Magdeburg – Wittenberge railway line
| Magdeburg – Wittenberge | |
|---|---|
 Course of the Magdeburg – Wittenberge railway line
| |
| Route number : | 6401 (Wittenberge – Stendal) 6402 (Stendal – Magdeburg) |
| Course book section (DB) : | 305 |
| Route length: | 112.5 km |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
| Power system : | 15 kV 16.7 Hz ~ |
| Maximum slope : | 4.8 ‰ |
| Minimum radius : | 1130 m |
| Top speed: | 120 km / h |
The Magdeburg – Wittenberge line is a double-track, electrified main line in Saxony-Anhalt . It was built from 1846 to 1849 by the Magdeburg-Wittenbergeschen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (MWE) and then operated by them. After MWE was taken over by the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft in 1863, the MHE became part of the Prussian State Railways in 1879 .
course
The route begins at Magdeburg main station and heads north from there. Most of the railway runs between the Elbe and Bundesstraße 189 . As far as Stendal , the route is used not only by regional trains but also by the Mittelelbe S-Bahn . The center of the route is Stendal. There is a connection to the routes to Berlin, Hanover , Tangermünde and Salzwedel . After Stendal, the route turns further north. The railway crosses the Elbe immediately before the end point in Wittenberge . The Wittenberge Elbe Bridge is the longest new railway bridge in the GDR . At the Wittenberg train station , the line finally joins the Berlin – Hamburg line . The station was originally designed as a wedge station on both lines and was rebuilt with the expansion of the latter.
history
Prehistory and construction
The railway age began in the Kingdom of Prussia in 1838 with the Berlin-Potsdam Railway. A continuation of the route to the west was already planned at that time, but without a precise route. The city of Stendal, still without a connection, wanted a continuation of the line from Potsdam via Genthin , Stendal to Hamburg . From Genthin, a branch line should also lead to Magdeburg . However, the project was discarded in favor of a direct Berlin-Hamburg route . At the same time, the plans to continue the Berlin-Potsdamer Bahn, which should now continue to Magdeburg, became more concrete.
Magdeburg then developed into one of the first major railway hubs and in 1843 it was already accessible via three routes from Leipzig ( Magdeburg-Leipziger Eisenbahn , MLE), Berlin ( Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Railway , BPME) and Halberstadt ( Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahn , MHE) . However, there was no connection to Hamburg, which was particularly important for foreign trade. As a result, on the initiative of the Mayor of Magdeburg, August Wilhelm Francke, a specific route was developed. On September 29, 1843, this tour was viewed by the highest cabinet orders as the shortest and most economically sensible line between Magdeburg and Wittenberge (with a connection to the railway to Hamburg). The Magdeburg-Wittenbergesche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was constituted as the designated operator in the following month. The construction of the route was mainly dependent on the extent to which the work would have a negative effect on the dyke systems in the Altmark . In order to obtain the concession , the company had to submit concrete plans for the Elbe crossing in Wittenberge and have preliminary work carried out on the dyke systems. In addition, the line was to be connected to the other Magdeburg lines when it was completed.
On July 6, 1845, by decree of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV., The construction was approved by the stock corporation with a share capital of 4,500,000 Reichstalers . The expected construction costs totaled 4,483,000 thalers, of which were
- 3,000,000 thalers for the Magdeburg– Seehausen route ,
- 83,000 thalers for the Seehausen – Elbdeich and
- 1,400,000 thalers earmarked for the Elbe bridge and the connection in Wittenberge.
The construction started in 1846 turned out to be relatively problem-free. The route was chosen so that the maximum gradient is at a ratio of 1: 210 and the smallest radius is 300 rods (around 1130 meters). About 55½ percent of the route was flat.
The route construction only turned out to be problematic at the two end points. While the opening of the entire line had to be postponed in Wittenberge due to the construction of the Elbe bridge, in Magdeburg there was the problem of integrating it into one of the other lines. A connection to the west and south, i.e. to the MHE and MLE, was a prerequisite. There were two possibilities to achieve this: The first was to bypass the city's fortifications on the Glacis and flow into the station on the Halberstadt line. Here, however, the significant problem emerged that ridges occur along the fortress ring. A detour did not seem to make sense, a breakthrough of the ridge was refused by the military authorities. The alternative envisaged a route similar to that of the Leipzig route, which led its train through the fortifications along the Elbe and built its train station within the city.
The route leads from the north to the Elbe and along it breaks through the fortress structure. Since the space would not have been sufficient with a further orientation along the river, the area to the east of it was filled in to make room for the railway systems. This is where the terminus with the associated facilities was built. The track continued and finally flowed into the facilities of the Leipziger Bahn.
