Würzburg – Aschaffenburg railway line
The Würzburg – Aschaffenburg railway , also known as the Main-Spessart Railway , is a double-track, electrified main line in Bavaria . It leads from Würzburg main station via Gemünden (Main) to Aschaffenburg main station . Its importance lies above all in long-distance and freight traffic , as it connects the Rhine-Main conurbation with the Lower Franconian upper center of Würzburg and also with Nuremberg and Munich and towards Austria and Italy . The name arises from the course of the railway line parallel to the Main and through the Spessart .
history
Track construction
The line was licensed by law of May 23, 1846 . When the line was opened by the Royal Bavarian State Railways on October 1, 1854, the Main-Spessart-Bahn was part of the Bavarian Ludwigs-West-Bahn from Bamberg via Schweinfurt and Würzburg to Aschaffenburg up to the then state border with the Electorate of Hesse between Kahl am Main and Großkrotzenburg .
20th and 21st centuries
The section from Würzburg to Veitshöchheim has been electrified since October 10, 1954, and the entire line has been operated electrically since September 26, 1957. Since then, the number of freight trains that need a push locomotive has fallen sharply. With 365 trains a day, the route was heavily overused in the summer of 1970, according to the Deutsche Bundesbahn .
Between February 2010 and October 2011, the 96 meter long was railway bridge on the A3 at Hoesbach renewed.
The operationally most demanding section of the line until June 2017 was the 5.4 kilometer long Spessart ramp , an uphill section between Laufach and the Schwarzkopf tunnel with an average gradient of 19 ‰, which until recently still required a push locomotive for heavy freight trains . Since June 2017, the Spessart ramp has been replaced by a significantly flatter new route.
New building planning
In connection with the planned extension of the Hanover – Gemünden line , the Bundesbahn submitted plans for a new line called the Aschaffenburg – Würzburg extension in the expansion program for the Deutsche Bundesbahn network in 1970 . This was supposed to relieve the congested section between Gemünden and Würzburg.
The track should start as the Spessart in Würzburg parallel to the highway A 3 cross at Waldaschaff north extend than the highway and the Main at Hafenlohr cross. The connection to the existing line was to be made north of Würzburg, thereby reducing the length of the route from 90 kilometers to 67 kilometers and the travel time from 50 minutes to 25 minutes. A four-track expansion of the existing line was examined, but was not pursued further due to the unfavorable route east of Aschaffenburg, the Spessart ramp and the narrow profile of the Schwarzkopf tunnel. In mid-1971 the line was one of four supplementary routes of the highest priority level, which were largely to be implemented by 1980.
Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1973
The 1973 Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan contained the project between Würzburg and Aschaffenburg as one of seven planned new railway lines . For the planned, 65 km long new line, costs of 1.2 billion D-Marks were calculated.
According to the planning status of the pre-routing from November 1973, the line at Hösbach was to unthread from the existing line and run in an east stretched line continuously south of the existing line to south-east of Partenstein . In the further course it should be led past Lohr am Main to the north and Neuendorf to the south . From there, the route should curve in a south-easterly direction. South of Gemünden, at the height of Wernfeld , it was supposed to merge with the new line coming from Hanover and continue in a largely straight line to Würzburg-Zell.
The planned new line met with strong resistance from nature conservation associations, who feared an impairment of the Spessart, and was therefore abandoned by the Federal Railroad.
Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1980
The 1980 Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan, adopted at the end of 1979, provided for the expansion of the existing line between Aschaffenburg and Gemünden by 1990 instead of the new line. The estimated cost was 850 million Deutschmarks.
On February 25, 1980, the Hanover – Würzburg South project group, which was planning the southern section of the new Hanover – Würzburg line at the Nuremberg Railway Directorate, was given the task of expanding the line between Gemünden and Aschaffenburg. In addition to the construction of a new tunnel in the area of the Spessart ramp , this included the Nantenbacher curve (10 kilometers) in particular . The integration of the new tunnel into a “new Aschaffenburg – Gemünden line” was expressly provided as an option. The 1982 plan envisaged upgrading a 37.6 kilometer section between Aschaffenburg and Gemünden up to a maximum speed of 200 km / h (with line train control ).
