Line length 67 km (42 mi) 0 Köln Hansaring(Hp) Locale North Rhine-Westphalia | Route number 459 1 Cologne Hbf | |
 | ||
Line number 2620 (Köln Hansaring-Köln)
2670 (Köln-Köln Posthof)
2621 (Köln Posthof–Flughafen NO)
2692 (Flughafen NO–Frankfurter Str)
2655 (Frankfurter Str–Overath)
2657 (Overath–Dieringhausen)
2810 (Dieringhausen–Marienheide) Operating speed | ||
The Oberbergische Bahn (RB 25) is a Regionalbahn rail service running between Cologne Hansaring and Meinerzhagen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). It is planned that the route will be incorporated in the Rhine-Sieg S-Bahn, which is operated as part of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn.
Contents
This service is operated by DB Regio NRW with Alstom Coradia LINT 54 and 81 railcars.
Route
The RB 25 service starts at Cologne Hansaring and runs over the tracks of the S-Bahn line to the Cologne–Overath railway to Overath then on the Siegburg–Olpe railway (also called the Agger Valley Railway) to Dieringhausen, continuing over the Hagen–Dieringhausen railway (Volme Valley Railway) to its terminus at Meinerzhagen.
The RB 25 service runs on the section between Cologne Hansaring and Overath every half hour. Trains continue from Overath to Meinerzhagen hourly.
Fares
Fares on the entire line are regulated by Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg (Rhine-Sieg Transport Association).
Future
It is proposed to operate the section between Cologne Hansaring and Overath at 20-minute intervals. This, however, requires the duplication of the line. In 2015, the line is to be integrated into the network of the Rhine-Sieg S-Bahn and to be extended through Cologne to the Eifel Railway.
Furthermore, there are plans to reactivate the section of the Volme Valley Railway between Marienheide and Brügge (Westfalen). This would continue over the Brügge–Lüdenscheid railway without reversal to Lüdenscheid, unlike the current RB 52 (Volmetal-Bahn) from Dortmund to Lüdenscheid, which reverses in Brügge.
Oliver Wittke, the former NRW transport minister, turned down a proposal to reactivate the entire section in 2005. The Meinerzhagen–Meinerzhagen section returned to operation in 2013.
In March 2011, the Nahverkehr Westfalen-Lippe (Westphalia-Lippe Regional Transport) awarded operations of the Cologne diesel network (Kölner Dieselnetz) to DB Regio Rheinland from December 2013 for 20 years. This contract requires the following actions on the Oberbergische network to be undertaken:
Alstom Coradia LINT 54 and 81 railcars are used for the service.
From the beginning of October 2012 extensive work was carried out in the premises of Meinerzhagen station. The rail tracks were renewed in preparation for the reactivation of passenger traffic on the section between Marienheide and Meinerzhagen in 2013. Old unused tracks were dismantled. Deutsche Bahn has invested around €16.5 million on this track renewal alone. The recent construction project cost about €5 million. Further work is being carried out on the upgrade and protection of level crossings and on the redevelopment of a future station in Kierspe. The goal was originally to offer an integrated regional passenger service RB 25 (Oberbergische Bahn) from Cologne to Lüdenscheid at the timetable change in December 2015, but has been postponed to December 2017.