Railway line Wörth – Strasbourg
The Wörth – Strasbourg line is a German - French line that runs in the northern part within Rhineland-Palatinate and in the southern, predominantly within Alsace .
The route was opened on May 15, 1876 and was then completely within the German Empire . From 1906 to 1914 it was part of the European long-distance network . The First World War and the resulting cession of Alsace to France brought it to a standstill. As a result, the section of the route that remained in Germany also lost its importance. This resulted in the discontinuation of passenger traffic between Wörth and Berg in 1984.
In 2002, passenger traffic between Wörth and Lauterbourg was reactivated, although there is only continuous travel to Strasbourg on the weekend from May to October . Since it was reactivated, the German section has also been called the Bienwaldbahn for marketing reasons , as it runs on the eastern edge of the Bienwald .
It is still important to this day in freight transport , in the last few decades especially in connection with the transport of nuclear waste ( Castor transports ) from La Hague to Gorleben .
North of Lauterbourg there is only one track left, in France the line is double-track.
history
First efforts (1840-1870)
The original plan was to first put a north-south line to Lauterbourg in operation within what was then the Rhine Palatinate , but this failed due to the border conditions at the time - Lauterbourg belonged to France at that time. Instead, in the period from 1847 to 1849, the Palatinate Ludwigsbahn from the Rheinschanze (from 1853: Ludwigshafen ) to Bexbach , which was mainly used to transport coal, and a branch line from Schifferstadt to Speyer, was built in an east-west direction .
In the period that followed, plans for a north-south connection were in progress. Two variants were up for discussion: One should run from Neustadt via Landau to Wissembourg in Alsace and from there on to Strasbourg . The other was to run the branch line to Speyer via Germersheim and Wörth to Lauterbourg. The first variant prevailed because France hesitated and in the case of the first variant, the then denser settlement of the region prevailed as an argument against a route along the Rhine .
After the Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft had tied the Schifferstadt – Speyer branch line, which had existed since 1848, to Germersheim in 1864, plans arose to tie it through to Wörth and from there along the Rhine to Lauterbourg . As early as 1863, a local committee had met in Maximiliansau (until 1938: Pfortz) not far from the Wörther Schiffbrücke, which included representatives from Germersheim , Bellheim , Rülzheim , Rheinzabern , Wörth am Rhein and Pfortz. The mayor of the Alsatian town of Lauterbourg was also present. The latter supported the plan open to and reported by French plans the route as part of a highway Lille - Thionville - Sarreguemines - Lauterbourg - Maxau - Karlsruhe to build in order to create in this way a compound of London via Vienna to the Orient rich . In addition, the French railway company Chemin de fer de l'Est was interested in competing with Strasbourg on such a connection.
Planning, construction, opening and subsequent period (1870–1876)
In the meantime, the political framework had changed. As a result of the Franco-Prussian War , France had to cede Alsace and Lorraine to the newly founded German Empire . The Palatinate Maximiliansbahn-Gesellschaft , which owned most of the southern Palatinate railway network, and the newly founded Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine agreed to build a main line from Ludwigshafen via Schifferstadt , Speyer , Germersheim, Wörth and Lauterburg to Strasbourg. Initially, the Reichstag had spoken out in favor of having the Alsatian section of the route built and operated by a private company, but this was taken over directly by the Reich for strategic reasons.
Various railway engineers worked out a general draft for the line from Wörth to Lauterbourg in 1872 and 1873 and then submitted it to the Bavarian state government. The latter gave the green light for an interest guarantee in the form of a law on February 7, 1874 and granted its license on August 18 of the same year in the name of the Maximiliansbahn-Gesellschaft to the Community of Palatinate Railways .
The railway line was opened on July 24th and 25th, 1876 together with the line from Germersheim to Wörth as part of the main line Schifferstadt – Speyer – Germersheim – Wörth –Lauterburg (Alsace) –Strasbourg. The Maximiliansbahn-Gesellschaft was responsible for the Palatinate part of the route, and the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine for the Alsatian part of the route.
Further development (1876–1930)
In the first decades, the line was mainly used for freight traffic . From 1906, the section between Wörth and Lauterburg, together with the line coming from Schifferstadt, was double-tracked. The express trains from Berlin to Strasbourg, which previously ran via Neustadt and the Palatinate Maximiliansbahn , from now on ran via Speyer and Germersheim, as this route was shorter and the new track provided the necessary capacity. From then on, the line including its northern continuation to Schifferstadt, together with the Maximiliansbahn, was in close competition with the Baden mainline between Mannheim and Basel .
On January 1, 1909, the Palatinate part of the line, together with the other railway lines belonging to the Palatinate Railways, became the property of the Bavarian State Railways . However, the outbreak of World War I brought long-distance traffic to a standstill.
