Westfalen-Express

The Westfalen-Express (RE 6) is a Regional-Express service route in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, connecting the most important cities in Westphalia (among others Minden, Bielefeld and Hamm) with the Ruhr (especially Dortmund, Bochum, Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf).

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 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 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 of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German: Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME). 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.^[2] 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 NRW, using push–pull trains of five double-deck carriages, mostly hauled by class 146.0 locomotives. Class 111 electric locomotives 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.

The Westfalen-Express is linked with the rest of the transport network in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony 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 (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.^[3]

References

↑ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
↑ "Änderungen in Nordrhein-Westfalen" (in German). Bahnnews Online. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
↑ "Quality report for 2007" (PDF) (in German). Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr. Retrieved 15 August 2011.

External links

"Westfalen-Express". NRW Rail Archive (in German). André Joost. Retrieved 15 August 2011.

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