Wanne-Herner Eisenbahn und Hafen

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Wanne-Herner Eisenbahn und Hafen (WHE) is a German railway and canal port operator based around the Rhine-Herne Canal in the Ruhr area. The company was founded in 1913 and operates freight rail services and two ports.

History and background
The port’s origins go back to the early 1900s with the Rhine-Herne Canal. In 1905, Kanalhafen Wanne-Gelsenkirchen-Land was created to serve coal mines along the canal. In 1913 Herne joined the project and the company was renamed Hafenbetriebsgesellschaft Herne-Wanne mbH. The west harbour opened in 1914, and a narrow-gauge railway connected it to the Shamrock 3/4 mine, followed by connections to other mines. Freight volumes grew quickly, and in the 1920s the port linked to the Carolinenglück mine in Bochum and Teutoburgia in Herne. A basin on the west side for ship maneuvering was later filled in in the 1990s to make space for a logistics centre.

Operations and ports
WHE focuses on moving coal, ISO containers, and other bulk goods. It operates two ports:

- Westhafen Wanne (Wanne West Port): Now home to the GVZ Emscher logistics centre, with rail and road links and canal access. WHE runs the rail links here and handles coal and intermodal traffic.

- Osthafen Wanne (Wanne East Port): Main cargo is scrap metal.

Railway and equipment
The railway network includes tens of kilometres of track linking to the company’s ports and to the RAG and Deutsche Bahn networks. In 2005, WHE operated about ten heavy freight locomotives and more than 100 wagons, with workshops at Westhafen Wanne for maintenance and repairs. The locomotives were MaK models (roughly 1000 kW each), and rolling stock commonly carried an orange livery with a blue stripe; coal wagons bore the letters WHE.

Subsidiaries
- BAV Aufbereitung Herne GmbH: Storage, transportation, and mixing of coal blends.
- CTH Container Terminal Herne GmbH: Operates WHE’s container terminal.

In brief
WHE is a historical rail freight and port operator born from early 20th‑century coal transport needs. Today it runs coal and bulk handling, container operations, and two ports in the Ruhr region, supported by a small fleet of locomotives and dedicated workshops.