Rhine-Wupper Railway

RB 48 Rhein-Wupper-Bahn
Course book section (DB) :	455, 470
Route length:	97 km
Top speed:	160 km / h
Traffic Company	National Express
State (D):	North Rhine-Westphalia
course
Legend 0 Wuppertal-Oberbarmen (until 12/2007, since 12/2015) 3 Wuppertal-Barmen (until 12/2007, since 12/2015) 7th Wuppertal Hbf ICE , IC 14th Wuppertal-Vohwinkel 18th Haan-Gruiten 22nd Haan 25th Solingen Central Station ICE, IC 31 Corpses 34 Opladen 38 Leverkusen-Schlebusch 46 Cologne-Mülheim 52 Cologne Fair / Deutz ICE 54 Köln Hbf THA , ICE, IC 62 Cologne West 65 Cologne South 70 Hürth-Kalscheuren (since 12/2015) 74 Bruehl 78 Real 82 Roisdorf 87 Bonn Central Station ICE, IC 90 Bonn UN Campus 95 Bonn-Bad Godesberg 97 Bonn-Mehlem State border NRW / RLP 102 Rolandseck (until 12/2003, until 12/2015 once a day) 104 Upper winter (until 12/2003, until 12/2015 once a day) 109 Remagen (until 12/2003, until 12/2015 once a day) IC

The Rhein-Wupper-Bahn is a regional train line ( RB 48 ) for local rail passenger transport in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . It connects the major cities of Wuppertal , Solingen , Leverkusen , Cologne and Bonn and has been operated by National Express since December 2015 .

Train run

The trains of the RB 48 Rhein-Wupper-Bahn stop at all passenger stations and stops along the route, with the exception of S-Bahn stations. They operate daily from 4 to 21 pm in every half hour between Wuppertal-Oberbarmen station and Bonn-Mehlem . Outside of the rush hour , every second journey ends in Köln Hbf . The first journey of the hour ends between 9 p.m. and midnight in Köln Hbf and the second journey per hour only runs on the section from Köln Hbf to Bonn-Mehlem . Some more trips are shortened on Saturdays and Sundays.

The section between Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof and Wuppertal-Oberbarmen was no longer served between December 2007 and December 2015 due to reduced regionalization funds. On the section in Rhineland-Palatinate served by the line until 2003, a train to Remagen ran in the evening until December 2015 and back again in the morning.

Tariff

For trips to Solingen main station, the tariff of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) applies, for trips beyond that there is the network tariff of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (VRS). In addition, the state-wide NRW tariff applies.

Traction material

Bombardier Talent 2 as RB 48 in Solingen Hbf

Wittenberg control car in Wuppertal-Oberbarmen station

Bombardier Talent 2 multiple units have been in service since December 2015 . These run regularly in double traction from a five- and a three-part multiple unit. National Express also has two replacement sets of passenger coaches and locomotives of the 110 and 185 series for operation on the RB 48 .

The Rhein-Wupper-Bahn with the DB class 111 in the Cologne Hauptbahnhof transfer station on the way to Wuppertal

A locomotive-hauled push-pull train was mostly used on the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn until the timetable change in December 2007. This was normally consists of five n-Wagen (former pieces of silver ) and was planned by an electric locomotive of the 111 series covered. Often the locomotives came 110 series and rare railcars of series 425 in double traction used.

From December 2007, the RB 48 initially operated continuously with the 425 series in double traction. In addition, multiple units are used that were released from the lost tenders with Abellio and the Westfalenbahn . Between the small timetable change in June 2009 and the regular timetable change in December 2009, one circulation was again made with locomotives of the 110 series with five to six n-wagons, as otherwise there would not have been enough vehicles available due to software adjustments to the multiple units. Up until November 2015, a single class 111 locomotive and five n-wagons were in circulation every day.

Due to the accident in Meerbusch-Osterath , in which a Talent 2 multiple unit on the RE 7 line, also operated by National Express, was damaged, a replacement train has been in service every day since January 2018.

history

RB 48 with series 425 in Cologne-West

RB 48 with class 111 and n-type cars in Cologne-West

In December 2002 the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn replaced the previous Rhein-Wupper-Express (RE 6) between Koblenz and Wuppertal, which, like today's RB 48, served all stops in the North Rhine-Westphalian part of the train route with the exception of Hürth-Kalscheuren. The Rhein-Wupper-Express originally consisted of six n-cars without a control car, pulled by locomotives of the 110 series. From 2001, a switch was made to railcar sets of two class 425 and one of the 426 class .

The Rhein-Wupper-Bahn initially ran the Remagen – Wuppertal-Oberbarmen train and was operated in double traction with class 425 railcars. In December 2003 it was shortened to the state border to Bonn-Mehlem, as the train kilometers in Rhineland-Palatinate were not carried by either of the two federal states.

