The Hellweg net consists of the four Regionalbahn lines in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia: RB 50 (Münster – Lünen – Dortmund), RB 59 (Dortmund – Unna – Soest), RB 69 (Münster – Hamm – Bielefeld) and RB 89 (Münster – Hamm – Paderborn – Warburg). It has a length of about 370 km. The RB 50 is referred to as Der Lüner, the RB 59 as Die Hellweg-Bahn and the RB 69 and RB 89 together as Die Ems-Börde-Bahn. On 14 December 2008 operations were taken over by eurobahn (own capitalisation). Previously these four Regionalbahn services were operated by DB Regio NRW. Tender The Hellweg network was announced in March 2006. This was one of the largest rail networks to be put to tender in Germany. Tenders were submitted by Abellio Rail NRW, DB Regio NRW, Arriva Deutschland (now Netinera), Rhenus Keolis and the Hamburger Hochbahn together with moBiel (the Bielefeld municipal transport company). The winner of the tender was the then Rhenus Keolis GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture, which on 1 January 2007 was divided between the two partners. It was put into operation by Keolis Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG under the brand name of eurobahn. General The contract for the operation of the Hellweg network was closed on 14 July 2008. It covers a volume of 5.6 million train-km per year and is valid for ten years. The contractors are Nahverkehrsverbund Paderborn-Höxter (Paderborn-Höxter local transport, nph), Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (Rhine-Ruhr transport association, VRR), VerkehrsVerbund OstWestfalenLippe (Ostwestfalen-Lippe transport association, VVOWL), Zweckverband Ruhr-Lippe (Ruhr-Lippe purpose association, ZRL) and Zweckverband SPNV Münsterland (Münsterland public transport association, ZVM) as public transport authorities and Eurobahn as operator. The existing timetable was maintained. The Eurobahn bought 25 new four-part Stadler FLIRT railcars for operation on the Hellweg network. These replaced older Deutsche Bahn vehicles. The increased comfort of the new train sets as well as the fully functioning ticket machine in the train were well received by passengers. A workshop was built in Hamm-Heessen for servicing Eurobahn’s Flirt railcars with a capacity of 43 vehicles. It was taken into full operation in the summer of 2009. The company plans to employ 200 people there. RB 50: Der Lüner Der Lüner (meaning the person/thing from Lünen) connects Dortmund via Lünen with Munster. Services run from Dortmund Hauptbahnhof via Münster Hauptbahnhof initially over a section of the Dortmund–Enschede railway. From Lünen they