Landau – Herxheim railway line

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Landau-Herxheim
Section of the Landau – Herxheim railway line
Route number : 3440
Course book section (DB) : last 282d (1949–1972)
682 (1972–1983)
Route length: 10.9 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Neustadt (Weinstr)
   
 from Germersheim
Station, station
 0.0 Landau (Pfalz) Hbf
   
 to Pirmasens
   
 after winds
   
 A 65
   
 4.008 Mörlheim
   
 6,062 Offenbach (Queich)
   
 10,884 Herxheim (b Landau)

The Landau (Pfalz) –Herxheim railway is an almost eleven kilometer long disused branch line in Rhineland-Palatinate , which ran from Landau in the Palatinate to Herxheim . Their importance lay mainly in freight transport. In recent years, efforts have been made to reactivate the route for the foreseeable future, but this seems realistic in the long term.

course

The route begins in Landau's main train station and runs parallel to the Palatinate Maximiliansbahn in the direction of Winden for about a kilometer , the embankment of the latter being slightly higher. Then she turns left to pass under the A65 a few hundred meters later . After passing the towns of Mörlheim and Offenbach an der Queich, it turns right and ends after another five kilometers on the northern outskirts of Herxheim.

As far as Mörlheim it is located on the district of the independent city of Landau in the Palatinate , the rest of the route is in the district of Südliche Weinstrasse .

history

Railway projects around Herxheim and Offenbach

In the course of efforts to link the Palatinate Maximiliansbahn Neustadt – Wissembourg , which opened in 1855, with the Baden capital of Karlsruhe , several representatives of the southern Palatinate municipalities sought a route via Offenbach , Herxheim , Leimersheim and Leopoldshafen . However, these plans were in competition with the projected Winden – Karlsruhe railway line . Above all in Herxheim, displeasure about the latter grew, as the community feared it would be isolated from the traffic. Accordingly, she vehemently opposed their realization. Nevertheless, this line, which was opened in 1864, was ultimately preferred. In the same year the Speyer route was extended to Germersheim.

Thereupon plans were made to establish a strategic cross connection between the fortresses of Germersheim and Landau . Of a total of four variants, two should run south of the Queich via Offenbach. Nevertheless, a route north of the river via Westheim, Ober- and Niederlustadt and Zeiskam was implemented. A station was built on this line, which was opened in 1872, with the Dreihof train station, which was intended to serve Offenbach, among other things, but was far from its settlement area.

After the Klingbachtalbahn Rohrbach - Klingenmünster was built in 1892 , a draft for a branch line from Rohrbach to Herxheim followed in 1894. However, technical reasons prevented this. Herxheim itself continued to strive for a rail connection, so that the local council approved the assumption of the costs for a project. The plans were changed so that a branch line starting in Landau should run via Offenbach to Herxheim.

Further development

The 10.88 km long railway line itself was opened on December 1, 1898 as the last of the Palatinate Maximiliansbahn-Gesellschaft , which was responsible for all routes within the southern Palatinate . At this point in time, the reception buildings of the on-the-go stations in Mörlheim, Offenbach and Herxheim were not yet completed; the same applied to the tracks in the last two places mentioned. The festival activities of the Herxheim community were moderate, as the director of the Pfalzbahn, Jakob von Lavale , among other things , had prohibited larger celebrations.

On January 1, 1909, the route together with the rest of the railway network within the Palatinate became the property of the Bavarian State Railways .

When the Deutsche Reichsbahn was founded in 1920, the branch line became their property. In 1922 the station was incorporated into the newly formed Ludwigshafen Reich Railway Directorate . In the course of its dissolution on April 1, 1937, she moved to the area of ​​responsibility of the Mainz management.

Shutdown and future

The German Federal Railways was divided the station after the Second World War in the Bundesbahndirektion Mainz one, they all railway lines within the newly created state of Rhineland-Palatinate allotted. In 1971 the station came under the responsibility of its Karlsruhe counterpart in the course of the dissolution of the Mainz management.

From the post-war period onwards, traffic flows had increasingly shifted in the direction of Karlsruhe, which, in addition to the subway stations located on the outskirts, contributed significantly to the fact that the route became increasingly less important. Low passenger numbers led to the cessation of passenger traffic on September 25, 1983. The remaining freight traffic was continued until the turn of the year 1994/1995. Complete shutdown followed on February 15, 1996.

In the meantime, the switch in Landau's main train station has also been removed. However, thanks to a route security agreement between DB Netz and the neighboring municipalities, the route will be retained for the time being, so that it can be restarted at a later date. A study carried out in 2003 on behalf of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate into the possibility of reactivating the route was concluded in 2005. Two options were examined. One planned to operate the branch line as a branch line with diesel vehicles, the other the integration into the network of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn and the associated electrification including an extension from Herxheim to Rülzheim with a connection to the Schifferstadt – Wörth railway line . However, the result showed a negative cost-benefit ratio.

