Aschaffenburg – Höchst railway line (Odenwald)

Aschaffenburg South – Höchst (Odenwald)
Route number (DB) :	5222
Course book section (DB) :	556
Route length:	30 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Aschaffenburg Hbf 0.0 Aschaffenburg South to Miltenberg Hbf 3.1 Nilkheim Main Bridge (274 m) to Aschaffenburg harbor 3.8 Aschaffenburg- Nilkheim 4.8 Instead of linden tree 8.6 Großostheim 10.6 Pflaumheim place 11.7 Pflaumheim-Wenigumstadt 16.8 Mömlingen place 17.9 Mömlingen State border Bavaria / Hesse 21.1 Hainstadt (Kr Erbach) 24.6 Neustadt (Odenw) 26.6 Sandbach (Odenw) 29.0 Highest viaduct Bundesstrasse 45 from Hanau 29.8 Höchst (Odenw) 174 m to Eberbach Swell:

The Aschaffenburg – Höchst (Odenwald) line was a branch line in Bavaria and Hesse . It ran from Aschaffenburg to Höchst in the Odenwald . Since the railway line ran through the Bachgau , it was also called the Bachgaubahn .

history

Former station on the line in Nilkheim

Viaduct of the Bachgaubahn near Wenigumstadt

Bridge over the Welzbach in Großostheim

The 30-kilometer route was built on the basis of a Bavarian Local Railway Act of July 12, 1906 and a state treaty between the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Grand Duchy of Hesse of April 12, 1905. The attempt by the city of Obernburg to manage the route through its urban area failed. It took place on the territory of both states. The building owner and operator were the Royal Bavarian State Railways .

On May 1, 1911, the first section between Aschaffenburg Süd and Großostheim went into operation, and 19 months later, on December 1, 1912, the remaining section to Höchst. From 1921, only 4th class passenger trains ran on the route .

Towards the end of the Second World War, the passage of the Hemsbach through the embankment of the Miltenberger Bahn and the Bachgaubahn was expanded into a makeshift air raid shelter for the residents of the Obernau colony and the employees of the Petri steering wheel factory. For this purpose, an intermediate ceiling made of brick was drawn into the passage. In 1954, the capacity of the passage was further reduced from originally 22 cubic meters per second to 10 cubic meters of water per second by means of a concrete wall in front of it, in order to be able to use the railway embankment as a dam in the event of a flash flood and thus to slow down the flooding of the Eckertsmühle, which is located downstream in a valley basin .

Remains of the route between Neustadt and Sandbach 2019

Bicycle path on the embankment between Neustadt and Sandbach 2019

In 1973, the Federal Minister of Transport approved the closure of the Bachgaubahn as part of the savings measures taken by the Deutsche Bundesbahn . Passenger trains ran for the last time on May 25, 1974 and all traffic between Großostheim and Neustadt was suspended. In the weeks and months that followed, the tracks on the section between Großostheim and Neustadt were dismantled and the five-kilometer stretch between Neustadt and Höchst was placed under the authority of the Frankfurt Federal Railway Directorate. Freight traffic between Neustadt and Sandbach ceased on January 1, 1995, and between Sandbach and Höchst on December 31, 1998; The line was shut down and dismantled in 1999.

Freight traffic between Aschaffenburg-Nilkheim and Großostheim was discontinued on September 28, 1991, the remaining section of the route with the connection to the Aschaffenburg port was operationally converted into a station track. On January 11, 2012, the Federal Railway Authority approved the closure of the Aschaffenburg South - Aschaffenburg-Nilkheim line on February 1, 2012. However, it is noted that the line will continue to be operated “as a service facility by Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG”. In June 2012, the Bayernhafen Group took over the section from DB, so that the port's rail connection is still secured. For about two years now, the route of the Bachgaubahn in the section between the northern end of the Aschaffenburg Süd station and the level crossing on the Bischberg has been able to be used by trains to Miltenberg ( Aschaffenburg – Miltenberg line ), because this is at the level of the former weaving mill Däfler and at the level a switch was installed at each fire station. In the years 2012 to 2014, the sandstone arch bridge over the St 2309 was replaced by one overpass each over the expanded St 2309 and one over its newly built footpath and bike path.

The dirt road overpass over the Bachgaubahn near Wenigumstadt was filled. Today the dirt road runs on a dam.

