National Express has successfully launched operations on the RE 4 line in Germany.

National Express is now the operator of a total of five lines in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate: RE 7, RB 48, RE 5 (RRX), RE 6 (RRX) and RE 4.

There were no significant operational disruptions at the start of operations and the new Desiro HC RRX vehicles used were reliable and trouble-free.

Due to the construction work at Dortmund Central Station, the line can only be operated by single trains until further notice (probably end of July 2021) according to the construction site timetable of DB Netz AG and in agreement with the authorities. During rush hours, some journeys will be operated in double trains in order to ensure sufficient seating capacity for passengers.

"We owe the successful start of operations of the RE 4 not only to the experience of the start of operations of the RE 5 (RRX) and the RE 6 (RRX) last year, but above all to our energetic employees who made this possible in the first place," said Marcel Winter, Managing Director of National Express Rail GmbH. "We wish the RE 4 passengers a good journey all the time."

The company has already been able to gain valuable experience for regular operations on the line between Aachen Hbf and Dortmund Hbf during training and route familiarisation runs on the vehicles since September 2020, and during test passenger journeys since the beginning of December 2020.

ENDS

Media contact:

Cansu Erdogan
Press Officer
Phone +49 (0) 221 6694 1766
E-mail presse@nationalexpress.de

^{About National Express Rail GmbH}

^{Founded in 2012, National Express Rail GmbH is a German company and a wholly owned subsidiary of National Express Group PLC (NX Group). The administrative headquarters of National Express Rail GmbH is located in Cologne. Since the start of operations on 13 December 2015, National Express Rail GmbH has been operating the RE 7 (Rhein-Münsterland-Express) and the RB 48 (Rhein-Wupper-Bahn) in North Rhine-Westphalia, transporting around 20 million passengers per year. The transport performance is 5.1 million train kilometres per year.}

^{National Express is one of the operators of the preliminary operation of the future Rhine-Ruhr Express (RRX). On 9 June 2019, line RE 5 (RRX) was taken over, followed by line RE 6 (RRX) on 15 December 2019. Since 13 December 2020, line RE 4 also complements the operating network. As a result, the company now provides over 13 million train kilometres per year in operating performance.}