Ulm – Sigmaringen railway line

		from Augsburg
		from Friedrichshafen
	0.000	Ulm central station	478 m
		to Ulm Rbf
		to Aalen and Stuttgart
		Ulm Hbf Em Nord – Ulm Rbf
	0.700	Ulm Hbf Em Bridge
	0.825	Bundesstrasse 10
	2.356	Ulm-Söflingen	484 m
		from Ulm Rbf
	3.000	Ulm-Söflingen Em West
	3.055	blue
	5.646	Blaustein (formerly Ehrenstein)	492 m
	6.620	Blaustein West (from 1905, until about 1970 Klingenstein)
	7.044	blue
	7.415	Herrlingen	497 m
	11,150	Arnegg
	15.208	Gerhausen (since 1910)	516 m
	15.912	blue
	16,433	Blaubeuren	518 m
	22.611	Rogue blades	535 m
		to Reutlingen
	24,049	Smack	543 m
	28,220	Allmendingen	519 m
	32.100	Berkach
	33.497	Ehingen (Danube)	510 m
	36.780	Dettingen (b Ehingen)
	40,604	Rottenacker	501 m
	44.866	Munderkingen	506 m
	47.700	Untermarchtal
	52.494	Right stone	516 m
		Light railway to the Rechtenstein hydroelectric power station
	52.723	Danube
	57.321	Danube
	57.630	Zwiefaltendorf	524 m
	58.408	Danube
	61.565	Unlingen
		from Bad Schussenried
	65.173	Riedlingen	530 m
	67.710	Neufra (Danube)
	70.990	Ertingen	539 m
		from Isny
	76,411	Herbertingen	548 m
	76.2 + 300 76.4 + 98.4
	82,362	amounts	560 m
		to Radolfzell
	83.900	Ennetach
	86.030	Scheer
	86.270	Schlossberg tunnel (95 m)
	86.440	Danube
		from and to Hanfertal
	88.632	Sigmaringendorf	575 m
	89.061	Sigmaringendorf Hp
		from Krauchenwies
	92.228	Danube
		from Kleinengstingen
	92.670	Sigmaringen	572 m
		to Tübingen

Swell:

The Ulm – Sigmaringen railway is a main line in Baden-Württemberg . It runs from Ulm via Blaubeuren and Riedlingen to Sigmaringen, mostly in the valley of the Danube . The route is part of the once important long-distance connection from Munich to Freiburg im Breisgau .

Together with the short piece of Inzigkofen the zollernalb railway and the railway Tuttlingen-Inzigkofen it is also called Donautalbahn or Danube train called. The Royal Württemberg State Railways built the line between 1865 and 1873, and since 1901 it has been part of the national railway connection from Ulm to Freiburg im Breisgau in connection with the Black Forest Railway and the Höllental Railway . The Danube Valley Railway, including bridges , signal boxes , embankments, guard houses, tunnels and train stations, is now a registered cultural monument .

Route and expansion

Coming from Sigmaringen, the route largely follows the course of the young Danube and crosses it several times. From Ehingen (Danube) it leaves today's Danube valley and changes to the valley of the Urdonau along Schmiech , Ach and Blau . Here the route between Allmendingen and Blaustein runs again at the foot of the Swabian Alb . At its end point in Ulm, it encounters its eponymous stream again. The Danube Cycle Path , which leads from Donaueschingen to Vienna , follows the railway line over large parts, which is why it is particularly popular with cycle tourists. Between Herbertingen and Sigmaringen it also leads through the Upper Danube Nature Park and is therefore frequented by hikers .

The Ulm – Sigmaringen railway extends over three districts and the city of Ulm . It is also integrated into two transport associations . In Ulm, in the Alb-Danube district and in the Biberach district , i.e. between Ulm main station and Riedlingen , the route runs in the area of the Danube-Iller local transport network (DING). In the district of Sigmaringen , in which the line from Herbertingen is located, it is incorporated into the Neckar-Alb-Danube transport association (NALDO).

The line is not electrified and, with the exception of the Ulm Hbf – Herrlingen section , is a single track throughout . It is also fully equipped for tilting traffic.

