Göttingen – Bebra railway line

Göttingen – Bebra
Route number (DB) :	3600
Course book section (DB) :	540.1, 611, 613
Route length:	80.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Dual track :	(continuous)
Legend SFS from Hanover and   Hannöversche Südbahn from Hanover 247.1 Goettingen B 3 former Gartetalbahn to Duderstadt ( narrow gauge ) former route to Bebra until 1922 rope formerly Hannöversche Südbahn to Kassel via Dransfeld SFS to Kassel 242.4 Rosdorf (formerly Pbf ) 238.0 Obernjesa (until May 1990 Pbf ) 233.4 Friedland (Han) (formerly Bf) 233.5 B 27 (Witzenhäuser Strasse) former route to Arenshausen until 1884 A 38 State border Lower Saxony - Hesse 228.4 Eichenberg Nordkopf ( Abzw ) Eichenberger curve to Halle (Saale) Halle-Kassel Railway from Halle (Saale) 227.3 Eichenberg 231  m Halle-Kassel Railway to Hann. Münden former Gelstertalbahn to Velmeden B 80 Bebenroth tunnel (930 m / 1030 m) 220.8 Werleshausen Werra B 27 Schürzenberg Tunnel (173 m) 218.3 Oberrieden formerly B 27 212.5 Bad Sooden-Allendorf B 27 205.5 Nonsense 202.4 Eschwege West Weirs ( Abzw ) to the route to Eschwege city (since 2009) Route from Eschwege town (formerly from Leinefelde) 201.6 Eschwege West ( wedge station , until 2009 Pbf ) 200.6 Eschwege West Stegmühle ( Abzw ) former route to Treysa ( flyover structure ) 197.1 Wehretal - Reichensachsen (again since 2003) Weirs Sontra B 7 , B 27 (OU Hoheneiche) 193.7 Hoheneiche (formerly Pbf ) formerly B 27 (Leipziger Strasse) Sontra B 27 (OU Sontra) 186.7 Sontra to the Sontra-Brodberg industrial park formerly B 27 (Fuldaer Straße) Sontra 182.7 Berneburg 178.8 Cornberg (formerly Pbf ) Cornberger Tunnel (719 m) 177.4 Bebra Tunnel ( Üst ) 175.5 Asmushausen former Braunhäuser Tunnel (293 m, until 1963) formerly B 27 (Göttinger Straße) Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn from Kassel 167.4 Bebra Pbf / Rbf Ültg formerly B 27 (Göttinger Straße) 166.6 Bebra Pbf ( Inselbahnhof ) Thuringian Railway to Halle Frankfurt-Bebraer Bahn to Fulda Swell:

The Göttingen – Bebra railway is a main railway line running in north-south direction , which is mainly used for through traffic. It is part of the old north-south route and was used by intercity trains until 1991 . Today it is mainly used for freight traffic, as well as regional and night train traffic.

history

Until 1945

The section from Göttingen to Friedland (Han) was built in 1867 as part of a connection to Arenshausen on the Halle – Hann. Münden opened.

After the annexation of Hanover and Kurhessen , the Prussian State Railroad wanted to connect the Hanover Southern Railway and the Frankfurt-Bebra Railway directly. A north-south axis was to be created together with the Elm – Gemünden railway line that was planned at the same time . In addition, the planned, militarily important cannon train was to receive connections to the north (Hanover – Göttingen) and south (Bebra – Hanau). Arenshausen and Witzenhausen were also discussed as a connection in the north, but an agreement was reached on Friedland and a link with the Halle – Hann railway line. Münden in Eichenberg .

In 1875, Bebra -Niederhone (today Eschwege West ) - Eschwege station (on what later became the Kanonenbahn ) opened. Niederhone-Eichenberg-Friedland followed a year later. In order to overcome the watershed between Fulda and Werra near Cornberg and between Werra and Leine near Eichenberg, considerable inclines and four tunnels were necessary, and the route became winding.

The direct connection Friedland – Arenshausen was given up in 1884, the connections via Eichenberg were sufficient.

From 1908 to 1910 the railway facilities in Göttingen were redesigned, the tracks were raised, a marshalling yard , which is now closed, was built and the Göttingen – Bodenfelde railway was connected. The railway to Bebra also received a new route from Göttingen to Rosdorf west of the Leineberg. The old route ran almost straight from the Göttingen train station (branching off from the Dransfeld ramp at the Groner Landstrasse level crossing) to Rosdorf, hence the “Eisenbahnstrasse” in the Leineviertel.

The traffic developed well until 1945, but not outstanding. 1939 drove here four D-train pairs, the neighboring Main-Weser Railway Kassel-Frankfurt brought it to twelve.

Whiskey vodka line

Land borders in this region have been insignificant since 1866. That changed in 1945 with the division of Germany into zones of occupation. The British , American and Soviet occupation zones bordered a little to the east of Eichenberg train station . This railway line was also divided. Göttingen – Friedland was British, Eichenberg and Oberrieden – Bebra American, about four kilometers from Werleshausen Soviet.

To ease this situation, an exchange of territory was agreed in the Wanfried Agreement in 1945 :

“At the conclusion of the successful agreement that sealed the fate of the seven villages in question, General Sexton and General Askalepov presented each other with a bottle of whiskey and vodka. It was this incident of the exchange of gifts of whiskey and vodka, which to this day named the newly established border between the occupation zones, the whiskey vodka line. "

Due to the new, derisively called "whiskey-vodka line", the route lay continuously in the area of ​​the Western Allies and thus completely in the area of ​​the later Federal Republic. From Eichenberg to Bad Sooden-Allendorf , however, it was within sight of the eastern watchtowers. All of the eastbound lines from Eichenberg ( Halle-Kasseler Eisenbahn ) and Eschwege ( Kanonenbahn , several branch lines) were interrupted by the border.

