Schwerin – Rehna railway line

Schwerin-Rehna
Railway line near Schwerin-Friedrichsthal
Route number (DB) :	6932
Course book section (DB) :	152
Route length:	33.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Lübeck Schoenberg (Meckl) after Bad Kleinen (discussed extension) 33.9 Rehna B 104 29.3 Holdorf (Meckl) B 208 23.6 Gadebusch 16.9 Lützow B 104 11.9 Gross Brütz K 28 B 104 8.3 Schwerin-Friedrichsthal 6.6 Schwerin-Friedrichsthal East 5.5 Schwerin-Warnitz B 104, B 106 4.4 Schwerin-Margaretenhof 3.0 Schwerin-Lankow 2.9 Initially Schwerin waterworks of bath little ones Schwerin Abzw (formerly connecting curve) Schwerin freight yard 0.0 Schwerin Central Station to Hagenow , to Parchim , to Ludwigslust

The Schwerin – Rehna railway line is a single-track, non-electrified branch line in the west of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It connects the cities of Rehna and Gadebusch with the state capital Schwerin .

history

The connection was planned in the 1890s as part of a continuous connection Lübeck –Schwerin– Parchim with a potential extension into the Prussian province of Brandenburg . The Friedrich-Franz-Eisenbahn in Mecklenburg took over the construction and the subsequent management. Work began as with the Schwerin – Parchim extension in 1893.

Disagreements about the exact alignment caused the start of construction to fall back, as the farmers did not agree to make their land available for the construction of the line , especially for the last section between Schönberg on the Lübeck-Kleinener Eisenbahn and Rehna. Therefore, the railway company initially limited itself to building the almost 34 kilometers between Schwerin and Rehna.

The route opened on October 12, 1897. The opening train, pulled by the “Triddelfitz” steam locomotive, was only filled with a few dignitaries. In addition, the stations were only completed in a few places, so the town of Lützow only received its station building around 1901.

Out of scale track diagram of Rehna train station and locomotive station (around 1940)

The traffic took place and continues to this day exclusively on the main route and the extension to Parchim. Because the railway, with six pairs of trains every day, was already one of the busiest branch lines, the planners repeatedly advocated an extension to Schönberg to the Lübeck-Kleinener Eisenbahn until the 1940s. However, as the state's financial resources were limited, as was the case with the construction of the line, Schwerin refused to give its consent. In addition, the landowners along the planned extension did not agree to give up their land, but sometimes even paid several marks for the railway to take a detour. So the plans dried up in the course of the Second World War .

1987 railway accident near Holdorf

On August 3, 1987, there was a serious accident near Holdorf when a replacement locomotive ran into a passenger train that had broken down due to a damage to the locomotive. 17 people were injured, five of them seriously, including the two train drivers.

The next plans for closing the gap came up again in the 1990s. The decisive factor was, among other things, the upcoming rehabilitation of the line and signs of closure for the Gadebusch – Rehna section due to a lack of passengers. The ten and a half kilometer extension is estimated to cost 15.5 to 18 million euros and be paid for with regionalization funds. The expected increase in passenger numbers would also have guaranteed safe operation for the MecklenburgBahn (since 2005 Ostseeland Verkehr GmbH, OLA), which has been operating passenger traffic since 2001 . Although several politicians, including the mayors of Schönberg and Rehna and Erhard Bräunig, the district administrator of the north-west Mecklenburg district , spoke out in favor of the new building, the implementation of the project was postponed to an unknown time. The renovation of the existing route took place independently in 2006. In 2017, the district's economic committee decided to draw up an expert report in which the district, the Pro Bahn passenger association and the cities of Rehna and Gadebusch contribute financially.

Rehna train station (2008)

Until December 14, 2013, Ostseeland Verkehr operated the route with LINT railcars , and since December 15, 2013, the traffic has been operated by the East German Railway (ODEG).

Trains run every hour Monday to Friday, with every second train from Schwerin ending in Gadebusch outside of rush hour. At the weekend, a two-hour cycle is offered along the entire route. The crossings take place in Groß Brütz .

Special trips

In addition to the regular journeys, the “Radegast Express” steam train ran once a year in the 1990s with the 91 134 steam locomotive . The vehicle is currently being looked after by the association “Mecklenburgische Eisenbahnfreunde Schwerin eV” and is now back on a special train, including on this route. More detailed information on the steam train timetable can be found on the Mecklenburgische Eisenbahnfreunde website.

Web links

Commons : Schwerin – Rehna railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Railways in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - Schwerin (Meckl) –Rehna
• Gadebusch railway history - 100 years and more, the Schwerin – Gadebusch – Rehna line

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerd Behrendt: "With the steam horse into the future" , Schweriner Volkszeitung, November 3, 2007
2. ↑ Gerd Behrendt: "For the maiden voyage, please get in" , Schweriner Volkszeitung, November 10, 2007
3. ^ At Holdorf, railway accident. In: App in History. Retrieved November 10, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Stadt Rehna, Aktuell - Missing Power Word from the Minister , article from the Schweriner Volkszeitung, March 13, 2003
5. ↑ Michael Schmidt: Rehna: Expert opinion for railway gap closure . In: SVZ . November 22, 2017 ( svz.de [accessed March 1, 2018]).
6. ↑ http://termine.mef-schwerin.de/ (link not available)