Kitzingen – Schweinfurt railway line

Kitzingen – Schweinfurt main station
Route number :	5231
Course book section (DB) :	809 (previously 812 / 418c)
Route length:	49.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	C2
Top speed:	50 km / h
Legend from Nuremberg 0.000 Kitzingen 205 m to Würzburg Main (bridge blown up in 1945) 2.390 Kitzingen- Etwashausen (1945-2014 terminus) 188 m Connection to Kitzingen airfield 4.300 Kitzingen- Reubelshof 5.370 Start of the route since 2014 7.580 Großlangheim 223 m 10.920 Kleinlangheim Federal motorway 3 13.000 Rüdenhausen - Feuerbach 15.750 Wiesentheid 252 m 16.900 Geesdorf 19.800 Prichsenstadt Schwarzach Bundesstrasse 22 22.600 Stadelschwarzach 24.400 Järkendorf 26.080 Lülsfeld 27.700 Frankenwinheim Volkach 30.040 Gerolzhofen 235 m Bundesstrasse 286 34.100 Alitzheim 36.300 Sulzheim 39.860 Grettstadt 44.600 Gochsheim (Ufr) Federal motorway 70 47.244 47.947 Schweinfurt- Sennfeld Connection port 49.032 Main bridge Schweinfurt (234 m) from Bamberg 50.072 Schweinfurt Central Station 217 m to Meiningen to Würzburg Swell:

The Kitzingen – Schweinfurt railway , also known as the Steigerwaldbahn or Untere Steigerwaldbahn, is a branch line in Bavaria . It runs in Lower Franconia from Kitzingen via Wiesentheid and Gerolzhofen to Schweinfurt . It got its name from the course of its southern area through the Steigerwald foreland .

The traffic on the route was stopped in stages, while at the same time there were and are attempts to restart operations, in a seemingly endless, difficult to understand story. Since 2019, the restarting has been very controversial, even divided society in the region and became a political issue with a supraregional appeal.

history

Construction of the Gerolzhöfer Bridge
in Schweinfurt in 1903

Test drive in front of Gochsheim train station in 1903

Gerolzhöfer Bridge in Schweinfurt 2010

Construction of the railway

The Steigerwaldbahn was built in the first section from Kitzingen to Gerolzhofen in 1893. The second section to Schweinfurt Central Station was opened on November 23, 1903.

Second World War and its aftermath

At the end of the Second World War , on the night of April 4 to 5, 1945, the railway bridge over the Main in Kitzingen was blown up by Wehrmacht troops . Less than a week later, on April 11, 1945, when the US Army marched into Schweinfurt, the Gerolzhöfer Bridge over the Main in Schweinfurt was blown up on the same day when the Wehrmacht withdrew. Until a temporary bridge was built in Schweinfurt in 1946, only isolated operations between the Schweinfurt Sennfeld station in southern Main and Etwashausen were possible. It was not until 1984 that the temporary bridge was replaced by a bridge field from the dismantled Main Bridge in Wertheim .

For the construction of the federal motorway 3 , a ceiling construction station was built south of the Wiesenthaid train station in 1961 . It was used to deliver mineral building materials such as gravel, sand and grit, as well as bitumen and fuels, especially in 1963 and 1964. The building materials delivered in block trains were prepared on site in large mixing plants and then brought to the construction site. The line was reinforced for these trains and an EDr-S2uf push button interlocking was built in Prichsenstadt. After the motorway was completed, the facilities were dismantled.

Despite years of efforts by the cities of Kitzingen and Gerolzhofen, the Main Bridge in Kitzingen was never rebuilt.

Gradual cessation of traffic

Passenger traffic on the Kitzingen – Gerolzhofen route was switched to regional bus services on May 31, 1981 , and operations from Gerolzhofen to Schweinfurt on May 29, 1987. Until December 31, 2001 there was still scheduled freight traffic between Kitzingen and Schweinfurt. Until mid-2006 the US Army stationed in Kitzingen occasionally used the route for military transport. With the withdrawal of troops from the Kitzingen location, the line had a brief “heyday” in the spring of 2006, when several block trains ran weekly to the Kitzingen airfield and from there back to Schweinfurt on the main route network. The section between Schweinfurt main station and Gochsheim was operated by DB Netz , as there were still freight customers (timber loading) in this area. On December 9, 2007, DB Schenker permanently stopped operating the Gochsheim charging station. Since then, goods traffic has only taken place on a short stretch of the route, between the north Main Railway Station in Schweinfurt and a south Main industrial track that branches off after the Gerolzhöfer Bridge into the Port of Schweinfurt .

