Rhein-Niers-Bahn

RB 33: Rhein-Niers-Bahn
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Overview
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Technical
Operating speed	140 km/h (87 mph) (maximum)
Route number	420, 425, 485
Route map Legend  Operating points and lines  Wesel Friedrichsfeld (Niederrhein) Voerde (Niederrhein) Dinslaken Oberhausen-Holten Oberhausen-Sterkrade Oberhausen Hbf ICE Duisburg Hbf ICE, IC Duisburg-Hochfeld Süd Rheinhausen-Ost Rheinhausen Hohenbudberg-Bayerwerk Krefeld-Uerdingen Krefeld-Linn Krefeld-Oppum Krefeld Hbf Forsthaus Anrath Viersen Mönchengladbach Hbf ICE, IC Rheydt Hbf IC Wickrath Herrath Erkelenz Hückelhoven-Baal Brachelen Heinsberg (Rheinl) Heinsberg Kreishaus Oberbruch (Rheinl) Dremmen Porselen Horst Randerath Lindern coupled/uncoupled in Lindern Geilenkirchen Übach-Palenberg Herzogenrath IC Kohlscheid Aachen West Aachen Schanz Aachen Hbf THA, ICE, IC

The Rhine-Niers-Bahn (RB 33) is a Regionalbahn service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It connects Wesel and Duisburg on the Rhine with Mönchengladbach on the Niers and Aachen (sections of timetable routes 420, 425 and 485).

Operations

File:Bahnhof-Erkelenz.jpg

ET 425 set in Erkelenz station

File:Aachen RheinNiersBahn.JPG

RB service in Aachen Central Station

The service is formed of two overlapping services, each running hourly but offset by about 30 minutes:

1. Wesel–Duisburg–Krefeld–Mönchengladbach
2. Duisburg–Krefeld–Mönchengladbach–Lindern–Aachen
3. Heinsberg–Lindern

Thus results in services every 30 minutes on the section between Duisburg and Mönchengladbach. Class 425 electric multiple units are usually used on the line, although occasionally class 426 EMUs in coupled sets are used instead. In exceptional cases (e.g. in case of problems with EMUS during the leaf-fall season) push–pull trains, consisting of Silberling carriages and a class 111 locomotive are used. The service is operated by DB Regio–Region NRW.

Future

The 1998 transport plan of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the resolution adopting it provided for the renaming of the Rhine-Nier-Bahn. It would operate from 2015 on the Wesel–Duisburg section as S-Bahn line S 20, which would continue from Duisburg towards Düsseldorf. On the Wickrathberg–Duisburg section, the Rhine-Nier-Bahn would from no later than 2015 run as the S 21, which would continue from Duisburg to Kamen. There was no provision in the plan for adoption of the Aachen–Wickrathberg section into the S-Bahn network.

Route

The Regionalbahn service runs on the following railway lines:

• the Oberhausen–Arnhem railway between Wesel and Oberhausen, opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company from Oberhausen to Dinslaken on 1 July 1856 and from Dinslaken to Wesel on 20 October 1856;
• the Duisburg–Dortmund railway between Oberhausen and Duisburg, opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company on 9 February 1846;
• Duisburg-Ruhrort–Mönchengladbach railway, opened from Duisburg to Uerdingen by the Rhenish Railway Company on 23 December 1873, from Uerdingen to northern Viersen by the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway on 15 October 1849 and from northern Viersen to Mönchengladbach by the Prussian state railways in 1917; and
• the Aachen–Mönchengladbach railway from Mönchengladbach to Aachen, opened by the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway from Mönchengladbach to Rheydt on 12 August 1852, from Rheydt to Herzogenrath on 12 November 1852 and from Herzogenrath to Aachen on 17 January 1853.