Frankfurt (Oder) –Poznań railway line

Frankfurt (Oder) –Poznań
Route number (DB) :	6155 Frankfurt border
Route number :	03 border – Poznań
Course book range :	300
Route length:	177.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	Oder Bridge – Poznań: 3 kV  =
Power system :	Frankfurt – Oder Bridge: 15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Top speed:	160 km / h
Legend from Berlin from Eberswalde and Küstrin-Kietz 0.0 Frankfurt (Oder) to Cottbus according to Guben 3.4 Frankfurt (Oder) Oderbrücke 4.1 477.8 Oderbrücke ; State border between Germany and Poland 476.0 Slubice by Cybinka 472.9 Kunowice (Kunersdorf) Rzepin bypass from Szczecin 460.8 Rzepin (Reppen) island train station to Wrocław and Międzyrzecz 451.1 Boczów (Bottschow) 443.4 Torzym (Sternberg) 434.3 Drzewce (Leichholz) 427.6 Toporów (topper) to Międzyrzecz 420.6 Bucze (Wutschdorf) 417.8 Mostki (Möstchen) 412.5 Wilkowo Świebodzińskie (Wilkau) from Sulechów 407.3 Świebodzin (Schwiebus) 402.1 Kupienino (Koppen) 396.5 Szczaniec (Stentsch) Kissed from Guben 385.6 Zbąszynek (New Bentschen) to Gorzów Wielkopolski from Gorzów Wielkopolski State border 1919–1939 379.3 Zbąszyń (Bentschen) to Wolsztyn and Międzychód 371.9 Chrośnica (Chrośnica, Kroschnitz) 367.0 Jastrzębsko (Friedenhorst) 362.0 Nowy Tomyśl (New Tomischl) 356.8 Sątopy (Sontop) 351.1 Porażyn (oak nest ) from Kościan 343.8 Opalenica (Opalenitza) formerly Conn. Narrow gauge. 338.6 Wojnowice Wielkopolskie 334.1 Buk (buk) 329.4 Otusz (Otusch) 323.5 Dopiewo (Dopiewo) 318.3 Palędzie (Dombrowka) 314.5 Poznań Plewiska 311.5 Poznań Junikowo 309.2 Poznań Górczyn (St. Lazarus) from and to Wrocław , Ostrów , Poznań Franowo 304.7 Poznań Główny (Poznan Central Railway Station) Island Railway Station to Warszawa , Toruń , Piła and Szczecin

The Frankfurt – Poznań railway line is a railway line in western Poland . A short stretch runs in the east of the state of Brandenburg . The double-track, electrified main line is one of the most important connections between Germany and Poland and part of the railway corridor between the two capitals Berlin and Warsaw.

course

From the Frankfurt (Oder) passenger station, located far above the Oder Valley , the route initially leads in a wide curve to the south. The Cottbus – Frankfurt (Oder) railway line and the Lower Silesian-Märkische Eisenbahn are laid out level-free and not all tracks are used. The line turns east and reaches the Oderbrücke depot . Here is the system separation point between the German AC and Polish DC networks. The Oder , in the middle of which is the state border, is crossed on the Oder bridge , which was newly built in 2008 . On the Polish side, far outside the city, is the Słubice stop, built after 2000 . After the former border station at Kunowice, there is the large Rzepin hub station . Before that, a bypass route and the Wrocław – Szczecin railway cross the tracks. Rzepin is an island train station , the facilities of this line are on the north side and those of the Wroclaw – Stettin line on the south. In the east of the station, the Wierzbno – Rzepin line branches off to the north. The route leads eastwards through hilly terrain rich in lakes. Behind Toporów, the former line passes through Łagów to Międzyrzecz under the main railway line. Behind Świebodzin, one of the most important places along the route, it leads through flat and wooded terrain. The Zbąszynek railway junction in the middle of the forest was rebuilt in the 1920s. Here the Guben – Zbąszynek railway branches off to the southwest and the Guben – Zbąszynek railway branches off to the northeast. Zbąszyń was the Polish border station in the 1920s and 1930s. The eastern part of the route behind Opalenica leads through flat, poorly forested land that is more densely populated in the vicinity of Poznań . In the southwest of the city, the line forms part of a large railway cross and, coming from the southwest, reaches the Poznań Główny island railway station.

history

Prehistory and construction

Frankfurt (Oder) received a rail connection as early as 1842. The Lower Silesian-Märkische Railway connected the city with Berlin and, since 1846, with Breslau . To the east, the Prussian Eastern Railway built a line to Küstrin in 1857 and on via Landsberg (Warthe) to Bromberg . Poznan, on the other hand, had been connected to the German railway network via Stettin since 1848 and via Breslau since 1856.

