The Essen-Werden to Essen railway is an electrified railway line 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 ...

. It is a main line railway with two tracks, except for the ''Stadtwald Tunnel'', running through the metropolitan area of

Essen Essen () 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 Dortmund, as well as ...

and connecting

Essen-Werden station Essen-Werden is a railway station in the city of Essen in western Germany. It serves the southern city borough Werden and is situated on the bank of the river Ruhr at the junction of the Ruhr Valley Railway and the line to Essen. The station wa ...

with

Essen Hauptbahnhof Essen Hauptbahnhof (German for "Essen main station") is a railway station in the city of Essen in western Germany. It is situated south of the old town centre, next to the A 40 motorway. It was opened in 1862 by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenba ...

History

It was opened in 1877 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 ...

(''Bergisch-Märkischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'') to connect the

Ruhr Valley Railway The Ruhr Valley Railway () is a partly abandoned railway line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Düsseldorf-Rath station, Düsseldorf-Rath via Old Kupferdreh station, Bochum-Dahlhausen station, Bochum-Dahlhausen, Witten-H ...

(''Ruhrtalbahn'') to

. The steep slope between

Essen-Werden Werden ( Westphalian: ''Wadden'') is a southern borough of the city of Essen in Germany. It belongs to the city district ''IX Werden/Kettwig/Bredeney'' and has 9,998 inhabitants as of June 30, 2006. The borough occupies a space of and is situat ...

and Essen Stadtwald has always placed a high demand on the vehicles operating on it. The Essen-Hügel station was built on a steep slope at the instigation of the

Krupp Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp (formerly Fried. Krupp AG and Friedrich Krupp GmbH), trade name, trading as Krupp, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century as well as Germany's premier weapons manufacturer dur ...

family next to the

Villa Hügel The Villa Hügel is a 19th-century mansion in Bredeney, now part of Essen, Germany. It was built by the industrialist Alfred Krupp in 1870–1873 as his main residence and was the home of the Krupp family until after World War II. More recent ...

. The 1944 timetable listed 51 pairs of train services, including additional peak hour services between Essen Hbf and Essen Stadtwald in the line on weekdays. The line has been served since 26 May 1974 by line S 6 of the

Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn () is a polycentric S-bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and cities such as Dortmund, Duisburg and Essen), the B ...

, although a service with S-Bahn characteristics had operated since 26 May 1968.

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

renovated the line between 7 July and 19 August 2012. The stations of Essen Süd, Essen-Stadtwald, Essen-Hügel and Essen-Werden were modernised and harmonised as part of this work and 96 centimetre-high platforms were installed.

Line closures

Due to the effect of mining

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope mov ...

on a

retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

north of the railway embankment between Essen-Stadtwald and Essen-Hügel, the line has been closed since 18 October 2017 and the trains of the S 6 from Dusseldorf terminate in

Kettwig station Kettwig is a railway station in the city of Essen in western Germany on the Ruhr Valley Railway. History A first station at Kettwig was opened in 1871 by the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn and passenger service on the line Düsseldorf-Kettwig- ...

. After 40 exploratory holes were drilled, Deutsche Bahn indicated old mining had caused the damage. The cavities that have been discovered are currently being filled in. The work and the closure of the line are to last until April 2018. During this period, buses are being operated between Kettwig and Essen Hauptbahnhof as rail replacement services.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Essen-Werden-Essen railway Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia Standard-gauge railways in Germany Railway lines opened in 1877 1877 establishments in Germany Transport in Essen Ruhr