According to other information, an upgraded Aschaffenburg – Gemünden line was planned around 1982 , consisting of the Nantenbacher curve and an 18-kilometer bypass of the steep section west of the Schwarzkopf tunnel. The new line was supposed to start southwest of Hösbach and join the existing line at Wiesthal . Seven tunnels with a total length of eleven kilometers were to be built as part of the 28.0 kilometer long route, which can be driven at 200 km / h. In 1983, an extension to a length of 32 kilometers was planned.
At the beginning of March 1983 the action group Laufachtal was founded under the motto "The Laufachtal must live" , which campaigned against the expansion of the route.
Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1985
In the 1985 Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan , only an expansion of the route between Gemünden and Aschaffenburg was included in the planning category . Investments of 520 million DM were planned for the upgraded Aschaffenburg – Gemünden line.
Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1992
The urgent requirement of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1992 included an ABS / NBS Hanau – Nantenbach / Würzburg– Iphofen calculated at 1.495 billion DM .
A room sensitivity test for the new and upgraded Hanau – Fulda / Würzburg line in 2002 ruled out straightening the winding section east of Heigenbrücken due to the very high to extremely high sensitivity of the large, contiguous, uncut forest areas. A low-conflict corridor for a possible environmental impact study could not be found.
New construction of the Spessart ramp
Considerations of avoiding the costly and material-intensive pushing operation between Laufach and Heigenbrücken and at the same time increasing the maximum speed on this section of the route led to the decision of the Federal Ministry of Transport on August 28, 2006 to fundamentally re-route the entire section. After the contracts were awarded to a consortium, construction work began in summer 2013.
The new section, which opened on June 19, 2017, shortened the rail route between Würzburg and Aschaffenburg by half a kilometer. It forms planning approval section 3 of the Hanau – Nantenbach line .
Route
After leaving the Würzburg main station , the route first passes the New Harbor and the marshalling yard , which was closed in 2004 by the then Railion (now DB Cargo ). Before reaching the Veitshöchheim station , which is noteworthy for its reception building , the Main-Spessart-Bahn crosses the high-speed line Hanover-Würzburg , which crosses the Main Valley on the 30-meter high Main Valley Bridge Veitshöchheim . The route continues to follow the Main Valley , where it shares the sometimes very narrow right bank with the federal road 27 . In Wernfeld , it meets the Werntalbahn from Waigolshausen , which does not join the Main-Spessart-Bahn, but initially runs parallel to its tracks. At the level of Gemünden , the Main describes an arc of almost 180 degrees, which the train also follows and again crosses under the high-speed line.
The Nantenbacher curve connects the Main – Spessart – Bahn and the high-speed line Hanover – Würzburg between the Rohrbach depot of the high-speed line and the Nantenbach operating point , east of Lohr, on the Main – Spessart – Bahn. This abbreviation enables long-distance trains between Würzburg and Lohr to use the high-speed line and shortens their travel times considerably, as the section through the Main Valley only allows moderate speeds in sections.
From Lohr it goes westward through the Spessart . From the Lohr train station ( 200 m above sea level ) the route climbs steadily for twenty kilometers to Heigenbrücken ( 275 m above sea level ). Up until 2017, it led directly to the west of the Heigenbrücken train station through the 926 meter long, almost horizontal Schwarzkopf tunnel. At the western end of the tunnel, at Hofgut Wendelstein, was the apex of the line and the Heigenbrücken West depot , which enabled the sliding locomotives coming from Laufach to be deployed and changed and then returned as a locomotive train . As far as Laufach train station ( 175 m above sea level ), the route led over the Spessart ramp , on which the trains overcame a height difference of 100 meters over a length of 5.2 kilometers, which corresponded to an average gradient of 19 ‰. In fact, it fluctuated between 15.4 and 21.7 per thousand . At least one electric locomotive was always ready to push at Laufach station so that trains with a train load of more than 1,000 tonnes, which were traveling in an easterly direction towards Würzburg, and thus on the incline, could handle this . Today the route between the east of Heigenbrücken and Laufach runs in three new tunnels with a more freight train-friendly gradient. Shortly before the breakpoint Hosbach the route crosses the A 3 .