After Alsace had to be ceded to France as a result of the First World War, the section there became the property of the newly founded Réseau ferroviaire d'Alsace-Lorraine (AL) , the one in the Palatinate came to the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) . The latter incorporated its section of the route two years later into the newly founded Reichsbahndirektion Ludwigshafen .
In addition, she arranged for the long-distance trains to run via Baden from then on in order to be able to keep them within their own territory for as long as possible , which made the route less important. From 1923 to 1924, as a result of the French occupation, a so-called government operation followed in the German part , for which France was responsible. In the period that followed, when relations between Germany and France relaxed, there was again increased cross-border freight traffic.
Second World War and its loss of importance (1930–1990)
On February 1, 1937, the German section moved to the Karlsruhe directorate, as the one in Ludwigshafen was dissolved two months later. On January 1 of the following year, the French section of the route was part of the newly formed Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF). Passenger traffic came to a standstill again when the Second World War broke out , while freight trains drove for most of the war.
Only after the end of the war was the company shut down again in mid-1945. In 1947, the operations association of the South West German Railways (SWDE) took over operations on the German section of the route , which gradually became part of the Deutsche Bundesbahn , which was founded in 1949 . The Mainz Federal Railway Directorate was responsible for this section of the route until it was dissolved in 1971; thereafter the Karlsruhe management was again responsible.
After the Second World War, the line was finally downgraded to a branch line . At the same time, cross-border traffic was severely restricted; Berg (Pfalz) was the last station on the German side to be the terminus for trains. It was not until the 1950s that there was another pair of trains that crossed the border to Lauterbourg. On June 11, 1980, the Ludwigshafen – Strasbourg express train , which had mainly served the French armed forces, was discontinued, with the result that cross-border passenger traffic came to an end. On June 1, 1984, the rest of the passenger train traffic between Wörth and Berg, which had last been handled by rail buses, was also stopped.
However, there was still a lot of freight traffic over the route. Up to five pairs of freight trains ran every day, often using French locomotives. During these years Castor transports from and to the reprocessing plants in La Hague and Sellafield occasionally ran over this railway line , which regularly led to protests by opponents of nuclear power and the corresponding media coverage.
Reactivation of passenger traffic on the German side (since 1999)
In the course of the rail reform , the section of the line in Germany became the property of Deutsche Bahn . From 1999 to the end of 2002, on Sundays and public holidays from April to October, excursion trains ran on the route from Wörth to Lauterbourg without stopping. The trains of this excursion traffic were called Bienwald express . This offer comprised a total of four pairs of trains.
The reactivation with daily passenger train traffic took place at the regular timetable change 2002/2003 on December 15, 2002. Modern platforms were built at the disused train stations in Hagenbach, Neuburg and Berg. The Maximiliansau Im Rüsten stop was re-established in 2002 because the development of Maximiliansau in the west was increasingly oriented towards the Bienwaldbahn.
The route is regularly used for the transport of nuclear waste . Since the ban on so-called reprocessing in 2005, there has been no longer any transport of spent fuel elements abroad. Transports of highly radioactive waste packed in glass canisters (especially from the French reprocessing plant La Hague ) to the Gorleben transport cask storage facility will continue to be carried out via this route. On September 8, 2008, in the run-up to such a transport, the route near Berg was blocked by three demonstrators who had chained themselves to a concrete block attached under the tracks. Using heavy equipment, the police managed to remove the activists after around twelve hours. The train with the nuclear waste containers had to wait so long in Lauterbourg. In 2010, a train with nuclear waste from La Hague, scheduled for this route, had to be rerouted via Strasbourg and Kehl at short notice because the route near Berg station was blocked by several hundred opponents of nuclear power by means of a sit-in .
As a result of a track lowering at the Rastatt tunnel on the other side of the Rhine, freight traffic will be diverted over the route from September 13, 2017 and the regional train between Wörth and Lauterbourg will be replaced by buses between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Planning
It is planned to Umsteigezwang in Lauterbourg to eliminate that currently still exists, by the modern SNCF - railcars trips made the relation Lauterbourg-Strasbourg be tied up to Wörth. Since December 2016, four improved transfer connections have been set up in Lauterbourg. From 2017, there will be four continuous trips between Wörth and Strasbourg on the weekends between May and the end of October. This is only possible through the use of diesel railcars from SNCF, which are approved for both the German and French rail networks.
There were also considerations of building a light rail line from Strasbourg to downtown Karlsruhe. However, this idea has not been pursued any further, as France feared an outflow of purchasing power.
Route
The route leaves Wörth in a south-easterly direction and runs on the edge of the Bienwald . It crosses a couple of arms of the Old Rhine and passes the German-French border between Berg and Lauterbourg. She always stays in the Upper Rhine Valley. In the south, among other things, the Strasbourg – Basel railway connects .
traffic
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passenger traffic
Today the line is primarily used for local rail passenger transport .
