The Sauerland Net (German: Sauerland-Netz) is a group of railway services in the western Sauerland and the eastern Ruhr of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and consists of four Regionalbahn services, RB 43 (Dortmund–Dorsten), RB 52 (Dortmund–Hagen–Lüdenscheid), RB 53 (Dortmund–Schwerte–Iserlohn) and RB 54 (Unna–Fröndenberg–Menden–Neuenrade), and the Regional-Express service RE 57 (Dortmund–Bestwig–Winterberg/Brilon Stadt). The RB 43 also carries the brand name of the Emschertal-Bahn, the RB 52 is called the Volmetal-Bahn, the RB 53 is called the Ardey-Bahn, the RB 54 is called the Hönnetal-Bahn and the RE 57 is called the Dortmund Sauerland-Express. In December 2004, DB Regio NRW took over or retained operations of these services. Previously the RB 53, RB 54 and RE 57 had been operated by DB Regio NRW and RB 52 had been operated by the Dortmund-Märkische Eisenbahn (DME).
In December 2004, DB Regio NRW took over the operation of the RB 52 from Dortmund-Märkische Eisenbahn. The RB 53, RB 54 and RE 57 were already operated by the DB Regio NRW. DB Regio NRW took over operation of the RB 43 from NordWestBahn in December 2015.[1]
With the award of operations from December 2016, the RE 17 service also became part of the Sauerland network.