The line between Gemünden (Main) and Würzburg has been classified as an " overloaded railroad " since 2007 .
Regional Express from Frankfurt reaches Würzburg
ICE on the Nantenbacher curve
Regional train in the Main Valley
Freight train passes through Lohr station
Transport offer
Between the confluence of the Nantenbacher bend and Hanau, the Main-Spessart-Bahn is used by long-distance trains for passenger transport, otherwise local trains dominate. An exception was the Rottaler Land intercity train pair from Passau and Mühldorf to Hamburg on Saturdays, which ran on the north-south route between Würzburg and Fulda instead of the high-speed route and stopped in Gemünden (Main). When the timetable changed in December 2014, it was the last pair of long-distance trains on this route section.
Since the high-speed line Cologne – Rhine / Main was put into operation , ICE trains have replaced the former Intercitys on the Ruhr Area – Frankfurt – Munich corridor, initially every two hours and since December 2006 every hour. In addition, there is a two-hour long-distance line from Passau to Dortmund via the Main-Spessart Railway. It uses the left Rhine route between Frankfurt and Cologne and operates via Wuppertal in the Bergisches Land instead of via the Ruhr area . Some trains on this line already start in Vienna or Budapest and will be extended beyond their end point to Hamburg or Kiel. Intercity, Eurocity and Intercity Express trains of the first generation run alternately here. In December 2007, in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Railways, an ICE line Vienna – Frankfurt am Main with tilting technology ICEs was set up over the route. In the outskirts of the day, when the Hanover-Würzburg high-speed line is not available for passenger trains, individual long-distance trains between Frankfurt and Würzburg run over the full length of the Main-Spessart Railway. In addition, individual long-distance trains run between Hanover and Würzburg to Gemünden via the Main-Spessart Railway.
In local traffic, the route is served hourly by regional express trains on the Würzburg – Aschaffenburg – Hanau – Frankfurt route. Every two hours this connection is tied through via Schweinfurt to Bamberg. Bombardier Twindexx Vario vehicles have been used as vehicle material since December 2017 , until then mostly push-pull trains with double-decker cars , hauled by locomotives of the DB class 146 . The earlier runs to Nuremberg were largely abandoned in December 2006, and since then there have been platform-level transfer connections in Würzburg. This hourly offer in the Würzburg – Gemünden section is condensed by a regional train line that is staggered approximately 30 minutes and mostly comes from Schweinfurt or Bamberg and is linked via Gemünden to Jossa or Schlüchtern. On weekdays, during rush hour, some additional trains are used between Würzburg and Karlstadt coming from Treuchtlingen. Regional trains via Hanau and Aschaffenburg to Laufach are also offered every hour from Frankfurt Süd (RB 58).
Tariff zones
The Main-Spessart-Bahn has been in the tariff area of the Verkehrsverbund Mainfranken (VVM) since August 1, 2013, from Würzburg to Wiesthal , which replaced the former Würzburg tariff association (WTV) on August 1, 2004. The section from Heigenbrücken to Aschaffenburg is part of the Verkehrsgemeinschaft am Bayerischen Untermain (VAB) and already in the transition area of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV), whose core tariff area begins with the Großkrotzenburg train station between Aschaffenburg and Hanau.
future
Expansion of the route
In the 2000s and 2010s, the " Mottgers-Spange " was a project to build a new line from the Frankfurt area towards Fulda and possibly Würzburg. Different variants saw u. a. a new line branching off from the Kinzigtalbahn at the height of Wächtersbach , which should connect between Würzburg and Fulda with the high-speed line Hanover-Würzburg. If a southern variant of this project had been implemented, long-distance trains between Würzburg and Frankfurt would have bypassed the Main-Spessart-Bahn in the Hanau – Gemünden section and would have traveled in Hanau towards Fulda. The project was temporarily postponed and resumed in 2013 as an upgraded and new line from Hanau to Würzburg / Fulda to Erfurt . The Mottgers brace was discarded in early 2018.