In the 1950s, class 33.2 railcars from Landau ran between Wörth and Lauterbourg. In the course book of the Deutsche Bahn , the section called “Bienwaldbahn” has been recorded as KBS 677.1 since reactivation in 2002 . In the course books of the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) and the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (VRN) it has the number R52 . The KVV and VRN tariffs are recognized on the route between Wörth and Lauterbourg. Furthermore, the Rhineland-Palatinate ticket is valid beyond the state border to Lauterbourg, but not the Baden-Württemberg ticket , the cross-through-country ticket . Class 643 diesel multiple units operate on the route , but the class 628 is also often used (as of March 2018). On weekdays, passenger traffic takes place between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. with a total of 18 pairs of trains. Since 2017 there are also continuous regional trains from Wörth via Lauterbourg to Strasbourg on the weekend from May to October.
Freight transport
The freight was on the route between Worth and Lauterbourg always more important than the passenger.
A freight track branches off near Hagenbach, which mainly serves to transport gravel. Freight traffic is carried out by the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG).
The branch to the starch factory Roquette Frères is near Roppenheim .
Operating points
Wörth (Rhine)
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The Wörth (Rhine) train station is located in the east of the core city of Wörth . From here the Schifferstadt – Wörth railway runs in a northerly direction and the Winden – Karlsruhe railway runs in a west-east direction . Since 1997, the tram line to the Wörth city center has also branched off from him. Its reception building is a listed building .
Maximiliansau in preparation
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The Maximiliansau Im Rüsten stop was put into operation in 2002 as part of the reactivation of passenger traffic in the German section and opens up the western part of Maximiliansau .
Hagenbach
The former train station and today's Hagenbach stop is located on the south-eastern outskirts of Hagenbach . Around 1990 he was deprived of his crossing possibility. Its station building was demolished in 2009.
Neuburg (Rhine)
The former train station and today's stop at Neuburg (Rhein) is located on the northwestern outskirts of Neuburg am Rhein . Its station building, which no longer plays a role in railway operations, is also a listed building.
Berg (Palatinate)
The former train station and today's stopping point Berg (Pfalz) is located on the south-eastern outskirts of Berg (Pfalz) . It has a bus connection. Its station building no longer plays a role in rail operations. From 1945 to 1984 it was also the terminus for trains from the direction of Wörth.
Lauterbourg
The Lauterbourg Station is located on the southeastern outskirts of Lauterbourg . When the line opened in 1876, the station was called Lauterburg . After the city was added to France in the course of the cession of Alsace-Lorraine , it was given its current name. From 1900 it was also the eastern terminus of the Lauterbourg – Wissembourg railway line , the eastern section of which was closed in 1947 and has since been completely dismantled. Its station building is kept in the Prussian style, which is due to the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine , which in turn were under the corresponding influence.
Mothern
The Mothern stop is located on the northeastern outskirts of Mothern .
Munchhausen
The Munchhausen stop is located on the north-western outskirts of Munchhausen . Originally it was called Münchhausen . It was not given its current name until after the municipality, like all of Alsace , fell to France .
Seltz
The Seltz train station is located in the southwest of the municipality of Seltz . Originally it was called Selz . It was not given its current name until after the municipality, like all of Alsace, fell to France. In addition, it was once the eastern terminus of the now defunct Mertzwiller – Seltz railway line .
Beinheim
The Beinheim train station is about halfway between the towns of Beinheim and Kesseldorf , not far from the crossing of the Sauer River .
Beinheim embranchement
The Beinheim-Embranchement train station is located northwest of the settlement area of Beinheim and has since been abandoned for passenger traffic due to its peripheral location . However , it still exists as a freight yard .
Roppenheim
The former train station and today's stopping point Roppenheim is located on the northeastern outskirts of Roppenheim . From 1895 it was also part of the strategic railway that comes from Rastatt and leads to Haguenau . Today this route only leads to the industrial area of Beinheim.
Rœschwoog
The Rœschwoog train station is located on the north-western outskirts of Rœschwoog . Originally it was called Röschwoog . It was not given its current name until after the municipality, like all of Alsace, fell to France. From 1895 it was also part of the strategic railway that comes from Rastatt, runs parallel to the route to Strasbourg from Roppenheim and runs to Haguenau.
Rountzenheim
The Rountzenheim stop is not far from the center of Rountzenheim . Originally it was called Runzenheim . It was not given its current name until after the municipality, like all of Alsace, fell to France.
Sessenheim
The Sessenheim stop is not far from the center of Sessenheim .
Drusenheim
The Drusenheim train station is located in the west of Drusenheim .