Supraregional importance

In conjunction with the Höllentalbahn , Schwarzwaldbahn and Gäubahn, the Danube Valley Railway provides the shortest railway connection between the two major cities of Ulm and Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg. It is therefore of supraregional importance, especially for connections from Augsburg and Munich to Freiburg and from Ulm via Tuttlingen to Switzerland . However, the traffic on the Danube Valley Railway today does not do justice to this important importance of a supra-regional east-west connection. This is due to the low average speed due to the single track and long scheduled waiting times at junction stations and the forced stops at intersections . The detour from Ehingen along Schmiech and Blau to Ulm also increases travel times. Connections via Stuttgart and Karlsruhe are now the much faster alternative for connections from Munich and Ulm to Freiburg. This fact is currently weakening the supra-regional character of the Danube Valley Railway. In 2003, Deutsche Bahn discontinued the Kleber-Express , which since 1954 connected Freiburg with Munich without having to change trains, using large parts of the Danube Valley Railway. Since then, the Danube Valley Railway has no longer provided direct national connections between major cities.

history

First initiatives for railway construction

The first considerations for the construction of a railway line from Ulm up the Danube arose in the 1850s. As in many other places, railway committees were founded in the towns and communities along the Danube to support the construction of such a route. In 1861, 17 of these railway committees went public with a memorandum that promoted an east-west connection from Ulm via Ehingen, Mengen , Meßkirch and Singen to Schaffhausen in Switzerland with a connection to Tuttlingen and the Black Forest Railway, which was still in the planning phase. The construction of a railway line along the Danube as part of a European main line from Vienna to Paris was also discussed at this time . Since a railway line from Ulm to Vienna already existed at the beginning of the 1860s and Paris in the east was already connected to Chaumont , a gap was closed from Ulm along the Danube to Donaueschingen and on through the Black Forest to Freiburg im Breisgau, across the Rhine and the Vosges discussed after Chaumont as the shortest connection between Paris and Vienna and especially promoted by cities along the Danube. In addition to the considerable topographical problems that would have caused the construction of such a railway line with the resources of the time, there were also the many national borders that would have had to be crossed with such a route.

Construction of the line in the years 1865–1873

Overview of the construction of the railway connection from Ulm to Donaueschingen between 1865 and 1890

Württemberg therefore initially planned on a smaller scale and, in negotiations with Prussia and Baden, secured the right to be allowed to build as far as Sigmaringen in Prussia and to obtain a connection to the Baden route network and thus to western Lake Constance in quantities through the Radolfzell – Mengen railway line . Although the endpoint Sigmaringen since 1850 in the to Prussia belonging Hohenzollern lands located, Prussia but not involved in the construction of the line.

On April 28, 1865, the Württemberg state parliament passed the corresponding law, which provided for the construction of a railway line from Ulm along the Blau, Ach and Schmiech to Ehingen and then further along the Danube to Sigmaringen. The considerably shorter and more cost-effective variant of a railway line, which would have branched off from Erbach from the already completed southern runway and would have been consistently oriented towards the course of the Danube, was discarded in favor of connecting Blaubeuren and Schelklingen to the railway. The decisive factor for this decision was the influence of the then Blaubeuren MP Ferdinand von Steinbeis , who then received the honorary citizenship of the city of Blaubeuren. Construction work on the line began in 1865 and was under the direction of Josef Schlierholz . Buildings along the route were constructed with concrete for the first time on a larger scale . The Royal Württemberg State Railways recruited workers from Italy in particular to build the line .

On August 2, 1868, the section between Ulm and Blaubeuren was opened to traffic. Ehingen (Danube) was reached on June 13, 1869, Riedlingen on June 15, 1870, and on November 13, 1870, the line to Scheer on the Württemberg-Prussian border was completed, which King Charles I made a special trip to Took quantities. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 and problems with bridge construction delayed the commissioning of the remnant from Scheer to Sigmaringen until July 26, 1873.

1890–1950: Between expansion and war destruction

Munderkingen station, built in 1870

Quantities with a train station around 1900, the place also got its railway connection in 1870

Steam train near the tunnel at Blaubeurer Tor in Ulm around 1905

Neither in the First nor in the Second World War could the military meet the high expectations of the military that were placed on the Danube Valley Railway in connection with the strategic bypass routes in southern Baden . Even before the First World War, there were the first hesitant expansion measures on the Danube Valley Railway, which was built as a single track until 1890. In order to better connect the new Ulm marshalling yard , which was located in Söflingen , the Royal Württemberg State Railways expanded the three-kilometer section between Söflingen and Ulm Hauptbahnhof to double-track in 1912. This two-track section was extended to Herrlingen until 1913 .

