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The Münster–Rheine railway is a nearly 39 km long main line railway from Münster

Münster

Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

 to Rheine

Rheine

Rheine is a city in the district of Steinfurt in Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city in the district and the location of Rheine Air Base.-Geography:Rheine is located on the river Ems, approx. north of Münster, approx...

 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...

. It is entirely double track and electrified.

It was opened by the Prussia

Prussia

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-funded 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...

 in 1856 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.

History

The Royal Westphalian Railway built its main line from Hamm to Warburg in the early 1850s. In 1855, the KWE took over the Munster-Hamm Railway Company (Münster-Hammer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), together with its line to Munster, which it then extended further north to Rheine. It opened its line on 23 June 1856, reaching Rheine station on the same day as both of the two sections of the Hanoverian Western Railway

Hanoverian Western Railway

The Hanoverian Western Railway was a line from the Löhne to Emden, built by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways in the mid-19th century in the west of the Kingdom of Hanover in the modern German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia....

 were completed to the station: the line from Löhne and the Emsland Railway to the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 port of Emden

Emden

Emden is a city and seaport in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia; in 2006, the city had a total population of 51,692.-History:...

.

In 1879, the Rhenish Railway Company

Rhenish Railway Company

The Rhenish Railway Company was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and the Bergisch-Märkische 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.-Foundation :The...

 (Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) opened its own North Sea route from 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 :...

 via Rheine to Quakenbrück

Quakenbrück

Quakenbrück is a town in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Hase. It is part of the Samtgemeinde of Artland....

 and so made the station one of the major railway junctions in north-western Germany.

Current operations

One or two Regional-Express and one 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 each hour operate on the line. 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...

 services run on the line between Norddeich Mole and Luxembourg

Luxembourg railway station

Luxembourg railway station is the main railway station serving Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It is operated by Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois, the state-owned railway company....

.

External links

• [strecken/2931.htm Description of line 2931] in the NRW rail archive of André Joost