The 55 km-long section from Cologne via Neuss to Krefeld is electrified and continuously multi-track. The subsequent 65 km-long Krefeld–Kleve section is non-electrified and single-track north of Geldern. The section from Kleve to Nijmegen has been closed since 1991.
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahnline S 11 trains run on the line from Cologne to Neuss, partly on separate S-Bahn track, including a separate loop, partly underground, through the Cologne district of Chorweiler.
The Left Lower Rhine line was opened between Cologne and Neuss by the Cologne-Crefeld Railway Company (originally spelt in German as the Cöln-Crefelder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CCE) on 15 November 1855 and extended to Krefeld—on the original direct route via Fischeln—on 26 January 1856. The current route via Krefeld-Oppum was opened on 23 August 1866. The Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) entered into a contract with the Cologne-Crefelder Railway Company on 11 November 1859 to take over its route from Cologne to Krefeld on 1 July 1860, making it possible to extend the Left Lower Rhine line to the north with a connection to the Dutch rail network and the Dutch ports. The section to Kleve opened on 1 March 1863.
Kleve–Netherlands sectionedit
Railway memorial in Nijmegen (1884)Railtrack Kranenburg - Kleve, near Donsbrüggen. Kilometer 121,6
A ten-kilometre continuation of the line over the Griethausen railway bridge and the Spyck–Welle train ferry to the Dutch border was opened on 19 April 1865 for freight and on 21 April 1865 for passengers. At the same time the RhE encouraged the Dutch Rhine Railway Company (Dutch: Nederlandsche Rhijnspoorweg-Maatschappij, NRS) to extend its railway, which already ran from Rotterdam and Amsterdam to Utrecht and Arnhem, to the Dutch–German border. In 1856 the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, CME) had opened its line to Emmerich via Oberhausen (the Holland route), but it lacked rail connections to southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
This prompted the NRS to discuss a rail link via Cleves with the Rhenish railway, which had extended its West Rhine line to Bingen in 1859 to create a connection with the southern German rail network. Both companies attempted to persuade the Dutch government to grant a concession to the Rhenish railway for the construction of a route from Kleve to Nijmegen and Arnhem but failed to change the Dutch government's policy. Even an offer by the Rhenish railway to build at its own expense the big bridges that would have been required over the Waal and the Rhine had no effect. Probably the major concern for the Dutch government was the protection of navigation on the Rhine in the Netherlands and the fact that the majority of the capital of the NRS was controlled by English investors.
Until the nationalisation of the company in 1880, all RhE freight and passenger trains ran to the Dutch North Sea ports via the Kleve–Zevenaar route. In 1912, the tracks to the ramps on both sides of the train ferry were closed. Passengers were instead transferred by steamboat. During World War I the line was reduced to two pairs of trains per day. After the war, the Dutch railways (later formally amalgamated as Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS) and the German State Railways signed an agreement in relation to the operation of rail and ferry services up to 31 August 1926. Around 1930 the tracks between Welle and Elten on the right (northern) bank were dismantled. In contrast, on the left bank passenger services continued until 1960 and freight ran directly to a vegetable oil mill on the Rhine in Spyck until 1987. At that time, the line from Kleve was closed.
On 9 September 1865 a further link from Cleves to Nijmegen was put into operation. In 1879 this line was connected to the Dutch rail network in Arnhem. From 18 September 1965 the section between Kleve and the border was reduced from double track to single track. No passenger trains have run on the line to Nijmegen since 1991 and the line has been out of service since 1999. Freight operations have been closed between Kleve and Kranenburg since 31 December 1991.
Since 27 April 2008, the section from Kleve via Kranenburg to Groesbeek has been used for the operation of draisines for entertainment.
S-Bahnedit
Line S 11 of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn was put into operation from Cologne Hbf to Köln-Chorweiler on 1 June 1975 as the first S-Bahn line in Cologne. On 22 May 1977, a new section was opened to Köln-Chorweiler Nord, running underground through Chorweiler. In June 1985 this was extended to Köln-Worringen, where the S-Bahn line has a grade-separated connection with the main line, and line S 11 continues to Neuss. This was the beginning of the integration of the Rhine-Ruhr and the Rhine-Sieg S-Bahn networks.