However, it was hoped for further connections. In Frankfurt, as the largest trade fair city in north-east Germany at the time, emphasis was placed on a direct connection to the other trade fair cities of Poznan and Leipzig . The Märkisch-Posener Eisenbahn received the concession for a connection between the two cities, which, however , was to lead via Guben and Cottbus instead of Frankfurt . The state of Prussia , however, attached great importance to a branch from the direction of Posen to Frankfurt, which arose in Bentschen . The connection from Frankfurt to Leipzig, however, was never built; the decline of the Frankfurt fair was also attributed to it.

There were discussions about the Oder crossing near Frankfurt. Since the Frankfurt train station is well above the Oder Valley, a direct crossing of the river was not possible. There were discussions as to whether the new route should run past Frankfurt north or south. A branch line to the eastern bank of the Oder without a connection to the existing Frankfurt train station was also under discussion. Finally, preference was given to the southern variant. Construction work began in 1868. The Oder was spanned with the 444 m long 11-part Oder Bridge Frankfurt .

Extensive renovation work was necessary in the Frankfurt train station. The Märkisch-Posener Bahn, the so-called Märkisch-Posener Hof with locomotive sheds and freight facilities , was built east of the reception building on today's station forecourt .

On June 26, 1870, the routes from Guben and Frankfurt to Bentschen and on to Posen were opened. Initially there were three pairs of trains. There were stops on the way in Reppen, Sternberg, Neu-Cunersdorf, Wutschdorf, Schwiebus, Stensch, Bentschen, Neu Tomischl, Eichenhorst, Opalenica, Buk, Otusz and Dombrowka.

Until 1918

The importance of the line grew when the railway line from Stettin to Breslau was built in 1874 and crossed the line to Frankfurt in Reppen . This also made connections from Berlin to Grünberg possible. In the course of time the connection from Frankfurt to Posen turned out to be more important than that of Guben, and most trains took this route. As early as the 1890s, Frankfurt – Posen was the main line of the Märkisch-Posen Railway and Bentschen – Guben as a branch.

In 1899 the line was expanded to two tracks , mainly at the urging of the Prussian Army ( 5th Division ). When the Oder Bridge was built, space for a second track was already provided, but the superstructures had to be reinforced. In 1900 the railway systems in Poznan were rebuilt. Instead of the direct connection between the local central train station and St. Lazarus, the line has since been run in the city together with the line to Wroclaw.

The connection from Posen to the east led via the routes opened in 1872 via Gnesen and Thorn . At that time there was no direct connection from Posen over the former German-Russian border towards Warsaw.

In 1905, three express trains ran from Frankfurt to Posen from Berlin to Warsaw, Königsberg and Eydtkuhnen northeast of Königsberg on the Russian border. Two of them had through car transfer from Halle, Leipzig and Frankfurt (Main) via Guben in Bentschen . The Nord-Express luxury train used the route once a week . Five to six pairs of trains ran daily on the route in local traffic, further stops were made in Kunersdorf, Bottschow, Topper, Koppen, Chroschnitz, Friedenshorst, Sontop, Dopiewo and St. Lazarus.

On December 28, 1915, while passing through Bentschen station (today: Zbąszyń ), a holiday train coming from Berlin derailed due to excessive speed. 23 people died.

