Rhenish-Westphalian trams and small railways
The Rheinisch-Westfälische Straßen- und Kleinbahnen GmbH (RWSK) was founded on February 28, 1936 in Essen as a subsidiary of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk (RWE).
In the RWSK, the electric railways that had previously been looked after by the RWE railroad department were combined. This involved all railways that were in the RWE's sphere of influence, be it that it was one hundred percent or only partially involved in the respective operation, or that it was simply the operation of external companies by RWE.
It was founded in such a way that the RWE subsidiary "Kreis Mettmanner Straßenbahnen GmbH" acquired all RWE rights to the railways concerned and at the same time changed its company to RWSK.
Decades of efforts by the RWE under the leadership of its board member Hugo Stinnes , who had tried since the turn of the century to bring as many electric railways as possible in the RWE industrial area under the roof of the RWE, in order to ensure the law in the respective cities, came to a certain conclusion to gain power. He was particularly interested in the Essen tram, which belonged to the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SEG). In order to gain decisive influence on the SEG, he had founded the "Rheinisch-Westfälische Bahngesellschaft mbH" (RWB) as a holding company, in which cities and districts held 75% of the shares alongside RWE. But the RWE failed to achieve the desired success.
In 1939 the RWSK were subordinate to the following trams and small railways, the further development of which is dealt with in special articles:
- Kleinbahn Langenfeld-Monheim-Hitdorf
- Small train Opladen – Lützenkirchen
- Rees – Empel railway
- Kleinbahn Siegburg – Zündorf
- Small train Wesel – Rees – Emmerich
- Klever tram
- Opladen-Ohligs tram
- Crazy tram
Since on the one hand the influence on the trams in the Ruhr area was only partially successful, on the other hand the importance of the transport companies for the electricity suppliers had declined, the RWE tried - especially after the Second World War - to sell its holdings in the cities and districts and only those To retain operational management of the railways. This development, which also led to the closure of some railways, came to an end in 1966.