Native name Untere Ruhrtalbahn Route number Most recently: 231a | Line length 14.7 km (9.1 mi) Locale North Rhine-Westphalia | |
 | ||
Line number 2185 (Kettwig–Mülheim-Styrum)
85 (Ruhrbrücke junction–Mülheim West) Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) standard gauge Operating speed | ||
The Lower Ruhr Valley Railway (German: Untere Ruhrtalbahn) is a former railway in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It was opened on 24 January 1876 by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BME) along the Ruhr to the southwest of the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr and connects Mülheim-Styrum on the Witten/Dortmund–Oberhausen/Duisburg railway and Essen-Kettwig on the Ruhr Valley Railway.
Contents
Passenger services
The first passenger services in 1876 ran from Kettwig over the Kettwig railway bridge and the Ruhr bridge in Mülheim to the Mülheim station of the BME, which was later renamed as Mülheim (Ruhr) and is now Mülheim (Ruhr) West. The passenger service was moved in 1909 to Styrum because the connecting curve to Mülheim BME was upgraded for the expansion of Friedrich Wilhelms-Hütte steel works and Mülheim (Ruhr) West station was in the way. At the end of World War II, the two Ruhr bridges were destroyed. Consequently, passenger services from Mülheim had to stop short of the Ruhr bridge at Kettwig and later a station was built there called Kettwig Stausee ("Kettwig reservoir", below the current S-Bahn station of the same name) as a terminus. In Mülheim, the passenger service was diverted over the Broich connecting curve to Speldorf. After the re-establishment of the Mülheim bridge in 1954 both of the north-west end points (Styrum and Speldorf) were served until the abandonment of passenger services in 1968.