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 Rhein-Emscher-Express (RE 3) is a Regional-Express service 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...

 (NRW), running 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...

 via 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 :...

, Gelsenkirchen

Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof

Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof is the central railway station and Hauptbahnhof for the German city of Gelsenkirchen...

 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. It connects with the rest of the regional rail network of NRW in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen, 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...

, Dortmund and Hamm. In addition, it connects in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Dortmund and Hamm with long-distance services.

History

The Rhein-Emscher-Express has been operating since the introduction of the integrated regular interval timetable in North Rhine-Westphalia (called NRW-Takt) in 1998. It first ran from Mönchengladbach

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...

 via Krefeld

Krefeld Hauptbahnhof

Krefeld Hauptbahnhof is the largest station of the city of Krefeld in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The double-track and electrified Duisburg-Ruhrort–Mönchengladbach railway and the Lower Left Rhine Railway cross at the station. A line to Rheydt formerly began at the station, but...

, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund to Hamm. The Duisburg–Mönchengladbach section was dropped in exchange for an extension from Duisburg to Düsseldorf in the timetable change in December 2002. Since then the Rhein-Emscher-Express has run entirely on the 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...

 of 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...

, which was opened in 1846 and 1847.

Route

The Rhine-Emscher-Express runs daily every hour over the tracks of three railway lines:

• The whole Dortmund–Hamm railway, which is also used by three other Regional-Express services and long-distance trains,
• the whole Duisburg–Dortmund railway (mostly shared with S-Bahn line S 2),
• The Cologne–Duisburg railway
  Cologne–Duisburg railway
  The 64 km long Cologne–Duisburg railway is one of the most important lines in Germany. It is the main axis for long distance and urban passenger rail services between Cologne and the Ruhr, served by Intercity Express, Intercity, Regional Express, regionalbahn and S-Bahn trains...
  
   between Duisburg and Düsseldorf. In this four to six track section, the Rhein- Emscher-Express uses the S-Bahn tracks or the so-called "local" tracks where they exist, along with the Rhein-Haard-Express (RE 2) and the Westfalen-Express (RE 6). Only the NRW-Express (RE 1), the Rhein-Express (RE 5) and, in the peak periods, a 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, Der Weseler (RB 35), use the long-distance tracks.

Rail services

The RE 3 runs hourly every day from Düsseldorf to Hamm. It runs parallel with Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn lines over large parts of its route and it has some of the character of a fast S-Bahn service and is perceived by passengers accordingly.

The passenger rail transport was operated by DB Regio

DB Regio

DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates short and medium distance passenger train services in Germany, and operates light and heavy rail infrastructure in the United Kingdom.-Germany:...

 NRW until 12 December 2009, using 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 in coupled sets since the introduction of the winter timetable of 2008. Previously the service had been operated with push–pull trains of five refurbished Silberling

Silberling

Silberling is the colloquial name for the n-coaches of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, a type of regional passenger coach of which more than 7,000 units were built from 1958 to 1981...

 carriages or four double-deck carriages with a class 111 electric locomotive

DB Class 111

The Baureihe 111 is a class of electric locomotives built for the Deutsche Bundesbahn, and now owned by Deutsche Bahn AG.- History :Class 111 is the successor of the Class 110 express Einheitslokomotive...

. The average speed is only 63 km/h. The reason for this is the frequent stops between Dortmund and Hamm.

The current operator of this service and the Maas-Wupper-Express is Eurobahn, a subsidiary of Keolis

Keolis

Keolis is the largest private sector French transport group. It runs passenger railways, tramways, bus networks, funiculars, trolley buses, and airport services. The company, based in Paris, is majority owned by SNCF, the French state rail operator. AXA Private Equity and Caisse de dépôt et...

. Operations are carried out using 4 four-carriage and 14 five-carriage Stadler FLIRT

Stadler FLIRT

Stadler FLIRT is an electric multiple unit produced by Stadler Rail AG. The articulated trainset comes in units of two to six cars with two to six motorized axles. The maximum speed is 200 km/h...

 electrical multiple units with a top speed of 160 km/h, rented from Angel Trains

Angel Trains

Angel Trains is an English Rolling Stock Operating Company created in 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail. It was one of three ROSCOs...

.

In the period from 13 December 2009 to 11 December 2010 (during RUHR.2010, when Essen was a European Capital of Culture

European Capital of Culture

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

), the RE 3 had an additional stop at Essen-Zollverein Nord (formerly Essen-Katernberg Süd) to improve access to the World Heritage Site

World Heritage Site

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...

 at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex

The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany...

. On 7 January 2010, the station was officially renamed Essen-Zollverein Nord, but since the timetable change in December 2010, Rhein-Emscher-Express services again skip the station.

Operator

Two North Rhine-Westphalian municipal transport associations, the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr

Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr

The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr is the public transport association covering the area of the Rhine-Ruhr megalopolis in Germany...

 ("Rhine-Ruhr Transport Association", VRR) and the Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ruhr-Lippe ("transport community of Westphalia-Lippe", ZRL) are involved in the operation of the service. The franchise for operating the service together with the Maas-Wupper-Express from the timetable change on 13 December 2009 was put out to tender. The winner was Rhenus Keolis GmbH, beating Abellio Rail NRW GmbH, a subsidiary of Dutch Railways

Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...

, DB Regio NRW GmbH and other railway companies.

See also

• List of regional rail lines in North Rhine-Westphalia
• List of scheduled railway routes in Germany