Kremmen – Meyenburg railway line
The Kremmen – Meyenburg railway line is a single-track, non-electrified railway line in northwest Brandenburg and the main line of the former Ruppiner Eisenbahn AG . It forms the extension of the Kremmener Bahn coming from Berlin and connects to the line to Güstrow at the Meyenburg terminus . The northern section between Wittstock and Meyenburg has been closed since 1967 and has since been dismantled. The section from Kremmen to Wittstock became the main line after 2000 .
Route description
The route begins in the city of Kremmen as a continuation of the Kremmener Bahn coming from Berlin. From there, it runs in a north-westerly direction through the Kremmener Luch and the subsequent Rhinluch . In front of the urban area of Neuruppin, the train swings to the west and merges into the train from Herzberg (Mark) , which was discontinued in 2006 . The train then crosses the Ruppiner See over a dam and then touches the Neuruppin city center, which is served by two train stations - Neuruppin Rheinsberger Tor and Neuruppin West. In between is the former Neuruppiner Hauptbahnhof, which is now closed to passenger traffic and is only used for operational purposes.
Behind the Neuruppin West train station, the train to Neustadt (Dosse) continues , while the Wittstocker Bahn swings to the northwest again. After crossing the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide , the train reaches Wittstock about 35 kilometers behind Neuruppin, where there is a shared station with the route to Wittenberge and Buschhof in Mecklenburg . This is located on the southern edge of the Wittstock city center.
The last section, around 30 kilometers long, to Meyenburg has already been closed and dismantled. The railway has crossed the foothills of the Mecklenburg Lake District here . The winding route of this section is roughly based on the course of the road between the two cities.
history
Private railway time
The city of Neuruppin received a connection to the Prussian railway network as early as 1880 with the Paulinenaue-Neuruppiner Railway. However, the route initially led to the main line Berlin – Hamburg and thus accepted a major detour on the Neuruppin – Berlin route. Kremmen to the south-east was also connected to the grid 13 years later. There was therefore the opportunity to extend the route from there in a straight line to Neuruppin and beyond to Wittstock on the Wittenberge - Neustrelitz route . Since the Prussian state railways showed no interest in the railway, the private Kremmen-Neuruppin-Wittstocker Eisenbahn-Aktien-Gesellschaft (KWE) was founded on April 29, 1896 . On June 25, 1897, the company received the concession to build the almost 65-kilometer route.
After around one and a half years of construction, goods traffic on the single-track line was started on December 16, 1898, and passenger traffic followed on February 1, 1899. Initially four steam locomotives with the C wheel arrangement and several passenger and freight cars were available for operation.
In 1902 and 1905, the railway facilities in Neuruppin were expanded in order to thread the newly opened lines of the Ruppiner Kreisbahn and the access line to the Paulinenaue-Neuruppin Railway at the main station.
In 1912 the railway was extended northwards in two steps. On February 1, 1912, it went from Wittstock to Freyenstein , and on April 14, from there to Meyenburg. A further extension to Putlitz via Krempendorf and Silmersdorf was planned. The Prussian Ministry of Public Works issued a permit to this effect in 1913, but the plans did not materialize.
In 1913 the Kremmen-Neuruppin-Wittstocker Eisenbahn and the Ruppiner Kreisbahn merged to form the Ruppiner Eisenbahn Actien-Gesellschaft (RE). Apart from the now joint management, nothing has changed in terms of train services.
In the 1920s, the Ruppiner Eisenbahn increasingly replaced the steam trains for passenger transport with combustion railcars . In the 1930s, some of these were tied through to the Stettiner Bahnhof in Berlin. From 1937 there was also mixed operation on the route between the Ruppin Railway and the Deutsche Reichsbahn . The travel time of a railcar between Neuruppin and Berlin was 75 minutes at the time, a steam train, on the other hand, needed almost two hours for the almost 60 kilometers long route.
Reichsbahn time
After the end of the Second World War , the Ruppin Railway was confiscated by the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) on October 30 and one year later, on November 18, 1946, as a provincial railway, it was placed under the head office of state- owned companies . The transfer to the Deutsche Reichsbahn took place on April 1, 1949.
