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 Westfalen-Express (RE 6) is a Regional-Express service route 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...

, connecting the most important cities in Westphalia

Westphalia

Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

 (among others Minden, Bielefeld

Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof

is the central railway station of the city of Bielefeld in Germany. The station was opened in 1847 as part of the Cologne-Minden trunk line. The current building was built in 1910 in the Art Nouveau style.-Train services:...

 and Hamm) with the 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...

 (especially 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....

, Bochum

Bochum Hauptbahnhof

is the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Bochum in western Germany. In its current incarnation, it was built from 1955 to 1957 and is one of the most notable 1950s railway stations in Germany....

, 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...

, 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 :...

 and 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...

).

History

Until the timetable revision of 2002, the NRW-Express (RE 1) operated with five, and sometimes up to eight, double-deck carriages from Aachen

Aachen Hauptbahnhof

Aachen Central Station is the train station for the city of Aachen, in the far west of Germany near the Dutch and Belgian border. It is the largest of the four currently active Aachen stations, and is integrated into the long-distance network.- History :...

 to Bielefeld. In 2002 services were extended to Minden and at the same time the service was split into two routes. The Westfalen-Express was established, taking over the Hamm–Bielefeld–Minden section and extending to Düsseldorf. This change was intended in particular to improve the timeliness of the entire service.

Route

The Express-Westphalia runs on a total of four railway lines:

• all of the Hamm–Minden line (which carries all forms of regional and long distance passenger services and freight traffic over a four-track route.)
• all of the Dortmund–Hamm (which carries all forms of regional and long distance passenger services)
• all of the Dortmund-Duisburg line (on the long-distance tracks, which carry all regional and long distance services),
• the Cologne–Duisburg line
  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 Westfalen-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 Rhein-Emscher-Express (RE 3). Only the NRW-Express (RE 1), the Rhein-Express (RE 5) and, in the peak hour the Der Weseler (RB 35), use the long distance tracks.

Like the Rhein-Emscher-Express, the Westfalen-Express runs for a large part of its route of 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...

 . Between Dortmund and Duisburg, however, it uses the more developed and more centrally located route through the Ruhr built by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME).

Rail services

The Westphalia-Express runs during the day at hourly intervals from Minden to Düsseldorf, since the timetable change in December 2010 over the whole route between 0700 and 2200. Until the timetable change in December 2010 some services in the off-peak lengths turned around in Dortmund, Bielefeld or Hamm.

Frequencies are increased by other services: the NRW-Express and the Rhein-Hellweg-Express also run between Hamm and Duisburg, the Ems-Börde-Bahn (RB 69) runs between Bielefeld and Hamm, the Weser-Leine-Express (RE 70) and the Porta-Express (RE 78) run between Bielefeld and Minden.

Large sections of the RE 6 proceeds parallel with S-Bahn lines and it has some of the character of a fast S-Bahn service and is perceived by passengers accordingly.

The service is 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, using push–pull trains of five double-deck carriages, mostly hauled by class 146.0 locomotives

DBAG Class 145 and 146

The DBAG Class 145 and DBAG Class 146 are Bo'Bo' mainline electric locomotives built by Adtranz primarily for the Deutsche Bahn at the end of the 1990s. The Class 145 is the freight version for DB Cargo; the Class 146 is the passenger version for DB Regio...

. Class 111 electric locomotives

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...

 are regularly substituted on the route. The maximum speed of 160 km/h can be reached on long sections. The average speed is 84.5 km/h. Some services are operated with class 425 electric multiple units

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...

.

The Westfalen-Express is linked with the rest of the transport network in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

 in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Dortmund, Hamm, Bielefeld, Herford, Löhne and Minden.

Tenders of the route

Four public transport associations are involved in the operation of the Westfalen-Express: 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...

 (transport association of the Rhine-Ruhr, VRR, the Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ruhr-Lippe (transport community of Westphalia-Lippe), Zweckverband SPNV Münsterland (regional rail transport association of Münsterland, ZVM) and Verkehrsverbund OstWestfalenLippe (transport association of East Westphalia-Lippe VVOWL).

According to Quality Report 2007 of the VRR, in 2007, the services of RE 6 had an average delay of 3.6 minutes and were thus slightly above the average of the RE lines in North Rhine-Westphalia. The rate of non-predictable failures was approximately 1.75% of all trains, so RE 6 was about in the middle of the RE lines in North Rhine-Westphalia.

See also

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