Plans by the Deutsche Reichsbahn from 1937 to completely double-track the long, single-track section from Herrlingen to Sigmaringen because of the strategic military importance of the line, attracted a lot of attention during the Second World War, but were not taken up after the end of the Second World War. There was a major expansion of the railway facilities after the completion of the Danube Valley Railway at the Ulm railway junction , which the Württemberg State Railways gradually expanded between 1899 and 1911 and the Deutsche Reichsbahn between 1924 and 1928.

With the completion of the Höllentalbahn from Donaueschingen to Freiburg in 1901, the connection from Ulm to Freiburg, which had already been discussed in the 1850s, was possible for the first time, which was established from 1909 by express trains , some of which even ran to Colmar from 1912 . In addition, from 1913 frequented also express trains from Munich on the Donautalbahn to Freiburg. Some of these trains even had dining cars . The average speed on the Danube Valley Railway remained, despite this long-distance traffic function, usually less than 50 kilometers per hour. Despite some restrictions during the world wars, the timetable remained relatively stable until 1945 with a mix of long-running express trains and local trains that stopped at all stations. Initially, the Württembergische Fc , in particular , was used, which shaped the operation of the Danube Valley Railway until the mid-1920s and which was replaced by the DR series 38.4 from around 1926 . Between 1929 and the end of the Second World War, modern vehicles dominated with the 24 series . The freight was due to the still low industrialization along the route of little importance.

Towards the end of the Second World War, the Allied aerial warfare against Germany also reached the cities along the Danube Valley Railway. In December 1944, allied bomber groups completely destroyed Ulm Central Station and the Söflingen marshalling yard. There were also heavy impacts at the Metro station in 1944. The line itself was only slightly damaged and remained passable with restrictions almost until the end of the war. On the other hand, the Wehrmacht , which was in retreat, did severe damage in 1945, blowing up some railway bridges and thus making continuous traffic on the Danube Valley Railway impossible until 1950. However, sections of the route were operated again from 1946.

Since 1950: between dismantling and improving the range of services

The reception building of today's Ulm Central Station dates from the 1950s

There were hardly any major improvements in the transport infrastructure after 1950, with the exception of the new construction of the Ulm railway systems, which were destroyed in the war and completed in 1962. Although the Deutsche Bundesbahn modernized the signaling systems, it also removed many sidings and shut down low-traffic stations and the shunting yard in Ulm-Söflingen. In the early 1990s, the Federal Railroad increasingly sold rail systems to private owners. The reception building of Scheer station has been sold. However, parts of the Danube Valley Railway were not shut down . In the 1950s and 1960s, an obsolete and rapidly changing stock of steam locomotives of different origins was used. The Württembergische C dominated until 1955, which was gradually replaced from 1953 by the Bavarian S 3/6 , which did its service on the Danube Valley Railway until 1961 and was then replaced by the 03 series . The 03 series remained in use until 1971, but from 1966 was more and more replaced by the diesel- powered V 200 series.

Until 1963, the Württemberg T 5 was important for covering local transport services, which from 1961 onwards was increasingly taken over by the 64 series . As before the Second World War, freight traffic was low and was normally handled by the 50 series until 1976 . From 1969 the diesel- powered V 90 series gradually replaced the 50 series. Since the 1950s, however, diesel multiple units have also been used in individual passenger transport. The VT 60.5 was the first diesel vehicle to run on the Danube Valley Railway. From 1961 the Uerdinger rail bus units, which dominated the 1970s, were added, which operated on the Danube Valley Railway until 1995, but were increasingly replaced by the 628 series from 1988 , which performed a large part of the operation on the Danube Valley Railway until the beginning of the new millennium and is still in use today on a small scale. The V 160 series took over many of the long-running trains from 1966, and the 218 series was added from 1975 .

The 1950s timetable was similar to the one that existed before 1945. Non-stop trains from Ulm to France were discontinued, as did direct trains from Munich via Ulm to Freiburg from 1953, which from 1954 were run with the Kleber Express via Memmingen - Aulendorf - Herbertingen instead of Ulm.