Until 1990

Due to the “Iron Curtain”, the parallel connections to the east, in particular Scandinavia – Rostock, Hamburg – Halle and Leipzig – Saale – Nuremberg, could no longer be used. The easternmost north-south route in the Federal Republic became the "western bypass of the GDR". There was also a strong general increase in traffic. This made the north-south route one of the most important connections. In the summer of 1989, 37 long-distance trains per day and direction ran between Göttingen and Bebra.

In order to be able to control the traffic, the route was expanded. As early as the 1950s, more powerful signal boxes were built, which enabled track switching operations on the slopes in front of Cornberg and Eichenberg . The unilateral track change operation from Bebra to Cornberg was commissioned on October 17, 1951. By 1963 the line was electrified. In order to create space for the overhead line , the Braunhaus tunnel was opened upwards, in the other tunnels the tracks were lowered.

Many smaller train stations have been given up so that the stopping local trains do not obstruct the intercity . This still affected Obernjesa in 1989 . In addition, with the exception of the main Eichenberg – Kassel line, all branching lines in passenger traffic were abandoned.

Since 1990

A Cantus railcar stops in Friedland

As early as the 1960s it became clear that the entire north-south route was too congested and too slow for attractive long-distance traffic. At Eichenberg the curves only allow 90 km / h, at Bebra only 70 km / h. This led to the planning and construction of the high-speed line Hanover – Würzburg , which took over the high-speed long-distance traffic in 1991. Freight trains, night train services and regional services stayed on the old route.

In 1990 the Halle – Hann. Münden near Eichenberg reopened. In this context, Eichenberg station was rebuilt in order to be able to handle long-distance trains for border control. The course of history (German unity) overtook this measure, however, so that the station was only used for border clearance for five weeks and the platform in the direction of Halle today appears accordingly oversized. In 1998 a connecting curve was built northeast of Eichenberg, which enables direct journeys from Göttingen to Heiligenstadt . It takes over the function that the line that was abandoned in 1884 had.

In addition to the Bebenroth tunnel , a 1030 meter long new building was drilled between 2010 and 2013 and the previous tunnel was renovated. Since then, both tubes have only contained one track.

planning

The Rosdorf station is to be expanded again to accommodate passenger trains. This was agreed on March 28, 2019 between the state of Lower Saxony, LNVG and DB.

Today's operation

The route is characterized by through traffic, especially with freight trains (many container and car transports). It is also important to develop the Werra-Meißner district . In passenger traffic, the cantus Verkehrsgesellschaft operates every hour with Stadler FLIRT multiple units between Göttingen, Eschwege and Bebra as the RB 7 line of the NVV . Individual trips run in a southerly direction extended from / to Bad Hersfeld or Fulda .

The North Hessian traffic group has the timetable change on 13 December 2009, the distance between Eschwege West and Eschwege town as a separate railway infrastructure put back into service and modernized. To the north and south of the Eschwege West station , a connecting curve to the route of the former cannon railway was created. This bypasses Eschwege West station ; he no longer has any scheduled passenger traffic. The Eschwege-Niederhone stop has been newly established. The Eschwege city station received a new reception building , a two-storey car park and a new bus station .

Picture gallery

• 

  Eichenberg station

• 

  A freight train going south leaves Friedland. The row of trees beginning in the center of the picture stands on the old embankment to Arenshausen

• 

  Platform scene in Bebra in the early 1990s

• 

  Passenger trains in Göttingen station (2006): The 612 multiple unit (left) travels via Friedland to Chemnitz, the 425er (center) via Bebra to Bad Hersfeld. Today the Cantus Verkehrsgesellschaft operates here

• 

  The Leine Bridge in Göttingen, which has been in use since 1910, behind which the pillars of the ICE line can be seen. The original route crossed the river a few hundred meters behind the photographer

• 

  Class 427 as Cantus railcars to Eschwege and Göttingen on the head track in Bebra station

• 

  Diverted ICE 4 on the old north-south route near Friedland

literature

• Koch, Keller, Lauerwald: Eichenberg station - splendor, fall and resurgence of a railway junction . Vogt Verlag, Hessisch Lichtenau 1990, ISBN 3-9800576-6-6 .
• Base: railway technology . Volume 5, Issue 11, report on the unilateral track change operation from Bebra to Cornberg.
• Eisenbahn-Magazin 8/2007, page 16: Eschwege gets new city station

Web links

Commons : Göttingen – Bebra railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of the “north-south route” on www.rbd-erfurt.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tracks in service facilities (HEBG) , DB Netz AG (PDF)
2. ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
3. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
4. ↑ Information and pictures about the tunnels on route 3600 on eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de by Lothar Brill
5. ^ The Whiskey Vodka Line: Agreement of Wanfried 1945 . Werner I. Juretzko / Coldwarhistory, accessed on September 17, 2015.
6. ↑ Pictures of the two tunnels, in the lower third of the page
7. ↑ reactivation of stations. Retrieved March 30, 2019 . 
8. ↑ mme: Back to Eschwege . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 5/2010, p. 213.