Private and regional railway time
The line was opened in the three phases mentioned. It all started on July 7, 1849, with the 99-kilometer section from Magdeburg to Seehausen . On August 5, 1849, the eight kilometers to the Elbe dike followed. Since the Elbe bridge was still under construction, the passengers first had to take a ferry to the other side to Wittenberge. It was not until October 25, 1851, that traffic could be guided over a wooden, initially single-track bridge. In order to be able to let the sailing ships through despite the low height of the structure, part of the bridge was equipped with a bogie. The terminus had already been prepared for the integration of the line when the Berlin – Hamburg line was built; the station building was located between the two lines, which only unite behind it.
In addition to the initially pursued idea of a direct rail route from Magdeburg to Hamburg, the line was also intended to function as a main line between the coast and central to southern Germany. However, the operators' hopes were not fulfilled, so that the operation did not pay off as much as the shareholders imagined. In addition, a large part of the line had to be rehabilitated as early as 1855, as the Altmark had suffered several floods. In 1863 the company was finally bought up by the Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft. A direct connection between the two routes did not yet exist; the trains had to use a short stretch of the Leipzig route.
In 1867 the MHE was awarded the contract for the Berlin-Lehrter Railway . At that time there was already a direct route via Magdeburg, but the overall route of the new route via Stendal was more straightforward and could therefore be traveled in a shorter time. In order to ensure a passenger-friendly transfer in Stendal, the local railway systems had to be rebuilt. The Lehrter Bahn runs south of the old town from east to west, while the old route of the Wittenberger Bahn ran along the eastern edge of the city. The new route provided for the Wittenberg line to be threaded into the Lehrter Bahn to the west. This is where the jointly used new Stendal main station was built . Then the Wittenberger Bahn branches off to the north, circumnavigates the city along the north-western border and then returns to its old route. In addition to the Lehrter Bahn, which stopped in Stendal from 1871, the Stendal – Uelzen railway line , known as the “ Amerikalinie ”, via Uelzen to Bremen was added a year earlier . Its name comes from the fact that it was mainly emigrant trains to the North Sea ports that ran on the line. After the opening of the American line, rail traffic was initially tied from Magdeburg, usually in the direction of Uelzen, and the Stendal – Wittenberge line became a branch line. Due to the relocation of the Stendal train station, trains running through from Magdeburg to Wittenberge now had to change direction in Stendal. The western bypass around the city, which made the change of direction unnecessary, was only opened on May 1, 1900.
The situation in Magdeburg became increasingly unsatisfactory in the following years. On the one hand, the transfer of the trains via the Leipziger Bahn was a nuisance, and on the other hand, the existing facilities on the banks of the Elbe did not allow any expansion. Therefore, the old idea of a common route along the fortress ring was taken up again. Since the urban growth brought the settlement area outside of the facility, it was increasingly viewed as a disruptive factor. However, lengthy negotiations had to be conducted with the Prussian military before they could provide suitable terrain along the northern and western moat. The line was built jointly by Halberstädter, Berlin and Leipzig railways. Since the three lines were still working separately, the new Magdeburg central station was laid out as an island station , with the eastern through tracks being built and serviced by the Leipziger Bahn, the western ones by the Berlin and Halberstädter Bahn. The first train was able to leave for Burg on May 15, 1873 , but all of the work dragged on until 1893. During this period, in 1876, the MLE became part of the MHE. This was then nationalized three years later. The old station of the Wittenbergeschen Bahn in Magdeburg, then called Elbbahnhof, was used for freight traffic until the 1990s and was shut down on February 28, 1998, and the track system was subsequently broken off.
State Railroad Time
After the takeover by the Prussian State Railways , other companies were also bought up. Under this great unified leadership, the formation of railway directorates was necessary. The Magdeburg – Wittenberge railway line was assigned to the new Royal Railway Directorate (KED) Magdeburg. To the north of Stendal, the route cut through the area of the adjacent KED Hannover.
The Wittenberg Elbe Bridge was rebuilt from 1883 to 1884. The old wooden construction was dilapidated and was replaced by a wrought iron half-timbered construction. The swing bridge, however, was retained. It was only replaced by a steel structure during the second renovation from 1905 to 1910. A second bridge was built on the north side to accommodate the second track. The southern track was provided with a covering and used by private transport as there was no road bridge.
After the establishment of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920, the directorates were reorganized. The route is assigned to two directorates. From Magdeburg to Stendal, the line now belonged to the newly founded Reichsbahndirektion (Rbd) Hanover, from Stendal to Wittenberge to the Rbd Hamburg. In addition to the local trains in the Prussian province of Saxony , the route was also used by long-distance traffic connection No. 40 from Dresden via Leipzig, Magdeburg, Wittenberge to Hamburg.
