St. Valentin – České Budějovice railway line

St. Valentin – České Budějovice
Route number :	203 01, 221 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	141
Course book series (SŽDC) :	196
Route length:	119.750 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D3
Power system :	Gaisbach-Wartberg – state border: 15 kV 16.7 Hz ~ state border – Č. Budějovice: 25 kV 50 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	16  ‰
Minimum radius :	251 m
Top speed:	100 km / h
Legend von Kleinreifling (formerly KRB ) from Wien Westbf (formerly KEB ) 0.000 St. Valentine 271 m to Salzburg Hbf (formerly KEB ) Ennsdorf loop from Ennsdorf 3,633 Ecoplus connecting railway 3,670 Connection railway OMV 6,946 St. Pantaleon 249 m Mauthausen Danube Bridge 7.280 Mauthausen 251 m to Grein-Bad Kreuzen (formerly LB Mauthausen-Grein) 10.500 Ried-Zirking 291 m 15.500 Hartl-Altaist 363 m from Linz Hbf (formerly KEB ) 20,191 Gaisbach - Wartberg 371 m 22,481 Castle house 386 m 25,922 Pregarten (1901: Prägarten) 416 m Pregarten tunnel (34 m) 30.497 Selker 421 m 36.789 Kefermarkt 464 m 39.786 Lasberg - St. Oswald 482 m 41.982 Read - Neumarkt 509 m 46.486 Free City 558 m 55.905 Summerau 663 m 61.095 State border between Austria and the Czech Republic 61.097 System separation point 15 kV 16.7 Hz ~ / 25 kV 25 Hz ~ 62,462 Horní Dvořiště formerly Oberhaid-Böhm. Hearing stroke 675 m 64.300 Bludov v Čechách formerly Hohenfurt-Rosenberg 69.781 Rybník used to be a tender village 675 m to Lipno nad Vltavou (formerly Hohenfurther Electric Local Railway) 73.927 Pšenice formerly Suchenthal-Pschenitz 670 m 76.800 Bujanov formerly Angern-Rosenthal 665 m 79.877 Omlenice formerly Umlowitz 645 m 86.504 Kaplice formerly Kaplitz 605 m former Protectorate border (1938–1945) 88.530 Výheň 590 m 93.731 Velešín formerly Welleschin 555 m 96,800 Velešín městys 540 m 98.835 Holkov formerly Holkau-Rimau 530 m 102.070 Chlumec u Českých Budějovic 505 m 105.579 Kamenný Újezd u Českých Budějovic formerly stone churches 475 m 108.750 Kamenný Újezd ​​u Českých Budějovic zastávka formerly stone church mine 450 m 111,609 Včelná formerly Porič 430 m from Černý Kříž (formerly ÖLEG ) 116.044 odb. Rožnov 116.929 České Budějovice jižní zastávka 395 m from České Velenice (formerly KFJB ) 119.750 České Budějovice formerly Budweis 395 m to Plzeň hl. n. (formerly KFJB ) to Veselí nad Lužnicí (formerly KFJB )

The St. Valentin – České Budějovice railway is a single-track, electrified main line in Austria and the Czech Republic , which was originally built and operated by the Imperial and Royal Empress Elisabeth Railway (KEB). Only the sections St. Valentin - Mauthausen as part of the Danube bank line and Gaisbach - Wartberg - České Budějovice ( Budweis ) as part of the national long-distance connection between Linz and Prague are still in operation .

Parts of the route go back to the Budweis – Linz – Gmunden horse-drawn railway , which was built in 1827 as the first horse-drawn railway on the European continent. After the " New Alpine Railways " opened, it was part of a new transversal line between Trieste and Prague.

history

In 1854, the First Railway Company dealt with the introduction of steam operation and carried out the first test drives on the horse-drawn railway between Linz and Gmunden . Although the flat rails could not withstand the loads and numerous broken rails were the result, it was decided to switch to steam operation from 1855 onwards between Linz and Gmunden because of the greater economic efficiency. For this purpose, the flat rails were exchanged for high rails . It also became apparent that the route and the gradients between Linz and Budweis were unsuitable for a possible switch to steam operation. Taking this experience into account, it was decided to continue to operate the Linz – Budweis route as a horse-drawn tram.

