Karlsruhe – Mühlacker railway line

−4.625	Karlsruhe main station S 3 S 31 S 32
	Rheinbahn to Mannheim
−1.715	Ka-Hagsfeld-Karlsruhe Gbf
	to Karlsruhe Gbf
0.084	Karlsruhe-Durlach	116 m

	Baden-Kurpfalz-Bahn to Heidelberg S 3 S 31 S 32

	from the city center route Karlsruhe S 4 S 5
2.537 0.000	Grötzingen	122 m
0.549 0.000	Kraichgaubahn to Heilbronn S 4
0.300	Grötzingen Oberausstrasse
0.900	Grötzingen Krappmühlenweg
1.500	Berghausen Pfinzbrücke
2.300	Berghausen (Baden)	132 m
2.800	Berghausen at the stadium
3.8 00 6,954	Söllingen (near Karlsruhe) Abzw
4.200	Söllingen Reetzstrasse AVG
7.227	Söllingen Reetzstrasse
4.500	Söllingen AVG	139 m
7.576	Söllingen (near Karlsruhe)
8.321	Söllingen Kapellenstrasse
10.314	Kleinsteinbach	151 m
12,421	Wilferdingen-Singen	155 m
	Name of KVV until June 2019: Remchingen
15,328	Koenigsbach (Baden)	186 m
17,135	Bilfingen	196 m
19,400	Ersingen West
19,459	Ersinger Tunnel (180 m)
19.639
19,852	Sing out	236 m
22.100	Ispringen West (planned)
22.865	Ispringen	273 m
	Pforzheimer Tunnel (909 m)


	Nagold and Enz Valley Railway from Eutingen / Bad Wildbad S 6

26,262	Pforzheim Hbf S 5 S 6	281 m
29.823	Eutingen (Baden)	261 m
31,371	A 8 (39 m)
32.045	Niefern	248 m
34.760	Enzberg	232 m
37,800	Mühlacker Em South	239 m
	Connection curve to the Westbahn
	West Railway from Bruchsal
38.903	Mühlacker	240 m
	Westbahn to Stuttgart

The Karlsruhe – Mühlacker railway is a railway line in the west of Baden-Württemberg . It was built between 1859 and 1863 as the second connection between the networks of the Baden and Württemberg state railways and still forms an important east-west axis in southern Germany today .

The starting point on the Baden side was originally Durlach , where there was a connection to the Baden main railway . Only later was the route extended to Karlsruhe .

From Durlach the route leads through the Pfinz - and Kämpfelbachtal , crosses under the watershed between Rhine and Neckar in a tunnel near Pforzheim and follows the Enz east of Pforzheim to Mühlacker .

The Stuttgart – Karlsruhe line, which consists of this line and part of the Württemberg Western Railway , has been operated by Deutsche Bahn since the end of 2010 under the name "Residenzbahn". This name was the result of a public competition.

history

Origin of the route

As early as the 1840s , when the first negotiations about connecting the rail networks of Baden and Württemberg were taking place, Baden had campaigned for a route from Karlsruhe via Pforzheim to Stuttgart , but failed after long disputes. The line had two important tasks for Baden: On the one hand, the industrial city of Pforzheim was to be connected to the rail network, and on the other hand, the aim was to create the most direct connection possible for transit traffic from France to southern Germany and Austria-Hungary .

As a compromise solution, the construction of the Westbahn from Stuttgart to Bruchsal was agreed in a state treaty in 1850 , but the state of Baden was granted the right to set up a branch line via Pforzheim to Karlsruhe. For this purpose, the Westbahn was given a somewhat more southerly route in order to be able to set up the future Mühlacker branching station at the Eckenweiher Hof on the district of the municipality of Dürrmenz .

After Baden's financial and political situation had eased after the revolutionary events of 1848/49 and the main project of the Baden State Railways , the Rhine Valley Railway from Mannheim to Basel , had been completed in 1855, Baden was able to turn to the previously postponed construction project. The project received additional impetus from the construction of a railway bridge over the Rhine near Kehl , agreed in 1857 and completed in 1861 , which connected the Baden with the French railway network and thus created an international east-west link.

