Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn

The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (in German: "S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr") is a polycentric S-Bahn network covering the area of the Ruhr valley (including cities such as Essen and Duisburg), parts of the Rhineland (such as Düsseldorf and Cologne) and parts of Westphalia (like Dortmund and Unna) in the Rhine-Ruhr megalopolis in western Germany.

The S-Bahn network was established in 1967 with a line connecting Ratingen to Düsseldorf and nowadays consists of 13 lines. It is operating in the area of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr and Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg tariff associations, touching the areas of Aachener Verkehrsverbund at Düren and Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ruhr-Lippe at Unna.

History

The predecessor of the S-Bahn was the so-called "Bezirksschnellverkehr" between the cities of Düsseldorf and Essen, which consisted of steam-powered push-pull trains, mainly hauled by Class 78 and Class 65 engines.

The first S-Bahn lines were operated using Silverfish cars and Class 141 locomotives, however these were not suited for operations on an urban network and were soon replaced by Class 420 electric multiple units. In the mid-1970s, the Class 420 was decided to be unsuitable for the network as well, mainly due to being uncomfortable and lacking a lavatory, since one could travel rather long distances on the Rhine-Ruhr network, which wasn't the case on the Munich S-Bahn for which the class 420 were originally designed.At first an improved version of the 420, the "Class 422", was discussed, but in 1978 the Deutsche Bundesbahn commissioned a batch of coaches from Duewag and MBB, called the "x-Wagen" (the x-car) after its classification code "Bx".In late 1978, the first prototypes (the 2nd class cars of type Bx 794.0 and the cab car Bxf 796.0) were handed over to the DB, the 1st/2nd class cars ABx 791.0 following in early 1979.The prototypes were successful, and so from 1981 to 1994 several series were commissioned, first to be hauled by the Class 111 engines, but after the German reunification the surplus Reichsbahn engines of Class 143 replaced the 111s on the S-Bahn network.

Rolling stock today

On most of the network, Class 143 locomotives are used along with the specially developed "Bx" cars and cab cars. Used Class 420 electric multiple units previously belonging to the Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt networks are running services especially on the S9 and S7 lines, while Class 423 EMUs can be found on the S11, S12 and S13 lines. The S28 is not operated by DB Regio NRW, but by the Regiobahn GmbH, which uses Bombardier TALENT DMUs on the line.

Lines

"Kursbuchstrecken 450.x and 450.xx, as of December 11, 2005."

ee also

* List of rapid transit systems
* Link to map of Düsseldorf public transportation: http://www.rheinbahn.de/opencms/export/system/galleries/download/main/fahrplan/Liniennetzplan_07_2006.pdf
* Link to Rhein Bahn: http://www.rheinbahn.de