Current condition of the route

The Bachgaubahn begins at Aschaffenburg Süd station at point 702 in kilometer 2.38 of the Aschaffenburg – Miltenberg railway line and runs parallel to the single-track Main Valley Railway until shortly after the Schweinheim substation. Here it separates from this in a 90-degree arc, in which the entry signal and the operational limit are located at kilometers 2.70. The rest of the route is owned by Bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG and runs over railway bridges over the Main and state road 3115. The passage under the latter is blocked for vehicles over 3.60 meters in total height. Since this blockage is often ignored, steel frames are placed in front of the bridge to protect the railway bridge against the impact of vehicles and an automatic height control is installed. Because of the narrow passage width, a pedestrian and cycle path accompanying the road was laid out and a new level crossing with circular barriers was created on the north side of the railway bridge.

In kilometer 3,666 - in front of the train station / junction Nilkheim - the line to Aschaffenburg Hafen branches off. After crossing an unrestricted level crossing, it reaches the former wooden entrance building of the Aschaffenburg-Nilkheim train station, which is now used by a fishing club and under whose loading ramp there is a listed former Schartenstand of the Wetterau-Main-Tauber position. It crosses the Schönbusch landscape park and ends after two more level crossings with circulation barriers and an unbarred level crossing in kilometers 5,500 at the private siding of the former Transpetrol (Schippnerstraße 5, a transfer station for liquid gas).

The former level crossing on the Großostheimer district via the district road AB16 no longer exists. A part of the embankment that is still preserved runs as a green area from Kreisstraße AB 16 under the bridge of Bundesstraße 469, which was widened and reinforced in 2016/17, to St 3115. From here to Großostheim station, from which part of the goods hall on Babenhäuser Straße is still part stands, the railway line is largely built up by the buildings of the Stockstädter Weg industrial park. The railway bridge over the Welzbach at km 9.0 is incorporated into the open space design of the Großostheim town hall with a ballast bed and track. Otherwise, the course of the route in the localities of Großostheim and Pflaumheim is barely traceable. The former railway bridge over Mömlinger Strasse in Pflaumheim (Kreisstrasse AB 1) was demolished.

In the outer area between Pflaumheim and Mömlingen, the former railway line is easily accessible because of the gravel that is still present and has been protected by nature conservation law since 1997 as a protected landscape component. The railway overpass, made up of one large and two small sandstone arches, over the Wenigumstädter Rahsicholgraben at km 12.7 (so-called Lohrmannsbrücke) still exists (see the illustration, on which unfortunately only the middle arch can be seen). On the valley side of the bridge there are still steel sections in the gravel bed and indicate the Maximilianshütte Rosenberg with the rolling mark MI. The dirt road overpass (so-called Hohe Brücke) at km 13.4 in the Wenigumstadt district was filled in and is now a road embankment. A concrete tube with a diameter of approx. 2 m allows passage at the level of the railway embankment.

In the Mömlingen locality, parts of the old railway line run along Großostheimer Straße (district road MIL 32), followed by a footpath and bike path.

The former embankment and a bridge can be seen between Hainstadt and Neustadt. Residential houses and a supermarket were built on the former train station premises in Neustadt. In the further course the old tracks are still partly to Sandbach. Partly there is a cycle path on the former railway embankment between Neustadt and Sandbach, which also crosses the Mümmling over a former railway bridge.

A workshop for the Pirelli company has now been built on the site of the former train station in Sandbach . A connecting road between the two tire plants now runs along the former railway line. The station building in Sandbach is used privately.

At the beginning of spring 2008, the tracks between Sandbach and Höchst were finally completely removed and the old level crossings filled with concrete. The most striking artificial structure on the route, the viaduct spanning the town of Höchst, still exists and dominates the townscape to this day. The former engine shed at Höchst station is now a residential building.

future

Due to the tense traffic situation between Aschaffenburg and Großostheim, especially during rush hour , which leads to travel times of up to 40 minutes during rush hour , efforts have been made in Großostheim and Aschaffenburg to reactivate the Bachgaubahn to Großostheim since 2008. To this end, an initiative was launched in 2011 that receives non-partisan support. In order to sound out the demand and to examine the possibilities of better transport connections to Aschaffenburg, a feasibility study was carried out on behalf of Markt Großostheim and Stadtwerke Aschaffenburg, the results of which are available and are being critically questioned. A submitted by representatives of the "Alliance Bachgau train" temporary operating concept provides direct trains about Aschaffenburg in the Rhine-Main area in front, with trains from Großostheim at the station Aschaffenburg South with guidelines of the Main Valley Railway were united from the direction of Miltenberg (see also: outflanking ). The trains should then run together as far as possible to Frankfurt Central Station .

