South German Railway Company

In 1908 this share was bought out by Hugo Stinnes and other industrialists, who founded the Rhine Westphalia Railway Company (Rheinisch-Westfälische Bahn-GmbH or RWB) in 1909, in order to bring together the numerous tramway operations of the Ruhrgebiet.

In the same year the railway network grew with the addition of the: On the other hand, several railways were hived off by the SEG to other newly founded companies in the following years as follows: At this time – on 1 April 1916 - the SEG firm owned branch lines totaling 216 km (134 mi) in length, of which 37 km (23 mi) were narrow gauge.

Although early on, buses were used as a backup for rail services and to extend the branch lines, they only produced meagre profits compared with the tramways, so that the SEG endeavoured not to renew concessions when they expired.

After the end of the Second World War, the SEG was dispossessed of the three railways in Thuringia (AIE, HEE, IGE).

This company exists to the present day with standard and metre gauge tramways of 74 km (46 mi) length, but is now called Ruhrbahn [de].