Goldshöfe – Crailsheim railway line

Goldshöfe – Crailsheim
Route number (DB) :	4940
Course book section (DB) :	786 (Stuttgart – Nuremberg)
Route length:	30.449 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Top speed:	130 km / h
Legend from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 0.000 Goldshöfe ( wedge station ) 469 m to Nördlingen 3.718 Schwabsberg 454 m 7.192 Schrezheim 437 m Chasing Federal Highway 290 9,053 Ellwangen 432 m 12.700 Schönau 430 m Chasing Federal Highway 290 15.800 Schweighausen 423 m Federal Highway 290 17.788 Jagstzell 421 m 21.100 Stimpfach 413 m 23.500 Steinbach 410 m 25,156 Jagstheim 410 m from Heilbronn 30,449 Crailsheim 409 m to Nürnberg Hbf to Königshofen Swell:

The Goldshöfe – Crailsheim line , also known as the Obere Jagstbahn , is an electrified main line in Baden-Württemberg . It branches in the station Goldshöfe of the railway line Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt-Nördlingen and leads in the valley of the river Jagst to Crailsheim .

history

In 1863 the railway line from Aalen to Nördlingen was opened. Since the construction of the line to Crailsheim was already planned at that time, a separation station was built in Goldshöfe . The two routes are shared in front of the station building, which is located between the two routes, i.e. it is a wedge station . The line from Goldshöfe to Crailsheim was opened in 1866. As early as 1870 there were efforts to build a connection from Ellwangen to Dinkelsbühl and to continue to Nuremberg . However, these plans were rejected because of the much shorter route via Crailsheim and Ansbach . In 1939 the single-track line of the Upper Jagstbahn was to be expanded to double-track. These plans failed because of the outbreak of World War II .

At the end of 1982, the electrification of the approximately 30 km long section between Goldshöfe and Crailsheim (and another 10 km between Crailsheim and Schnelldorf ) began; the retrofitting of a second track was kept open. This closed the last electrification gap between Nuremberg and Stuttgart. Until then, through trains ran between Stuttgart and Nuremberg with diesel locomotives. Electric train operations on the Upper Jagstbahn began on May 14, 1985, and regular traffic followed when the timetable changed on June 2, 1985.

business

expansion

The line is electrified , has a single track and is fully equipped with H / V light signals . Only the Goldshöfe station still has form signals that are operated by two mechanical signal boxes. The maximum permitted speed on the route is 130 km / h, which can be reached south of Crailsheim train station. The regional plan for the East Wuerttemberg region provides for the line to be kept free for a double-track expansion.

There are overtaking tracks between Goldshöfe and Crailsheim in the train stations Ellwangen, Jagstzell and Jagstheim (no passenger traffic) . In the course of electrification, the sidings in Stimpfach and Schwabsberg were dismantled in 1985. All loading tracks for freight traffic in Ellwangen were removed in September 2003.

Some stops do not meet today's standards. The height of the platforms in Goldshöfe is below the minimum standard of 38 cm above the top of the rails . The intermediate platforms there as well as in Ellwangen (passenger security through manual barrier operated by the dispatcher) and Jagstzell can only be reached by crossing the tracks.

In Schrezheim, a level crossing is to be replaced by an underpass.

An underpass was expanded in Ellwangen- Rindelbach in a two-year construction period , so that since October 2012 it has replaced two level crossings.

In summer 2010 the platforms in Jagstzell were modernized, from autumn 2010 to spring 2011 the platforms in Ellwangen.

For some time there have been efforts to reactivate the Jagstheim station, which is no longer used for passenger traffic, and the abandoned Stimpfach station. Furthermore, the city of Ellwangen is pushing ahead with the establishment of a new stop in Ellwangen-Rindelbach. The feasibility study commissioned by the Regionalverband Ostwuerttemberg in November 2009 on the double-track expansion of the line and the establishment of additional stops between Ellwangen and Crailsheim only certifies that Rindelbach has sufficient demand to continue the efforts.

From the perspective of the federal government, expanding the route within the framework of the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 is not economically worthwhile . An expansion of the Upper Jagstbahn could nevertheless take place via the Municipal Transport Financing Act.