According to a feasibility study presented in February 2018, travel times between Hanau and Nantenbach should be shortened by up to 6.4 minutes. A 15 km long new line for 200 km / h would be built between Wiesthal and Nantenbach, the existing line between Hanau and Aschaffenburg would be upgraded for 200 km / h and the section between Aschaffenburg and Heigenbrücken would be expanded selectively for 160 km / h.
The draft of the Deutschland-Takt schedule concept (2nd expert draft from May 2019) provides for a scheduled journey time of 28 minutes for long-distance traffic between Aschaffenburg and Würzburg. This corresponds to a shortening of 9 minutes compared to the typical journey time of 37 minutes stored in the 2019 annual timetable.
Lohr bypassing
At the beginning of October 2010, the working group Bahndreieck Spessart suggested a route leading north past Lohr. With this approximately four-kilometer-long new line leading through a tunnel, through traffic was to be accelerated and noise pollution reduced. Regional trains, on the other hand, should continue to run on the existing route.
Renewals at train stations
The new breakpoint Mainaschaff North to the previous breakpoint Rueckersbacher gorge replace. Two stops in Hösbach Ort and Aschaffenburg Ost are being planned.
The majority of the stations along the route are not barrier-free , only three of the total of 17 stations and stops offer barrier-free conditions.
In Wernfeld , the former station in the corner of the Main-Spessart-Bahn and the Werntalbahn was given up in favor of a stop closer to the town center, which was completed in the summer of 2002 after a 13-month construction period. The total costs for the two prefabricated outer platforms amounted to 2.3 million euros. The Veitshöchheim station also received two new exterior platforms prefabricated and a new underpass for 3.2 million euros. The Aschaffenburg main train station underwent extensive modernization by 2008.
Public transport
The RE line Würzburg – Bamberg –Lichtenfels – Bayreuth / Hof was split in 2015. DB Regio Mainfrankenbahn and Franconia won both tenders at the beginning of 2013. As of December 2015, it will consist of the Frankfurt – Würzburg – Bamberg line, which was formerly Frankfurt – Würzburg – Nuremberg and is operated by DB Regio Mainfrankenbahn. On the other hand, the Bamberg – Lichtenfels – Bayreuth / Hof line was transferred to another area of the DB Regio Franconia and is served by class 612 tilting railcars. From December 2017, the new Twindexx Vario trains (new double-decker trains ) coming from Frankfurt were extended every two hours from Würzburg to Bamberg . In the transition period, the double-decker middle cars were hung with control cars and driven in sandwiches with 146.2 or two 111s. Coradia Continental trains or 425 that have become vacant in Frankfurt are used on the parallel RB line of the Mainfrankenbahn .
Web links
- Route, operating points and permissible speeds on the OpenRailwayMap
- Driver's cab ride (July 2013) on a freight train: Würzburg - Schlüchtern .
- Driver's cab ride (summer 2009): Fulda - Würzburg .
Individual evidence
- ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
- ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
- ↑ Bavarian Law Gazette 1846, No. 1, p. 5.
- ↑ a b c Paul Werner: Expansion and addition of the route network of the German Federal Railroad . In: Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau , issue 1/1971, January / February 1971, pp. 16-20.
- ↑ Hösbach railway overpass . In: DB ProjektBau (ed.): Infrastructure projects 2012: Building at Deutsche Bahn . Eurailpress, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7771-0445-4 , pp. 214-216 .
