Hude – Blexen railway line

Hude-Nordenham-Blexen
Route number :	1503
Course book section (DB) :	391
Route length:	50.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV, 16.7 Hz  ~
Top speed:	90 km / h
Dual track :	Golzwarden – Rodenkirchen
Legend Line from Bremen 0.0 Hude Route to Oldenburg Vielstedter Strasse (K 226) Kirchstrasse (L 868) Huder Bach 4.3 New co-op 8.6 Berne Lower Ollen Beep-hammer Sieltief Hunte 14.7 Elsfleth Elsflether Sieltief 19.8 Hammelwarden district of Elsfleth Moorriemer Canal and Käseburger Sieltief 22.8 Kirchhammelwarden district of Brake Route to Oldenburg 25.5 Brake (Lower Weser) 27.9 Golzwarden 28.5 Golzwarden 31.5 Dignity 33.9 Rodenkirchen (Oldb) Strohauser Sieltief former route to Varel B 437 38.8 Kleinensiel Butjadinger Railway 43.6 Nordenham 44.5 Cable road 46.2 Nordenham-Friedr.-August-Hütte 47.4 Werftstrasse 48.7 Einswarden (formerly Bf) 50.2 Nordenham-Blexen

Swing bridge at Elsfleth-Ohrt over the Hunte with an ET440 of the NordWestBahn coming from Elsfleth (2015)

Hude – Blexen railway line (in the background) near Brake

The Hude – Nordenham-Blexen railway is a 50 km long, predominantly single-track, electrified main line on the western bank of the Lower Weser . It connects the port cities of Nordenham and Brake in Hude to the Bremen – Oldenburg railway line and thus to the German railway network. The route mainly leads through marshland and some moorland areas in the Wesermarsch district . It is used for freight and local passenger transport. The extension to Blexen is used daily by a pair of trains in freight traffic to Nordenham Friedrich-August-Hütte. In the further course the line is closed.

history

Nordenham station shortly before the First World War

The railway line was opened in 1873 from Hude to Brake and on October 15, 1875 to Nordenham. The port handling caused a high volume of freight. From 1890 to 1897 the transatlantic steamers of Norddeutscher Lloyd also departed from Nordenham before they finally moved to Bremerhaven .

In 1904 the connection was extended by seven kilometers to Blexen. There was a connection to the Weser ferry Nordenham-Bremerhaven . This section has only been used as a port access and industrial track since 1980, and passenger traffic has been discontinued.

The line has been electrified since 1980.

The Kirchhammelwarden stop, which was closed in May 1988, was reopened on December 22, 2014.

At the beginning of 2017, the Hanseatic Infrastructure Company bought the route between Friedrich-August-Hütte and Blexen. This section is to be upgraded for freight traffic.

course

Stedingen

The mostly single-track line branches off in Hude from the Bremen – Oldenburg line . It then runs along its entire length through the flat Wesermarsch. After 4.3 km the Neuenkoop train station is reached, where until the timetable change in December 2010 it was used to cross the regional express trains. Since the timetable change, the crossing track in Neuenkoop has also been used for train crossings with freight traffic. The nearest train station is Berne and is 8.6 km away. In Berne there are three tracks available for train traffic. Tracks 1 and 2, which are equipped with platforms, are mainly used by passenger traffic. Since there is no underpass in Berne and therefore the tracks to platform 2 have to be crossed, freight trains are not allowed to pass through platform 1. The freight trains mostly run on platform 3 and often cross with the scheduled passenger traffic of the NordWestBahn . In the further course the line to Elsfleth is single-track.

Huntebrücke

Before Elsfleth there is the crossing over the Hunte by means of a swing bridge . In the direction of Nordenham the pantograph of the locomotive must be lowered when crossing the bridge .