Three years later, with the closure of the Stettiner Bahnhof, which was renamed Nordbahnhof in 1950, the through traffic to Berlin ended. From there, the trains only ran to Hennigsdorf , which was located directly on the border with West Berlin .
The mixed operation between steam trains and diesel multiple units continued after the end of the war. In the 1960s, the Reichsbahn replaced both of them with rail buses of the VT 2.09 series . In the vernacular, the red wagons were often referred to as "piglet taxes". Although the vehicles were designed for a top speed of 90 km / h, they could not use them because of the condition of the track. Last but not least, the long journey time (75 minutes for 27 kilometers in the 1960s) led to the closure of the Wittstock – Meyenburg section on May 28, 1967.
In the 1980s, around eight pairs of trains ran between Kremmen and Neuruppin and around four to five onwards to Wittstock.
The "Prignitz Express"
After 1990 the line was literally “on the sidelines”, as the financial resources listed in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan were initially not intended for the railway. Only the criticism of the Brandenburg state government and passenger associations finally led to a rethink. The Kremmen – Wittstock connection and the Hennigsdorf – Kremmen and Wittstock – Wittenberge connections to the south and west were included in the so-called “target network” and were to be expanded under the name “PrignitzExpress” for a maximum speed of 120 km / h. Associated with this was the conversion of the stops on the way.
Before work began, passenger and freight traffic on the Kremmen – Neuruppin line was discontinued on December 17, 1995 and instead a replacement bus service was offered directly to the Berlin Zoo station . Construction began on the first section to Kremmen on October 24, 1997, and the Kremmen – Neuruppin section was tackled a year later.
On May 28, 2000, the first section of the “ Prignitz Express ” to Neuruppin finally went into operation. A fast connection was established (the travel time from Neuruppin to Hennigsdorf was reduced from 83 to 30 minutes), but passenger associations criticized the implementation of the renovation. Several stops along the route were abandoned despite criticism from the municipalities and the existing train stations were reduced to a minimum, some of them were turned back into stops . In Kremmen, for example, there is only one head track for the regional train coming from Hennigsdorf and a through track for the "Prignitz-Express". After that there is no longer any possibility of crossing to Neuruppin. If the delay was too long, trains had to be canceled so as not to hinder the return train from Neuruppin. In addition, the announced use of vehicles from the 646 series could not take place when the route was opened because the manufacturer Adtranz had to contend with delivery bottlenecks. The German railway therefore had to in the first years 628 series use.
The year 2001 was given as the opening date for the second construction phase to Wittstock (Dosse) . However, after several years of construction, this construction phase only went into operation on February 28, 2005. The travel time was reduced from 45 to just under 30 minutes. In order to avoid capacity problems similar to those in the first construction phase, a crossing facility was subsequently created in Dossow station that can be used if the train from Berlin is delayed . Since the renovation, the entire route has been controlled by the ESTW in Neuruppin.
Since then, the route has been used every hour by the regional express line RE6 . The vehicles of the 646 series were replaced in 2017 by 14 used but modernized LINT41 multiple units, which have more seats and larger multi-purpose areas. Because the ceilings of the DB Regio workshop building in Neuruppin from 1936 were too low for the maintenance of the new railcars, they had to be converted.
In the second half of 2020, the eastern railway bridge over the Seedamm in Neuruppin will be renewed, while the railway line in this area is completely closed. For the construction period, a makeshift platform (Hp "Neuruppin Seedamm") with a bus stop was built shortly before the construction site so that the trains coming from Hennigsdorf did not have to end in Wustrau-Radensleben.
Web links
- Ruppiner Eisenbahn on bahnstrecken.de
- Kremmen-Neuruppin-Wittstocker Eisenbahn on berliner-bahnen.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Ordinance sheet for railways and shipping , 26 (1913), p. 795.
- ↑ Erich Preuß: Brand name for a route - Prignitz Express - doubts about the model character are appropriate . In: Pro Bahn. 1/2001. (PDF file; 242 kB)
- ↑ From Hennigsdorf to the big wide world ( memento of the original from December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: News 1st half of 2005. February 10, 2005.
- ^ LOK Report - Brandenburg: Opening of the DB train maintenance hall in Neuruppin . ( lok-report.de [accessed October 24, 2017]).
- ^ Brandenburg / Berlin . In: Bahn-Report . No. 4 , 2020, p. 37 .