As early as 1856, the Württemberg government asked whether it should take over the execution of the Mühlacker – Pforzheim section. With this she wanted to create the conditions for the construction of railways in the Enz and Nagold valleys. These two valleys in the northern Black Forest belonged mainly to Württemberg, but for topographical reasons the traffic connection had to be via Pforzheim in Baden. However, Baden insisted on his right, agreed in 1850, to build the line himself.

On December 17, 1857, the first state treaty was signed, regulating the construction of the line. This provided favorable conditions for Württemberg: Baden was allowed to connect its railroad in Mühlacker, in return, Württemberg was to be allowed to connect side railways from the Enz and Nagold valleys in Pforzheim at a later date. In addition, the Durlach-Mühlacker Railway was not exempted from taxes in Württemberg, as was the other way around for the Western Railway on Baden territory. Therefore, the contract was rejected in the first chamber of the Baden state parliament, but the construction of the Baden section was initially approved. The section between Durlach and Wilferdingen was inaugurated on August 10, 1859, and the extension to Pforzheim on July 7, 1861. In Durlach there was a connection to the Badische Hauptbahn to Karlsruhe. The originally planned route between Wilferdingen and Pforzheim via Nöttingen , Ellmendingen and Dietlingen was dropped in favor of the tour through the Kämpfelbachtal via Königsbach , Ersingen and Ispringen because of the negative attitude of the communities of Ellmendingen and Dietlingen .

Negotiations took place with Württemberg, which led to a new contract dated November 6, 1860. In this case, Baden was promised the same tax treatment as in the reverse case for the Western Railway; on the question of the Enz and Nagoldtalbahn , Baden agreed not to hinder it with technical difficulties. According to this contract, the Pforzheim – Mühlacker section could be built and put into operation on June 1, 1863. For a long time there were two train stations next to each other in Mühlacker, the through station of the Württemberg state railway and the terminus of the Baden state railway. Continuous trains changed locomotives in Mühlacker , and it wasn't until 1890 that the first trains ran from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart without changing locomotives. Mühlacker only completely lost its role as a border station with the establishment of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920.

Further development

The route soon gained great importance in terms of traffic. Therefore, it was expanded to two tracks relatively early: in 1867 between Wilferdingen and Pforzheim and in 1869 between Durlach and Wilferdingen and between Pforzheim and Mühlacker. To remove the bottleneck between Karlsruhe and Durlach, in which the tracks of the Badische Hauptbahn had to be used in the first decades , two additional tracks were built, so that the line began in Karlsruhe main station from then on . With the construction of the new train station in Durlach in 1911, the route to Pforzheim was given a slightly different route in this area. On June 1, 1958, electrical operations began on the Karlsruhe – Mühlacker line, closing the gap in the electrical network between the previously electrified Rhine Valley Railway and the Württemberg Western Railway.

In the course of time, several railway lines of predominantly local importance connected to the Karlsruhe – Mühlacker line:

the Enz Valley Railway from Pforzheim to Wildbad (1868)
the Nagold Valley Railway from Pforzheim to Calw (1874)
the Kraichgau Railway from Grötzingen to Heilbronn (1879)

With a short walk from Pforzheim main station to Leopoldplatz, from 1901 to 1968 it was also possible to continue with the Pforzheim – Ittersbach small train .

As part of the shortest connection between Paris and Vienna , the route has always been an important link in international east-west traffic. From 1883, the Orient Express ran on its way from Paris to Istanbul on the route. By 1939, the long-distance train service had increased to ten D-trains per day in west-east traffic and seven D-trains in east-west traffic. Five pairs of trains ran from / to Paris and three pairs of trains from / to Vienna, and one pair each to / from Prague and Warsaw (via Nuremberg ) and Wuppertal (via Neustadt an der Weinstrasse - Bad Kreuznach ). In addition, there was the Orient-Express, which runs three times a week, as well as five express trains in the west-east direction and seven express trains in the east-west direction between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. The long-distance trains needed between 85 and 90 minutes to travel from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart.

After the Second World War , the timetable was initially below the pre-war level: the era of luxury trains was over and the Orient Express was replaced by a normal express train, which, however, continued to be called the "Orient Express". From 1954, the train service was supplemented by the F-Zug Mozart Strasbourg - Salzburg (from 1964 Paris – Vienna), which remained loyal to the route until 2002 as the D-Zug, FernExpress and EuroCity .

