Wissembourg train station

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Wissembourg
French-German encounter at Wissembourg train station
French-German encounter at Wissembourg train station
Data
Operating point type railway station
Location in the network Terminus
Design Through station
Platform tracks 4th
abbreviation XFWBG ( Directory of Operations )
IBNR 8700382
opening November 26, 1855
location
City / municipality Wissembourg
Department Bas-Rhin department
region Grand Est
Country France
Coordinates 49 ° 1 '54 "  N , 7 ° 57' 0"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 1 '54 "  N , 7 ° 57' 0"  E
Railway lines
List of train stations in France
i16 i16 i18

The Wissembourg Station - 1871-1919 and 1942-1945 White Castle - is the station of the Alsatian town of Wissembourg . It is a terminus where the Palatinate Maximiliansbahn from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse and the line from Vendenheim end. Between 1900 and 1958 there was a connecting line between Lauterbourg and Wissembourg . The station is integrated into the Rhineland-Palatinate cycle on the Palatinate Maximiliansbahn and integrated into the tariff of the Karlsruhe Transport Association (KVV) and the Rhine-Neckar Transport Association (VRN) for journeys north . Within the VRN, it is part of tariff cluster 142.

location

View from the east of the platforms

Local situation

The station is located on the south-eastern edge of the city center of Wissembourg . To the northwest of it runs almost parallel to the Avenue de la Gare , which becomes the Allée des Peupliers to the east with the confluence of the Rue Vauban . To the south of the station, the Rue des Messageries runs almost parallel to the tracks , which also borders it to the west.

Railway lines

The Palatinate Maximiliansbahn comes from the north-east. When you cross the Lauter , it crosses the German-French border. Shortly before reaching the train station, she turns right to walk north-west for a few 100 meters. There it joins the Vendenheim – Wissembourg railway line , which comes from the south.

history

Planning and construction

After the Palatinate Ludwigsbahn from Ludwigshafen to Bexbach was built in the neighboring Bavarian Palatinate from 1847 to 1849 , discussions subsequently took place as to whether a route on the mountains from Neustadt via Landau to Wissembourg in Alsace or a route on the Rhine via Speyer, Germersheim, Wörth and Lauterbourg was more urgent and be more desirable. The military in particular preferred the route that was to run on the edge of the Palatinate Forest and the Vosges . However, the political events of 1848 caused the project to come to a standstill for the time being.

As early as May 1847, Alsace had spoken out in favor of a route via Wissembourg. In the following years there were discussions in the Palatinate about whether the route should be continued via Germersheim to Speyer or via Landau to Neustadt. In January 1850, a brochure was published in what was then Neustadt an der Haardt, in which a rail route via Landau to Wissembourg was propagated and in which, among other things, the greater density of settlements compared to the places directly on the Rhine was argued. The decision was finally made in 1852 in favor of the mountain line after reports and investigations had been initiated the previous year. On November 3 of the same year, the then Bavarian King Maximilian II gave the green light for the construction by approving the establishment of a stock corporation that tackled the project.

As a continuation of the Maximiliansbahn, a line to Wissembourg was to be built in Vendenheim from the Paris – Strasbourg line. The city itself should get a terminus station. The Vendenheim – Wissembourg railway was finally completed on October 23, 1855, after traffic between Vendenheim and Haguenau and from the Palatinate side between Neustadt and Landau had already been opened on July 18. On November 26th, the gap between Landau and Wissembourg was closed.

First years and battle of Weißenburg (1855–1871)

Pfalzbahnlok "Drachenfels" in 1865 before a train was taken over at Wissembourg station

Due to its border location, the Bavarian customs office was represented in the station from the start and soon complained about its situation there. The discussions about the organization of the operation at the community station did not come to an end until January 1856. On July 3 of the following year, the protocol was signed in which the operations at the station were established. The problems with the handling of customs dragged on into the 1860s.

At the same time it was already possible to purchase direct tickets from the operating company Chemin de fer de l'Est for trips to destinations such as Châlons-sur-Marne , Nancy or Paris at the station.

