Velgast – Prerow railway line
| Velgast – Prerow | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number (DB) : | 6778 (Velgast – Barth) 6779 (Barth – Prerow) |
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| Course book section (DB) : | 192 (Velgast – Barth) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 29.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route class : | D4 (Velgast – Barth) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Velgast – Prerow line is a branch line in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It runs from Velgast via Barth and Zingst to Prerow , whereby the section from Barth to Prerow am Darß is also known as the Darßbahn . The section from Velgast to Barth is still in operation. There are still tracks on the next section between Barth and Bresewitz , but rail operations are currently suspended. The route still exists on the last section between Bresewitz and Prerow ; it is partly used as a cycle path north of the Meiningen Bridge.
history
Velgast – Barth line and planning of the Darßbahn
When planning the main line from Stralsund to Rostock, it was initially considered that it would run between Stralsund and the Mecklenburg-Pomerania border at Damgarten through the town of Barth. In favor of a direct route, this was abandoned and Barth was connected with a branch line from Velgast, which was opened together with the main line on July 1, 1888 by the Prussian State Railways . Shortly afterwards there were ideas for continuing the route from Barth to the Darß. However, an application by the municipality of Prerow failed due to the already existing shipping routes to the peninsula. On July 20, 1901, District Administrator v. Zanthier the Darss. Shortly afterwards, the Hanseatic city of Stralsund made a proposal for the route and in response the communities of Zingst and Prerow renewed their inquiries.
On December 17, 1904, a conference about the Darßbahn took place in Stettin , at which a track width of 1000 mm and the route Barth – Pruchten – Timmort – Zingst – Prerow were determined. A final decision to build the railway was initially not made.
In the following years the planning and surveying work for the Darßbahn began, as a result of which the decision was made for a standard-gauge line. In addition, the following structural features were discussed:
- Construction of a bridge over the Barthe river
- Construction of a dam through the Bodstedter Bodden
- Construction of two bridges over the Bodstedter Bodden and the Meiningenstrom.
Construction of the Darßbahn
The construction work began in spring 1909 in several places at the same time. Consideration was also given to extending the route to Ahrenshoop , but these plans could not be implemented due to insufficient cost coverage. The line was approved as early as November 1910.
The Meiningen Bridge is the greatest structural achievement on the line. It is a 470 meter long truss bridge . It was built by an iron construction company from Hanover-Herrenhausen . The construction of the bridge took considerably longer than that of the rest of the route. Construction work began as early as 1908, and the remaining work had to be carried out into 1912 after the route had opened.
Opening and operation in the early years
On November 30, 1910, the Barth – Prerow section was opened. There were test drives from Barth to Prerow and guests and community representatives were welcomed at the train stations along the way. The Darßbahn was opened to public traffic on December 1, 1910:
“ On December 1, 1910, the standard-gauge Barth – Prerow line was opened as a branch line with the Tannenheim, Pruchten, Bresewitz, Zingst and Prerow stations for passenger, goods and luggage traffic as well as the handling of corpses and living animals. "
The population in Zingst and Prerow had a year-round connection to the mainland by rail and was no longer dependent on steamships, which could only operate to a limited extent in winter. For the steamship lines, the opening of the railway line meant the end, 14 days after the line opened, all lines stopped their service.
The railway was operated by the Prussian State Railways . Passenger traffic developed considerably in the following years. The route quickly became an important link for bathers. Separate luggage trains were sometimes used for luggage. However, shortly before the First World War, passenger numbers collapsed. The reason was the storm flood of December 30, 1913. The Meiningen Bridge was damaged and the Kloer Bridge between Pruchten and Bresewitz collapsed after the last train had passed it.
As a replacement, a wooden emergency bridge was built in January 1914, which was to remain in operation until the new Kloerbrücke was built. On September 6, 1914, the Royal Railway Directorate (KED) submitted detailed templates and drafts that took into account the objections of the communities. They called for an extension of the bridge because the embankment had proven to be an obstacle during the storm floods.
In March 1916, the new Kloerbrücke was put into operation. It was now 723 meters long with a total of 54 superstructures, five of which were half-timbered and 49 were sheet metal girder construction.
Even in the early 1920s, the number of passengers did not return to the level of 1913. There were plans to make the route more attractive for tourists and to continue to the southwest. It was to be connected to the Mecklenburg Spa Railway in Graal-Müritz , which was completed in 1925 . In this way the remaining places on the Darß and Fischland could have been developed. However, these plans met with criticism, in particular from nature conservationists and the city of Ribnitz , and were finally rejected on November 5, 1925 by the Stettin Railway Directorate. During this time, the number of passengers fell due to the economic crisis in Germany. It was not until the early 1930s that the number of holidaymakers rose in the region, so that the number of passengers returned to the level of the years before 1914.