None of the trains was operated anymore. The express train service remained more or less stable until the 1980s, with the average speed of the express trains increasing to 70 kilometers per hour until the 1980s. The Deutsche Bundesbahn thinned out the local transport offers on the route until the beginning of the 1990s. In 1988 the Federal Railroad introduced a regular schedule on the Danube Valley Railway, but this was reinforced by some trains running outside the regular schedule . The trains were now called RegionalSchnellBahn (RSB) and ran every two hours from Ulm to Donaueschingen and on via the Höllentalbahn to Neustadt (Black Forest) , where they had to switch to electrically operated trains to Freiburg. In 1996, Deutsche Bahn AG increased the two-hour cycle on the Neustadt – Ulm route with trains from Sigmaringen to Ulm that also run every two hours, so that there has been an hourly cycle between Sigmaringen and Ulm since then.

business

passenger traffic

Regional Express at Munderkingen station

It run in the two-hour clock regional express trains (RE) between Ulm and Donaueschingen , which further isolated to Villingen be bound, ending a pair of trains and it starts out already in Triberg . In some cases, the cycle was condensed from December 2019, so that at certain times of the day an hourly cycle can be offered on the entire route. With a time lag, Regional Express trains also serve the section from Ulm to Sigmaringen every two hours , so that there is an hourly cycle. Regional trains (RB) run every hour in the section from Ulm to Munderkingen . On the section between Munderkingen and Ulm, there is very heavy traffic with two trains per hour in each direction. Traffic is similarly dense between Herbertingen and Sigmaringen, where the hourly trains on the Tübingen-Sigmaringen railway line in the Sigmaringen-Aulendorf section complement the hourly intervals of the regional express trains Donaueschingen-Ulm and Sigmaringen-Ulm.

The regional express trains are operated by the DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn . For the small timetable change in June 2019, the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn (HzL) took over the regional rail services between Ulm and Munderkingen from Deutsche Bahn.

The average speed of long-running trains from Donaueschingen to Ulm is less than 70 kilometers per hour on the Danube Valley Railway.

Freight transport

The Hohenzollerische Landesbahn (HzL) operates the sparse freight traffic over large parts of the route . The HzL uses the route between Sigmaringendorf and Ulm in particular for salt transports. HzL also transports goods for the Tyczka Totalgaz tank farm in Sigmaringen and for the shredder plant in Herbertingen . Cement is transported from Dotternhausen in block trains to Switzerland. As part of the railway-based Claas logistics concept, Claas products are transported from the factory in Bad Saulgau via Mengen on the Danube Valley Railway. On the other hand, goods traffic in the Alb-Donau district is worth mentioning, where the Schwenk cement works in Allmendingen and HeidelbergCement in Schelklingen in particular use the Danube Valley Railway for transports. The Sappi plant in Ehingen also handles significant parts of its transports via the Danube Valley Railway. In the long term, the shipping company Denkinger is planning to build a siding for its logistics center in Allmendingen in order to transport its goods directly from Allmendingen by train.

vehicles

The Regional Express trains between Donaueschingen (or Villingen) and Ulm as well as between Ulm and Sigmaringen are driven by class 612 and class 644 railcars . LINT 54 railcars made by Alstom are used for the regional railways between Munderkingen and Ulm . The regional trains between Tübingen and Aulendorf run with Stadler Regio shuttles . The Interregio-Express trains from Stuttgart to Aulendorf, which run on the Danube Valley Railway between Sigmaringen and Herbertingen, also consist of class 612 railcars. Freight traffic is mainly handled by class V 90 locomotives .

Signal boxes and signal systems

Quantities station still has a mechanical interlocking , whereby the switches , the entry and exit signals as well as the barriers are set and operated by the dispatcher via wire cables. There are a dispatcher interlocking of the standard design and two guard interlockings , one of which is still permanently occupied, of the types Einheit and Jüdel. The other stations along the route have push-button interlockings of various types, only in Sigmaringen and Ulm-Söflingen there are electronic interlockings. On the Danube Railway, there is a wide mix of form and light signal systems, form signals only appear from Mengen in the direction of Donaueschingen.

