The first passenger services in 1876 ran from Kettwig over the Kettwig railway bridge and the Ruhr bridge in Mülheim to the Mülheim station of the BME,[2] which was later renamed as Mülheim (Ruhr) and is now Mülheim (Ruhr) West.[3] The passenger service was moved in 1909 to Styrum[4] because the connecting curve to Mülheim BME was upgraded for the expansion of Friedrich Wilhelms-Hütte steel works and Mülheim (Ruhr) West station was in the way. At the end of World War II, the two Ruhr bridges were destroyed.[2] Consequently, passenger services from Mülheim had to stop short of the Ruhr bridge at Kettwig and later a station was built there called Kettwig Stausee ("Kettwig reservoir", below the current S-Bahn station of the same name) as a terminus.[5] In Mülheim, the passenger service was diverted over the Broich connecting curve to Speldorf. After the re-establishment of the Mülheim bridge in 1954 both of the north-west end points (Styrum and Speldorf) were served until the abandonment of passenger services in 1968.[2]
History
24 January 1876: BME opened Kettwig–Styrum line
6 March 1876: freight traffic commenced between Kettwig and Styrum
15 March 1876: passenger services started between Kettwig Ruhrbrücke junction
1899: line duplicated between Kettwig and Broich
1909: line duplicated between Broich and Styrum
10 December 1909: passenger services started between Ruhrbrücke junction and Styrum
1945: Broich–Styrum bridge destroyed
10 April 1945: Kettwig–Kettwig Stausee bridge destroyed
1953: passenger service between Kettwig vor der Brücke and Kettwig Stausee restored
23 May 1954: single-track bridge restored for freight between Styrum and Broich
1 November 1955: Kettwig Reservoir Styrum converted from double-track main line in single-track branch line
1954/1955/1958: passenger service between Broich and Styrum was restored
26 May 1968: passenger service between Kettwig Stausee and Styrum abandoned
1 September 1968: freight operations between Kettwig Stausee and Saarn closed
10 October 1973: Broich–Styrum line closed
10 October 1973: Saarn–Broich line converted into a station track
1978: freight operations between Saarn and Broich closed
2 November 1981: Saarn–Broich line closed
3 February 1982: Saarn–Broich line dismantled.
1992: connecting line between Broich and Speldorf dismantled.
Notes
^Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN978-3-89494-139-0.
Friedhelm Stöters (1993). Die Ruhrtalbahn von Kettwig nach Mülheim an der Ruhr (in German). Duisburg: self-published.
Martin Menke (1999). Die Geschichte der Ruhrtalbahn von Mülheim (Styrum) über Broich-Saarn-Mintard nach Kettwig (in German) (3 ed.). Mülheim an der Ruhr: self-published by Eisenbahnfreunde.
