Lubań Śląski – Węgliniec railway line

Lubań Śląski – Węgliniec Lauban – Kohlfurt
Route number :	279 (D29)
Course book range :	PKP 255; DR 157a (1944)
Route length:	21.059 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	up to 1945: 15 kV 16 2/3 Hz ~ from 1986: 3 kV  =
Maximum slope :	7  ‰
Top speed:	80 km / h
Legend from Wrocław 0.000 Lubań Śląski formerly Lauban * to Görlitz / Zgorzelec 5.150 Bk wish village 9,080 Gierałtów 12,132 Gierałtów Wykroty formerly Gersdorf-Waldau * 17.070 Bk Rabenhorst from Wrocław 21.059 Węgliniec formerly Kohlfurt * to Czerwona Woda after Żary to Görlitz to Roßlau (Elbe) * German station names from 1944

The Lubań Śląski – Węgliniec railway is a single-track, electrified main line in Upper Lusatia, Poland . It runs from Lubań ( Lauban ) to Węgliniec ( Kohlfurt ) and is now in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship . It was built by the Prussian State Railways as part of the Silesian Mountain Railway to Waldenburg .

history

Already in 1853 there were considerations about the connection of the Silesian coal mining area to the Prussian railway network, but different interests clashed with the route. The Görlitz city fathers pleaded for a route through their city, although the shorter route would lead via Lauban to Kohlfurt. The Prussian state parliament finally decided on January 22, 1862 to build a railway line via Lauban to Kohlfurt and a branch line from Lauban to Görlitz.

In September 1863, construction work began between Kohlfurt and Lauban. The simple topology enabled a straight route with few engineering structures. On September 6th, 1865, the road was approved by the building authorities. On September 20 of the same year the line was opened as part of the Silesian Mountain Railway SGB. The only stopover was the Gersdorf-Waldau train station. On the same day, the routes from Lauban to Görlitz and Reibnitz were inaugurated.

The route was part of the route book 48 Kohlfurt - Sorgau. Initially, four pairs of passenger trains and, in the summer, through coaches ran to Berlin. The route was of great importance for the transport of hard coal from the Silesian coalfield to Berlin and northern Germany. In the 1890s, the former SGB trunk line between Lauban and Kohlfurt was devalued. The Lauban - Görlitz branch was raised from the connecting line to the main line. The branch line Kohlfurt - Lauban was part of the course book route 57 Berlin - Görlitz - Hirschberg - Breslau in 1905.

Despite the low passenger traffic on the branch line, the line was included in the electrification program of the Deutsche Reichsbahn . Electrical operation began on April 3, 1928. In the 1930s the route got its own timetable number 123m. In 1935 ten pairs of railcars operated between Kohlfurt and Lauban. Class ET 25 railcars were used. In the summer, the pair of express trains E 331/332 now ran an express train again on the branch line. The express train ran from Stettin via Sorau, Kohlfurt and Lauban to Hirschberg. The express train was discontinued with the beginning of the Second World War .

Węgliniec Railway Station (2009)

According to the Potsdam Agreement , eastern Upper Lusatia fell to Poland in 1945. In 1945 the PKP started operating with three trains a day. The course book series also received a new design. The railway line was now part of the route book route 148 Lubań - Jasień. In the 1970s, traffic had increased again to seven pairs of trains. A sleeping car was attached to a train as a through car to Warsaw .

In 1985 PKP began electrifying the line with 3 kilovolts DC. The contact wire from the German era fell victim to Soviet reparation claims in 1945. On June 1, 1986, electric train operations were resumed by the PKP . Due to the poor condition of the route and the resulting high travel times, passenger trains no longer ran on the route for some time from August 1, 2012. They ran via Zgorzelec with about the same travel time . In the 2017 annual timetable, the route is served by a total of nine pairs of Koleje Dolnośląskie (KD) passenger trains, the majority of which are connected to and from Wrocław.

literature

• Wilfried Rettig: Railway in the three-country corner. East Saxony (D) / Lower Silesia (PL) / North Bohemia (CZ). Part 1: History of the main lines, operating points, electrification and route descriptions . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2010, ISBN 978-3-88255-732-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Rettig, Wilfried: Eisenbahn im Dreiländereck, part 1 . 2010, p. 94 .
2. ↑ KBS 157a: Kohlfurt – Lauban in the Reich course book 1944
3. ↑ Rettig, Wilfried: Railway in the triangle, part 1 . 2010, p. 94 f .
4. ↑ ^{a b} Rettig, Wilfried: Railway in the border triangle, part 1 . 2010, p. 94 f .
5. ↑ rynek-kolejowy.pl: Walczą o powrót pociągów Węgliniec - Lubań Śląski (Polish). Retrieved August 16, 2012 . 
6. ↑ Annual timetable 2017