The Jülich–Dalheim railway is a single-track main line, which was electrified in the Baal West–Ratheim section. The route, opened in 1911, used to be an important north-south connection between the textile locations of Düren and Mönchengladbach/Krefeld, and its importance in freight transport was primarily the connection to the Sophia-Jacoba colliery in Ratheim. In addition, from 1983 to 2001, large quantities of base paper were transported via Jülich to the PKL/SIG combibloc company in Linnich.
The line runs (according to its kilometers from south to north) from Jülich station largely parallel to the Rur via Linnich to Baal through the Jülich Börde landscape and then through the towns of Hückelhoven and Wassenberg, which were formerly shaped by hard coal mining in the Aachen area. It ends at Dalheim station near the German-Dutch border, where there used to be a connection to the Iron Rhine railway line to Roermond. The terminus at Dalheim is the only station on the entire line that is more than 5 km from the Rur.
Today only the Jülich – Linnich section is still in operation; the Rurtalbahn runs on this at least every hour and usually continuously from and to Düren station. There is no freight traffic.