At the beginning of 2013, DB Netz applied for the exemption of rail operations for the section between kilometer 9.915 (between the “Insgrundtal” and “Auf der Insgrundhöhe” channels north of Herxheim) and the end of the line at kilometer 10.900. Numerous level crossings and the end of the line have now been dismantled. In Offenbach, too, a section of track several hundred meters long was removed for the construction of a new development area.

business

passenger traffic

Due to the fact that the train stations in Mörlheim, Offenbach and Herxheim were relatively far from the respective town centers, passenger traffic was of rather subordinate importance. In 1954, until he was stopped, Uerdinger rail buses from Landau were used. In 1980, a pair of Bn wagons were still running, hauled by a class 212 diesel locomotive .

Freight transport

Freight traffic played a significantly larger role than passenger traffic: Herxheim itself developed into an important trading center as a result of the rail connection. Accordingly, the Herxheim train station temporarily had the highest cargo turnover in all of Bavaria.

Operating points

Landau (Pfalz) central station

Landau (Pfalz) main station in 2005

Landau's main train station was built in mid-1855 as the provisional terminus of the Palatinate Maximiliansbahn. In 1872 it was supplemented by the line to Germersheim, which developed together with the Südpfalzbahn to Zweibrücken, which had been built for a few years, to become part of the mainline Bruchsal – Saarbrücken. In the process, his tracks were expanded and relocated a little to the west, and in this context he also received a new reception building. The latter was released on December 24, 1877.

In 1898 the branch line to Herxheim was added, from 1913 to 1953 an overland tram ran from the station forecourt with the Pfälzer Oberlandbahn to Neustadt, which connected several villages away from the Maximiliansbahn. Since the second station building had been destroyed in World War II, the current one was put into operation in early 1962. Freight traffic in the Queichtal came to a complete standstill in 1998, and on the Maximiliansbahn it has been gradually reduced over the past decades; In this way, the train station only plays a subordinate role in freight transport; as a result, the once extensive freight tracks were dismantled from 1990 onwards.

Mörlheim

The station was on the southern outskirts of Mörlheim .

Offenbach (Queich)

The station was on the southern outskirts of Offenbach an der Queich . In 1910 it was renamed from "Offenbach ad Queich" to "Offenbach a Queich".

Herxheim (near Landau)

The station was on the northern outskirts of Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz . The reception building is a sandstone building .

literature

  • Jubilee of the Herxheim-Landau railway line 1898-1948 . Self-published by the Herxheim municipal administration, Herxheim o. J. [1948].
  • Erika Th. Knochel: The local train . In: Landkreis Südliche Weinstrasse (Ed.): Fascination Railway. Homeland yearbook . 2008, p. 56-57 .
  • Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rails. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . Transpress Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-71073-0 , p. 221-223 .
  • Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . pro MESSAGE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 2005, ISBN 3-934845-27-4 .
  • Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V. (Ed.): 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . Landau in the Palatinate 1980.
  • Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways (= publications of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science. Volume 53). New edition. pro MESSAGE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 2005, ISBN 3-934845-26-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 221 .
  2. ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 160 f .
  3. ^ Wilfried Schweikart: The construction of the Landau - Germersheim railway line . In: Landkreis Südliche Weinstrasse (Ed.): Fascination Railway. Homeland yearbook . 2008, p. 49 .
  4. ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 188 .
  5. ↑ Martin Wenz: Type stations of the Palatinate Railways on the Southern Wine Route . In: Landkreis Südliche Weinstrasse (Ed.): Fascination Railway. Homeland yearbook . 2008, p. 16 .
  6. ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 239 f .
  7. ^ A b Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 240 .
  8. ↑ Fritz Engbarth: From the Ludwig Railway to the Integral Timed Timetable - 160 Years of the Railway in the Palatinate . 2007, p. 13 .
  9. ^ Heinz Sturm: History of the Maxbahn 1855-1945 . In: Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V. (Ed.): 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . 1980, p. 66 .
  10. ↑ Fritz Engbarth: From the Ludwig Railway to the Integral Timed Timetable - 160 Years of the Railway in the Palatinate . 2007, p. 28 .
  11. ^ A b Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 Years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 121 .
  12. ↑ Federal Railway Office - Frankfurt / Saarbrücken branch office -: Public announcement in accordance with Section 23, Paragraph 2 of the General Railway Act - Exemption from railway operations relating to part of the 3440 Landau – Herxheim line - from February 1, 2013 (Az. 551pf / 128 - 2012 # 029 / 55122 - 12 - 0637 e; BAnz AT 02/12/2013 B6 )
  13. ↑ Herbert Dähling: What once rolled over the Maxbahn. Attempt to get an overview of traction vehicles and dare on the anniversary route . In: Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V. (Ed.): 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . 1980, p. 140 .
  14. ↑ Michael Heilmann, Werner Schreiner: 150 years Maximiliansbahn Neustadt-Strasbourg . 2005, p. 120 f .
  15. ^ Heinz Sturm: History of the Maxbahn 1855-1945 . In: Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V. (Ed.): 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . 1980, p. 56 .
  16. ^ Heinz Sturm: History of the Maxbahn 1855-1945 . In: Model and Railway Club Landau in der Pfalz e. V. (Ed.): 125 years of Maximiliansbahn Neustadt / Weinstrasse-Landau / Pfalz . 1980, p. 75 .
  17. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Ed.): Official Journal of the Royal Prussian and Grand Ducal Hessian Railway Directorate in Mainz of March 12, 1910, No. 10. Announcement No. 187, pp. 95f (96).
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 222 .

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