In July 2013 bayernhafen GmbH & Co. KG was considering connecting the Bayernhafen Aschaffenburg to the electrified Rhein-Main-Bahn via its rail network to the west . The background was the high utilization of the existing, non-electrified port connection to the main lines via the also non-electrified Main Valley Railway and the impending widening of the bridge of the federal highway 469 over the former route of the Bachgaubahn. For the new connection to the west, an approximately five kilometer long, electrified route would have to come from the port on the route of the former Bachgaubahn, under the B 469, past the extended Großostheim-Ringheim airfield and finally parallel to the B 469, crossing Bundesstraße 26, be led through the Stockstädter Hübnerwald to the Rhein-Main-Bahn. However , these considerations have not been included in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 passed by the Bundestag in 2016 .

With the construction of such a connection to the west, politicians think there is a good chance of building a branch stretch of only about one kilometer from the bridge of the B 469 to the outskirts of Großostheim. With the inclusion of the western connection of the port to the Rhein-Main-Bahn in the next federal transport infrastructure plan for the period after 2030, their costs would have to be borne by the federal government in future. This means that at most the costs of the short branch line would have to be covered by the Großostheim store, which, however, would no longer "be the problem". In August 2013, the then Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer also spoke out in favor of this cost-effective option for the Free State of Bavaria at an election campaign event in Großostheim. The citizens' initiative Pro Stockstadt was founded in mid-April 2014. One of their goals is to prevent the port from being connected to the west by the Stockstadt Hübnerwald.

On November 29, 2017, the "Bündnis Bachgaubahn" founded in 2011 under the new name "Bachgaubahn-Jetzt" held an information event in Aschaffenburg, in which it was also pointed out that the Bachgaubahn via Schaafheim to Babenhausen through the Hessian part of the Bachgau in to lead the Rodgau and in which, in order to be able to cross the district road AB 16 at the same height, the construction of a tram instead of a railway was proposed.

In January 2018 the Bavarian state government decided on a “Bavarian Electric Mobility Strategy Rail to Reduce Diesel Traffic in the Rail Network in Bavaria”. Parts of this strategy are the electrification of the Aschaffenburg - Miltenberg line and the port railway, over whose track connection the Bachgaubahn ran.

literature

• Andreas Kuhfahl: Branch lines in Lower Franconia . Eisenbahn-Fachbuchverlag Neustadt / Coburg, 2003. ISBN 3-9805967-9-6 .
• Alois Ott, Hans H. Weber: Transport facilities in the community of Wenigumstadt . In: Wenigumstadt - Contributions to the history of a Bachgaugemeinde . Wenigumstadt 1977.
• Frank Schmelz: Linear anthropogenic woody and fringing structures in Bachgau (Gmde. Großostheim, Lkrs. Aschaffenburg) , Gießen 2001, (online) .

Web links

Commons : Aschaffenburg – Höchst railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
2. ^ Kahlgrund Railway Friends: Bachgau Railway Aschaffenburg - Großostheim - Höchst / Odw . Retrieved October 22, 2019.
3. ^ Heinz Janson, Helmut Wörn: 700 Years of the City of Obernburg (1313–2013) - Railway and Bridge Construction . Local and tourist association (HVV) Obernburg. Retrieved October 22, 2019.
4. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of November 23, 1912, No. 59. Announcement No. 698, p. 439.
5. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of November 23, 1912, No. 59. Announcement No. 698, p. 439.
6. ↑ Railway Directorate in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Railway Directorate in Mainz of April 2, 1921, No. 17. Announcement No. 286, p. 208.
7. ↑ Annual press conference 2012 (PDF; 643 KiB) Bayernhafen Group, May 31, 2012, accessed on July 31, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Broad alliance for the Bachgau Railway Main Echo from March 24, 2011, last accessed on July 12, 2011.
9. ↑ Großostheim community is for the train. Main Echo, July 15, 2011, accessed July 15, 2011 . 
10. ↑ Background: Working group “Bahndreieck Spessart”. In: Main-Echo, 22/23. October 2011, p. 20.
11. ↑ Hafenbahn could open the gate for Bachgaubahn. (No longer available online.) Main-Netz , July 25, 2013, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 25, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
12. ↑ Seehofer smiles away criticism of dealing with the media in Großostheim. Main-Echo , August 27, 2013, accessed February 8, 2014 .