After the long-distance service on the route was limited to a few pairs of express trains per day and one pair of intercity trains until the 1980s , the interregional traffic that began in 1991 every two hours brought a significant improvement in the route. Thanks to the opening of the Mannheim – Stuttgart high-speed line , long-distance trains were able to use the new line on their further journey to Stuttgart between Vaihingen and Stuttgart , thus saving the detour via Bietigheim-Bissingen . The long-distance trains accelerated in this way needed only 52 minutes for the route from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart with stops in Pforzheim , Mühlacker and Vaihingen . However, the Karlsruhe – Pforzheim – Mühlacker line also created competition from the new line, as the fastest connection from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart no longer ran via Pforzheim, but via Bruchsal. In 2003 the Interregios were replaced by Intercity trains running from Karlsruhe to Stuttgart to Nuremberg .

After a bus collided with a regional train at a level crossing in Kleinsteinbach in 2006, the speed limit was reduced from more than 100 to 30 km / h. A combination of an overpass and a pedestrian underpass, costing around 18 million euros in total, is being considered to remove the level crossing.

Karlsruhe-Durlach train station (Aug. 2005)

Light rail traffic

In the 1980s , the city of Karlsruhe developed plans to set up a light rail system that should also include regional railway lines. This local transport system, later known as the “ Karlsruhe Model ”, was to include the stretch between Durlach and Wilferdingen from the start in order to be able to serve the busy local transport between Karlsruhe and the communities of Pfinztal and Remchingen . In 1992 the plans were extended to the line to Pforzheim.

Karlsruhe light rail line S5 at the junction of the light rail track from the Kraichgaubahn at the Oberausstraße stop

However, since the planned dense tram cycle could not be carried out on the existing tracks, the infrastructure between Grötzingen and Söllingen was supplemented by an additional track that is exclusively used for light rail traffic and by the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG) as a separate route under the name Pfinztalbahn is operated. In Söllingen the new light rail track was given a terminus with two butt tracks . A track change enables the transition from the single-track local traffic line to the double-track line operated by Deutsche Bahn AG. In addition, seven new stops were created between Grötzingen and Pforzheim .

Light rail on the journey from Karlsruhe to Pforzheim at the Söllingen train station (1991). The station building has meanwhile given way to the light rail track.

Even before the construction of the additional main line, in 1991, AVG two-system light rail vehicles introduced more compact local transport between Karlsruhe Hbf and Pforzheim Hbf , which was replaced by full light rail operations on May 31, 1997. The Karlsruhe – Pforzheim route in local transport is now served by the S5 light rail line, which no longer runs to Karlsruhe main station, but through Karlsruhe city center to Wörth am Rhein in Rhineland-Palatinate . In 1999, light rail traffic was extended beyond Pforzheim to Bietigheim-Bissingen. Since June 9, 2019, the S5 has only been running to Pforzheim. For this purpose, the frequency of regional trains has been increased.

business

route

The main line is operated by DB AG as a double-track, electrified main line. In addition to the terminal stations, only the stations in Durlach, Grötzingen, Wilferdingen-Singen and Pforzheim have sidings, all other intermediate stations have been converted into stops over time. On the occasion of the introduction of light rail operations, the signal systems were adjusted at some stations. Only track 50 of the former terminus of the Badische Staatsbahnen in Mühlacker still exists. In Mühlacker there has been a connecting curve to the route to Bretten since 1941 , in order to be able to run direct trains between Bruchsal and Pforzheim without having to worry.

Wilferingen-Singen; freight trains are often parked here.

The Wilferdingen-Singen station received the name Remchingen in the tariff area of the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) , while it kept its old name in the DB tariff.

The light rail track between Grötzingen and Söllingen is operated by AVG as a single-track branch line. There are diversions on Krappmühlenweg and in Berghausen train station. A two-track terminus was built in Söllingen. In Grötzingen train station and north of the Söllingen Reetzstraße stop, there are transfer points to the main line of the DB AG.

In 2018 the Pforzheim tunnel was replaced by a new, parallel tunnel. The existing tunnel, which was over 150 years old, was in poor condition. It was last renovated in 1984 and, at 3.64 m, had a small track spacing . The new double-track tunnel is about the same length as the old tunnel. The tracks are on a slab track .