Railway station in the battle of Weissenburg

The Franco-German War broke out in the middle of 1870 . On August 4th the battle of Weissenburg broke out . The station was also involved in the fighting. In the morning, the French troops attacked their German opponents at the level of the train station, but the German army managed to storm the train station around eleven o'clock. Within the next hour, the French tried to recapture the train station and a city gate, but this ultimately failed at twelve o'clock. As a result of the battle, the railway tracks of the station and the station building were seriously affected.

In the middle of the war, the section between Winden and Wissembourg received a second track on January 28, 1871, after this had already happened in 1867 on the remaining route between Winden and Neustadt.

Further development

After the war, Alsace and Lorraine fell to Germany, which meant that the customs controls in the train station, which from then on was called "Weißenburg" according to the German name of the city, were omitted. The reconstruction of the station was the responsibility of the newly founded Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine .

The station itself developed into a stop on the long-distance traffic line from Amsterdam to Strasbourg during the German Empire . Nevertheless, due to its status as a terminus station, it was an obstacle to continuous rail operations. For this reason, a connecting curve between the Maximiliansbahn and the line to Vendenheim was created, bypassing Weißenburg. On June 29, 1900, Weißenburg station became the western terminus of a branch line from Lauterburg , which ran parallel to the border between Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine.

Plans to connect to the northwest

As a direct consequence of the change of the city to the newly founded German Empire , local efforts resulted in building a route serving international traffic along the Lauter via Dahn and Selz to Rastatt . In 1873 a corresponding committee was founded. In the same year a committee was formed in Dahn that planned a route along the Lauter. At the same time, the management of the Palatinate Railways presented plans for a railway line from Hinterweidenthal to Bergzabern, which was to run mainly along the Lauter. A link with a line to Weißenburg was included from the start.

Freight locomotive "Hoheneck" in the depot of Weißenburg station in 1880

Although the Bavarian government provided an interest rate guarantee, the negative economic situation in the 1870s prevented the implementation of these plans.

It was not until the 1890s that efforts were resumed. Especially Dahn pushed a route to Weißenburg. In 1899 the Bavarian side began to plan a connection on the Pirmasens – Lemberg –Dahn – Weißenburg route. After it turned out that the cost of such a route would be too expensive at 7.5 million marks, the decision was made in favor of a significantly cheaper branch line - called the " Wieslauterbahn " - via Hinterweidenthal to Bundenthal , which branches off from the Landau – Zweibrücken Südpfalzbahn should.

Weißenburg continued to hope that the Wieslauterbahn would continue eastwards. The government in Bavaria had already agreed in 1910 to want to build the extension to Weißenburg on the Palatinate terrain, provided that the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine were involved in the planned construction of a main line Kaiserslautern-Pirmasens-Trulben-Eppenbrunn-Bitsch. In April 1914 everything pointed to the connection of the Wieslaut route to Weißenburg. However, the First World War , which broke out four months later, prevented the construction of this connection.

Interwar period (1919–1945)

In the course of the return of Alsace through the Versailles Treaty to France in 1919 as a result of the war, the station was again named "Wissembourg". The plans to close the gap between Wissembourg and Bundenthal finally came to a standstill in this context. After 1930, long-distance traffic through Wissembourg, which had lost its importance due to the changed border between Germany and France, ended; at last it had been geared towards the demands of the crew.

The commissioning of a fixed Rhine bridge along the Winden – Karlsruhe railway branching off from the Maximiliansbahn also contributed to the loss of importance of the traffic between Winden and Wissembourg. From 1942 to 1945 the station was again called "Weißenburg". The station building burned down on December 15, 1944. Its left wing therefore served as a temporary measure for the next two decades.

Loss of importance after the Second World War (1945–1997)

Local train with a class 67400 locomotive on June 5, 1991

After the end of the war, the second Winden – Wissembourg track was dismantled as a reparation payment. On October 1, 1947, passenger traffic on the Lauterbourg – Wissembourg railway ended . From then on there was only freight traffic between Wissembourg and Scheibenhard before it also came to a standstill in 1958. As a result of the permanent demarcation between Germany and France north of the city, the last national trains that passed through the city disappeared at the same time. Cross-border local transport continued to lose importance for the same reason. It was similar on the southern route to Vendenheim; in 1962, for example, the SNCF dismantled the second track between Haguenau and Wissembourg.

