The Rheydt-Cologne railway is a mostly double-track electrified railway in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

between

Rheydt Rheydt () is a borough of the German city Mönchengladbach, located in the west of North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 1918 and then again from 1933 (due to a split from Mönchengladbach arranged by Joseph Goebbels, who was born there) through 1975 it ...

and Cologne-Ehrenfeld. Only the section between Rheydt Hauptbahnhof and Rheydt-Odenkirchen is single track.

History

The first part of the line was built as part of the

Mönchengladbach–Stolberg railway Euregiobahn in Eschweiler-Nothberg The Mönchengladbach–Stolberg railway was opened by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (, BME) and built in sections between 1870 and 1875. The only scheduled traffic on it now are passenger services op ...

, which was built in stages between 1870 and 1875 by the

Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company The Bergisch-Markisch Railway Company (, 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 together with the Cologne-Minden Railway (''Cöln-Min ...

() from the current

Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof (German for ''Mönchengladbach main station'') is a railway station in the city of Mönchengladbach in western Germany. Overview The station is the largest railway station in the city and, along with Rheydt Hbf, on ...

(central station) via Geneicken, Mülfort,

Odenkirchen Odenkirchen is a former town in Germany, presently part of the city Mönchengladbach. It is situated on the river Niers, 21 miles by rail south-west of Düsseldorf. It has a railway station ( Rheydt-Odenkirchen), on the line from Mönchengladbach t ...

and Hochneukirch and continuing to

Jülich Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', , , Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. As a border region between the competin ...

Eschweiler Eschweiler (, Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ) is a municipality in the district of Aachen (district), Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany on the river Inde, near the German-Dutch-Belgian border, and about east of Aachen and w ...

and Stolberg. In 1889, a connection was built from Hochneukirch station, which was located on this line, to the

Erft Railway Bedburg–Horrem railway (also known in German as the ''Erftbahn''—Erft Railway) is a line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The non-electrified main line was originally built as a line of the Bergheim District Railway and operated ...

near

Grevenbroich station Grevenbroich station is a junction station in the city of Grevenbroich in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located at the junction of the Cologne–Mönchengladbach railway and the Düren–Neuss railway. It is classified by Deu ...

. The direct link from Grevenbroich to

Köln-Ehrenfeld station Köln-Ehrenfeld is a railway station situated at Ehrenfeld, Cologne, Ehrenfeld, Cologne in western Germany on the Cologne–Aachen high-speed railway, Cologne–Aachen railway. It was opened with the first part of the line in 1839. It is served b ...

was opened in 1899. The direct link between Odenkirchen and

Rheydt Hauptbahnhof Rheydt Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Mönchengladbach is the only city in Germany that has two stations called Hauptbahnhof, due to the merger of the city of Rheydt into Mönchengladbach in the late 1970s. Rhey ...

was finally opened in 1908. This meant that the 1870 line through Geneicken, which ran to Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof parallel with the line through Rheydt Hauptbahnhof and which had already been duplicated, was sidelined. This section of line, which was electrified in 1968, initially continued to be used for trains from Mönchengladbach to Cologne, but it was finally closed in May 1985 and dismantled between Odenkirchen and Geneicken.

Operations

The line is served by

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 a top speed of and an average speed of about as it calls at fewer stations than ''R ...

service RE 8 (

Rhein-Erft-Express The Rhein-Erft-Express is a Regional-Express service in the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is numbered as line RE 8 and connects the cities of Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof, Mönchengladbach, Köln Hauptbahnhof ...

), operating with class 425 electric multiple units, and

Regionalbahn The ''Regionalbahn'' (; lit. Regional train; abbreviated ''RB'') is a train categories in Europe, type of Regional rail, local passenger train (stopping train) in Germany. It is similar to the Regionalzug (R) and Regio (Swiss railway train), R ...

service RB 27 (''Rhein-Erft-Bahn'') operating with a class 143 electric locomotive and three double-deck coaches. Each service operates hourly. File:Bahnhof Pulheim2.JPG, Pulheim File:Bf-stommeln.jpg, Stommeln File:Bf-rommerskirchen.jpg, Rommerskirchen

References

External links

NRW Railways archive of André Joost : * trecken/2611.htm Beschreibung der Strecke 2611(Köln-Ehrenfeld Gbf ↔ Rheydt) * trecken/2612.htm Beschreibung der Strecke 2612(Köln-Ehrenfeld Gbf ↔ Köln-Ehrenfeld Westkopf) * trecken/2613.htm Beschreibung der Strecke 2613(Köln-Ehrenfeld Pbf ↔ Köln-Ehrenfeld Gbf) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cologne-Monchengladbach railway Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia Mönchengladbach Transport in Cologne Railway lines opened in 1870 1870 establishments in the North German Confederation