The Oberbergische Bahn (RB 25) is a Regionalbahn rail service running between Cologne Hansaring and

Lüdenscheid Lüdenscheid () is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Sauerland region. Geography Lüdenscheid is located on the saddle of the watershed between the Lenne and Volme rivers which ...

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 ...

(NRW). This service is operated by

DB Regio NRW 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 ...

with

Alstom Coradia LINT The Alstom Coradia LINT is an articulated railcar manufactured by Alstom since 1999, offered in diesel and hydrogen fuel models. The acronym ''LINT'' is short for the German ''"leichter innovativer Nahverkehrstriebwagen"'' (light innovative local ...

54 and 81 railcars.

Route

The RB 25 service starts at Cologne Hansaring and runs over the tracks of the S-Bahn line to the Cologne–Overath railway to

Overath Overath (; ) is a town in the Rheinisch-Bergischer district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Overath is located about 25 km east of Cologne, in the Bergisches Land. Despite the reclassification as a 'Stadt' (town, though the ...

then on the Siegburg–Olpe railway (also called the Agger Valley Railway) to Gummersbach-Dieringhausen, continuing over the

Hagen–Dieringhausen railway The Hagen–Dieringhausen railway (also called the ''Volmetalbahn'': Volme Valley Railway) is a mostly single-track (continuously double track as far as Lüdenscheid-Brügge) and non-electrified railway line from Hagen Hauptbahnhof via Lüdensche ...

(Volme Valley Railway) and Lüdenscheid-Brügge to its terminus at

. The RB 25 service runs on the section between Cologne Hansaring and Gummersbach every half hour. Trains continue from Gummersbach to Lüdenscheid hourly.

Fares

Fares on the entire line are regulated by

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (''Rhine-Sieg Transport Association''; VRS) is the public transport association covering the area of the Cologne/Bonn Region, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded on 1 September 1987, and covers an area ...

(Rhine-Sieg Transport Association).

Extension to Lüdenscheid

Oliver Wittke, the former NRW transport minister, turned down a proposal to reactivate the entire section in 2005. The Marienheide–Meinerzhagen section returned to operation in 2013. The section of the Volme Valley Railway between

Meinerzhagen Meinerzhagen (sometimes spelled Meinertzhagen; ) is a town in the Märkischer Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Meinerzhagen is located in the hills of the Sauerland. The highest elevation is the Nordhelle with 652 m above sea l ...

and Lüdenscheid-Brügge was finally reactivated at the timetable change in December 2017. Now trains from Cologne can run directly to Lüdenscheid. Since, work at Meinerzhagen station was largely completed by December 2017, the stations Kierspe and Halver-Oberbügge were reopened in December 2019.

Future

It is proposed to operate the section between Cologne Hansaring and Overath at 20-minute intervals. This, however, requires the duplication of the line. In 2015, the line is to be integrated into the network of the Rhine-Sieg S-Bahn and to be extended through Cologne to the

Eifel Railway The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...

. In March 2011, the ''Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe'' (Westphalia-Lippe Regional Transport) awarded operations of the Cologne diesel network (''Kölner Dieselnetz'') to DB Regio Rheinland from December 2013 for 20 years. This contract requires the following actions on the Oberbergische network to be undertaken: *line extension (reactivation) from Marienheide to Meinerzhagen *duplication of the Dieringhausen–Gummersbach section * measures to raise speeds between Köln-Porz and

Rösrath Rösrath (; ) is a town in the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The earliest known documents mentioning the settlement ''Rösrath'' can be found in documents dated to 1356. There have been findings of Paleo ...

*increased services on the Overath–Engelskirchen section by increasing services between Cologne and Overath (13 services from Monday to Friday) *increased services on the Overath–Gummersbach section to 14 services from Monday to Friday *an extra service in the morning peak from Overath (7:11 AM) to Cologne (7:48 AM) *establishment of a half-hourly service between Marienheide and Gummersbach between 7:00 and 8:00 AM for students and school children.

54 and 81 railcars are used for the service.

Notes

External links

* {{cite web, url=http://kursbuch.bahn.de/hafas/kbview.exe/dn?table_nr=459&searchmode=tableplus&mainframe=result&controlpattern=Q.&orig=sT&dosearch=1&submitButton=Suche+starten , title=Timetable No 459: Köln Hansaring ↔ Marienheide , publisher= Deutsche Bahn , language=German, accessdate=24 October 2013 Rail services in North Rhine-Westphalia Named DB Regio services