- ^ Paul Werner: The tasks of the planning department within the ZTL . In: Die Bundesbahn , year 45 (1971), issue 19/20, ISSN 0007-5876 , pp. 987-994.
- ^ Rüdiger Block: On New Paths. The new lines of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: Eisenbahn-Kurier Special: High-speed traffic . No. 21, 1991, excluding ISSN, pp. 30-35.
- ↑ BUNDESBAHN: Where is built . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1973, p. 33 f . ( Online - Feb. 26, 1973 ).
- ↑ Central Transport Management Mainz (ed.): New Hanover-Gemünden line . Plan 410.4101Nv101. Edited in January 1972 Langhanki , drawn in January 1972 Bönjer , plan dated February 1, 1972 as of November 20, 1973, sheet 2 of 2.
- ↑ a b procedural silence with advancing DB planning . In: Bayerische Staatszeitung , April 18, 1980, p. 4.
- ↑ Christian Woelker: Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan '80: The rail is catching up . In: Wolfgang Vaerst , Peter Koch (ed.): Yearbook of the Railway System, Vol. 31, Hestra-Verlag, Darmstadt 1980, pp. 30-36, ISBN 3-7771-0160-5 , ISSN 0075-2479 .
- ↑ Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1980 with higher rail investments . In: Die Bundesbahn , issue 12/1979, pp. 859–862, ISSN 0007-5876 .
- ^ Wolfgang Ernst: Signaling framework planning for the new and upgraded routes . In: signal + wire . Bd./Jg. 74 (1982), No. 4, ISSN 0037-4997 , pp. 70-76.
- ^ Helmut Maak : The railway construction group H / W South of the railway construction center . In: The Railway Engineer . tape 33 , no. 6 , 1982, ISSN 0013-2810 , pp. 269-278 .
- ^ Bahnbauzentrale der Deutsche Bundesbahn (Ed.): New construction and upgrading lines of the Deutsche Bundesbahn: questions & answers, figures & data, arguments & views . Brochure as of December 1983, p. 25.
- ↑ Action group goes to the citizens . In: Aschaffenburger Volksblatt , March 5, 1983.
- ^ Rüdiger Block: ICE racetrack: the new lines . In: Eisenbahn-Kurier Special: High-speed traffic . No. 21, 1991, excluding ISSN, pp. 36-45.
- ^ Wilhelm Linkerhägner: Bundesverkehrswegeplanung '85 . In: The Federal Railroad . tape 66 , no. 10 , 1990, ISSN 0007-5876 , pp. 933-936 .
- ^ Hans Peter Weber, Michael Rebentisch: The Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1992 for the rail sector . In: Railway technical review . tape 41 , no. 7/8 , 1992, ISSN 0013-2845 , pp. 448-456 .
- ↑ Ingmar Gorissen: Room sensitivity test in the Gleisdreieck Hanau / Fulda / Würzburg . In: The Railway Engineer . tape 53 , no. 4 , April 2002, ISSN 0013-2810 , p. 34-36 .
- ↑ Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (ed.): Green light for the new construction of the Schwarzkopf tunnel . Press release from August 28, 2006.
- ^ Germany-Frankfurt: Services of engineering offices . Document 2013 / S 211-366884 of October 30, 2013 in the supplement to the Electronic Official Journal of the European Union .
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2017 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.
- ^ Reinhard Domke: Dialog forum Hanau-Würzburg / Fulda. (PDF) 4th meeting of the working group “Conception / Improvement of the South Corridor”. In: hanau-wurzburg-fulda.de. DB Netz, February 1, 2018, pp. 10, 11, 14, 15 , accessed on May 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Destination timetable Germany-Takt. (PDF) Second expert draft for long-distance transport. (No longer available online.) SMA and Partner AG , May 7, 2019, archived from the original on June 20, 2019 ; accessed on June 20, 2019 . 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.
- ↑ A north bypass for Lohr? . In: Mainpost , October 8, 2010.