The infrastructure and service concept for the route is part of an investigation announced in 2019 .

Regional traffic

Regional Express trains on the Ulm – Crailsheim route ran every hour from Ulm to Ellwangen, with every second train being extended to Crailsheim. The journey time from Aalen to Crailsheim was 41 minutes. The trains ran in the opposite direction for 45 minutes; the necessary crossings mostly took place in Jagstzell. The predominant vehicles in regional traffic on the route were series 644 diesel multiple units . In addition, regional shuttles of the 650 series and railcars of the 628 series were occasionally used.

Since spring 2019, the British company Go-Ahead has been operating regional traffic on the route from Crailsheim via Aalen to Stuttgart instead of DB Regio .

Ellwangen station before modernization

The station Goldshöfe had in its construction not a function of connecting the village, even though he (a part of Aalen today) is named after the southern directly from the station homestead Goldshöfe. It only serves as a separation station between the railway lines from Aalen to Nördlingen and Crailsheim. Today, many citizens of the surrounding communities Rainau- Buch and Hüttlingen use the Goldshöfe train station. It also serves as a transfer station between the Aalen – Donauwörth and (Ulm) –Aalen – Crailsheim lines.

Long-distance and freight transport

From 1991 to 2002 the trains of the Interregio line Stuttgart – Aalen – Crailsheim – Nuremberg also ran on the Upper Jagstbahn . Intercity has been running on route 61 Karlsruhe – Stuttgart – Nuremberg– (Leipzig / Munich) every two hours since 2002. Train crossings usually take place in the double-track section between the Goldshöfe and Aalen stations. In March 2013, Deutsche Bahn AG announced that it would use new double-decker IC trains on this line from 2017 instead of the previous passenger coaches . The use of the new trains was delayed due to delivery problems on the part of the manufacturer until the timetable change in December 2018. Since March 2019, all intercity trains have been running with double-decker trains.

In addition, individual freight trains on the Stuttgart – Nuremberg route run on the Obere Jagstbahn, as the Remsbahn (Stuttgart - Aalen) is better and has two tracks than the Murrbahn (Stuttgart – Backnang – Crailsheim – Nürnberg), which is single-track and has several curves.

literature

• Kurt Seidel: One hundred years of the Obere Jagstbahn. Theiss, Stuttgart 1967

Web links

Commons : Obere Jagstbahn  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Location, course, signals and permissible speeds of the route on the OpenRailwayMap .
• The railway in Ellwangen - history , Schwäbischer Albverein, local group Ellwangen
• Excerpt from the course book from 1944: p. 1 , p. 2

Individual evidence

1. ^ DB Netz AG: Infrastructure Register. In: geovdbn.deutschebahn.com , accessed on July 2, 2020.
2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
3. ↑ Söhner: The first mast was set - the Goldshöfe – Crailsheim line is being electrified . In: The Federal Railroad . tape 58 , no. 12 , 1982, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 995 f .
4. ↑ ^{a b} The Jagst Valley Railway has been live for 25 years . Ipf- und Jagst-Zeitung / Aalener Nachrichten, Friday, May 14, 2010, No. 109.
5. ↑ Regionalverband Ostwuerttemberg: "Transport" in the regional plan 2010 ( Memento of the original from March 28, 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. . 
6. ↑ Security significantly improved , Schwäbische Post, October 30, 2012.
7. ^ The station is now up and running , Schwäbische Post from April 22, 2011.
8. ↑ "Schnellen Eppmann" more often , Gmünder Tagespost from November 27, 2009.
9. ↑ Perspectives on the development of rail transport in the East Wuerttemberg region , Dr. Brenner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH + DB International GmbH, October 2012 ( https://www.ostwuerttemberg.org/fileadmin/user_upload/regionalverband/pdf/bericht_spnvostalb.pdf ).
10. ↑ Extension of the Stuttgart - Nuremberg route is being investigated . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 2 , 2018, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 60 f .
11. ↑ Final: Go-Ahead travels on the Remsbahn. In: Schwäbische.de. April 29, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2016 .