Wehratalbahn

This article describes the Wehratalbahn. Railway lines with a similar name can be found under Werratalbahn .

Schopfheim – Bad Säckingen
Route number (DB) :	4401
Route length:	19.7 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	10  ‰
Minimum radius :	360 m
Legend Wiesentalbahn from Basel Bad Bf 0.00 Schopfheim Schopfheim-Schlattholz (since 2017) Wiesentalbahn to Zell (Wiesental) 2.10 Brook bridge 2.60 Fahrnau T. (closed in 1924) 2.90 Schlierbach Fahrnauer Tunnel (3169 m) 6.30 Hazel (bathing) 6.35 Brook bridge 6.70 hazel 7.10 hazel 8.70 hazel 9.20 Weir (Baden) 9.40 Wehra (63 m) 10.50 11.20 Oflingen 12.10 Oberdorfstrasse 12.50 13.20 Schmadstrasse 13.40 Farm road 13.90 Brennet (Wehratal) closed on February 1, 1924 14.10 Bergseestrasse 14.80 15.70 Brook bridge 15.80 16.10 Bundesstrasse 34 Hochrheinbahn from Basel Bad Bf 19.70 Bad Säckingen (formerly Säckingen) Hochrheinbahn to Constance

The Wehratalbahn as part of the strategic railway construction in the German Empire between 1887 and 1890

The Wehratalbahn ( Schopfheim – Bad Säckingen railway ) was a 19.7 km long branch line from Schopfheim to Bad Säckingen . It partly followed the Wehra river of the same name . The "Fahrnauer Tunnel" was one of the longest railway tunnels in Germany at the time (3.169 km) along the route . The Wehratalbahn was designed as a strategic railway to bypass Switzerland near Basel and was prepared for the laying of a second track.

development

The Wehratalbahn line was opened on May 20, 1890; It was electrified in 1913, in view of the existing hydropower plants and the long Fahrnau tunnel at the same time as the Wiesentalbahn : First, single-phase alternating current with a frequency of 15 Hertz and a voltage of 15 kV was used. The electricity was supplied by the Augst-Wyhlen hydropower plant . Specially developed locomotives from the Baden State Railways were used. Even if the electrical frequency was increased to 16⅔ Hertz in 1936, so that other vehicles could now be used, the electrical traction remained an isolated operation until 1955 .

Shutdown

East portal of the Fahrnau tunnel in Hasel

On May 23, 1971, passenger traffic on the Wehratalbahn was discontinued and the Hasel, Wehr, Öflingen and Brennet / Wehratal stations closed; 1977 the catenary was dismantled. Freight traffic between Bad Säckingen and Wehr was carried out until September 1, 1990. On December 31, 1994 the line was closed .

First of all, the route should be protected: on the one hand by preventing overbuilding, on the other hand by protecting it as a historical monument . The Wehra railway bridge was placed under monument protection and the track in the Fahrnau tunnel recognized as a cultural monument . The reactivation of the Fahrnauer Tunnel is currently being investigated. The city of Schopfheim does not intend to take over the building .

reactivation

With a resolution at the municipal council meeting on April 19, 2005, the city of Wehr (Baden) commissioned an expert report that was supposed to show whether a restart was possible. The report drawn up by Ulrich Grosse , a local transport consultant from Tübingen , was positive, but reconstruction was relatively expensive and only possible in the long term. A technical feasibility study by the company Pöyry Infra from Lörrach came to a similar assessment .

A report presented in the summer of 2020, again on behalf of the city of Wehr by the local transport consultant Grosse, sees a potential of up to 12,000 passengers a day for a restart, also through a ring train concept with an S-Bahn line from Basel via Weil, Schopfheim , Wehr , Bad Säckingen and Rheinfelden . Armed with the further Wehratalgemeinden , the counties and the Regionalverband high Rhein-Lake in the reopening of interest in an efficient transport connection between meadows and Hochrheintal and between Lörrach , Wiesentalstrasse and Constance . In this study, reactivation costs of around 100 million euros are estimated. On July 23, 2020, Sabine Hartmann-Müller (CDU), member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg , presented this feasibility study to the state transport minister Winfried Hermann as the representative of the Upper Rhine region .

literature

• Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 117-121 .
• August von Würthenau (editor): Memorandum on the construction of the railways in the Baden Oberland: Leopoldshöhe - Lörrach, Schopfheim - Säckingen, Weizen - Immendingen to bypass Swiss territory , Karlsruhe 1890 digitized
• Julius Kraus: The Wehratalbahn, a strategic bypass line. In: Das Markgräflerland, issue 1/1987, pp. 156–172, digital copy of the Freiburg University Library

Web links

Commons : Wehratalbahn  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Extensive information from the Eisenbahnfreunden Wehratal eV
• Information about the route on Reiner Schruft's homepage
• Information on suedbadenbahn.de
• Report on the reactivation report in the Südkurier
• Pictures from inside the tunnel

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of February 9, 1924, No. 6. Announcement No. 148, p. 89.
2. ↑ Christian Tietze: Island of the electricity pioneers. In: eisenbahn-magazin 12/2013, p. 37
3. ↑ Dismantling of the overhead line on the Wehratalbahn. Retrieved February 13, 2018 . 
4. ↑ 40 years ago the last train left the Öflingen station. Südkurier , accessed on May 25, 2011 . 
5. ↑ We agreed on the goal of securing the route of the Wehratalbahn. Mayor Christof Nitz, alderman Ruthard Hirschner and Wehr's mayor Michael Thater clear up any irritations. In: Badische Zeitung. Badischer Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, March 2, 2013, accessed on September 8, 2013 . 
6. ↑ We have been walking for 40 years. Badische Zeitung , accessed on May 25, 2011 . 
7. ^ Badische Zeitung: Study sees great potential for the railway line - Wehr - Badische Zeitung. Retrieved July 19, 2020 . 
8. ^ Badische Zeitung: Railway study presented to Minister of Transport - Wehr - Badische Zeitung. Retrieved July 25, 2020 .