After the KEB had built the Austrian Western Railway - opening Vienna (Westbahnhof) - Linz on December 15, 1858 - the company tried to obtain a concession for a railway line from St. Valentin to Budweis. This was granted to the Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Bahn with the condition that Linz had to be connected to this railway line with a wing section. St. Valentin was chosen as the starting point because a connection to the Kronprinz-Rudolfs-Bahn (KRB) , which opened on August 15, 1868, was planned.

In accordance with these requirements, the St. Valentin - Summerau - Budweis routes and 1872 Linz (Abzw Wächterhaus 850) - Gaisbach-Wartberg routes were built. The bridge over the Danube near Mauthausen presented the greatest difficulty .

Opening dates

• December 1, 1871: Summerau - Budweis (freight traffic)
• November 6, 1872: St. Valentin - Freistadt (freight traffic), Freistadt - Summerau (total traffic)
• December 2, 1872: St. Valentin - Freistadt (all traffic)

In the 1901 timetable, the timetable no. 97 appears with the route (Prague - Eger -) Budweis - Kl. Reifling (- Pontafel - Venice - Rome ); direct trains did not run via Linz, but via the Gaisbach-Wartberg - Mauthausen section of the route, which was closed in 1956, directly to St. Valentin, Steyr and Kleinreifling and to destination stations further south.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary in October 1918, the management between Summerau and Budweis was transferred to the newly founded Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD).

After the Sudetenland became part of Germany in the autumn of 1938, the line between Kaplitz and Summerau came to the Deutsche Reichsbahn , Reichsbahndirektion Linz . Kaplitz was designated as the new border station. In the imperial course book the connection was now included as course book route 455 (Prague–) Kaplitz - Linz (Danube) - St. Michael (- Graz) . The route between St. Valentin and Gaisbach-Wartberg was included in the timetable route 455c Gaisbach-Wartberg - Kleinreifling . In the summer schedule, a total of six pairs of passenger trains ran between Linz and Kaplitz, each of which had a connection to the trains to Budweis. An express train ran between Prague and Spalato (today: Split).

On May 9, 1945, the route between Summerau and Budweis was completely returned to the ČSD.

After the Second World War and the subsequent erection of the Iron Curtain , the route fell in importance. From then on, Czechoslovakia handled its overseas traffic via Yugoslav ports, so that freight trains no longer ran directly from Prague to Trieste. In the winter timetable of 1947/48, only two pairs of passenger trains ran across the state border, including a pair of express trains from Prague via Zurich to Paris. The now insignificant part of the Mauthausen - Gaisbach-Wartberg route was closed by the ÖBB on April 5, 1956 and later dismantled. The travel time between St. Valentin and Gaisbach was around 30 minutes in 1956.

IV. Railway corridor in the Czech Republic

Summerau station (2012)

A new situation only arose with the political upheaval in Czechoslovakia in 1989. In the 1990/91 timetable, five pairs of passenger trains crossed the state border, including three through express trains from Prague or Budweis to Linz.

The Czech Republic , founded in 1993 , was soon aiming for a comprehensive modernization of its section of the line within the framework of project IV. Railway Corridor. In 2000 and 2001, the line between Summerau and Budweis was electrified with a contact line voltage of 25 kV 50 Hz. The system separation point to the Austrian network with 15 kV 16.7 Hz is located on the open stretch at the state border. A comprehensive modernization of the line ("Optimalizace") took place between 2007 and 2009.

