Bocholt–Wesel railway

Wesel–Bocholt railway
Bocholt Raailway in Yellow
Overview
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Line number	2263
Technical
Line length	20 km (12 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	80 km/h (50 mph) (maximum)
Route number	421
Route map Former line from Winterswijk (NL) Former Empel-Rees–Münster railway from Borken 20.4 Bocholt Empel-Rees–Münster railway to Empel-Rees 19.7 Bocholt Süd 18.2 Biemenhorst 17.0 Tangerding siding 15.6 Lankern 13.2 Dingden 9.3 Max Bögl siding (Since Dec 09) 9.2 Hamminkeln 8.5 Hamminkeln Süd 4.7 Blumenkamp 3.6 Lackhausen 2.7 Wesel Nord Line from Emmerich Former line from Venlo Wesel port railway 0.1 Wesel RWE siding (formerly to Haltern) Line from Oberhausen Source: German railway atlas

The Bocholt Railway is a single-track branch line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia from Wesel in the Lower Rhine region to Bocholt in western Münsterland.

In the middle of the 19th century, the town of Bocholt (including the cotton industry) developed plans to connect to the new railway network. In 1856, the Holland Line was opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME), but ran from Wesel along the Rhine via Emmerich to Arnhem, missing Bocholt. Several initiatives launched by businessmen from Cologne and Münster were not able raise the necessary capital to build a line to Bocholt.

On 26 May 1875, the CME finally received a concession for the construction of a branch line from Wesel to Bocholt, which was opened for passenger traffic on 1 July 1878.

Two years later on 25 August 1880, the Dutch Westphalian Railway Company (Niederländisch-Westfälische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) opened the Winterswijk–Bocholt railway, turning the terminal station into a through station. In 1901, after the nationalisation of most of Prussia’s private railway companies, the opening of the Empel-Rees–Münster railway by the Prussian state railways from Empel-Rees to Bocholt on 1 August 1901 and its continuation to Borken on 1 August 1902 made Bocholt into a junction station.

Since the end of the 20th century, with the closure of the two newest lines, Bocholt station has become a terminus again.

The line is served by Regionalbahn service RB 32 (Der Bocholter). In Wesel it connects with Regional-Express services RE 5 (Rhein-Express, towards Oberhausen, Düsseldorf and on to Koblenz) and RE 19 (Rhein-IJssel-Express, towards Oberhausen and Düsseldorf).