Oldenburg – Wilhelmshaven railway line

Oldenburg – Wilhelmshaven
Route number (DB) :	1522
Course book section (DB) :	392
Route length:	52.4 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Top speed:	120 km / h
Dual track :	continuous
Legend 52.4 Wilhelmshaven (until 2011 Hbf) 50.7 Rüstringen Eastern route from the inner harbor 50.3 Wilhelmshaven West ( Awanst , formerly Bf) Ems-Jade-Canal ( bascule bridge ) 48.1 Mariensiel Coastal railway from Jever , from JadeWeserPort Southern route from the inner harbor 45.0 Sands 38.9 Ellenserdamm Ellenserdammer low Woppenkamper Bäke former route to Ocholt 37.5 Black Raven ( Üst ) 33.9 Dangast former route from Neuchâtel (Oldb) 30.8 Varel (Oldb) former route to Varel harbor former route to Rodenkirchen 23.9 Jaderberg Hp (since June 14, 2020) 23.4 Jaderberg 23.0 Jaderberg (Üst) 17.6 Rooster (oldb) 12.2 Rastede 8.6 New Southists 5.6 Ofenerdiek (Üst, formerly Bf) 3.3 Bürgerfelde 1.2 Route from Leer old route (until 1966) Horse market bridge 0.9 Hp Ziegelhofstrasse Peterstrasse / Ziegelhofstrasse Georgstrasse Heiligengeiststrasse Rosenstrasse 0.0 Oldenburg (Oldb) central station former route to Brake Hunte (bascule bridge) Route to Bremen Route to Osnabrück

The Oldenburg – Wilhelmshaven railway line is a double-track, non-electrified main line in northwest Lower Saxony. It runs in a north-south direction between the port city of Wilhelmshaven and Oldenburg . As part of the expansion for the JadeWeserPort , which opened in September 2012, the line is to be electrified by 2022 . Originally, electrification should take place much earlier.

Route

The route with the VzG route number 1522 has been double-tracked again since 2014 and has been designed for a top speed of up to 120 km / h since December 2014.

history

The line was planned and built as a joint project of the Grand Ducal Oldenburg State Railroad (GOE) and the Prussian State Railroad together with the Bremen – Oldenburg line . It was supposed to connect the Prussian naval port in Wilhelmshaven (then Heppens ) and open up the north of the Grand Duchy. It was officially opened on July 18, 1867, but actually did not go into operation until September 3, 1867.

Responsibility for the route was taken over in 1920 by the Reichsbahndirektion Oldenburg . On April 1, 1920, the Oldenburg State Railroad changed over to the German State Railroad (1920–1945) . At the time of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the line experienced its heyday. So drove among other things, due to its status as a Navy site, 1938-1939 every day a high-speed railcars of Wilhelmshaven on the America Line to Berlin Lehrter station and back. From the 1950s to the 1970s, there were still cross-country express train runs to Basel SBB or Zurich main station and to Frankfurt (Main) main station . Through car connections were possible to Berlin Stadtbahn, Munich and Stuttgart. So-called guest worker trains to Yugoslavia and Greece ran seasonally from Wilhelmshaven. During the Hanover Fair wrong on the route of the first class (later 2nd class) Fair Captain by Hannover-Messe station . In the 1970s, the route slowly lost its importance for long-distance passenger transport. The terminus in long-distance traffic were Lindau , Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt. The track was also integrated into the DC system . Four pairs of trains drove daily between Wilhelmshaven and Bremen in order to connect to the IC network there. Express train cars in the then current pop paintwork were also used here. A pseudo bloom followed with the introduction of InterRegio traffic. Now Berlin, Cottbus and Leipzig could be reached directly from Wilhelmshaven. A modest long-distance transport service was also available on the Osnabrück – Oldenburg railway line until around the mid-1990s : a daily pair of D-Zug trains (Koblenz -) Cologne - Wilhelmshaven and a second D-train (primarily for weekend Bundeswehr family commuters) Class from Mönchengladbach to Wilhelmshaven.

The operation of the regional traffic Osnabrück – Wilhelmshaven was awarded together with two other lines in the "Weser-Ems" network, which was the first awarding network that the Lower Saxony regional transport company had put out to tender. The contract was awarded to the NordWestBahn , which started operating on November 5, 2000 with LINT diesel multiple units from the LNVG vehicle pool. The travel time between Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven has been reduced from 55 to 65 minutes compared to the connection with Deutsche Bahn to 46 minutes today. By reducing downtimes and expanding the infrastructure in the further course of the route, the travel time between Wilhelmshaven and Osnabrück could be reduced by 45 minutes. In Oldenburg there is an optimal timing node with the RE / IC trains on the Bremen – Emden route. In Sande there is a short connection to the trains in the direction of trains in the direction of Esens on the platform opposite.

