What is "sauerland-express"

The Sauerland-Express (RE 17) is a Regional-Express service in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, running from Hagen to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe and is managed by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (Rhine-Ruhr Transport Association), the Verkehrsgemeinschaft Ruhr-Lippe (Ruhr-Lippe Transport Company, VRL), the Nahverkehrsverbund Paderborn-Höxter (Paderborn-Höxter Local Transport Association, nph) and the Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund (North Hessian Transport Association, NVV). It is operated by DB Regio NRW with electric multiple units of classes 612 and 628.4 and is popular with tourists and users of the Schönen-Wochenende (“beautiful weekend”) tickets.

The operation of the service from 2016 has been put out to tender as part of the Sauerland Net (Sauerland-Netz).