Merseburg – Schafstädt railway line

Merseburg – Schafstädt
Route number :	6806
Course book section (DB) :	588
Route length:	17.8 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Top speed:	50 km / h
Legend by Bebra from Leipzig-Leutzsch from Querfurt 0.017 Merseburg central station to Halle (Saale) Hbf Bundesstrasse 91 3.452 Merseburg-Elisabethhöhe 3.853 temporarily Merseburg-Friedenshöhe Laucha Bft Buna Works platform 5.640 Buna works 5,970 to Halle-Nietleben End of the overhead line 5.7 Knapendorf Federal motorway 38 8.1 Spleen 9.1 Leipzig Hbf – Eltersdorf (high-speed route) 10.5 Bad Lauchstädt (Hp + Awanst) Factory connection, (formerly to Angersdorf ) 12.6 Bad Lauchstädt West 14.5 Großgräfendorf 17.6 Schafstädt (new Hp) 17.8 Schafstädt (old Bf)

The Merseburg – Schafstädt railway is a branch line in Saxony-Anhalt . It largely follows the course of the Laucha stream .

The kilometering of the route to Schafstädt starts from Merseburg, although the associated route only begins east of Milzau . The previous route further south of the Buna works is taken into account, while the route today leads with a detour of 1.2 kilometers via the Buna works.

history

On November 1, 1896, the Merseburg – Schafstädt railway went into operation.

With the construction of the Buna works in 1936, the eastern part of the route gained in importance, especially for freight traffic. Due to the connection of the Buna-Werke after 1937 and the associated swiveling of the route from today's Merseburg district Annemariental to the former Milzau train station , the local train station in Knapendorf was abandoned. As a result of the re-routing, the route to Schafstädt has been extended by 1.2 kilometers.

In order to maintain an efficient connection between Halle-Neustadt and the Buna works, the "onion railway" branching off in Bad Lauchstädt to Schlettau (today Angersdorf ) was generously re-routed. On April 24, 1967, the now electrified connection, which flows into the Buna Werke station with the Schafstädter Bahn, was opened. The Merseburg – Buna Werke section was also electrified.

Train in the old Schafstädt station (2007)

After the fall of the Wall in 1990, production at the Buna factory was changed. With the takeover by Dow Chemical , modern production facilities were created, old ones were shut down and demolished, with the result that numerous jobs were lost - at the same time, the number of passengers on the route fell.

In the 1990s, the line was included in the flat rail concept of the state of Saxony-Anhalt in order to be able to maintain it . In the 2000s, the route was rehabilitated in places, although there were still some speed restrictions.

Milzau stop (2015)

Crossing of the new Erfurt – Leipzig / Halle line

Last type drove in relation Merseburg-Buna Werke Schafstädt modern railcars DWA LVT / S of DB Regio in every hour . The route belonged to the regional network Burgenland ( Burgenlandbahn ). The scheduled journey time was 31 minutes, there were 13 pairs of trains per day. The route was shared by the course book number  588 with the Merseburg – Halle-Nietleben line.

In December 2007, passenger traffic on the route should be completely stopped. The reasons were the low number of passengers - they had fallen by half to 250 travelers per working day - and the cancellation of regionalization funds . While the passenger trains on the Merseburg – Halle-Nietleben route that used the line in the Merseburg – Buna Werke section were discontinued in December 2007, the Merseburg – Schafstädt connection was continued at the request of the region.

But also individual measures to upgrade the infrastructure, for example a new stop in Schafstädt (2009), also to save a level crossing in Schafstädt, and special expansions of offers could not stop the further decline in passenger numbers. According to information from Nahverkehrsservice Sachsen-Anhalt GmbH (NASA), fewer than 150 passengers per day recently used the trains. Passenger traffic was therefore stopped on December 14, 2014 due to insufficient demand.

Most recently, the maximum speed on the route was 50 km / h, between Bad Lauchstädt and Bad Lauchstädt West due to defects in the superstructure it was 30 km / h. There were drops to 20 km / h at unsecured level crossings to the premises of the Mitteldeutsche Sanierungs- und Entsorgungsgesellschaft, at the Milzau stop and west of the Bad Lauchstädt train station. The damaged bridge over the Maerkerstraße farm road in the east head of the Bad Lauchstädt train station only allowed traffic at 10 km / h.

On February 6, 2017, the Federal Railway Authority (EBA) approved the closure of the Bad Lauchstädt – Schafstädt section, as RegioInfra was the only interested party to withdraw for the entire route. Operations were permanently suspended on February 28, 2017. There were still two interested parties for the remainder of the route to Bad Lauchstädt. On January 18, 2018, the EBA also approved the closure of the section Buna Werke (route kilometers 6.680) - Bad Lauchstädt. The shutdown was completed on February 28, 2018. The ZossenRail mbH (ZRB) has leased the stretch Buna works (exclusively) to Schafstädt with effect from March 1 2018th The company wants to continue to operate the Buna Werke - Bad Lauchstädt section as a service facility.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sa Meßtischblatt 2679, new no. 4637: Merseburg (West) , 1937, Deutsche Fotothek
2. ↑ Cancellations in Saxony-Anhalt 2007. (No longer available online.) Pro Bahn Mitteldeutschland, September 2, 2007, archived from the original on April 12, 2016 ; Retrieved March 9, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Jan Weiland: Railway Annual Review - 2009. February 14, 2009, accessed on April 16, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Michael Bertram: Schafstädt: Is the Burgenland Railway about to end? In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. January 14, 2014, accessed August 22, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Local transport: In the future, buses will run instead of trains on three routes. (No longer available online.) Local transport service Saxony-Anhalt , August 22, 2014, archived from the original on August 26, 2014 ; accessed on August 22, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Dirk Skrzypczak: Local traffic in Saxony-Anhalt: Merseburg-Schafstädt railway line is shut down. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. August 22, 2014. Retrieved August 22, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Farewell Merseburg - Schafstädt Part 1: Driver's cab ride on the last day of operation. In: youtube.com. Retrieved January 22, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Approval in accordance with Section 11, Paragraph 2 of the General Railway Act (AEG). (PDF) (No longer available online.) Federal Railway Authority, February 6, 2017, archived from the original on February 18, 2017 ; accessed on February 18, 2017 . 
9. ^ Saxony-Anhalt: the line to Schafstädt is closed. In: eurailpress.de. DVV Media Group GmbH, February 21, 2017, accessed on May 17, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Approval in accordance with Section 11, Paragraph 2 of the General Railway Act (AEG). (PDF; 1.3 MB) Federal Railway Authority, January 18, 2018, accessed on April 16, 2018 .