Electrification data:

• Velešín – České Budějovice: November 1st, 2000
• Kaplice – Velešín: February 1, 2001
• Summerau – Kaplice: June 10, 2001

Passenger train to Summerau on the platform in Budweis (2009)

Line 3 of Upper Austria's S-Bahn has been running between Pregarten and Linz Hbf every hour since December, and even every half hour during the week during peak hours. Between Pregarten and Summerau there is a two-hour cycle due to the extension of some S-Bahn trains and the REX trains, which on weekdays in the morning and afternoon are compressed to hourly cycles in the load direction. Most of the trains to Summerau run alternately to Budweis and Prague . There are eight connections from Linz to Budweis and four to Prague.

There is also an early morning express train (D 206 Matthias Braun after the sculptor Matthias Bernhard Braun ) from Salzburg via Linz to Prague . The express train (D 207 Matthias Braun) returns from Prague in the evening and then carries a sleeper through coach that travels from Salzburg Hbf with the EN 466 Wiener Walzer to Zurich HB and thus a direct connection Prague-Zurich via the Summerauer Bahn offers. Another express train runs between Prague and Linz (EuroCity until 2009, 2010 without a restaurant car, therefore only InterCity, from December 2010 as an express train). The train coming from Prague was run from Linz Hbf. Via the Pyhrnbahn via Selzthal and Graz Hbf. To Ljubljana / Laibach until December 2008 . Since the Slovenian state railways, Slovenske železnice , had no further interest in this connection, the train ran from Linz to Salzburg from December 2008 to the end of 2009. Since December 2009 the train has only run between Linz and Prague.

Future of the railway

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, there have been plans to generously expand the north-south connection, which has since become increasingly important. Since 2005, the European Commission has been funding a study on the construction of an efficient rail link between Linz and Prague, which includes the Summerau Railway. The medium-term realization seems assured, since the section is part of the priority project No. 22 of the trans-European transport networks . The expansion was originally supposed to start in 2011 and be completed by 2017.

However, since the Mühlviertel expressway (S10) should be completed in 2015, it was feared that large volumes of goods would migrate to the road. In order to prevent this, the state of Upper Austria urged and was able to achieve through pre-financing that the construction of the railway was accelerated and should be completed by 2015.

literature

• Elmar Oberegger: Brief history of the Budweiser Railway. Č.Budějovice - Gaisbach-Wartberg - Linz / St. Valentine. Sattledt 2007 (publications of the information office for Austrian railway history 13).
• Elmar Oberegger: The Austrian Horse Railways. Sattledt 2007 (publications of the information office for Austrian railway history 1).
• Elmar Oberegger: The Iron Road to Bohemia. From the horse train to the Summerauer train. In: Coal & Steam. Catalog of the Upper Austrian State Exhibition 2006, Linz 2006, p. 247 ff.

Web links

Commons : Summerauer Bahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Railway line 196 (Czech Republic)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Current timetable Linz – Summerau of the ÖBB
• Current ČD Budweis – Summerau timetable
• Summerauer Bahn as part of the Trans-European Transport Network (pdf; 632 kB)
• České Budějovice – Summerau on www.zelpage.cz

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zdeněk Hudec u. a .: Atlas drah České republiky 2006–2007 , 2nd edition; Publishing house Pavel Malkus, Praha, 2006, ISBN 80-87047-00-1
2. ↑ Artaria railway map of Austria-Hungary and the Balkans, with Station Directory; Artaria & Co., Vienna 1913
3. ↑ Prohlášení o dráze 2020
4. ↑ Summer timetable 1939 of the DR - valid May 15 to October 7, 1939
5. ↑ ČSD winter timetable 1947/48
6. ↑ Railway Forum: route Gaisbach Vartberg Mauthausen , forum post from March 27, 2005
7. ↑ Annual timetable 1990/91 of the ČSD
8. ↑ Timetable Linz – Summerau. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 8, 2017 ; accessed on January 19, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ ots.at Great success for Upper Austria: expansion of important transport projects secured - last accessed on June 25, 2008
10. ↑ Agreement secures accelerated expansion of the Linz – Summerau railway line! in the Upper Austrian state correspondence of September 3, 2009, accessed on March 20, 2010.