In 1988 the first regular interval regional rapid train service was established from Dortmund via Essen, Duisburg and Düsseldorf to Cologne. This operated hourly on the Cologne–Duisburg and Dortmund–Duisburg lines, which even then were the most important railway lines for passenger traffic in North Rhine-Westphalia. With the introduction of high-speed regional services in the early 1990s, this line was named the NRW-Express and ran from Bielefeld via Hamm, Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne to Aachen. With the extension of the service on the Hamm–Bielefeld and Cologne–Aachen lines, the service soon had insufficient capacity. Therefore, in May 1998 with the NRW-wide implementation of regional express lines, the NRW-Express was supplemented by the Westfalen-Express from Bielefeld via Hamm, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg to Düsseldorf so that on the northern section there were two Regional-Expresses per hour.
Timetable change in 2002
After the timetable change in December 2002, services on the central Ruhr axis between Hamm and Düsseldorf increased to five Regional-Express services in each two hour period. The NRW-Express was now shortened to run on the Hamm–Aachen route, the Westfalen-Express was established between Düsseldorf and Minden. The new Rhein-Hellweg-Express was introduced at two hourly intervals, running from Düsseldorf to Hamm and continuing on the line to Paderborn.
Timetable change in 2010
When the timetable change in December 2010 there was an exchange of sections between the NRW-Express, the Rhein-Hellweg Express and Rhein-Haard-Express :
The section of the Rhein-Hellweg-Express from Hamm via Soest and Lippstadt to Paderborn was taken over by the NRW-Express; this section continues to be operated only every two hours.
The section of the Rhein-Hellweg Express between Duisburg and Düsseldorf was taken over by the Rhein-Haard-Express. In return, the Rhein-Hellweg Express runs on the section between Duisburg and Mönchengladbach. The Duisburg–Mönchengladbach line is for the first time connected directly to the eastern Ruhr region by Regional-Express services.
Overall, there were further bottlenecks due to the timetable change. In the central Ruhr area between Hamm and Duisburg, three regional express lines were now running at approximately 20-minute intervals. The Hamm–Dortmund section was reinforced by RE 3, the Bochum–Essen section by RE 16 and the Essen–Duisburg section by RE 2.
Timetable change in 2016
In the course of the development of the Rhein-Ruhr-Express network, the Rhein-Hellweg-Express returned to its original route between Düsseldorf and Paderborn and was extended to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe at the timetable change on 11 December 2016. The section between Hamm and Kassel, however is only operated generally at two-hour intervals and some trains even in the afternoon peak terminate in Paderborn. Due to some remaining IC/ICE services on the line, there are unsatisfactory gaps in the regional services of up to four hours in both directions, especially at lunch time. Departure times also differ significantly, so the timetable is difficult for customers to remember since there are no regular services. In the evenings, the RE 11 service from Düsseldorf ends in Dortmund. At the other end, some services only run from Kassel to Hamm, so passengers are forced to change trains regularly to reach the Ruhr area or Düsseldorf. Due to longer scheduled stays in Duisburg and Dortmund, the travel time of regional services between Paderborn and Düsseldorf has increased by up to ten minutes compared to the previous operation by RE 1. The use of the class 425 sets has significantly reduced the capacity of seating and standing places. The number of daily circuits serving the entire route has been reduced from eight to seven. The section of Eurobahn's daily Dortmund-Kassel-Sprinter service from Hamm was integrated in RE 11. The section of the RE 11 from Duisburg via Krefeld to Mönchengladbach that is no longer served by the RE 11 was replaced by the RE 42, which was upgraded from the RB 42 and extended from Münster via Essen, Mülheim, Duisburg and Krefeld to Mönchengladbach.
Route
The Rhein-Hellweg Express runs daily every hour and uses five railway lines:
The Kassel–Warburg railway throughout, which is also used by other regional and long-distance services,
The Hamm–Warburg railway throughout, which is also used by other regional and long-distance services,
The Dortmund–Hamm railway, which is also used by three other Regional-Express services and long-distance trains,
RE 11 services runs hourly from Monday to Sunday. Initially, when the service operated between Hamm and Paderborn on weekdays at two hourly intervals, trains were composed ofclass 110 and 111 locomotives, usually hauling five Silberling carriages. But it was soon noticed that the number of passengers required higher capacity, which meant that class 112 locomotives are now used with four double-decker carriages. The carriages have air conditioning and are approved for a maximum speed of. The service has an average speed of. Since 21 February 2011, in addition to the double-decker trains, class 425 electric multiple units are used on the Rhein-Hellweg Express, these had previously been modernised for use on this service. Double-deck trains remain operating on the line until the completion of the conversion of the class 425 EMUs.
Operator
NRW took over operations on the line from 9 December 2018. This subsidiary of Nederlandse Spoorwegen won the contract for the operation of the NRW-Express as Lot 1 of the Rhein-Ruhr-Express. The line was formerly operated by DB Regio NRW under a special contract with the North Rhine-Westphalian public transport associations. DB Regio NRW had the contract to operate the line until the timetable change on 13 December 2015. The contract included provisions for services every two hours between Hamm and Paderborn; this section became part of the RE 1 at the timetable change in December 2010, committing operations on this line to run permanently with a sixth double-deck coach. As part of the so-called RRX interim contract, operations from December 2016 until the commissioning of RRX rolling stock were provided by DB Regio.
