Rhein-Wupper-Bahn

RB 48: Rhein-Wupper-Bahn
Route within North Rhine-Westphalia
Overview
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Technical
Line length	97 km (60 mi)
Operating speed	140 km/h (87 mph) (maximum)
Route number	455, 470
Route map 0 Wuppertal-Oberbarmen (until 12/2007, since 12/2015) 3 Wuppertal-Barmen (until 12/2007, since 12/201) 7 Wuppertal Hbf ICE, IC 14 Wuppertal-Vohwinkel 18 Gruiten 22 Haan 25 Solingen Hbf ICE, IC 31 Leichlingen 34 Opladen 38 Leverkusen-Schlebusch 46 Köln-Mülheim 52 Köln Messe/Deutz ICE 54 Köln Hbf THA, ICE, IC 62 Köln West 65 Köln Süd 70 Hürth-Kalscheuren (since 12/2015) 74 Brühl 78 Sechtem 82 Roisdorf 87 Bonn Hbf ICE, IC Bonn UN-Campus (not completed) 95 Bonn-Bad Godesberg 97 Bonn-Mehlem NRW / RlP state border 102 Rolandseck (until 12/2003, one train until 12/2015) 104 Oberwinter (until 12/2003, one train until 12/2015) 109 Remagen (until 12/2003, one train until 12/2015) IC Source: German railway atlas

The Rhein-Wupper-Bahn is a Regionalbahn service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It connects the cities of Wuppertal, Solingen, Leverkusen, Cologne and Bonn and it is operated by the National Express Group.

The line runs mainly over the tracks of three railway lines:

The trains of the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn (RB 48) stop at all stations on the line. They run daily from 5 am to 20 pm at hourly intervals between Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof and Bonn-Mehlem. Additional services run from Wuppertal to Cologne every hour, so on this section there is a service approximately 30-minutes.

Until December 2007, the service ran to Wuppertal-Oberbarmen, but was shortened due to a reduction in federal funding and now operates only in the off-peak. Since December 2015, the service to Wuppertal-Oberbarmen has been restored. The section of the line in Rhineland-Palatinate that was formerly served regularly, was served from 2003 to 2015 by only one service operated to Remagen in the evening and returning next morning. Since December 2015, the service south of Bonn-Mehlem has been abandoned entirely.

Since December 2015, Bombardier Talent 2 EMUs have been operated by the National Express Group. They run regularly as a five car set coupled to a three car set. National Express also holds two spare sets of coaches and locomotives of class 182 (EuroSprinter) for the operation on the RB 48.

Until the timetable change in December 2007, the Rhein-Wupper-Bahn was operated mostly using locomotive-hauled push–pull trains. This were usually made up of five “n-carriages” (Silberling), hauled by class 111 electric locomotives. Trains were often hauled by class 110 locomotives and occasionally class 425 electric multiple units in coupled sets were operated. After December 2007, RB 48 were at first operated only with class 425 in coupled sets. The ET 425 sets became available when Abellio Rail NRW won some tenders for operating services in North Rhine-Westphalia. Between the minor change of timetable in June 2009 and the regular timetable change in December 2009, some services were again operated with class 110 locomotives with five to six n-carriages, as not enough carriages were available due to the need for software modifications to the ET 425 vehicles.