History of the Ruhr and steel industries have declined drastically History of the Ruhr The actual boundaries of the Ruhr vary slightly depending on the source, but a good working definition is to define the Lippe and Ruhr as its northern and southern boundaries respectively, the Rhine as its western boundary, and the town of Hamm as the eastern limit. In the Middle Ages, local power was vested primarily in the counts ("Grafen") of Berg, Mark and Cleves. The left bank of the Rhine was held by the Archbishop of Cologne. The Hellweg was an important trade route crossing the region from Duisburg to
S7 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn) S7 (Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn) Line S 7 is an S-Bahn line on the Rhine-Ruhr network in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which has been operated by Abellio from Wuppertal Hauptbahnhof to Solingen Hauptbahnhof since 15 December 2013. It is operated at 20 minute intervals, using LINT 41 vehicles. The service was previously classified as Regionalbahn service RB 47, known as the "Der Müngstener", a reference to the Müngsten Bridge, which it crosses and DB Regio had operated it on the same route with class 628 diesel multiple units since 1994. It was also operated at 20-minute intervals, in the evenings