Bensheim – Lindenfels railway line

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The Bensheim – Lindenfels railway was a railway project that never got beyond the planning stage.

history

First approaches

From around 1862 the project of a railway line from Bensheim to Lindenfels was considered. The Main-Neckar Railway from Frankfurt to Heidelberg and Mannheim , opened in 1846, brought great economic advantages to the communities along the route and threatened to leave the remote communities economically behind. In 1864 the city of Bensheim submitted a petition to Grand Duke Ludwig III. without anything happening. In 1869 the Nibelungen Railway was opened from Worms to Bensheim. The city of Worms was therefore very interested in transporting goods from the source traffic of the Odenwald by rail to its Rhine port . As a result, she advocated the extension to Lindenfels whenever an opinion was to be given. In 1872 a Würzburg railway committee received approval from the Hessian Ministry of the Interior to carry out surveying work for a railway project from Würzburg via Miltenberg, Reichelsheim and Lindenfels to Bensheim. In 1895 the post director Hallwachs from Bensheim tried again to persuade the various interest groups to work on a joint project. In 1896 the second chamber of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse , the parliament, was ready to approve the railway, again in 1899. But the First Chamber refused to give its consent.

The 1902 initiative

In 1902 things took off again. The rail connection from Lindenfels was conceivable in two variants: Either in a north-south direction by closing a gap between Gersprenztal and Weschnitztalbahn or with a branch line from the east from Bensheim station on the Main-Neckar Railway . In both cases the route led through the mountainous region of the Odenwald . The latter option was again negotiated in two variants: first as a standard-gauge railway or a cheaper narrow-gauge railway . According to the contract between the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the Kingdom of Prussia on the Prussian-Hessian Railway Community, the responsibility for the construction of the line was the responsibility of the State of Hesse, the operation could have been run by the Royal Prussian and Grand Duchy Hessian Railway Directorate Mainz or a private operator .

The residents naturally approved the project. the government acted hesitantly because it feared that the construction and operation of a mountain railway would not cover its costs. A local committee for the Bensheim – Lindenfels railway construction was formed which, for economic reasons, advocated the construction of a standard-gauge railway, but was also prepared to accept a narrow-gauge railway if necessary because of the financial difficulties.

In the first half of October 1902, Reinhard Knoch & Friedrich Kallmayer from Halle (Saale) laid out the plan for a narrow-gauge branch line from Bensheim to Lindenfels in Bensheim for public inspection.

The initiative from 1907

In 1907 the matter became more concrete: the railway directorate in Mainz founded a project office for the planning and construction of the line in Bensheim after the government had passed a resolution to build it. The Bensheim district had meanwhile been won over as the main cost bearer. The Continentale Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebs-Gesellschaft, in turn, had been won over to carry out the construction; the essential conditions for the state concession had been negotiated. It was still discussed whether the train should run through the Schönberger Tal or the Zeller Tal (via Gronau ). In April 1909 a plan should have been presented. In 1912 it was clear that, for reasons of cost, the route could only be routed via the Schönberger Valley, and the financing modalities were still being negotiated. In June 1912 the district committee of the Bensheim district decided to take out a loan of 1,250,000 marks for the construction of the railway. In February 1913, the on-site inspections by the building authorities took place in the communities affected by the planning. However, construction did not start until the outbreak of the First World War .

After the First World War

In 1928 there was another attempt to create the rail link after all. An overland tram with goods transport between Bensheim and Lindenfels was planned. But again there was no construction.

In 1934 a "Reichsbahngüterkraftfahrlinie" (on the road) was set up between Bensheim and Lindenfels.

Worth knowing

In 1931 the Hessian Ministry of Finance (in its function as the Ministry of Railways) granted a concession to build and operate a meter-gauge , single-track tram route from the Böllenfalltor in Darmstadt , as an extension of tram line 2, which ends there, to Lindenfels. This project was not implemented either.

literature

  • Ludwig Beutel: The neverending story of the Bensheim – Lindenfels railway construction . Four-page leaflet from the Lindenfels Museum on the Lindenfels Customs Days 2003. Lindenfels 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kuhl.
  2. ↑ XXXI. Parliament. Second Chamber of Estates. 125 Meeting on July 4, 1902 in the morning. (Detailed report) . In: Darmstädter Zeitung of July 5, 1902, No. 310, supplement, p. 1325.
  3. ↑ XXXI. Parliament. Second Chamber of Estates. 125 Meeting on July 4, 1902 in the morning. (Detailed report) . In: Darmstädter Zeitung of July 5, 1902, No. 310, supplement, p. 1325.
  4. ^ Report in the Darmstädter Zeitung of November 11, 1902, p. 2194.
  5. ↑ Kuhl.
  6. ^ Report in: Darmstädter Zeitung of October 6, 1902, p. 1938.
  7. ↑ Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of November 9, 1907, No. 57. Announcement No. 604, p. 659.
  8. ↑ Kuhl.
  9. ^ Report in: Darmstädter Zeitung of March 26, 1912, p. 527.
  10. ↑ Kuhl.
  11. ^ New Griesheimer Anzeiger from May 5, 1928.
  12. ^ Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of March 24, 1934, No. 15. Announcement No. 177, p. 62.
  13. ↑ Kuhl.