Regionalverkehr Ruhr-Lippe

The Regionalverkehr Ruhr-Lippe GmbH (RLG) is a publicly owned company in Westphalia that operates several railway lines as an rail infrastructure company, conducts freight transport as rail transport company, and is active in bus transport.

History
Founded on January 24, 1979, in Soest, RLG is the successor to the AG Ruhr-Lippe-Eisenbahnen (RLE).

The shareholders of this transport company are the Westfälische Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH, which also manages the business, as well as the districts of Hochsauerlandkreis and Kreis Soest. Also involved are the cities of Arnsberg, Brilon, Erwitte, Hallenberg, Hamm, Marsberg, Medebach, Olsberg, Rüthen, Soest, Sundern, Warstein, Werl, and Winterberg, as well as the municipalities of Anröchte, Ense, Lippetal, Möhnesee, and Welver.

The following were consolidated in the company:


 * The railway lines Hamm–Lippborg and Neheim-Hüsten–Arnsberg Süd of the RLE including the RLE bus operation
 * The Neheim-Hüsten–Sundern railway line including bus operation
 * The transport companies Kreis Brilon – Kleinbahn Steinhelle–Medebach – (bus operation only) and
 * The partial operation Brilon–Warstein–Lippstadt of the bus service of the Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn.

Operations management for rail freight traffic is located in Hamm and Hüsten Ost; for bus transport, the depots in Arnsberg, Brilon, Lippstadt, and Soest are responsible.

The operation of the remaining freight traffic of the Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn in the urban area of Soest (taken over by the RLE from 1973) was relatively short-lived. It was carried out by Deutsche Bundesbahn from May 1987 and completely discontinued on December 31, 2001.

The rail network, serving only freight traffic, was 41.732 km long in 2012.

RLG operates two diesel locomotives, No. 54 (MaK G 1206, built in 2008) and No. 68 (KHD DG 1200 BBM, built in 1962).

In bus transport, a total of 217 vehicles (including 107 own buses) were used in 2012 on a route network of 3,993 km in length, which annually transported around 12.7 million passengers  in the district of Soest and in the Hochsauerlandkreis.

Since 2012, RLG, together with Hochsauerlandkreis, Kreis Soest, and BRS Busverkehr Ruhr-Sieg GmbH, has been implementing the mobil4you project. Planned was, among other things, an electric bus as a neighborhood bus in Winterberg and Medebach, which was partially operated between 2013 and 2016 (now replaced in Winterberg by a community bus).

In 2022, RLG had 12.8 million passengers.

Other lines (Neheim/Arnsberg)
Neheim-Hüsten, Train Station – Hövel – Holzen (school service)

Neheim-Hüsten, Train Station – Neheim, Bus Station – Wimbern (school service)

Arnsberg – Schreppenberg – Wennigloh (school service)

Schreppenberg – Breitenbruch (school service)

Arnsberg, Neumarkt – Uentrop (school service)

Arnsberg, Neumarkt – Niedereimer – Bruchhausen – Hüsten – Neheim, Bus Station – Bergheim – Bachum – Voßwinkel

Sundern, Town Hall – Müschede – Herdringen – Neheim-Hüsten, Train Station – Neheim, Bus Station – Niederense – Bremen

Literature

 * Ketteler, Friedhelm, Paul Wambach (1980). In der Heimat fest verwurzelt. Die Ruhr-Lippe-Eisenbahnen: Geschichte und Geschichten. by Ketteler, Friedhelm u. Paul Wambach (in German)
 * Richter, Karl-Arne, Georg Ringler (2002). Lexikon deutscher Privatbahnen. Strecken, Fahrzeuge und Betrieb zwischen Küste und Alpen. (in German). ISBN 3-7654-7174-7
 * Wolff, Gerd (2000). Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen Band 6: Nordrhein-Westfalen, nordöstlicher Teil (in German). ISBN 3-88255-664-1
 * Burkert, Raimund (2011). Bahn und Bus zwischen Ruhr und Lippe (in German). Podszun. ISBN 978-3-86133-589-4