Further developments

The Bavarian Regional Railway (BRE), a subsidiary of the German Regional Railway (DRE), took over the route from Kitzingen-Etwashausen to Gochsheim in May 2005 from Deutsche Bahn .

Gerolzhofen station 2005

The section between Großlangheim and Kitzingen-Etwashausen was closed to train traffic in March 2007 due to suspected contaminated sites from the Second World War. That is why the cities of Wiesentheid and Kitzingen were no longer interested in special trips by the Steigerwald Express development association . Since this meant that the largest grant providers were no longer available and the other municipalities also held back financially, the transport operations could no longer be carried out in a cost-covering manner. The development association then procured its own passenger cars in order to be able to offer special trips in the future. In May 2009 the ban on driving on the section between Großlangheim and Kitzingen was lifted, but the route from Gochsheim was closed until the end of the route in March 2010 due to defects in the superstructure. As a result, the government of Middle Franconia, as the responsible supervisory authority of the DRE / BRE, set an extended deadline until the end of April 2011 to put the route in a safe condition. Since the deadline was not met by the BRE, the district government imposed a fine on the route operator. The BRE was only able to restore navigability at the end of May 2011. In May 2013 , due to a lack of income , the BRE put the 12.5-kilometer section Kitzingen-Etwashausen - Wiesentheid commercial area to tender for other railway infrastructure companies (EIU) to take over .

Etwashausen station in January 2020

Gradual shutdown

Railway overpass over the Bundesstraße 22 , Stadelschwarzach

On July 10, 2014, the first section of the existing route from Kitzingen-Etwashausen to the Kitzingen city limits (railway km 5.37) was closed after approval by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Transport . Due to the lack of profitability and upcoming, avoidable investments, the remaining section of the route from km 5.37 to Gochsheim was offered (exclusively) to other RIUs by BRE at the beginning of September 2014 . After the BRE tender had been interrupted in the meantime, the Schweinfurt - Kitzingen-Etwashausen route was shut down by the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior at the beginning of January 2016 due to the failure of negotiations with potential interested parties and the BRE then returned its section of the route to DB Netz on February 10 . April 2015 DB Netz also wrote the section from the branch to the port Schweinfurt , close to the train station Schweinfurt Sennfeld to the station Gochsheim out. Although there were initially three interested parties, no agreement was reached on the purchase price. The Federal Railway Authority then granted approval on April 25, 2016 to shut down this section by the end of 2017. However, the project developer of the Kitzingen technology park conneKT still wanted to buy the line from Deutsche Bahn at an acceptable price in order to connect it to the rail network.

Dedication of the route within Kitzingen

On May 12, 2016, the responsible government of Middle Franconia in Ansbach approved an application from the Lower Franconian city ​​of Kitzingen. The exemption of railway operation purposes (declassification) after the General Railway Act (AEG), the three-kilometer section within the urban area Kitzinger had been requested. The corresponding areas were returned to the planning authority of the city of Kitzingen. This is also where the rail connection to the technology park conneKT is located , which has thus become obsolete for the time being.

Postponing the deedication of the remaining route

Steigerwaldbahn
near Prichsenstadt

Corresponding applications for de-dedication were also made by other communities along the route. The city of Gerolzhofen withdrew its application in January 2019 to await the result of a potential analysis. These and various petitions were also an occasion for the Bavarian State Parliament to work to ensure that the ongoing proceedings for the deedication and sale of the route are initially postponed. At the end of July 2019, however, this was sold to the Meißner company in Bad Mergentheim , which deals with the dismantling of track systems and dismantled the Sinntalbahn in 2016 . Since January 2020, the section between Kitzingen-Etwashausen and the railway kilometers 5.37 has been dismantled.

Big dispute about reactivation

Since the sale to Meißner took place without the line being deedicated beforehand, there were violent protests from supporters of reactivating the railway. The Steigerwaldbahn has now become a hotly contested political issue that is unprecedented in the region . This led to an incomparable flood of articles, statements and comments in the regional media, especially the Main-Post . The region was split (see also: Required recommissioning ).

Required recommissioning

As a conventional train

First try

Special trip
in Großlangheim 2008

Since the route, with the exception of the section in Kitzingen, has not yet been de-dedicated, it would be possible to reopen it without the planning approval procedure .

