Weil am Rhein – Saint-Louis (Haut-Rhin) railway line
| Weil am Rhein – Saint-Louis (Haut-Rhin) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Palmrain Bridge over the Rhine
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| Route number : | 4423 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | 252n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 11.0 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route class : | Siding | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Weil am Rhein – Saint-Louis (Haut-Rhin) line was built as a strategic line for the German military and, after the First World War, was a cross-border rail link between France and Germany . The middle section was shut down in 1937 . Today only the two end pieces are still used for freight transport.
Geographical location
The route connected Weil am Rhein on the right bank of the Rhine in Baden with Saint Louis on the left bank of the Rhine in Alsace . The centerpiece was the Palmrain Bridge over the Rhine .
leader
As early as 1863, the Grand Ducal Baden State Railways and the Chemin de fer de l'Est (French Eastern Railway) planned to build a railway line crossing the Rhine near Weil am Rhein . However, an agreement was not reached until 1869. Due to the outbreak of the Franco-German War , the construction was not carried out.
construction
On May 13, 1874, the Grand Duchy of Baden - as the owner of the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railways - and the German Reich - as the owner of the Reichseisenbahnen in the realm of Alsace-Lorraine - signed a state treaty on the construction of the single-track, 5.6 km railway line between Leopoldshöhe (Weil am Rhine) and St. Ludwig . As a precaution, the necessary Rhine bridge was designed for two tracks. From February 11, 1878, the route was passable.
business
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Its full strategic importance became evident when the Weil am Rhein – Lörrach railway went into operation on May 20, 1890 . Together with the Wutach Valley Railway , it made it possible to bypass the Basel railway junction and no longer have to take Swiss neutrality into account, close to the border with Switzerland , but without touching its territory . Trains, especially those used by the military, were able to travel from the interior of the German Reich to Alsace . From 1906 the line was expanded for double-track operation. In 1914, eleven pairs of passenger trains drove here every day , exclusively in local traffic .
The conditions changed drastically when Germany lost the First World War . The Rhine again formed the state border between Germany and France , and the line became an international rail link. The French part was again operated by the Chemin de fer de l'Est . In July 1920, single-track train operations were resumed and in 1922 a joint border station , Haltingen Süd , was inaugurated on the German side . Since the volume of traffic remained low in both passenger and freight traffic, cross-border operations were discontinued on April 3, 1937. The line between Huningue and Haltingen Süd was closed and the superstructures of the Rhine bridge demolished. On the German side, the remainder of the route serves as part of the siding to the Rheinhafen Weil am Rhein , on the French side there is still goods traffic between Saint-Louis and Huningue.
literature
- Ulrich Boeyng: The Baden Rhine bridges - the end of the Second World War 75 years ago . Part 1: The destruction of the Rhine bridges between Neienburg and Wintersdorf , In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg 2020/2, pp. 87-94.
- Railway Atlas Germany . 10th edition. Schweers + Wall, Cologne 2017, ISBN 3-921679-13-3 .
- Reichs-Kursbuch from July 1914, timetable table 252n.