Until December 2002, the route was also served by the InterRegio line of the long-distance traffic division of Deutsche Bahn from Leipzig / Berlin . With the discontinuation of the InterRegio train type, the Wilhelmshaven – Oldenburg line finally lost its status as a "long-distance route". After that, a few direct pairs of trains were introduced in local traffic between Wilhelmshaven and Bremen.

The traffic agreement of the Weser-Ems network was early 2005 freehand extended by the LNVG to twelve years. Due to the improved supply, the demand doubled between 2000 and 2008. On average, 11,800 people used the train service on the Osnabrück – Wilhelmshaven route every day in 2009.

Expansion for the JadeWeserPort

Track construction work 2011 in Rastede

The electrification and the double-track expansion of the entire line was classified in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2003 in the category of "urgent need", the highest priority level. In August 2006 the then CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG , Hartmut Mehdorn , made a commitment to the then Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff , that the plan would be implemented by 2010. The estimated costs were then put at 22 million euros.

In November 2008, the expansion was included in the Federal Government's “Construction and Transport Workplace Program”. The route between Rastede and Wilhelmshaven was only closed to train traffic from the beginning of August 2011 until the timetable change in December 2012 due to the expansion work to double-track as part of the construction of the JadeWeserPort. During this time, only rail replacement buses operated between Rastede and Wilhelmshaven were provided by VWG Oldenburg as a partner of NWB. Before the start of implementation, the cost of the expansion was given as 120 million euros. In contrast to the original estimates from 2006, electrification was no longer included in this total.

While the expansion to double track and a maximum speed of 100 km / h could be implemented by the end of 2012, the electrification of the line was initially postponed. Regardless of the long planning phase and the fact that the line was already double-tracked before the Second World War , the ground conditions presented the railway with considerable problems. When the timetable changed in December 2014, the maximum speed on the Rastede - Varel (Oldb) section was increased to 120 km / h.

A 10.6-kilometer section of the route between Sande and Varel was renovated between April 2017 and March 2020, with route closures only during the weekends. The permissible axle load has been increased from 22.5 to 23.5  t and the top speed to 120 km / h. The work was finished 4 weeks before the planned date and cost around 100 million euros.

The consultation process on electrification ran until December 22, 2015, the costs of which are not included in the further increased construction budget. After the construction delays, the electrification of the line should be carried out by summer 2022 according to the latest planning and cost around 423 million euros. The cost of the entire project between Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven was put at 1.1 billion euros at the beginning of 2020.

The start of operations at JadeWeserPort in September 2012 should increase the number of freight trains considerably. The planning envisaged an increase from eight to 44 to 60 trains. This forecast has not yet been achieved by a long way (as of 2019) due to the underutilization of the port.

Current operation

NWB to Wilhelmshaven in Oldenburg (Oldb) Hbf

The route is served every hour by diesel multiple units of the type Lint 41 , which, depending on the volume of traffic, are coupled in multiple units. The relatively high average speed is 73 km / h. Due to this and the connection function between the three regional centers Osnabrück, Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven, the connection is run by the LNVG as an express line called RE 18.

The vehicles are owned by the state and have been rented to the railway company by the Lower Saxony regional transport company (LNVG) . Deutsche Bahn used class 624 diesel multiple units until 2000 and class 218 diesel locomotives for the InterRegio until 2002 .

There are connections to long-distance trains ( ICE / IC ) and regional trains in Oldenburg , Bremen and Osnabrück .

Since February 2003, LNVG has been ordering regional trains from NordWestBahn for these connections, the travel times of which are comparable to those of earlier long-distance trains. The transfer times to the RE and IC between Hanover and Norddeich Mole or Emden are around 10 minutes, but over 40 minutes to the RS 3 .

The switches and signals between Oldenburg and Wilhelmshaven are remotely controlled by ESTW from Hanover. The Oldenburg train station will continue to be served by local dispatchers.

In terms of freight transport, the route is mainly served by container trains from / to JadeWeserPort , but there are also coal transports from Bulk Terminal Wilhelmshaven and mineral oil transports from the tank farms on the site of the former Wilhelmshaven refinery .

Further planning

Another stop was built in Jaderberg for passenger traffic. The plan to build two 55 centimeter high external platforms was approved by the Federal Railway Authority on November 29, 2018. Construction began in May 2019, and following problems with construction planning, the new stop was added to the timetable on June 14, 2020.

In addition, since August 2019 the Sande station has been rebuilt for the new train operation and upgraded to today's standard; completion is scheduled for October 2021.