In 1966, the construction of the current station building began, the style of which was very much based on that of the German Federal Railroad in the post-war period. It was finally completed two years later.

On September 28, 1975, passenger transport on the Maximiliansbahn section from Winden -Wissembourg, which passed the German-French border, ended . Four years later, passenger traffic on Sundays and public holidays ended between Haguenau and Wissembourg. Since the importance of freight traffic between Winden and Wissembourg continued to decline, this section was threatened with total closure.

Reactivation of cross-border traffic (since 1997)

In 1997, however, the Winden – Wissembourg section was reactivated. Since then, there have been continuous hourly trips between Wissembourg and Neustadt . In the course of reactivating the route, a money changing machine was also put into operation in the station building to make ticket sales easier.

Buildings

Station building

In the station building there is a ticket office for the French State Railways (SNCF) and ticket machines for the SNCF and Deutsche Bahn .

Track systems

The station has four tracks. The German trains usually stop on track A, the French trains on tracks B and C.

Lines

SNCF X 76500 of TER Alsace in the station Wissembourg

Regional trains on the Neustadt – Wissembourg route (line RB 53) and TER Alsace regional trains in the direction of Strasbourg (TER line 4) stop at the station . The Elsass-Express ( Mainz –Wissembourg) and the Weinstrasse-Express ( Koblenz –Wissembourg) also stop at the station on Sundays and public holidays . Since the approval for cross-border traffic, these excursion trains have been operated with LINT 81 multiple units from the company vlexx .

The station is also a transfer point for bus services. There are five bus routes from Réseau 67 , the regional bus service for the Bas-Rhin department . From the German side, the two bus routes 252 from Dahn and 543 from Bad Bergzabern end at the train station.

literature

  • Fritz Engbarth: 100 years of railways in Wieslautertal . 2011 ( Online (PDF; 2.7 MB) [accessed November 5, 2012]).
  • Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner : 150 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . pro MESSAGE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 2005, ISBN 3-934845-27-4 .
  • Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V .: 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . Landau in the Palatinate 1980.
  • Reiner Schedler: Secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany then and now . In: Wolf-Dietger Machel (Hrsg.): Branch and narrow-gauge railways in Germany (then & now) (from Rügen to Rosenheim, from Aachen to Zwickau) . GeraNova magazine publisher, 1998.
  • Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways (=  publications of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science . Volume 53 ). pro MESSAGE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 2005, ISBN 3-934845-26-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vrn.de: Regional rail network and honeycomb plan . (PDF; 1.9 MB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 27, 2013 ; Retrieved November 1, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vrn.de
  2. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 14 .
  3. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 14th ff .
  4. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 21 .
  5. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 20th ff .
  6. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 25 .
  7. ↑ a b c Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V .: 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . 1980, p. 84 .
  8. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 26 .
  9. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 26th ff .
  10. ↑ a b Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V .: 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . 1980, p. 53 .
  11. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 31 f .
  12. ^ Fritz Engbarth: 100 years of railways in Wieslautertal . 2011, p. 7 .
  13. ↑ Reiner Schedler: Secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany then and now . 1998, p. 3 .
  14. ↑ a b Fritz Engbarth: 100 years of railways in Wieslautertal . 2011, p. 7 .
  15. ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 241 .
  16. ↑ a b c Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 249 .
  17. ↑ Reiner Schedler: Secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany then and now . 1998, p. 4 .
  18. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 44 .
  19. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Strasbourg . 2005, p. 48 .
  20. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 86 .
  21. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 8 .
  22. ↑ etienne.biellmann.free.fr: Wissembourg - Lauterbourg Ligne N ° 26 . Retrieved November 1, 2013 .
  23. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 87 f .
  24. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 155 .
  25. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 141 .
  26. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ter-sncf.com

Web links

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