On March 23, 2013, the planning approval decision for the new building was issued. The tunnel was started on January 15, 2015, the opening of the new tunnel on September 10, 2018. The new construction, including the filling of the existing tunnel and other work, cost around 100 million euros.

passenger traffic

Track systems in Mühlacker (June 2006)

In long-distance traffic , the Karlsruhe – Pforzheim – Mühlacker – Stuttgart route is served every two hours by intercity trains that only stop in Karlsruhe , Pforzheim , Mühlacker , Vaihingen (Enz) and in Durlach on the edge of the day . The Orient Express called Euro Night train, which between Vienna and Paris upside, the route passes at night since the small timetable change (10 June 2007) to the summer timetable 2007, only to Paris; the onward journey in Stuttgart to Vienna was canceled without replacement (also because of a new high-speed service from Stuttgart via Karlsruhe and Strasbourg to Paris-Est with the French TGV ).

The timetable offer in fast local public transport consists of an Interregio-Express line every 30/30/60 minutes, so that the IC between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart runs about half an hour. The IRE trains between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart stop in Durlach, Wilferdingen-Singen (only every two hours), Pforzheim, Mühlacker and Vaihingen (Enz). There is also a half-hourly regional train line from Pforzheim to Bietigheim-Bissingen and every hour to Stuttgart with stops at all stations between Pforzheim and Bietigheim-Bissingen, then Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart. Individual trains run beyond Pforzheim to Wilferdingen-Singen or Bad Wildbad. In the western section, the route is part of the AVG tram line S5, which runs from Wörth to Karlsruhe city center and Pforzheim. The timetable on weekdays is every 10 minutes between Karlsruhe and Pfinztal and at least every half hour between Pfinztal and Pforzheim.

The route between Karlsruhe and Wilferdingen-Singen is included in the network tariff of the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) and between Wilferdingen-Singen and Mühlacker in the Verkehrsverbund Pforzheim-Enzkreis (VPE). The bwtarif has been in effect for cross-network journeys in local transport since December 2018 .

Freight transport

In addition to passenger traffic, the route is also used for through freight traffic . It is worth mentioning the heavy tank car full trains that are driven from the Karlsruhe refinery to Ingolstadt . From the intermediate stations only Pforzheim Hauptbahnhof is served by freight traffic. However, freight wagons are occasionally parked at Wilferdingen-Singen station.

literature

Karl Müller: The Baden railways in a historical-statistical representation . Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Heidelberg 1904 ( uni-koeln.de ).
Werner Walz: The railroad in Baden-Württemberg: History of the railways in Baden and Württemberg 1840 until today . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-87943-716-5 .
Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: The railway in Kraichgau. Railway history between the Rhine and Neckar . EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2006, ISBN 3-88255-769-9 .

Web links

Commons : Karlsruhe – Mühlacker railway line - album with images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ https://www.kvv.de/unternehmen/presse/pressemitteilungen/mektiven/fahrplanwechsel-am-9-juni-bringt-wesentliche-neuerungen-auf-den-strecken-karlsruhe-pforzheim-stuttga.html

↑ Stuttgart – Karlsruhe railway line receives name and additional new double-decker cars , Deutsche Bahn press release 546/2010

↑ Klaus Müller: The level crossing in Kleinsteinbach should now give way. In: bnn.de. October 18, 2018, accessed July 23, 2019 .

↑ Ralf Steinert: Defusing the danger zone: No more snail's pace for the trains in the Pfinztal? In: pz-news.de. June 5, 2019, accessed July 23, 2019 .

↑ Pfinztalbahn of the AVG. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 14, 2013 ; Retrieved January 15, 2013 . 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.

↑ Tunnel in Pforzheim posted . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 4 , 2016, ISSN 1421-2811 , p. 163 .

↑ ^a ^b New Pforzheim railway tunnel goes into operation on time. Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, September 10, 2018, accessed on September 13, 2018 .

^ Federal Railway Office (Ed.): Planning approval according to § 18 AEG for the project "Renewal of the Pforzheimer Tunnel", rail km 23.8 + 97 to 25.7 + 57 of the line 4200 Karlsruhe - Mühlacker in the city of Pforzheim . Stuttgart March 23, 2013 ( PDF file ). PDF file ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) 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. @1@ 2

[1] ttps://www.kvv.de/unternehmen/presse/pressemitteilungen/mektiven/fahrplanwechsel-am-9-juni-bringt-wesentliche-neuerungen-auf-den-strecken-karlsruhe-pforzheim-stuttga.html