Classic route
Lower Left Rhine Railway
Krefeld → Kleve · Germany
Lower Left Rhine Railway in pictures



Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 66 km
- Fastest time
- ≈ 59 min
- Average speed
- 67 km/h
- Operator
- RheinRuhrBahn
- Train
- RE 10 · Niers-Express
- Countries
- Germany
- In service since
- 1863
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
The Rhine’s quiet left bank to the Dutch border: Kempen, Geldern, the pilgrim town of Kevelaer and Goch, on rails that reached Kleve on 1 March 1863.
The Linksniederrheinische Strecke keeps to the west bank of the Rhine, and its Cologne–Krefeld section — opened by the Cöln-Crefeld Railway Company in 1855 — is among the oldest in Germany. North of Krefeld the character changes: 65 km of non-electrified track, single from Geldern onwards, running up to Kleve. The continuation through Kranenburg to Nijmegen has been closed since 1991.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 2537833 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 3 m from it
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits under 100 m from the shape of RE 10
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Along the way
- Krefeld
- Geldern, where the double track ends
- Kleve
- The closed Kranenburg alignment towards Nijmegen
How long is the Lower Left Rhine Railway?
The Lower Left Rhine Railway runs 66 km from Krefeld to Kleve.
How long does the Lower Left Rhine Railway take?
The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 59 min for the 66 km. That is an average of 67 km/h end to end.
Who runs the Lower Left Rhine Railway?
RheinRuhrBahn, with RE 10, Niers-Express.
How old is the Lower Left Rhine Railway?
The line has been in service since 1863. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
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