Duisburg–Dortmund railway
Encyclopedia
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The Duisburg-Dortmund Railway is an important and historically significant railway in Germany
Rail transport in Germany
, Germany had a railway network of 41,315 km. 19,857 km are electrified. The total track length was 76,473 km. Germany is a member of the International Union of Railways . The UIC Country Code for Germany is 80.-Overview:...
. It is a major axis for long distance and regional passenger freight transport in the northern Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...
. It is served by Intercity-Express, InterCity
Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)
Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...
, Regional-Express, Regionalbahn
RegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
and S-Bahn
Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn
The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn is a polycentric S-Bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr , the Berg cities of Wuppertal and Solingen and parts of the Rhineland...
trains. It includes the central stations of Duisburg
Duisburg Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof of 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 :...
, Oberhausen, Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof
Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station and Hauptbahnhof for the German city of Gelsenkirchen...
, Dortmund
Dortmund Hauptbahnhof
is the central station for the city of Dortmund in 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 centre in 1847. That station was replaced by a new station, erected in 1910 at the current site....
and Wanne-Eickel
Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof of the former city of Wanne-Eickel, now part of Herne in western Germany.-History :The station grew out of the Pluto-Thies freight yard, opened in 1856 on the Duisburg–Dortmund line section of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company's trunk line, which was opened in 1847. In 1864, a...
and the regionally important stations of Essen-Altenessen
Essen-Altenessen station
Essen-Altenessen is a railway station situated in Essen in western Germany. It is served by the S2 line of Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn and line U18 of the Essen Stadtbahn.-History:...
and Herne
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 moated castle of Schloss Strünkede and was south of the...
.
It is the middle section of the Cologne-Minden trunk line
Cologne-Minden trunk line
The Cologne-Minden trunk line is a railway built by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company . The line is the westernmost part of the railway line from Berlin to the Rhine that was proposed by Friedrich List in his Concept for a railway network in Germany, published in 1833...
from Cologne-Deutz to Minden. It was opened in 1847 and has been modernised and developed several times since then. Today, it has two to four tracks and is electrified and classified as a main line.
History
On 18 December 1843, the PrussiaPrussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n government granted a concession to the trunk line to the Cologne-Minden Railway Company
Cologne-Minden Railway Company
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th century built the first railways in the Ruhr and large parts of today's North Rhine-Westphalia.-Founding :The founding of the...
(German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, old spelling: Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) for the line, which began at what was then the CME station in Deutz (now a suburb of Cologne) with the construction of the first section to Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, which was opened on 20 December 1845. Only a few weeks later, on 9 February 1846, the second section was completed to a temporary terminus at the site of present-day Duisburg Hauptbahnhof
Duisburg Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof of 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 :...
called the Cologne-Minden railway station, the first of three train stations built at the same place.
The route of the next section to Oberhausen, Altenessen
Essen-Altenessen station
Essen-Altenessen is a railway station situated in Essen in western Germany. It is served by the S2 line of Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn and line U18 of the Essen Stadtbahn.-History:...
, Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof
Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station and Hauptbahnhof for the German city of Gelsenkirchen...
, Wanne
Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof of the former city of Wanne-Eickel, now part of Herne in western Germany.-History :The station grew out of the Pluto-Thies freight yard, opened in 1856 on the Duisburg–Dortmund line section of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company's trunk line, which was opened in 1847. In 1864, a...
, Herne
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 moated castle of Schloss Strünkede and was south of the...
and Dortmund
Dortmund Hauptbahnhof
is the central station for the city of Dortmund in 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 centre in 1847. That station was replaced by a new station, erected in 1910 at the current site....
to Hamm was chosen over a route close to the coal mines that were then located on the north bank of the Ruhr because it was cheaper to build as it largely avoided hills. Nevertheless, it still took well over a year until 15 May 1847 for this section to be completed and put into operation. On 15 October 1847 the last section was opened to Minden, thus completing the entire 263 kilometre long, single track railway. On the same day the Royal Hanoverian State Railways
Royal Hanoverian State Railways
The Royal Hanoverian State Railways existed from 1843 until the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866...
opened its Hanover-Minden Railway, completing a connection to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and northeastern Germany.