Crossing linesedit
From west to east, the Left Lower Rhine line was crossed by now disused railways in Goch, Geldern and Kempen. The North Brabant-German Railway Company (Dutch: Noord-Brabantsch-Duitsche Spoorweg-Maatschappij, NBDS) built a line for long-distance trains running from London to Berlin and London to Hamburg from Boxtel in the Netherlands via Gennep and Goch to Wesel (the Boxtel Railway). The Haltern–Venlo section of the Paris-Hamburg Railway, which ran from Venlo via Wesel to Hamburg, crossed in Geldern; this was opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company in 1874. The Rhenish Railway Company opened a line from Kempen to Venlo via Kaldenkirchen in 1867. The narrow gauge Geldern District Railway (Geldernsche Kreisbahn) was opened in 1901 and 1902 from Kempen via Straelen to Kevelaer to improve access to the agricultural land west of the Left Lower Rhine line; it was closed in 1934.
Current operationsedit
Niers-Express in Krefeld-Oppum before NordWestBahn took over operationsNWB VT558 in Düsseldorf Hbf
The Meerbusch-Osterath–Cleves section of the Left Lower Rhine line is served by a Regional-Express service, the Niers-Express (RE 10) on the Kleve–Krefeld–Düsseldorf route every 30 minutes during the day and evening from Monday to Friday and hourly on weekends and public holidays. It connects hourly in Krefeld with the Rhein-Münsterland-Express (RE 7) on the Krefeld–Neuss–Cologne–Wuppertal–Hagen–Hamm–Münster–Rheine route. Since the Kleve–Geldern section has only one track, services of the Niers-Express running towards Krefeld have to stop for four minutes at the crossing stations of Bedburg-Hau and Weeze. The total time taken by trains running in the opposite direction is eight minutes less. Despite the service's classification as a Regional-Express, the Niers-Express serves all stations between Meerbusch-Osterath and Kleve. The average speed is only 66 km/h. All stations on the line have at least two tracks and can serve as crossing stations.
The Niers-Express services were taken over by NordWestBahn in December 2009, and are operated using one to three part LINT 41diesel multiple units with a top speed of 120 km / h. NordWestBahn was taken over by Transdev and is now called the RheinRuhrBahn.
Referencesedit
^Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN978-3-89494-139-0.
External linksedit
NRW railway archive of André Joost
Description of line 2610 (Cologne–Kranenburg)
Description of line 2620 (Cologne Hbf—Köln-Worringen)
October 28, 2023
lower, left, rhine, railway, left, lower, rhine, line, german, linksniederrheinische, strecke, main, line, left, western, bank, rhine, lower, rhine, region, german, state, north, rhine, westphalia, running, from, cologne, cleves, kleve, formerly, kranenburg, n. The Left Lower Rhine line German Linksniederrheinische Strecke is a main line on the left western bank of the Rhine in the lower Rhine region of the German state of North Rhine Westphalia running from Cologne to Cleves Kleve and formerly via Kranenburg to Nijmegen in the Netherlands The Cologne Krefeld section of the line was opened by the Coln Crefeld Railway Company in 1855 and is one of the oldest lines in Germany Cologne Nijmegen railwayOverviewLine number2610LocaleNorth Rhine Westphalia Germany and NetherlandsServiceRoute number495 450 11TechnicalLine length120 km 75 mi Route mapLegendfrom Arnhem15 0 Nijmegenfrom Tilburg10 2 Nijmegen Heyendaalto Venlo3 0 Groesbeek0 0131 0 Netherlands Germany border129 3 Kranenburg125 0 Nutterden122 3 Donsbruggen120 4 Cleve Tiergartenformer train ferry from Elten118 4 Kleveformer Lower Rhine Railwayfrom Duisburg114 1 Bedburg Hau109 5 Pfalzdorfformer Boxtel Railway from Boxtel105 5 Gochformer Boxtel Railway to Buderich98 6 Weeze92 5 Kevelaer88 6 Wetten83 6 Geldernformerly to Haltern and Venloformer Haltern Venlo railway80 3 Vernum Bk 76 3 Nieukerk72 7 Aldekerk Hp amp Bk 68 4 St Hubert Vosch Bk former Hp former line to Krefeld Huls65 0 Kempen Niederrhein former from Venlo59 0 Benrad St Tonisline to St Tonis and Hulsfrom Monchengladbachconnection from Krefeld steelworksKrefeld Sud53 6 Krefeld Hbforiginal direct routeoriginal route to Duisburg51 5 Krefeld freight yardKriba siding 50 5 Krefeld Oppumto Duisburgfreight line to Krefeld Linnfreight line from Duisburg49 1 Krefeld Lohbruch siding A 44former route43 2 Meerbusch OsterathA 57A 5237 1 Weissenberg junction to line to Dusseldorfmain line from DusseldorfS Bahn line from DusseldorfNeuss Gbf36 2 Neuss Hbf island station line to Kaarstmain line to