Merseburg – Halle-Nietleben railway line

Merseburg – Halle-Nietleben
Route number (DB) :	6356
Course book section (DB) :	588
Route length:	19.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	20  ‰
Top speed:	100 km / h
Legend by Bebra from Leipzig-Leutzsch from Querfurt 0.019 Merseburg central station from Halle (Saale) Hbf 3.452 Merseburg-Elisabethhöhe 3.853 to Schafstädt (old) Laucha Bft Buna Works platform 5,640 Buna works 3.853 to Schafstädt (since 1967) 8.000 Leipzig Hbf – Ebensfeld Angersdorf – Bad Lauchstädt from Bad Lauchstädt 13,100 Holleben to Angersdorf 15.000 Halle (Saale) Hbf – Hann. Münden from Abzw Angersdorf Awo (S-Bahn) Bundesstrasse 80 16.893 Hall Zscherbener Strasse 17.620 Halle-Neustadt S-Bahn tunnel South portal 17.972 Halle-Neustadt 18,070 Halle-Neustadt S-Bahn tunnel North portal by Halle Klaustor 19.212 Halle-Nietleben to Hettstedt

The Merseburg – Halle-Nietleben line is an electrified branch line in Saxony-Anhalt . It branches off the Halle – Bebra railway line in Merseburg and leads via Angersdorf to Halle-Neustadt , where it joins the former line of the Halle-Hettstedter railway . Between Angersdorf and today's terminus Halle-Nietleben , the route is now used exclusively by the Central German S-Bahn . The line was created in 1967 as a direct connection between the newly established workers' residential area of ​​Halle-Neustadt and the large chemical companies Buna and Leuna .

history

Halle-Neustadt stop (today: Halle Zscherbener Straße, 1967)

Merseburg-Elisabethhöhe stop (2007)

The importance of the branch line Bad Lauchstädt – Benkendorf – Angersdorf , which branched off from the Merseburg – Schafstädt railway line opened in 1896, lay in local freight traffic. In 1944/45 it was used as a diversion route for railway systems and Saale bridges destroyed in the war in the Merseburg area, but then lost the passenger traffic that had previously ceased to exist.

As part of the GDR's chemistry program announced in 1958, the chemical sites in Buna and Leuna were massively expanded, and a satellite town planned as a chemical workers town of Halle-West (later Halle-Neustadt ) was completely redesigned from 1964 onwards. On January 2, 1966, the construction of a high-speed rail link between the new homes and workplaces began. The continuous railway line Bad Lauchstädt – Angersdorf was replaced by the new connection, which was put into operation on April 24, 1967. Two days earlier, trains from the Merseburg – Schafstädt railway line, which was also partially relocated, had approached the newly constructed Buna-Werke passenger station.

From now on, passenger trains ran on the new route from Weißenfels via Großkorbetha , Leuna-Werke, Merseburg, Buna-Werke and Halle-Neustadt to Halle-Nietleben . In the 1980s, around 9,600 chemical workers (“Pelzer”) were transported daily between Halle-Neustadt and the Buna works with these “fur trains”. The transport capacity was up to 1,200 people per train. At peak times, the trains consisted of three coupled four-part double - decker trains . The platform lengths were adapted to the train lengths accordingly.

Similar trains were also used on the Halle- Merseburg-Leuna-Werke-Weißenfels connection on the Thuringian Railway . Both connections shared the course book number 601 until 1992 .

After the fall of 1989/90, the production of the Buna works was changed. With the takeover by Dow Chemical , modern production facilities were created, old ones were shut down and demolished. Due to the associated loss of numerous jobs, the number of passengers on the route also fell significantly. The course book number 588, which was allocated from 1992, was shared with the Merseburg – Schafstädt route.

In the end, the trains consisted of only one class 143 electric locomotive and a double-decker control car . They only ran during rush hour, Monday to Friday mornings and afternoons. The journey time of the six pairs of trains between Merseburg and Halle-Nietleben was 22 minutes. With the timetable change on December 9, 2007, the passenger trains were canceled, the trains last operated two days earlier.

The section from Holleben (after the junction to the Halle – Hann. Münden railway ) to shortly before the Halle Zscherbener Straße S-Bahn stop , on which only a few freight trains ran in 2010 (bulk goods required for track work were brought to Nietleben station and stored there) , was tendered for decommissioning in 2011. With effect from August 31, 2011, the responsible Federal Railway Authority (Section 11) approved the application for decommissioning of DB Netz AG in accordance with Section 11 (2) AEG .

Current operation

The Halle-Nietleben, Halle-Neustadt and Halle Zscherbener Straße stations will continue to be served by the S7 line of the Central German S-Bahn .

In freight traffic, the route retains its importance for connecting the Buna works.

Web links

Commons : Merseburg – Halle-Nietleben railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Title page: Development of the transport infrastructure and logistics at the Schkopau location between 1936 and 2000 (PDF file; 105 kB)
• Report on the "fur trains"
• Information on decommissioning in December 2007
• Traffic relics: Bad Lauchstädt – Angersdorf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany 2007/2008 . 6th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89494-136-9 .
2. ↑ Holleben- Halle Zscherbener Straße: route tender for the purpose of closure. In: Turntable Online Forums. January 11, 2011, accessed July 8, 2015 . 
3. ↑ List of the disused railway lines in Saxony-Anhalt. (XLSX; 14.8 kB) Federal Railway Authority , September 11, 2017, accessed on January 22, 2019 .