→ Main article : Bentschen railway accident

Between the world wars

Arrival of German refugees from Poznan at the border that was newly drawn in 1920 near Zbąszyń

After the First World War , the German eastern border was moved to the west following the Treaty of Versailles . The Poznan area also became Polish in January 1920. The border of the Second Polish Republic lay west of Bentschen, in Polish Zbąszyń. Zbąszyń became the Polish border station and a large terminal building was built. The German border station was initially Stensch. However, there were two more routes to Germany from Bentschen, the routes to Guben and Landsberg . In order to reconnect these, the new Neu Bentschen station was built between the lines and the lines were relocated so that they could be introduced into the new station. The Frankfurt route was swiveled south between Stensch and Zbąszyń. The border clearance has now been relocated from Stentsch to Neu Bentschen. The town of Neu Bentschen was built around the station with a customs office and a settlement for railway employees, which in 1930 already had a population of around 1,600. The station was inaugurated for freight traffic in November 1925 and for passenger traffic on August 14, 1930.

The importance of the line initially decreased as a result of the new border, although in 1925 a direct rail connection to Warsaw was established on the Polish side. In 1929, in addition to the Nord-Express Paris – Warsaw, which now ran three times a week, night trains ran from Berlin to Insterburg and from Paris to the then Soviet border station Niegoreloje on the route to Moscow. Two regional trains ran from Frankfurt to Bentschen, around six pairs of trains to Stentsch. At the beginning of the 1930s, a daily connection from Berlin to Insterburg was added. In addition, the section from Frankfurt to Reppen took on part of the traffic from Berlin to Silesia.

In 1937, the Frankfurt Bridge was rebuilt due to the increasing shipping traffic on the Oder. The middle bridge pillar was removed so that an 80-meter-wide opening was created for shipping.

At the end of October 1938, thousands of Polish Jews were supposed to be deported to Poland as part of the Poland Action , before their Polish citizenship was revoked. However, they were turned away by Polish border guards and had to remain in the no man's land between Neu-Bentschen and Zbąszyń.

With the beginning of World War II , western Poland was reoccupied by Germany. Several places that had names of Slavic origin even in the German period before the First World War were given new German names. So Opalenica became Oppenbach or Buk became Buchenstadt.

At the end of the war, the Oder Bridge was destroyed when the German Wehrmacht withdrew . Parts of the bridge were blown up in early February and completely destroyed in early April.

From 1945 to 1990

After the route from Warsaw to Poznan had been switched to Russian broad gauge (1524 mm) at the instigation of the Soviet army command, the route to the Oder followed by March 1945. During the fighting, Soviet pioneers began building a makeshift bridge over the river. For several months in 1945, a track on the line leading to Berlin was also converted to broad gauge.

With the establishment of the Oder-Neisse border as a consequence of the war, the area east of Frankfurt (Oder) also came under Polish administration.

In 1947 a new bridge was built, which was renewed in 1952 and provided with a double-track superstructure. A large part of the so-called convoy trains, which were used to transport reparations to the Soviet Union until the beginning of 1954, ran along the route .

The freight facilities in Frankfurt turned out to be too small, especially since the border clearance had to be carried out. In 1950, construction work began on the new Oderbrücke station for cross-border freight traffic. The station was opened on May 23, 1954. Since then, management has been changing between the railway companies there, and freight trains are also changed there.

Border stations for passenger traffic were the passenger station in Frankfurt on the GDR and Kunowice on the Polish side. A new, representative reception building was built in Kunowice. The nearby Rzepin junction station was also expanded and received a platform far west of the other platforms for handling international passenger trains.

From June 1973 on, two pairs of express trains were run on the border from Berlin to Warsaw without changing locomotives. The locomotives were manned by staff from the railway administration, who owned the locomotives. A local pilot drove with the locomotive on the foreign route section. This practice proved its worth and was only discontinued after 1980 with the strengthening of Polish Solidarność and the subsequent isolationist policy of the GDR towards Poland. In contrast to other border crossings between the GDR and Poland, there was hardly any impact on the train service on the route from 1981 onwards. This is mainly due to the fact that the majority of trains ran not only between the GDR and Poland, but also to the Soviet Union and other countries. These included trains from Berlin to Moscow and Leningrad and the East-West Express Paris-Moscow. Because of the great length of the train, this train was split between Berlin and Warsaw for several years into different trains running in quick succession. In the summer season, the Hoek-Warszawa-Express from Hoek van Holland , the actual East-West-Express and a train from Aachen to Brest ran in quick succession . These trains also made one of the two day connections from Berlin to Warsaw; there was also a night train, some with amplifiers. Polish local trains only ran from Rzepin or Kunowice, not across the border.

