Railway line Wels – Passau

Wels Hbf – Passau Hbf
Route number (DB) :	5831 (Passau border – Passau main station)
Route number (ÖBB) :	205 01 (Wels Hbf - state border next to Pyret)
Course book route (ÖBB) :	150 (Linz - Passau) 151 (Linz - Simbach (Inn))
Route length:	81.262 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Network category :	A.
Power system :	15 kV / 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	8  ‰
Top speed:	160 km / h
Legend Westbahn from Wien Westbahnhof -0.047 Wels central station 316  m above sea level A. Westbahn to Salzburg Hbf A25 Welser Autobahn 3,583 Wels Puchberg (abandoned July 2, 1996) 7.234 Haiding 320 m Aschacher Bahn to Aschach an der Donau 10.505 Üst Haiding 2 Trattnach 12,341 Bad Schallerbach - Wallern 309 m 14.260 Üst Bad Schallerbach-Wallern 2 16.675 Schlüßlberg 18,992 Grieskirchen - Gallspach 330 m Trattnach 24.736 Obertrattnach - Hofkirchen market Trattnach 25,300 Üst Grieskirchen-Gallspach 2 Linz local railway from Linz 29.719 Neumarkt-Kallham 387 m 31,250 Neumarkt-Kallham West Innkreisbahn to Simbach am Inn 34.096 Kimpling 34.725 Üst Neumarkt-Kallham 1 39.096 Kumpfmühl Pram 42.261 Riedau 380 m 43,807 Zell an der Pram 46.780 Üst Riedau 2 47.184 Griesbach (abandoned July 2, 1996) 51,337 Andorf 352 m 57.067 Taufkirchen an der Pram 333 m Pram 60.647 Allerding (abandoned July 2, 1996) 61,000 Schärding granite factory 63,000 Schärding south 64.140 Gopper thing 64,405 Salzkammergutbahn from Stainach - Irdning 65,200 Schärding drive-in station. 67.140 Schärding 314 m 71.926 Wernstein 74.388 Üst Wernstein 1 76,900 Pyret 309 m 79.636 State border next to Pyret / Passau border 80,000 Passau -Voglau to Hauzenberg Inn (110 m) Passau Tunnel (169 m) 81.215 Passau Hbf to Obertraubling

The Wels – Passau railway line , also known as the Passau Railway , is a double-track, electrified main line in Austria and Germany , which was originally built and operated by the Imperial and Royal Empress Elisabeth Railway (KEB). It runs from Wels in Upper Austria to Passau and is part of the core network of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).

history

The line called Empress Elisabeth-Bahn at the time was a branch of today's western railway from Vienna to Salzburg. Construction began immediately after its opening in August 1860, and after an unusually short construction period for the time, it went into continuous operation on September 1, 1861.

It is a 81.262 kilometer long double-track electrified main line. It runs a total of 79.683 kilometers across Austrian territory and 1.579 kilometers across German territory, where it merges with the Passau – Obertraubling railway at Passau Central Station . The originally single-track branch line was expanded to double-track in 1906 between Wels and Haiding (branch of the Aschacher Bahn ). In 1938, after the annexation of Austria , the rest of the line was provided with a second track. Electrification began in 1954 and electrical operation began on May 22, 1955.

This route is of particular importance in international freight traffic between Austria and Northern Europe on the one hand and Southeastern Europe on the other. It has also always been of great importance in international long-distance passenger rail transport for the connection from Hamburg and Frankfurt to Vienna and further east. From 1894 the Oostende-Wien-Express (with a connection to the Orientexpress ) and from 1971 the TEE Prinz Eugen between Northern Germany and Vienna, whose route and name later switched to a Eurocity and finally an ICE , ran on this route . This lost its name in 2002 and was initially discontinued as a direct connection between Hamburg and Vienna at the end of 2007. Since the 2011/2012 timetable year there is again a direct connection Hamburg - Vienna as ICE.

A special feature of this route was that it was monitored by the Austrian dispatcher on German soil until the Passau – Hauzenberg railway was opened in 1904 . Likewise, until Austria joined the European Union in 1995, there was a separate Austrian station section in Passau at the end of the route, where the necessary border and customs controls were carried out.

