghausen station. The S 4 would run from there to Herne on the Duisburg-Ruhrort–Dortmund railway (the Emscher Valley Railway 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 there take over the Herne–

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

branch of the current S 2 line. The

Emschertal-Bahn The Sauerland Net (german: Sauerland-Netz) is a group of railway services in the western Sauerland and the eastern Ruhr of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and consists of three Regionalbahn services, RB 52 ( Dortmund– Hagen–Lüdens ...

(RB 43) Regionalbahn service would only operate between Herne and

Dorsten Dorsten (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Dössen'') is a town in the district of Recklinghausen (district), Recklinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and has a population of about 75,000. Dorsten is situated on the western rim of ...

. The eastern section of the Emscher Valley Railway between Dortmund-Bövinghausen and

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 ...

would be used by a new line of the

Dortmund Stadtbahn __NOTOC__ The Dortmund Stadtbahn is a light rail system in the German city of Dortmund and is integrated in the Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn network. Its network consists of eight lines and is operated by Dortmunder Stadtwerke, which is operating un ...

. For a long time funds have been available for the construction of the line to Bövinghausen, however, the financing for the operation of the line is not guaranteed. The Emschertal-Bahn runs between Dortmund-Bövinghausen and Herne every hour, but the S2 would run between Herne and Essen every twenty minute as an S-Bahn service, so the

would have to fund the increased services through savings in other areas. Upon taking office, the transport minister Oliver Wittke called for all such proposals to be re-evaluated. The line extension has been removed from the integrated transportation plan for North Rhine-Westphalia; a resubmission is possible from 2015.

References

{{Authority control S04 1984 establishments in West Germany