After completion of all expansion measures, there will be continuous regional express trains to Hanover from / to Wilhelmshaven for the 2022/23 timetable change, which will run every two hours (due to the fact that train units for this traffic cannot be delivered on time, the start will be postponed to the 2023/24 timetable change ). For this, the RE to Osnabrück runs every hour only from / to Oldenburg (Oldb) Hbf. Furthermore, there should be additional through regional trains from / to Bremen as part of the regional S-Bahn Bremen / Lower Saxony during rush hour.

Tariff

The trains can be used with nationwide tickets within the framework of a recognition agreement between Deutsche Bahn and NordWestBahn. Between Rastede and Oldenburg (Oldb) Hauptbahnhof, the tariff of the Bremen / Lower Saxony transport association (VBN) applies . Tickets for local transport can be purchased from machines at the train stations. The machines that were formerly in the trains were switched off in 2018 and have now been expanded.

Picture gallery of train stations and stops

• 

  Oldenburg Central Station, 2006

• 

  Line in OL-Ofenerdiek

• 

  Rastede train station, 2019

• 

  Varel station north side, 2011

• 

  Varel reception building, 2016

• 

  Sande station, 2020

• 

  Wilhelmshaven station, 2018

literature

• Martin Hoffmann u. a .: Development version of the Historical Atlas of Railway Lines in Germany. (PDF) As of May 25, 2008.

Web links

Commons : Oldenburg – Wilhelmshaven railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Route and further details on the OpenRailwayMap
• Operating company NordWestBahn
• osnabahn.de Information on railway lines around Osnabrück
• photos

Individual evidence

1. ^ DB Netz infrastructure register
2. ↑ Christoph Tapke-Jost: NWB stops in Jaderberg from Sunday. In: Nordwest-Zeitung. June 9, 2020, accessed June 15, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Kleinort: Expansion should not block the port · DB and Lower Saxony agree · JaWePo should get electrified connection by 2022 . In: Daily port report . 23 July 2015, p. 3 .
4. ^ Frank Binder: Railway expansion to JadeWeserPort . In: Daily port report . February 15, 2017, p. 2.
5. ^ Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Labor and Transport: State and future of rail traffic in Lower Saxony. (PDF) Lower Saxony State Parliament, September 2, 2008, p. 19 , archived from the original on July 19, 2011 ; Retrieved September 25, 2008 . 
6. ^ German Bundestag (ed.): Transport investment report for the reporting year 2012 . Informed by the Federal Government (=  printed matter . No. 18/580 ). Bundesanzeiger Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, February 18, 2014, ISSN  0722-8333 , p. 125–127 ( dipbt.bundestag.de [PDF; 66.2 MB ; accessed on February 24, 2014]).
7. ↑ ^{a b} SPNV concept 2013+. (PDF) (No longer available online.) LNVG, pp. 125–127 , formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 26, 2015 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
8. ↑ Press information: NordWestBahn will continue to run until 2017. Lower Saxony regional transport company, February 3, 2005, archived from the original on March 2, 2005 ; accessed on March 23, 2014 . 
9. ↑ NordWestBahn and LNVG rely on more service and security. (PDF) (No longer available online.) LNVG, May 5, 2009, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on November 26, 2015 (press release). 
10. ↑ The railway line to the Jade Port will be expanded by 2010. In: Nordwest-Zeitung. August 29, 2006, accessed November 26, 2015 . 
11. ↑ Malte Kirchner: Rail expansion: soil is soft as butter. In: Wilhelmshavener Zeitung. March 31, 2012, accessed November 26, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Wolfhart Fabarius: JaWePo: Connection is making progress · Expansion of the railway line to Wilhelmshaven after delays in the current schedule. In: Daily port report . April 11, 2018, p. 2.
13. ↑ ^{a b} Lower Saxony: Two-track section Varel - Sande completed. In: Lok Report. March 9, 2020, accessed March 9, 2020 . 
14. ^ Expansion of the Oldenburg - Wilhelmshaven railway line, section 6 (northern line). Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transport, November 11, 2015, accessed on November 26, 2015 . 
15. ^ Frank Binder: Railway expansion to JadeWeserPort. In: Daily port report . February 15, 2017, p. 2.
16. ^ Federal government and DB AG conclude financing agreement for the electrification of the Oldenburg-Wilhelmshaven railway line. BMVI, October 24, 2015, accessed on November 26, 2015 (press release). 
17. ↑ https://www.eba.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/PF/Beschluesse/Niedersachsen/51_Bf_Jaderberg_23648_24180_der_Strecke_1522.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2
18. ↑ SPNV expansion: Wilhelmshaven: From 2022 regional S-Bahn and direct to Hanover. In: eurailpress.de. August 22, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2018 .