According to the annual timetable of Deutsche Bahn valid from December 11, 2005 , the entire route was transferred to the Bavarian Regional Railway (BRE) in the course of the timetable section . From July 15, 2006, the resumption of passenger traffic on weekends and public holidays was planned. The operation was limited from the start until December 9, 2006 (end of the annual timetable). If the trial run was successful, even the complete resumption of passenger train traffic on all weekdays between Schweinfurt and Gerolzhofen, possibly also Etwashausen, was considered. The operation should be carried out by the Erfurt railway with railcars of the type Regio-Shuttle . However, this trial operation never took place; instead, special trips were scheduled. The first two scheduled trips on July 15 and 16, 2006 have been canceled. Since the supposedly intended driving speed of 50 km / h is not permitted and the route is only released for freight traffic, it would not be possible to travel by passenger .

Further efforts

On November 19, 2007, the Steigerwald Express association was founded from the community of interest of the same name . Its aim is to maintain the route through the use of special tourist trains and the reactivation of freight traffic. In the 2008 driving season, the association was able to transport around 1,300 passengers on four days of driving on the occasion of local festivals, most of which consisted of the association's own class 310 locomotive and two rented “ Donnerbüchsen ”.

Since July 2018, the IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt has been campaigning for the reopening of the railway line for passenger traffic in the Schweinfurt main station - Gerolzhofen section . The IHK is based on a potential analysis, the result of which corresponds to the economic efficiency requirements of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs . The Bavarian Railway Company is planning a possible reactivation of passenger traffic on the route. On July 19, 2019, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen held an information event for Gerolzhofen geo-net together with the Steigerwald Express development association , the Verkehrsclub Deutschland and the community of voters for Gerolzhofen geo-net, promoting a possible reactivation of the Steigerwaldbahn. In December 2019, the district council of the district of Schweinfurt decided by a large majority that it would be examined whether and under what conditions passenger traffic on the disused Steigerwaldbahn can be resumed.

As a regional tram

In August 2019, a new concept for the Steigerwaldbahn was publicly presented by the traffic planner Robert Wittek-Brix, with a regional tram that differs from a conventional route reactivation in several ways. In the proposal, the train should not end in Kitzingen-Etwashausen, but instead run in tram operation over the north bridge to Kitzingen station and thus connect two main lines again. As an integral train, it is to be split from Kitzingen at Schweinfurt Sennfeld station . One branch is supposed to run on the existing railway line over the Gerolzhöfer Bridge to Schweinfurt Central Station , as it once did . The second branch is to go as a tram with numerous stops over the Max Bridge through the inner city of Schweinfurt , then pass the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt and the West School Center and finally be connected to the existing Schweinfurt-Meiningen railway line.

Supporters then only brought this concept into the discussion, which opponents usually avoided addressing. The CSU then made an alternative proposal to convert the Steigerwaldbahn route as a lane for autonomous driving for buses and as an express bike path . This proposal was sharply criticized by those in favor of reactivation and negated by its opponents. For the CSU proposal, an elaboration on the potential of autonomous road vehicles on the track of the Steigerwaldbahn by Andreas Witte from the Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD), Kitzingen district group, pointed to considerable problems.

Since the Schweinfurt urban area is also included in the Wittek-Brix proposal, the city of Schweinfurt wants to have a feasibility study drawn up for this proposal.

Web links

• Website of the Steigerwald Express Friends' Association
• Video: Controversial report in the BR on the dispute between reactivation supporters and opponents of the railroad, July 17, 2019 (4:55)
• Video: Recording of the autonomous bus live from Bad Birnbach, which is requested on the route by the CSU, February 16, 2020 (13:59)

