Münster/Dortmund (dpa/lnw) – Breathe a sigh of relief for rail customers in the eastern Ruhr area: five years after the first restrictions on long-distance traffic on the route from Münster to Dortmund, the railways want to be able to run the trains on several IC and ICE lines again from April 15, 2023 let the hourly cycle roll. The train announced on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. In 2018, after weather-related damage after the drought summer of 2018, the railway diverted trains from some lines via Gelsenkirchen on the embankment near Werne and Ascheberg. After the route was renovated in autumn 2020, long-distance traffic remained restricted because the tracks in Dortmund Central Station were renewed over several years.
The connection between Dortmund and Münster is considered an important north-south route between North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Germany with Hamburg, Sylt and the Baltic Sea. A section between Lünen and Münster is considered a bottleneck. The expansion of the previously single-track route has been a matter of debate for years. Trains in regional traffic have to wait for long-distance traffic or slow it down.
With the timetable change from December 11, Deutsche Bahn will be using faster ICE trains with more seats from Münster in the direction of southern Germany (Frankfurt and Basel). There are also additional offers in the direction of Hamburg. The ICE Sprinter runs daily at 3:48 p.m. non-stop to Hamburg.
