The Duisburg-Dortmund Railway is an important and historically significant railway in Germany. It is a major axis for long distance and regional passenger freight transport in the northern Ruhr. It is served by Intercity-Express, InterCity, Regional-Express, Regionalbahn and S-Bahn trains. It includes the central stations of Duisburg, Oberhausen, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund and Wanne-Eickel and the regionally important stations of Essen-Altenessen and Herne. It is the middle section of the Cologne-Minden trunk line from Cologne-Deutz to Minden. It was opened in 1847 and has been modernised and developed several times since then. Today, it has two to four tracks and is electrified and classified as a main line.

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Duisburg–Dortmund railway
Cologne-Minden trunk line in red
Overview
Line number	2650
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Service
Route number	416 (Long distance) 450.2 (S-Bahn)
Technical
Line length	56 km (35 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Operating speed	140 km/h (87.0 mph) (maximum)
Route map Legend Trunk line from Hamm Line from Enschede 119.5 Dortmund Hbf terminus: S1S2S5 Lines to Soest, Iserlohn, Witten S5 Trunk line to Bochum S1 117.0 Dortmund freight yard 114.7 Hansa junction 112.8 Dortmund-Nette junction rail freight bypass S-Bahn from Dortmund-Dortstfeld S2 110.3 Dortmund-Mengede Former Westphalian Emscher Valley Railway 105.3 Castrop-Rauxel Hbf 101.9 Bladenhorst junction 100.8 Herne Hot junction line to Dortmund 100.0 Herne freight station 98.4 Herne (former Herne CME) Line to Recklinghausen S2 Line to Bochum A 43 Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck–Bochum line Line from Bochum Line from Recklinghausen 94.5 Wanne-Eickel Hbf Former route to Bismarck & Schalke (until 1962) To Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck and to Gelsenkirchen-Schalke (since 1911) Several former lines Former route to Essen-Kray Nord 89.1 Gelsenkirchen Hbf To Gelsenkirchen-Schalke Süd and Essen S2 Former Gelsenkirchen-Hessler–Essen Hbf line 85.1 Essen-Zollverein Nord Former Essen-Katernberg Nord–Essen Hbf line Former line from Essen-Altenessen RhE line from Essen Hbf 82.1 Essen-Altenessen (formerly Essen CME) Former line to Essen Nord (Single track freight line to Essen-Dellwig junction) Former line from Essen Nord 80.0 Essen-Bergeborbeck Former line to Essen-Horl 76.3 Essen-Dellwig junction line from Bottrop Bottrop–Essen-Dellwig Ost line 76.0 Essen-Dellwig 75.2 Essen-Frintrop former goods yard 71.7 Oberhausen Hbf Obo line to Wesel   and line to Oberhausen West Line from Wesel 70.7 Oberhausen Hbf terminus of S3 Line to Duisburg-Ruhrort Former route to Mülheim-Styrum S-Bahn to Mülheim-Styrum S3 68.6 Kolkmannshof junction Former Duisburg-Ruhrort–Mülheim-Styrum line Trunk line from Mülheim-Styrum S1 67.1 Kaiserberg junction Oberhausen West–Duisburg-Wedau line Line from Oberhausen West 63.1 Duisburg Hbf Trunk line to Cologne S1 Source: German railway atlas[1]

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On 18 December 1843, the Prussian government granted a concession to the trunk line to the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) for the line, which began at what was then the CME station in Deutz (now a suburb of Cologne) with the construction of the first section to Düsseldorf, which was opened on 20 December 1845. Only a few weeks later, on 9 February 1846, the second section was completed to a temporary terminus at the site of present-day Duisburg Hauptbahnhof called the Cologne-Minden railway station, the first of three train stations built at the same place.^[2]

The route of the next section to Oberhausen, Altenessen, Gelsenkirchen, Wanne, Herne and Dortmund to Hamm was chosen over a route close to the coal mines that were then located on the north bank of the Ruhr because it was cheaper to build as it largely avoided hills. Nevertheless, it still took well over a year until 15 May 1847 for this section to be completed and put into operation. On 15 October 1847 the last section was opened to Minden, thus completing the entire 263 kilometre long, single track railway.^[2] On the same day the Royal Hanoverian State Railways opened its Hanover-Minden Railway, completing a connection to Berlin and northeastern Germany.

Since the railway line was opened from Duisburg to Dortmund it has grown in importance as the centre of coal mining in the Ruhr has migrated north and it has continually been modernized. Today the line is at least double track and electrified for its entire length. The route is now comparable to the other east-west line, in particular the central Ruhr trunk line of the former Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company.

Long distance trains only use parts of the line. The section from Duisburg to Oberhausen is served by Intercity-Express trains to and from Amsterdam. It is also served by Regional-Express trains on line RE 5 (Rhein-Express), terminating in Wesel, and RE19 (Rhein-IJssel-Express), terminating in Arnhem, and Regionalbahn line RB 35 (Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn) between Gelsenkirchen and Mönchengladbach. Every two hours InterCity line 35 uses a large part of the line from Duisburg to Wanne-Eickel. In addition occasional trains of IC line 32, and at-least hourly regional services on lines RE 2 (Rhein-Haard-Express), RB 42 (Haard-Bahn) and RB 46 (Glückauf-Bahn) use the section from Gelsenkirchen to Wanne-Eickel.

The only Regional-Express service that uses the total length of the route is RE 3 Rhein-Emscher Express, which runs from Düsseldorf to Hamm, all on the route of the trunk line of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company.

S-Bahn line S 2 runs at 30-minute intervals between Herne and Dortmund Mengede and continues to Dortmund via the Southern route of the former Royal Westphalian Railway Company (Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft). West of Herne, one train per hour connects to Recklinghausen and one connects via Gelsenkirchen to Essen. Formerly another S-Bahn service per hour ran along the entire historic route between Duisburg and Dortmund. Since December 2019, this has operated as the RB 32 (Rhein-Emscher-Bahn), but running only on the Duisburg–Dortmund railway route, skipping the stations between Dortmund-Mengede and Dortmund. This is complemented by the RB 35 Emscher-Niederrhein-Bahn between Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen from Monday to Friday between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. The RB 32 and RB 35 services stop at all stations between Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen, like the former S 2 service.