Bruges – Lüdenscheid railway line

Lüdenscheid-Bruges-Lüdenscheid
Combined platform at the Lüdenscheid stop
Route number (DB) :	2813
Course book section (DB) :	434, 459, 240e (1944)
Route length:	6.6 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Maximum slope :	27.8  ‰
Legend 6.6 Lüdenscheid (Hp) (since 2009) 406 m 6.5 Lüdenscheid (until 2009) 401 m to the train station Wehberg (handover KAE )   Lüdenscheid tunnel (412 m) 2.7 Lüdenscheid Steinebach (Anst) from Hagen 0.0 Lüdenscheid-Bruges (until 2017 Bruges (Westf.)) 295 m to Dieringhausen Swell:

The Bruges – Lüdenscheid railway line (often referred to as the Bruges – Lüdenscheid steep line) is a single-track, non-electrified branch line in North Rhine-Westphalia . The approximately seven-kilometer branch line leads from the Lüdenscheid-Bruges train station , which is on the Hagen – Dieringhausen railway line , to the higher-up Lüdenscheid stop .

history

Former Lüdenscheid station building (demolished in 2009)

Bruges received a rail connection in 1874 with the opening of the Dahl – Bruges section of the Hagen – Dieringhausen railway line. Lüdenscheid , outside the Volmetal, also wanted a rail link, but the route was anything but easy due to the unfavorable topographical conditions. Despite a maximum gradient of 1:36, a 412 meter long tunnel had to be built near Lüdenscheid. In order to help finance the construction of the route, the city of Lüdenscheid took over shares in BME worth 900,000 marks

The 6.5-kilometer line was opened on July 15, 1880. From 1904, there was a handover to the Altenaer Eisenbahn (KAE) district at Wehberg station , which was in operation until 1967. But it was only used in freight transport. The Schnurrenweg, a narrow pedestrian path that overcomes this difference in height, was and still is between the Altenaer Eisenbahn station and the state train station, which is 18 meters higher.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were plans to connect the Volmetalbahn (Hagen – Dieringhausen railway) to the Plettenberg – Herscheid railway over a route in the urban area of ​​Lüdenscheid and Herscheid, thus creating a connection between the Volme and Lennetal. However, this failed due to the high construction costs. The earthworks had already taken place beyond Herscheid. In the course of the First World War , however, the plans were not pursued because the necessary financial resources were lacking. In the 1920s, the Herscheid community tried to revive the construction of the railway. But at the latest with the onset of rapid inflation in the wake of the global economic crisis, the topic of railway construction was over. And later, motor traffic finally prevailed on the roads in Germany. The section would have covered around 33.9 kilometers. Due to the mountainous topography in the Sauerland , the planning envisaged mighty tunnels, bridges or underpasses, such as on the ridge between the Verse and the Ahetal, where a tunnel with a length of 650 meters was planned. Another tunnel would have run in Herscheid from the Helle to below the Schützenhalle, with a length of around 300 meters. A total of four tunnels with a total length of 2175 meters were planned. The estimated costs for the tunnels amounted to 1.84 million marks. The Royal Railway Directorate put the total costs for the railway line at 9.8 million marks, which would have been 289,100 marks per rail kilometer.

Due to the incline of the route, three class 96 locomotives , which were stationed at the Bruges depot, were also used on the line in the 1930s .

In 1963 a concept was presented by the Lüdenscheid city administration, in which there was a plan that today's Sauerfelder Straße should run on two levels and the Bruges - Lüdenscheid railway line from Lüdenscheid station should continue underground with a gradient of only one percent. The railway line should then have ended in the second basement at the central traffic junction Sauerfeld in the city ​​center . In addition, 500 parking spaces were to be created under today's Rathausplatz. However, because of the 'utopian idea' at the time, the project was rejected at the time.

From 1965 to September 1994 went on the train Volmetal pull trains consisting of Hagen diesel locomotives of the 212 series with two to three cars, mostly, these were to n-car . Until 1979 there was also a rail bus shuttle between the Lüdenscheid train station and the Bruges (Westphalia) train station , which provided a connection to the express trains between Cologne Central Station and Hagen Central Station . The era of the diesel multiple units of the Deutsche Bahn class 628.4 , which ran from September 1994 to May 30, 1999, was comparatively short .

In addition, since the late 1990s, due to the large number of residents in the surrounding districts, consideration was given to setting up a stop at the Lüdenscheider Kreishaus. However, its construction would be associated with very high costs due to the problematic topographical location (deep cut into the terrain and possibly tunnel platforms). That is why the focus was on relocating the Lüdenscheid train station and did not pursue the project any further for the time being.

A plan presented in 1997 for the Hagen regional light rail system, to operate the Volmetal line from Dortmund via Hagen to Lüdenscheid as a light rail system directly from Dortmund city center via Hagen city center to downtown Lüdenscheid, was rejected for cost reasons despite the transport benefit.

Work on the redesign of the Lüdenscheid stop ran until 2010 . At first, buildings that were no longer in use were removed and contaminated areas were rehabilitated. An improved link between rail and bus was also part of the expansion program. The now only track was moved to the north-western edge of the step, along the previous street “Bahnhofsallee” or the slope to the higher-lying Old Evangelical Cemetery. The new track was put into operation on June 8, 2009.

The railway line between Bruges and Lüdenscheid was renewed for almost a month from October 22, 2012.

Since December 2017 there has been a direct train connection from Lüdenscheid to Cologne with regional train line 25 .

traffic

The route is served every hour by regional train line 52 ("Volmetal-Bahn") and by Oberbergische Bahn . The former runs from Dortmund via Herdecke, Hagen and Schalksmühle to Lüdenscheid. The Oberbergische Bahn (RB 25) connects Lüdenscheid with Cologne.

Web links

Commons : Bruges – Lüdenscheid railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Course book 1944

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
3. ↑ http://eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de/lb/bilder/tunnelportale/zz-gross/2813-luedenscheid-ost.jpg According to the tunnel sign only 400 meters
4. ^ Thomas Knop: Bahnhof Hagen Hauptbahnhof, p. 23, ISBN 3-89053-054-0
5. ↑ Railway - Trains should go to Lüdenscheid. In: derwesten.de. Westfälische Rundschau, January 29, 2013, accessed on January 29, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Utopian idea. In: come-on.de. Lüdenscheider Nachrichten, March 30, 2013, accessed on March 30, 2013 . 
7. ↑ Local transport plan of the ZRL 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2013 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. (PDF; 24.73 MiB) 
8. ^ Westfälische Rundschau (ed.): On June 8th the first train rolls in . (offline).
9. ^ Rail: New tracks between Lüdenscheid and Bruges. In: come-on.de. Lüdenscheider Nachrichten, October 18, 2012, accessed on October 18, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Timetable of the Volmetalbahn (PDF; 28 KiB)