Line length 39 km (24 mi) Route number 410 | Number of tracks 2 Line number 2931 (Hamm−Emden) | |
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Locale North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) standard gauge Electrification 15 kV/16.7 Hz AC Overhead catenary | ||
The Münster–Rheine railway is a nearly 39 km long main line railway from Münster to Rheine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is entirely double track and electrified.
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It was opened by the Prussian government-funded Royal Westphalian Railway Company in 1856 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
History
The Royal Westphalian Railway (German: Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn, KWE) built its main line from Hamm to Warburg in the early 1850s. In 1855, the KWE took over the Munster-Hamm Railway Company (Münster-Hammer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), together with its line to Munster, which it then extended further north to Rheine. It opened its line on 23 June 1856, reaching Rheine station on the same day as both of the two sections of the Hanoverian Western Railway were completed to the station: the line from Löhne and the Emsland Railway to the North Sea port of Emden.
In 1879, the Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) opened its own North Sea route from Duisburg via Rheine to Quakenbrück and so made the station one of the major railway junctions in north-western Germany.
Current operations
Two Regional-Express service operate on the line: the RE 15 (the Emsland-Express), which runs hourly, and the RE 7 (Rhein-Münsterland-Express), which runs every two hours. The RB 65 Regionalbahn service (the Ems-Bahn) runs hourly on the line. Every two hours InterCity services between Norddeich Mole and Luxembourg run on the line.