Branch line to Duisburg-Ruhrort
In 1848 the CME built a branch line to the docks at RuhrortRuhrort
Ruhrort is a district within the German city of Duisburg situated north of the confluence of the Ruhr and the Rhine, in the western part of the Ruhr area...
from Oberhausen station and agreed with the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company
Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company
The Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company was a German railway company founded in 1850 and taken over by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company in 1862...
(Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrorter Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) to construct the Ruhrort-Homberg train ferry.
Holland line
The Oberhausen Station was also at the beginning of a line opened on 20 October 1856 to ArnhemArnhem railway station
Arnhem is a railway station located in Arnhem, the Netherlands. The station was opened on 14 May 1845 and is located on the Rhijnspoorweg , the Arnhem–Leeuwarden railway and the Arnhem–Nijmegen railway...
via Wesel and Emmerich am Rhein, popularly known as the Holland line.
Rollbahn
Wanne station (now Wanne-Eickel Hbf) was from 1 January 1870, the starting point for a line to Hamburg called the RollbahnWanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway
The Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway is the shortest railway link between the Ruhr and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region and hence one of the most important railway lines in northwest Germany...
(Rolling Line). This line along the German North Sea coast was part of the Paris-Hamburg Railway, linking with the CME’s concession from the Prussian government for a Hamburg-Venlo railway.
Emscher Valley Railway
From 1871 to 1878 the CME built another line from Duisburg to Dortmund along the EmscherEmscher
The Emscher is a relatively small river and tributary of the Rhine, flowing through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its total length is 84km with an average discharge near the mouth into the lower Rhine of 16 m³/s .The Emscher has its source in Holzwickede, east of the...
valley largely parallel to its trunk line via Osterfeld Süd and Wanne through the northern Ruhr to service the growing industries and prosperous coal mines.
Current situation
Since the railway line was opened from Duisburg to Dortmund it has grown in importance as the centre of coal mining in the Ruhr has migrated north and it has continually been modernized. Today the line is at least double track and electrified for its entire length. The route is now comparable to the other east-west line, in particular the central Ruhr trunk line of the former Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company.Services
Long distance trains only use parts of the line. The section from Duisburg to Oberhausen is served by Intercity-Express trains to and from AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. It is also served by Regional-Express trains on line RE 5 Rhein-Express, terminating in Emmerich and the Regionalbahn
RegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
lines RB 35 (to Emmerich am Rhein) and RB 33 (to Wesel
Wesel
Wesel is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district.-Division of the town:Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighoven, Ginderich, Feldmark,Fusternberg, Büderich, Flüren and Blumenkamp.-History:...
). Every two hours InterCity
Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)
Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...
line 35 uses a large part of the line from Duisburg to Wanne-Eickel. In addition occasional trains of IC lines 26 and 32, and RE 2 Rhein-Haard-Express and RB 42 and RB 46 regional trains use the section form Gelsenkirchen to Wanne-Eickel Hbf.
The only Regional-Express that uses the total length of the route is RE 3 Rhein-Emscher Express, which runs from Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Düsseldorf in Germany, state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia.-History:The station was opened on 1 October 1891 opened as Düsseldorf Central Station...
to Hamm, all on the route of the trunk line of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company.
S-Bahn
Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn
The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn is a polycentric S-Bahn network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr , the Berg cities of Wuppertal and Solingen and parts of the Rhineland...
line S 2 runs at 20-minute intervals between Herne
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 moated castle of Schloss Strünkede and was south of the...
and Dortmund Mengede
Dortmund-Mengede station
Dortmund-Mengede station is located in the Dortmund suburb of Mengede in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The station was opened in 1848 as part of the trunk line of the former Cologne-Minden Railway Company....
and continues to Dortmund via the Southern route of the former Royal Westphalian Railway Company
Royal Westphalian Railway Company
The Royal Westphalian Railway , was a German rail company established in 1848 with funding from the Prussian government, which later became part of the Prussian State Railways...
(Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft). West of Herne, one train per hour connects to or from Recklinghausen
Recklinghausen Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Recklinghausen in Germany.-History:The original station opened in 1870 by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company as part of the construction of the Hamburg-Venlo railway....
and one connects Gelsenkirchen with Essen
Essen Hauptbahnhof
is the Hauptbahnhof for 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 Eisenbahn...
. Therefore only one out of three trains per hour operates along the entire historic route between Duisburg and Dortmund.