After the class 425 multiple units had to struggle with massive braking problems in autumn 2003, the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn was converted to locomotive-hauled push-pull trains made up of five n-wagons and class 110 locomotives as part of the H'04 program at the beginning of September 2004 . The changeover announced for December 2004 was carried out three years later, at the end of 2007. Since then it has operated in double traction.

In December 2007 the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn was shortened from Wuppertal-Oberbarmen to the main station. This enabled the previously separate routes Bonn – Wuppertal and Cologne – Wuppertal to be linked, saving a train set. At times, trains ran from / to Wuppertal-Oberbarmen early in the morning (towards Bonn) and late at night (towards Wuppertal), as they are parked there overnight. Since December 2015, trains have generally been running from / to Wuppertal-Oberbarmen again.

According to the VRR Quality Report 2007, the train journeys of the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn had an average delay of 2.8 minutes in 2007 and were thus well above the average of the RB lines in the VRR. The rate of unforeseeable train cancellations was around 3.1% of all train journeys, and here too the line is well above the average of the other RB lines in the VRR.

Tendering for operation from 2015

Talent 2 of the National Express on November 18, 2015 during a training trip in Bonn-Mehlem

The Rhein-Wupper-Bahn was put out to tender together with the Rhein-Münsterland-Express from December 2015. A bidding consortium of National Express Rail and IntEgro Verkehr won the tender. Deutsche Bahn, as the loser, made use of an opportunity to appeal, but the public procurement tribunal at the Münster district government found no violation of procurement law.

These services are provided by National Express Rail with Bombardier Talent 2 multiple units .

With the new tender, the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn was (again) extended backwards to Wuppertal-Oberbarmen, in addition, the rush hour journeys that had previously ended in Cologne will be extended to Bonn three times in the morning and three in the afternoon from Monday to Friday, and during this time a 30-minute Created tact. In addition, the Hürth-Kalscheuren train station has been served since December 2015 and the Bonn UN Campus stop since November 1, 2017 (until December 14, 2019 only in the direction of Bonn-Mehlem).

future

expansion

There are plans to expand the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn into an S-Bahn . This should then run every 20 minutes. There are plans to change the route between Leverkusen-Opladen and Cologne-Mülheim, based on the existing freight train route via Morsbroich. This would result in better development of the districts of Dünnwald and Höhenhaus. It would be possible to continue the line as the S 16 to Bonn, but for this the left Rhine route would have to be expanded to four tracks (Cologne S-Bahn Westring).

It is also possible to have the new S 16 end in Cologne and to extend the S 6 from Essen to Bonn. The successor line of the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn only bears the line number S 16 in the destination network of the VRS, in the destination network of the VRR it is listed as S 14, but not with the S 14 contained in the VRS destination network (according to the current NVP NVR S 15) from Bruges (Westf) to Jünkerath is to be confused.

In the current local transport plan of the NVR, it is planned to replace the RB48 between Cologne and Bonn-Mehlem with the S17 line for the 2030 (+) target network .

Web links

Commons : Rhein-Wupper-Bahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Line description of the RB 48 in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
• Timetable of the regional train line RB 48 from www.vrr.de (PDF; 34 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Replacement trains in use. National Express website, accessed December 31, 2015.
2. ↑ National Express prevents train cancellations and puts replacement trains on the RB 48. National Express website, accessed on April 15, 2018.
3. ↑ Quality report 2007 of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (pdf) ( Memento of the original dated November 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ TED 2012 / S 83-136430 tender. April 28, 2012, accessed February 9, 2013 . 
5. ^ Deutsche Bahn loses railway lines. Kölnische Rundschau , January 30, 2013, accessed on February 6, 2013 (dpa report). 
6. ↑ New face for local transport operators in North Rhine-Westphalia. (No longer available online.) Zweckverband Ruhr-Lippe, February 6, 2013, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 7, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
7. ↑ Vergabekammer Münster: Local rail passenger transport on lines RE 7 and RB 48 - the award did not violate public procurement law. (No longer available online.) Münster District Government, March 22, 2013, archived from the original on February 24, 2014 ; Retrieved March 22, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Bombardier receives order to supply TALENT 2 multiple units for National Express. Bombardier, June 4, 2013, accessed June 4, 2013 (press release). 
9. ↑ Key points for the competition procedure RE 7 / RB 48. (No longer available online.) NVR, formerly in the original ; accessed on December 31, 2014 (draft resolution for tender, printed matter No. 2-12-12-1.3).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
10. ↑ Barbara Cepielik: Every 30 minutes to Bonn. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , February 13, 2013, accessed on May 21, 2013 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} SPNV local transport plan NVR 2016. (PDF) NVR, 2016, accessed on June 7, 2016 . 
12. ↑ Construction project in the Rhine / Ruhr S-Bahn