Current operation

Since the timetable change in December 2007, in cooperation between DB and ÖBB, international long-distance traffic has been operated exclusively with ICE-T trains with tilting technology between (Dortmund–) Frankfurt and Vienna. In order to significantly reduce the travel time between Frankfurt and Vienna, in addition to the expansion of the Westbahn between Wels and Vienna, the tilting technology is also to be upgraded on this winding route. In addition to day travel, two night trains also use this route, which serve destinations in the direction of Hamburg and Düsseldorf from Vienna.

In addition to international long-distance traffic, local trains operated by ÖBB run every hour on this route, some of which have been extended to Linz. The intervals are significantly shorter at peak times. Currently, mainly locomotive-hauled trains with Cityshuttle cars operate here . These are supplemented by class 4024 and 4744 railcars; class 5022 railcars also operate at off-peak times . As a special feature of these local trains, the Danube adventure train ran with historic rolling stock between Vienna and Passau; since the timetable change on December 14, 2008, the train only runs in summer. The adventure train was replaced in 2015 by the "Radtramper Donau" and is now run as REX .

The Inn Bridge near Passau

The route begins in Wels main train station, where it quickly separates in a tight curve to the northwest from the Westbahn, which continues to the southwest to Salzburg. If the Western Railway from Linz constantly followed the Traun from Linz, the route of the Passau route separates from this course of the river. First you leave the wide Trauntal or the Welser Heide near Puchberg near Wels in order to follow the course of the Trattnach to Taufkirchen . At Neumarkt im Hausruckkreis , the Innkreisbahn branches off to Ried im Innkreis and the Linz Local Railway to Peuerbach. Between the local Aschachtal and Zell an der Pram, the route was led in a wide arc in order to avoid inclines. From Zell it goes along the Pram valley to the Inn, which the route reaches at Schärding. Shortly before that, another branch line from Ried im Innkreis joins this route here at St. Florian am Inn . Now the railway line follows the right bank of the Inn. Shortly after the border, the branch line branched off to Hauzenberg . Immediately afterwards, the railway crosses the Inn on an iron, 110-meter-long temporary bridge, which was built after the Second World War instead of the previous 176-meter-long brick bridge. The route then crosses under the Neue Mitte Passau , formerly the small parade ground, in the short Passau tunnel and reaches its end point in Passau's main train station. There it goes over to the railway line to Obertraubling along the Danube.

See also

• List of railway lines in Austria

literature

• Elmar Oberegger: On the history of the "Kaiserin Elisabeth-Bahn". (Budweis / Passau / Simbach am Inn / Wörgl – Amstetten – St. Pölten – Wien Westbahnhof). Sattledt, 2007. (= publications of the information office for Austrian railway history 8).
• Elmar Oberegger: On the structure and history of the "Passau Railway". Wels Hbf. - Neumarkt-Kallham - Passau Hbf. Sattledt, 2011. (Publications of the information office for Austrian railway history 5).
• Michael Alexander Populorum: 150 years of the Passauer Bahn 1861-2011. Wels Hbf. - Neumarkt-Kallham - Schärding - State border - Passau Hbf. A small contribution to the “forgotten” anniversary in September 2011. With an excursus “The branch lines of the Passau Railway”. Mercurius Eigenverlag, Grödig / Salzburg 2011. (= series of publications by the Documentation Center for European Railway Research, DEEF, Volume 3, 3rd edition 2017 on DVD, ISBN 978-3-903132-08-5 ; website , dokumentationszentrum-eisenbahnforschung.org).
• Peter Wegenstein The Western Railway Line III. Linz – Salzburg, Wels – Passau. Series Bahn im Bild 48. Verlag Pospischil, Vienna 1986.

Web links

Commons : Wels – Passau railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Current timetable (Vienna Airport (VIE) –Passau) of the ÖBB
• Current timetable (Vienna Airport (VIE) –Simbach (Inn)) of the ÖBB
• Heinrich Seitner: The Passauerbahn - a guest on a major Austrian railroad , on bahnportrait.de - photo documentation of the course

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Brief history of the Wels - Passau railway line and the Grieskirchen-Gallspach train station with signal box 2 ( memento of the original from October 6, 2014 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. , modellbahn-grieskirchen.at, accessed October 2, 2014.  
2. ↑ Like the continuation of the Westbahn Salzburg - Munich with the German customs station Salzburg Hbf
3. ↑ The adventure train becomes a bicycle hitchhiker . ( noen.at [accessed on July 30, 2017]).