Herrlisheim
The Herrlisheim station is located in the southeast of Herrlisheim .
Gambsheim
The Gambsheim stop is located on the north-western outskirts of Gambsheim .
Kilstett
The Kilstett stop is located on the northwestern outskirts of Kilstett , in the immediate vicinity of the D468 expressway (Route Nationale).
La Wantzenau
The La Wantzenau Station is located in the northwest of La Wantzenau .
Hœnheim tram
The Hœnheim Tram Station (also Hoenheim Tram ) is located in the industrial area of Hœnheim . Since September 2002, it has been possible to change to line B of the Strasbourg tram , which ends or starts in the station forecourt and offers a direct connection to Strasbourg city center.
In 1875 a railway workshop was opened in the neighboring village of Bischheim on an area of 30 hectares, of which 10 hectares are in the Hœnheim district. Originally the station was called Hönheim . After the municipality - like all of Alsace - fell to France, it was given the name Hœnheim , before it was named Hœnheim Tram in the course of the opening of tram line B in September 2002 . On the Strasbourg tram, however, the station is called Hœnheim Gare .
Bischheim
The Bischheim train station is not far from the center of Bischheim . In 1875 a railway workshop was opened on an area of 30 hectares, of which 10 hectares, however, are in the district of the neighboring municipality of Hœnheim .
Schiltigheim
The Schiltigheim terminus is only an operating point for freight traffic.
Strasbourg
The Strasbourg train station has existed since 1883 and replaced its predecessor, which was located on place des halles and was a terminus. As the end point of the route from Paris and as the starting point for the routes to Appenweier , Basel and Saint-Dié , it is an important railway junction in Alsace. Its two-story entrance building made of red sandstone is classified as a " Monument historique ". In 2006 and 2007, it underwent several modifications in the course of its integration into the French TGV network.
literature
- Klaus D. Holzborn : Railway areas Palatinate . transpress, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-344-70790-6 .
- Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rails. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . Transpress Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-71073-0 , p. 216-219 .
- Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Return to Rail - Reactivated and New Lines in Passenger Traffic 1980–2001 . transpress, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-613-71185-0 .
- Andreas M. Räntzsch: The railways in the Palatinate . Wolfgang Bleiweis, Schweinfurt 1997, ISBN 3-928786-61-X .
- Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways (= publications of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science. Volume 53). New edition. pro MESSAGE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 2005, ISBN 3-934845-26-6 .
Web links
- Everything about public transport in Alsace, and their timetables, website vialsace (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 186 .
- ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 58 .
- ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 143 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 216 .
- ^ A b Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 188 .
- ↑ H.-W. Dumjahn (Hrsg.): Handbook of the German railway lines; Opening dates 1835–1935. Route lengths, concessions, ownership structure . Reprint 1984 Dumjahn, Mainz (= documents on railway history . Volume 29 ). Horst-Werner Dumjahn Verlag, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-921426-29-4 . No. 1876/22
- ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways . 2005, p. 187 .
- ↑ Andreas Räntzsch: The railway in the Palatinate. Documentation of their creation and development . 1997, p. 19 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 216 ff .
- ↑ a b c d e Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 219 .
- ↑ Andreas Räntzsch: The railway in the Palatinate. Documentation of their creation and development . 1997, p. 12 .
- ^ Klaus Detlef Holzborn: Railway Reviere Pfalz . 1993, p. 42 .
- ↑ ZSPNV Süd: 10 years of the Rhineland-Palatinate cycle between Wörth am Rhein and Lauterbourg , press release, accessed on January 26, 2014.
- ↑ Rastatt after the end of the holiday - replacement bus service starts smoothly. (No longer available online.) In: deutschebahn.com. Deutsche Bahn, September 11, 2017, archived from the original on September 12, 2017 ; accessed on September 12, 2017 . 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.
- ↑ a b New cross-border connections Wörth - Lauterbourg - Strasbourg . In: ZSPNV-Süd: Templates 53rd Association Assembly on December 21 , 2016 - TOP 5 timetable changes from December 2016, p. 2
- ↑ From 2017 trains to Strasbourg . In: eisenbahn magazin 9 (September 2016), p. 29
- ↑ db58.de: diagram 4 for VT 33.2 Bw Landau . Retrieved November 24, 2013 .
- ↑ Südpfalznetz - Overview ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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.
- ^ A b General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district of Germersheim. Mainz 2020, pp. 25, 38 (PDF; 6.5 MB).
- ↑ Die Rheinpfalz: What follows after the demolition will not be revealed , February 7, 2009. (PDF; 1.0 MB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 2, 2013 ; Retrieved August 5, 2013 . 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.
- ^ Klaus Detlef Holzborn: Railway Reviere Pfalz . 1993, p. 42 .