Individual evidence

1. ^ DB Netz AG: Infrastructure Register. In: geovdbn.deutschebahn.com , accessed on June 3, 2020.
2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
3. ↑ Map of the Federal Railway Directorate Nuremberg 1985
4. ^ Paul Ultsch: Back then in Schweinfurt . Volume 1: When the city wall was still a boundary . Book and Idea Publishing GmbH, Schweinfurt 1982, ISBN 3-9800480-1-2 , p. 67
5. ^ Robert Mrugalla: The DB and the motorway construction . In: railway magazine . No. 3 , 2020, p. 51 .
6. ↑ Duds and train path charges. Many hurdles for the Steigerwaldexpress Friends' Association in the race to maintain the route. In: Mainpost. April 24, 2009, accessed February 9, 2011 . 
7. ↑ The railway line should be passable again. In: Mainpost. February 8, 2011, accessed November 25, 2011 . 
8. ^ Gisela Schmidt: Regional railway has to pay penalty. In: Mainpost. November 24, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2011 . 
9. ↑ Surrender of railway infrastructure; Route number 5231, section Kitzingen-Etwashausen station km 2.168 - Wiesentheid industrial area km 14.700. (PDF; 52 kB) (No longer available online.) Bavarian Regional Railway, March 18, 2013, formerly in the original ; Retrieved May 9, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
10. ↑ Information on DRE routes. Railway lines 5231 Kitzingen-Etwashausen - Gochsheim (a). (No longer available online.) July 2014, archived from the original on September 21, 2014 ; Retrieved July 17, 2014 . 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.  
11. ↑ Route number 5231 Kitzingen-Etwashausen - Gochsheim (excl.) Km 5.37 - km 43.858. (PDF) September 4, 2014, archived from the original on October 16, 2014 ; accessed on September 14, 2014 . 
12. ↑ Despite traffic potential : difficult future for the route Schweinfurt - Kitzingen-Etwashausen . In: Bahn-Report . tape 33 , no. 195 , May 1, 2015, ISSN  0178-4528 , p. 71 .
13. ^ Railway line Schweinfurt - Kitzingen. Deutsche Regionalisenbahn Gruppe, January 29, 2016, accessed on March 25, 2016 . 
14. ↑ Surrender of railway infrastructure. Section: Gochsheim (incl.) - Schweinfurt Hbf (excl.) (DB route 5231). (PDF (0.06 MB)) (No longer available online.) DB Netz AG, March 31, 2015, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on May 13, 2016 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b} route Schweinfurt - Kitzingen-Etwashausen . In: Bahn-Report . tape 34 , no. 202 , May 1, 2016, ISSN  0178-4528 , p. 68 .
16. ^ Railway line 5231 Gochsheim (incl.) - Schweinfurt-Sennfeld (excl.) Approval. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Federal Railway Office in Bonn, archived from the original on May 13, 2016 ; accessed on May 13, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Norbert Finster: A siding for Schaeffler? Mainpost , July 24, 2015, accessed July 26, 2015 . 
18. ^ Klaus Vogt: Railway line: The train has left. infranken.de, July 20, 2016, accessed on July 24, 2016 . 
19. ↑ Michael Franz, Norbert Steiche: reactivation of the "Steigerwald train" possible again. In: br.de. January 8, 2019, accessed January 30, 2019 . 
20. ↑ Thomas Kiesling, Alex Los: Bus or Train? In: br.de. July 17, 2019, accessed July 21, 2019 . 
21. ^ Norbert Vollmann: Railway Petitions: Accepted or Not Accepted? In: Main-Post . July 14, 2019, accessed July 21, 2019 . 
22. ^ The association: Förderverein Steigerwald-Express e. V. Accessed June 26, 2014 . 
23. ^ Förderverein Steigerwald-Express e. V., Der Steigerwald-Express, issue 2, p. 1 (see also history of the lower Steigerwaldbahn). (PDF) (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 24, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
24. ^ Förderverein Steigerwald-Express e. V., photo albums of the special journeys 2006 to 2008. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 24, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
25. ↑ Main-Post: IHK: Steigerwaldbahn would strengthen the region , July 20, 2018.
26. ^ Regional Conference Lower Franconia, planning: Schweinfurt - Kitzingen. (PDF) Bavarian Railway Company, June 13, 2018, accessed on July 22, 2019 . 
27. ↑ bus or train? In: BR24. Retrieved July 17, 2019 . 
28. ↑ Norbert Finster: The railway of yesterday and that of tomorrow. In: Mainpost.de. Retrieved July 21, 2019 . 
29. ↑ Norbert Finster: The time of the gatekeeper is over. In: Mainpost.de. Retrieved July 21, 2019 . 
30. ↑ mainpost.de: Steigerwaldbahn: The bumpy path of the district council, December 13, 2019. Accessed on January 19, 2020 . 
31. ↑ mainpost.de: By train through the inner city of Schweinfurt, August 2, 2019. Accessed on January 19, 2020 . 
32. ↑ mainpost.de: Steigerwaldbahn: Will there soon be autonomous buses on the railway line? December 9, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2020 . 
33. ↑ Elaboration on the potential of autonomous road vehicles on the track body of the Steigerwaldbahn by Andreas Witte from Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD), Kitzingen district group, December 2019. Retrieved on February 2, 2020 .