Monchengladbachline to Bedburg34 4 Neuss Nordkanal junction 33 7 Neuss SudA 5729 8 Norf27 0 Neuss Allerheiligen24 3 NievenheimHGK line to ZonsA 5720 8 Dormagen 43 mBayer AG siding17 7 Dormagen Chemparkbeginning of S Bahn line grade separated 14 8 14 8 Koln WorringenKoln Kreuzberg S Bahn tunnel 1992 m 13 614 7 km change12 9 Koln Blumenberg12 6 Koln Chorweiler S Bahn tunnel 2238 m 11 6 Koln Chorweiler Nord11 0 00 0 Weiler10 6 Koln Chorweiler Stadtbahn 10 39 9 Koln Volkhovener Wegbeginning of fright line grade separated 9 0 0 9 0 end of S Bahn line grade separated A 17 8 0 7 8 Koln Longerich6 1 0 6 1 freight line of the HGKconnecting line from HGK4 8 00 0 Koln Nippes freight yardformer route 1855 1859 now Kempener Str 3 5 Koln Geldernstr Parkgurtel Stadtbahn beginning of S Bahn line grade separated 3 1 0 3 0 Koln Etzelstrasse2 5 Koln Nippes turn back line2 3 0 2 3 Koln NippesKoln Nippes junctionfreight line to Koln Ehrenfeldfreight line to Koln Westline from Bonn line from AachenKoln Hansaring turn back line0 8 Koln Hansaring Stadtbahn 0 9 0 0 0 Cologne Hbf0 0 00 0 Cologne Crefelder stationto Koln Messe DeutzSource German railway atlas 1 The 55 km long section from Cologne via Neuss to Krefeld is electrified and continuously multi track The subsequent 65 km long Krefeld Kleve section is non electrified and single track north of Geldern The section from Kleve to Nijmegen has been closed since 1991 Rhine Ruhr S Bahn line S 11 trains run on the line from Cologne to Neuss partly on separate S Bahn track including a separate loop partly underground through the Cologne district of Chorweiler Contents 1 History 1 1 Cologne Kleve Section 1 2 Kleve Netherlands section 1 3 S Bahn 1 4 Crossing lines 2 Current operations 3 References 4 External linksHistory editCologne Kleve Section edit nbsp RE 10 in Kleve nbsp RE 10 of the Nordwestbahn in Dusseldorf HbfThe Left Lower Rhine line was opened between Cologne and Neuss by the Cologne Crefeld Railway Company originally spelt in German as the Coln Crefelder Eisenbahn Gesellschaft CCE on 15 November 1855 and extended to Krefeld on the original direct route via Fischeln on 26 January 1856 The current route via Krefeld Oppum was opened on 23 August 1866 The Rhenish Railway Company Rheinische Eisenbahn Gesellschaft RhE entered into a contract with the Cologne Crefelder Railway Company on 11 November 1859 to take over its route from Cologne to Krefeld on 1 July 1860 making it possible to extend the Left Lower Rhine line to the north with a connection to the Dutch rail network and the Dutch ports The section to Kleve opened on 1 March 1863 Kleve Netherlands section edit nbsp Railway memorial in Nijmegen 1884 nbsp Railtrack Kranenburg Kleve near Donsbruggen Kilometer 121 6A ten kilometre continuation of the line over the Griethausen railway bridge and the Spyck Welle train ferry to the Dutch border was opened on 19 April 1865 for freight and on 21 April 1865 for passengers At the same time the RhE encouraged the Dutch Rhine Railway Company Dutch Nederlandsche Rhijnspoorweg Maatschappij NRS to extend its railway which already ran from Rotterdam and Amsterdam to Utrecht and Arnhem to the Dutch German border In 1856 the Cologne Minden Railway Company Coln Mindener Eisenbahn Gesellschaft CME had opened its line to Emmerich via Oberhausen the Holland route but it lacked rail connections to southern Germany Austria and Switzerland This prompted the NRS to discuss a rail link via Cleves with the Rhenish railway which had extended its West Rhine line to Bingen in 1859 to create a connection with the southern German rail network Both companies attempted to persuade the Dutch government to grant a concession to the Rhenish railway for the construction of a route from Kleve to Nijmegen and Arnhem but failed to change the Dutch government s policy Even an offer by the Rhenish railway to build at its own expense the big bridges that would have been required over the Waal and the Rhine had no effect Probably the major concern for the Dutch government was the protection of navigation on the Rhine in the Netherlands and the fact that the majority of the capital of the NRS was controlled by English investors Until the nationalisation of the company in 1880 all RhE freight and passenger trains ran to the Dutch North Sea ports via the Kleve Zevenaar route In 1912 the tracks to the ramps on both sides of the train ferry were closed Passengers were instead transferred by steamboat During World War I the line was reduced to two pairs of trains per day After