Planning

The regional S-Bahn Donau-Iller has been discussed since the 1990s . This envisaged the construction of a new line to Erbach (Danube) on the southern line, branching off the old line in Ehingen (Danube) and following the course of the Danube . Only the Regional Express trains between Ulm, Sigmaringen and Donaueschingen (Villingen) would have run on this route, which would have meant a significantly shorter journey time for these trains. On the more populous old line from Ehingen via Blaubeuren and Schelklingen, however, as on all other existing lines around Ulm, S-Bahn traffic would be introduced. Transport planners estimated the construction costs of a new line between Ehingen and Erbach at 75 million euros. While the Danube-Iller regional association is pushing ahead with these S-Bahn plans and the construction of the new line, the state government of Baden-Württemberg was hostile to the project in 2007. In the current planning of the Regio-S-Bahn, however, this project was no longer pursued. As a replacement, the Danube Valley Railway south of Ehingen is to be double-tracked and therefore more efficient. New calculations also showed that a two-track expansion is required between Mengen and Herbertingen. Driveability tests are currently being carried out by DB Engineering for two million euros.

literature

Hans-Wolfgang Scharf: The railway in the Danube valley and in northern Upper Swabia . EK-Verlag, Freiburg [Breisgau] 1997, ISBN 3-88255-765-6

Web links

Commons : Donautalbahn (Baden-Württemberg) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
↑ Falko Hahn (fah): Danube Valley Railway is a cultural monument . In: Südkurier from September 16, 2006.
↑ Ferdinand Werner : The long way to new building. Volume 1: Concrete: 43 men invent the future. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2016. ISBN 978-3-88462-372-5 , p. 127 f;
Josef Schlierholz: Buildings of the Royal Württemberg Danube, Allgäu and Hohenzollern Railway. Wittwer, Stuttgart 1876.
↑ The use of vehicles in the early days of the Danube Valley Railway is difficult to understand today. Particularly for the period before 1894, the literature does not make any statements about vehicle use. For the time after that, Hans-Wolfgang Scharf derives the use of vehicles on the route from the location of the vehicles in various depots.
^ SK: Donaueschingen: Change of timetable for the Danube Railway brings more trains to Donaueschingen. March 19, 2019, accessed June 7, 2020 .
↑ Local rail transport on the Brenzbahn and in the Danube Valley will be more attractive from 2019. Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, September 7, 2017, accessed on December 16, 2018 .
↑ Bahn-Report 5/2007, p. 79
↑ Private train also runs in the event of a strike. ( Memento from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Südwestpresse. November 9, 2007 (report on the 2007 train drivers' strike).
↑ Denkinger Internationale Spedition GmbH siding. Retrieved May 20, 2020 .
↑ Report in the Südwestpresse of February 21, 2007 and here ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 39 kB) documented
↑ SMA / Intraplan: Regio-S-Bahn Donau-Iller results of the main study (PDF; 2.4 MB), November 27, 2012, accessed on November 19, 2013
^ Regional Association Danube Iller (Ed.): Regional regional rail transport target concept . Bavaria August 17, 2016, p. 15 .
↑ : DB Engineering . In: Schwarzwälder Bote , November 14, 2016.

[1] DB Netze - Infrastructure Register

[2] Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .

[3] Falko Hahn (fah): Danube Valley Railway is a cultural monument . In: Südkurier from September 16, 2006.

[4] Ferdinand Werner : The long way to new building. Volume 1: Concrete: 43 men invent the future. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2016. ISBN 978-3-88462-372-5 , p. 127 f;
Josef Schlierholz: Buildings of the Royal Württemberg Danube, Allgäu and Hohenzollern Railway. Wittwer, Stuttgart 1876.

[5] The use of vehicles in the early days of the Danube Valley Railway is difficult to understand today. Particularly for the period before 1894, the literature does not make any statements about vehicle use. For the time after that, Hans-Wolfgang Scharf derives the use of vehicles on the route from the location of the vehicles in various depots.

[6] SK: Donaueschingen: Change of timetable for the Danube Railway brings more trains to Donaueschingen. March 19, 2019, accessed June 7, 2020 .

[7] Local rail transport on the Brenzbahn and in the Danube Valley will be more attractive from 2019. Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, September 7, 2017, accessed on December 16, 2018 .

[8] Bahn-Report 5/2007, p. 79

[9] Private train also runs in the event of a strike. ( Memento from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Südwestpresse. November 9, 2007 (report on the 2007 train drivers' strike).

[10] Denkinger Internationale Spedition GmbH siding. Retrieved May 20, 2020 .

[11] Report in the Südwestpresse of February 21, 2007 and here ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 39 kB) documented

[12] SMA / Intraplan: Regio-S-Bahn Donau-Iller results of the main study (PDF; 2.4 MB), November 27, 2012, accessed on November 19, 2013

[13] Regional Association Danube Iller (Ed.): Regional regional rail transport target concept . Bavaria August 17, 2016, p. 15 .

[DBEngineering-14] : DB Engineering . In: Schwarzwälder Bote , November 14, 2016.