State: North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

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

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...

 between Rheydt

Rheydt Hauptbahnhof

is a railway station in Mönchengladbach, Germany. It is unique in the fact that Mönchengladbach is actually the only city in Germany that does have two stations called Hauptbahnhof associated with it...

 and Cologne-Ehrenfeld

Köln-Ehrenfeld station

Köln-Ehrenfeld is a railway station situated at Ehrenfeld, Cologne in western Germany. It is served by the S12 line of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn as well as regional trains to Aachen or Mönchengladbach...

. 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, which was built in stages between 1870 and 1875 by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company  from the current Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof

Mönchengladbach Hauptbahnhof

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, one of the two Hauptbahnhof stations in Mönchengladbach...

 (central station) via Geneicken, Mülfort, Odenkirchen and Hochneukirch and continuing to Jülich

Jülich

Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Jülich is well known as location of a world-famous research centre, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and as shortwave transmission site of Deutsche Welle...

, Eschweiler

Eschweiler

Eschweiler is a municipality in the district of Aachen in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany on the river Inde, near the German-Belgian-Dutch frontier, and about 15 km east of Aachen and 50 km west of Cologne.- History :...

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

Grevenbroich

Grevenbroich is a town in the Rhein-Kreis Neuss, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the river Erft, approximately 15 km southwest of Neuss and 15 km southeast of Mönchengladbach.-City districts:...

 station. The direct link from Grevenbroich to Köln-Ehrenfeld station

Köln-Ehrenfeld station

Köln-Ehrenfeld is a railway station situated at Ehrenfeld, Cologne in western Germany. It is served by the S12 line of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn as well as regional trains to Aachen or Mönchengladbach...

 was opened in 1899. The direct link between Odenkirchen and Rheydt Hauptbahnhof

Rheydt Hauptbahnhof

is a railway station in Mönchengladbach, Germany. It is unique in the fact that Mönchengladbach is actually the only city in Germany that does have two stations called Hauptbahnhof associated with it...

 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 service RE 8 (Rhein-Erft-Express), operating with class 425

DBAG Class 425

The Classes 425 and 426 EMUs are a class of electric multiple units built by a consortium of Siemens, Bombardier and DWA and operated by DB Regio in Germany...

 electric multiple units, and 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...

 service RB 27 (Rhein-Erft-Bahn) operating with a class 143 electric locomotive

DR Class 243

The DR Class 243 is a universal electric locomotive of the Deutsche Reichsbahn which is used for general rail service. Deutsche Bahn lists the locomotive as Class 143. The locomotives of class 143/243 still belong to the most successful class of German electric locomotives.- Development :Since...

and three double-deck coaches. Each service operates hourly.

External links

NRW Railways archive of André Joost :

• [strecken/2611.htm Beschreibung der Strecke 2611] (Köln-Ehrenfeld Gbf ↔ Rheydt)
• [strecken/2612.htm Beschreibung der Strecke 2612] (Köln-Ehrenfeld Gbf ↔ Köln-Ehrenfeld Westkopf)
• [strecken/2613.htm Beschreibung der Strecke 2613] (Köln-Ehrenfeld Pbf ↔ Köln-Ehrenfeld Gbf)