Towards the end of the Second World War , the Wittenberg Elbe bridge was blown up. As early as autumn, Soviet pioneers were able to provisionally restore the southern bridge, over which the most necessary traffic is routed. Like the bridge, the line is also single-track. The second track was dismantled as a reparation payment from the Soviet occupation zone to the Soviet Union. The northern bridge train was provisionally restored in 1947, but due to the missing track, only road traffic was carried over the bridge. In 1950 the second track was put back into operation and road traffic was returned to the old south bridge.
In the years to come, the line developed into the GDR's most important north-south connection, which bypassed Berlin. The second track was therefore quickly restored. Since the bridge, despite the two tracks, was a bottleneck due to the 30 km / h top speed, the superstructures were rebuilt in 1957 using the old supporting pillars.
From 1969 the S-Bahn network was built in the Magdeburg area . For this purpose, the entire system from Zielitz, which was selected as the northern end point, had to be converted to allow mixed operation of S-Bahn, regional, long-distance and freight traffic. Overhead lines also had to be installed for operation , as operation was to be handled electrically. To the north of the Zielitz village center, a four-track Zielitz station was built near the Zielitz potash plant , which enabled both the S-Bahn trains to be swept and the freight trains to pass through. Further in the direction of Magdeburg, a separate pair of tracks for the S-Bahn was built from the threading of the line from Oebisfelde to bypass the Magdeburg-Rothensee marshalling yard. From Magdeburg-Neustadt, the S-Bahn will then use the same route with the other types of train. Operations began on September 29, 1974.
Further electrification took place in the 1980s. First, electrical operation to Stendal was started in 1984 and to Wittenberge in 1987. While operations were being changed, the Deutsche Reichsbahn built a new bridge over the Elbe. The new bridge is the longest railway bridge that was built in GDR history.
Todays situation
Today the route is used in local traffic by the S-Bahn Mittelelbe through the S1 line from Magdeburg to Wittenberge and in long-distance traffic in summer by the intercity train pair Warnow 2238/2239 from Leipzig via Magdeburg, Wittenberge, Schwerin and Rostock to Warnemünde . The RE 20 regional express line also runs between Magdeburg and Stendal from / to Uelzen via Salzwedel .
In 2012, a new electronic interlocking went into operation in Wolmirstedt , which is connected to the Biederitz sub-center. The new rail tunnel under the Mittelland Canal was completed at the end of 2013.
outlook
The section between Magdeburg and Stendal is to be equipped with digital interlockings and ETCS by 2030 as part of the “starter package” of Digital Rail Germany , as part of the TEN core network corridor Scandinavia-Mediterranean .
literature
- Andreas Janikowski, Jörg Ott: Germany's S-Bahn . transpress, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-71195-8 .
- Wolfgang List: Stendal and the railroad . tape 1 - The main railways. Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-933254-78-8 .
Web links
- East Corridor - North section DB Netz project website
- The "Magdeburg-Wittenbergesche Railway Company". History. Retrieved September 20, 2007 .
- The "Magdeburg-Wittenbergesche Railway Company". Development. Retrieved September 20, 2007 .
- The "Magdeburg-Wittenbergesche Railway Company". Timetable. Retrieved September 20, 2007 .
- General annual report of the directorate of the Magdeburg-Wittenbergeschen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft covering the period from October 1843 to May 1847. (PDF (1.50 MB)) Archived from the original on June 9, 2004 ; Retrieved September 20, 2007 .
- Annual report of the Directorii of the Magdeburg-Wittenbergeschen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft for the General Assembly on June 10, 1856 for the calendar year 1855. (PDF (2.76 MB)) Archived from the original on September 30, 2007 ; Retrieved September 20, 2007 .
- Public transport plan for the state of Saxony-Anhalt. (PDF (2.43 MB)) Retrieved November 12, 2010 .
- Tradition on the Magdeburg – Wittenberge railway line in the holdings of the Magdeburg Railway Directorate in the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives, Dessau Department
Individual evidence
- ↑ by decommissioning notice from the Federal Railway Authority of January 6, 1998
- ↑ New rail tunnel under the Mittelland Canal near Magdeburg completed. Press releases. Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, November 11, 2013, archived from the original on November 18, 2013 ; accessed on November 30, 2015 .
- ↑ Digital Rail Germany #####. (PDF) The future of the railroad. In: deutschebahn.com. Deutsche Bahn, September 2019, p. 10 f. , accessed on May 2, 2020 .