In the 1980s, the line was electrified in several stages. In December 1979 electrical operations between Poznań and Zbąszyń began. June 1983 followed the section to Szczaniec and in May 1984 to Rzepin. In December of the same year, a connecting curve was built along the Wrocław – Szczecin railway past the Rzepin station, which was relieved. In 1988, the section of the line from Rzepin across the border to the Oderbrücke station was electrified. The catenary in the station was supplied with the Polish direct current system, but the other technical parameters corresponded to the guidelines of the Deutsche Reichsbahn .

Development after 1990

The new Słubice stop

In December 1990, Frankfurt (Oder) was connected from Berlin to the alternating current network of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The separation point between the Polish direct current and the German alternating current network was created in the Oderbrücke station. Because of the rising terrain, about two thirds of the track length in the station is spanned with direct current and one third with alternating current.

Since the second half of the 1990s, the line has been gradually expanded as a section of the international railroad E 10 Berlin – Moscow and the Pan-European Transport Corridor II with funds from the European Union . On the Polish side, the expansion has now largely been completed. Most of the route (the Poznań Górczyn – Zbąszyń, Szczaniec – Rzepin sections) can be driven at a speed of 160 km / h. Almost all train stations and stops have been renewed. Since 2002 the Euro-City-Trains have been called the Berlin-Warszawa-Express . As part of the expansion project, a new stop was built in Słubice in 2003 ; the breakpoint in Bucze was closed in 2000.

At the beginning of 2008, an electronic signal box for the Oderbrücke station went into operation. In autumn 2008, the Oderbrücke was replaced by a new construction during a six-week line closure. During this time, 14 Eurocity and D trains as well as 78 freight trains had to be diverted every day.

Todays situation

The following parts of this section since 2012 seem out of date to be : old timetable data
Please help with to the missing information research and insert .

Regardless of the expansion to date, the international passenger transport offer is relatively low. Up to four Eurocity trains run daily between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Warszawa Wschodnia and, since 2012, also in the direction of Gdynia. There are also trains to Russia and Ukraine. Three trains run daily from Frankfurt in cross-border regional traffic. On the section between Zbąszynek and Poznań, four trains from the direction of Zielona Góra are added to domestic traffic in Poland , as well as some regional trains. Locomotive changes take place on the international passenger trains in Rzepin; Trains from Berlin to Rzepin run mostly with multi-system locomotives or occasionally with diesel locomotives.

literature

• Lothar Meyer, Horst Regling Railway junction Frankfurt / Oder. The gateway to the east. transpress, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-613-71126-5 .
• Bernd Kuhlmann: Railways across the Oder-Neisse border. Ritzau KG, Pürgen 2004, ISBN 3-935101-06-6 .

Web links

• Description on atlaskolejowy.net
• Description on bazakolejowa.pl

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German name for timetable 1905/1934
2. ↑ Meyer, Regling, p. 24
3. ↑ Meyer, Regling, p. 28
4. ↑ The original timetable is printed in: Meyer, Regling, p. 28
5. ↑ Märkisch-Poznan Railway . In: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon 1894–1896, Volume 11, p. 610.
6. ↑ Meyer, Regling p. 29
7. ↑ ^{a b} Meyer, Regling, p. 30
8. ^ Course book 1905
9. ^ Rostocki: The border and customs station Neu Bentschen. In: Newspaper of the Association of German Railway Administrations, Volume 70, No. 33 (August 14, 1930), pp. 881–885.
10. ^ Storm course book for the Reich 1929/30
11. ^ Course book 1934
12. ↑ ^{a b} Kuhlmann, p. 105
13. ↑ Meyer, Regling, p. 112
14. ^ DR foreign course book 1985
15. ↑ Meyer, Regling p. 115
16. ↑ Fact sheet of the Deutsche Bahn railway bridge over the Oder  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 62 kB)  
17. ^ PKP course book 2009/10