Stadland and Butjadingen

There is also an intersection at Elsfleth train station. Since the crossing track is often insufficient for the sometimes long freight trains, there are not so many train crossings in Elsfleth. After 19.8 km you will reach the Oberhammelwarden train station. Until after Brake the single-track route continues until 22.8 km, the breakpoint Kirchhammelwarden is achieved. After 25.5 km, the Brake (Unterweser) train station is reached, the train station consists of two platforms and three platform edges. The old station building is currently empty. But we are working on a new use. There are numerous tracks in Brake that are used for freight traffic. In addition to a drainage mountain , new track facilities were also built for the new port, which are used for freight traffic. In the further course to Nordenham the line between Golzwarden and Rodenkirchen is double-track. This two-track piece is of great importance for the crossings in passenger traffic. In Rodenkirchen, where the Varel – Rodenkirchen railway branched off from 1913 to 1958 , track 3 was removed a few years ago, so that today only two through tracks are available. The line runs on a single track as far as Nordenham . After 38.8 km, before Nordenham, the Kleinensiel train station is reached, where there is also a crossing track on which only shorter freight trains can cross due to a level crossing and the platform only on track 1. There is also a connection point to the Unterweser nuclear power plant. After 43.6 km you will reach the Nordenham train station. In Nordenham there are numerous freight tracks available, as well as a connection to the port of Midgard . In the further course to Blexen, the route can only be used as far as Nordenham-Friedrich-August-Hütte. This section of the route is single-track, not electrified and is served daily by a pair of freight trains. The rest of the route to Blexen is closed and is no longer used. The Hanseatic Infrastructure Company has bought the railway line between Friedrich-August-Hütte and Blexen and wants to reactivate it for freight traffic.

Status

There have been problems on the track in the past due to the underground conditions. Due to moor lentils and the heavy freight traffic, speed limits had to be set up. By modernizing DB Netz AG between Hude and Nordenham , the maximum permissible speed of 90 km / h can largely be driven.

Service offer

Before electrification in 1980, class 624 railcars were used for passenger transport , followed by class 141 electric locomotives with n-cars until 2004 . With the timetable change in December 2004, class 425 multiple units were used on the route , which traveled as RE to Bremen. Between Hude and Bremen there were only stops in Delmenhorst. The trains ran every two hours with compressions at hourly intervals during rush hour. The NordWestBahn was awarded the contract by the regional S-Bahn Bremen / Lower Saxony , so that the multiple units used were relocated to Hanover and run there as a regional express on the route between Hanover Hbf and Wolfsburg .

Regio-S-Bahn with an ET440 of the NordWestBahn in Elsfleth (2020)

With the timetable change in December 2010, the NordwestBahn started operating the regional S-Bahn Bremen / Lower Saxony. Since then, the line has been running under the name RS 4 and the offer has been increased every day of the week at hourly intervals. Are used multiple units of type Coradia Continental by Alstom . Five-car trains are used during the week and three-car trains on weekends and public holidays. Despite the new name Regio-S-Bahn, the line continues to only serve the Delmenhorst stop between Bremen and Hude. In Hude there is a short connection to the RS 3 line to Oldenburg.

Freight traffic is carried out by various railway companies on the route. Many freight trains already end in Brake (connection to Braker Hafen), but some also continue to Nordenham , where there is a connection to Nordenham Harbor. Many coal trains run regularly from Nordenham to the inland. A regular guest for Brake is the sulfur train from Großenkneten, to which a few others join.

Web links

Commons : Hude – Blexen railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Lower Saxony Ministry for Economy, Labor and Transport: State and future of rail traffic in Lower Saxony. (PDF) Lower Saxony State Parliament, September 2, 2008, p. 19 , archived from the original on July 19, 2011 ; Retrieved September 25, 2008 . 
2. ↑ Trains stop again in the south of Brakes. In: Nordwest-Zeitung. December 23, 2014, accessed December 23, 2014 . 
3. ↑ Transport: New life on the old railway line. In: Nordwest-Zeitung. March 2, 2017, accessed March 13, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Railway line Varel – Rodenkirchen on laenderbahn.info.
5. ↑ Nordwest-Zeitung from March 1, 2017.
6. ↑ LNVG press release, More comfortable with ET 425 from the Wesermarsch to Bremen ( Memento from November 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive )