Dortmund Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The station's origins lie in a joint station of the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn and Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn which was built north of the city centre in 1847. That station was replaced by a new station, erected in 1910 at the current site. It featured raised embankments to allow a better flow of traffic. At the time of its opening, it was one of the largest stations in Germany. It was, however, destroyed in an Allied air raid on 6 October 1944.

Rhein Ruhr Express is a regional rail system in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of Germany connecting the Ruhr Valley and the central Rhineland. The primary goal is to provide a fast connection on the main trunk line between Dortmund and Cologne, located along the Ruhr Valley, with trains every quarter of an hour. This main line has been expanded, improved or reconfigured to enable more trains to operate and at higher speeds. Like the previous Regional-Express lines they replaced, RRX routes branch off from the main trunk line to serve other cities and states at lower frequencies.