the war the Dutch railways later formally amalgamated as Nederlandse Spoorwegen NS and the German State Railways signed an agreement in relation to the operation of rail and ferry services up to 31 August 1926 Around 1930 the tracks between Welle and Elten on the right northern bank were dismantled In contrast on the left bank passenger services continued until 1960 and freight ran directly to a vegetable oil mill on the Rhine in Spyck until 1987 At that time the line from Kleve was closed On 9 September 1865 a further link from Cleves to Nijmegen was put into operation In 1879 this line was connected to the Dutch rail network in Arnhem From 18 September 1965 the section between Kleve and the border was reduced from double track to single track No passenger trains have run on the line to Nijmegen since 1991 and the line has been out of service since 1999 Freight operations have been closed between Kleve and Kranenburg since 31 December 1991 Since 27 April 2008 the section from Kleve via Kranenburg to Groesbeek has been used for the operation of draisines for entertainment S Bahn edit Line S 11 of the Rhine Ruhr S Bahn was put into operation from Cologne Hbf to Koln Chorweiler on 1 June 1975 as the first S Bahn line in Cologne On 22 May 1977 a new section was opened to Koln Chorweiler Nord running underground through Chorweiler In June 1985 this was extended to Koln Worringen where the S Bahn line has a grade separated connection with the main line and line S 11 continues to Neuss This was the beginning of the integration of the Rhine Ruhr and the Rhine Sieg S Bahn networks Crossing lines edit From west to east the Left Lower Rhine line was crossed by now disused railways in Goch Geldern and Kempen The North Brabant German Railway Company Dutch Noord Brabantsch Duitsche Spoorweg Maatschappij NBDS built a line for long distance trains running from London to Berlin and London to Hamburg from Boxtel in the Netherlands via Gennep and Goch to Wesel the Boxtel Railway The Haltern Venlo section of the Paris Hamburg Railway which ran from Venlo via Wesel to Hamburg crossed in Geldern this was opened by the Cologne Minden Railway Company in 1874 The Rhenish Railway Company opened a line from Kempen to Venlo via Kaldenkirchen in 1867 The narrow gauge Geldern District Railway Geldernsche Kreisbahn was opened in 1901 and 1902 from Kempen via Straelen to Kevelaer to improve access to the agricultural land west of the Left Lower Rhine line it was closed in 1934 Current operations edit nbsp Niers Express in Krefeld Oppum before NordWestBahn took over operations nbsp NWB VT558 in Dusseldorf HbfThe Meerbusch Osterath Cleves section of the Left Lower Rhine line is served by a Regional Express service the Niers Express RE 10 on the Kleve Krefeld Dusseldorf route every 30 minutes during the day and evening from Monday to Friday and hourly on weekends and public holidays It connects hourly in Krefeld with the Rhein Munsterland Express RE 7 on the Krefeld Neuss Cologne Wuppertal Hagen Hamm Munster Rheine route Since the Kleve Geldern section has only one track services of the Niers Express running towards Krefeld have to stop for four minutes at the crossing stations of Bedburg Hau and Weeze The total time taken by trains running in the opposite direction is eight minutes less Despite the service s classification as a Regional Express the Niers Express serves all stations between Meerbusch Osterath and Kleve The average speed is only 66 km h All stations on the line have at least two tracks and can serve as crossing stations The Rhein Munsterland Express was formerly operated by DB Regio NRW using push pull trains that are composed of four double deck coaches hauled by class 112 electric locomotives Since December 2015 it has been operated by National Express using Bombardier Talent 2 electric multiple units The Niers Express services were taken over by NordWestBahn in December 2009 and are operated using one to three part LINT 41 diesel multiple units with a top speed of 120 km h NordWestBahn was taken over by Transdev and is now called the RheinRuhrBahn References edit Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland German railway atlas Schweers Wall 2009 ISBN 978 3 89494 139 0 External links editNRW railway archive of Andre Joost Description of line 2610 Cologne Kranenburg Description of line 2620 Cologne Hbf Koln Worringen Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lower Left Rhine Railway amp oldid 1157705778, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