In 1926 the trains ran according to the following timetable:
| Train number | Departure station | Departure time | Arrival station | arrival time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 288 | Barth | 6:02 a.m. | Prerow | 6:40 a.m. |
| 289 | Prerow | 7:00 a.m. | Barth | 7:38 a.m. |
| 291 | Barth | 9:16 am | Velgast | 9:40 a.m. |
| 292 | Velgast | 10:01 am | Prerow | 11:11 a.m. |
| 295 | Prerow | 12:20 pm | Velgast | 1:41 pm |
| 294 | Velgast | 2:48 pm | Prerow | 4:15 p.m. |
| 297 | Prerow | 5:20 pm | Velgast | 7:12 pm |
| 298 | Velgast | 7.45 p.m. | Barth | 8:16 pm |
The schedule was designed in such a way that the entire operation could be carried out with one locomotive. The Prerow – Velgast early train and the last train in the opposite direction had been suspended, which meant for the Prerower that if they had something to do in Stralsund, they could not return on the same day. In normal operation, i.e. with a higher number of passengers, two machines are likely to have been in use, one in Prerow and the other in Barth.
When the National Socialists came to power, the situation on the Darßbahn changed significantly. In the course of the massive expansion of the armaments industry, track systems were created in Barth for the air base there (location of the later Barth concentration camp ). In addition, a connection to the Pomeranian Industrial Works was built in Tannenheim , an armaments company that existed from 1939 to 1945 and mainly produced smoke candles, smoke grenades and incendiary bombs. These new buildings as well as the KdF vacation programs led to a sharp increase in traffic on the Darßbahn. The maximum line speed has been increased to 50 km / h. In the summer of 1934, five pairs of trains ran the entire route, which only took about an hour. After the beginning of the Second World War, the number of passengers fell sharply again.
In April 1944, the only serious accident in the history of the Darßbahn occurred at Prerow station. The entry point was changed under an approaching passenger train, which derailed and overturned several passenger cars. Seven passengers were killed. A railroad worker had set the remote-controlled entry point in the opinion that the train had already passed it. Thereafter, rail operations from Zingst to Prerow were discontinued.
After the Second World War
In the last days of the war, the population of Zingst was able to prevent the Meiningen Bridge from being blown up. A few days later, Soviet soldiers marched into Barth and Zingst. After the war, the line from Prerow to Bresewitz was completely dismantled as a reparation payment ; only the tracks on the Meiningen Bridge remained in place for the time being. The operation between Barth and Bresewitz normalized again until 1947, when the rails on the section Bresewitz – Tannenheim were also dismantled. A little later followed the rest to Barth.
At the beginning of the 1950s there were calls for the route to be rebuilt. Later the National People's Army (NVA), which set up a military training area in the east of the Zingst peninsula, was interested in rebuilding the route. Initially, this was planned as far as Zingst, but due to the high construction costs for a new road bridge, this project was finally abandoned. In 1967, the reconstruction of the Barth – Bresewitz line by NVA railway pioneers began. Until the fall of the Wall, it was only used for the transport of troops and materials, mainly for the NVA. For this purpose, a loading ramp was built in Bresewitz north of the village. From there, the NVA practice area in the Sundische Wiesen and the NVA base in Zingst were supplied.
The section from Velgast to Barth continued to be operated in passenger and freight traffic. The number of tourists in the Darß and Zingst area grew, and the passenger traffic on this section increased accordingly. In the 1970s and 1980s, the supply for a branch line was relatively dense; more than ten pairs of passenger trains ran every day. In addition, there were direct express trains to Berlin and further south of the GDR in the summer . A bus had to be taken to the seaside resorts, but one-way tickets could be purchased. The luggage was also handled directly.
Decline and new perspectives after 1990
With the dissolution of the NVA in 1990 in the course of German reunification, their bases on the Zingst were also dissolved; the line between Barth and Bresewitz was no longer needed. The last trips took place in 1996 and 1997, when some freight cars were transferred for an exhibition in Bresewitz. Since then, all train traffic on this section of the route has been suspended, but it has not officially been closed. Requests for special trips from various tour operators were repeatedly rejected by the network operator at the time, Deutsche Bahn . In the meantime, a buffer stop has been screwed onto the continuing route in the urban area of Barth . Further north, the tracks at several level crossings are covered with road paving.
The reception buildings along the route have been extensively renovated in recent years and are mostly in private hands. The embankment on the stretch from Meiningenbrücke to Zingst was expanded as a cycle path.
The line between Velgast and Barth was electrified together with the line between Rostock and Stralsund in 1991 despite the already declining traffic. For cost reasons and because of the low maximum speed, only a single contact line was built . The main purpose of electrification was to connect holiday trains to Barth. Commissioning took place on June 2, 1991.
In the 1990s, direct express trains ran to Barth in the summer. In 1997 there were continuous interregional connections to Frankfurt am Main and Berlin . A year later there was only one long-distance connection to Chemnitz . With the end of the summer timetable in 1998, continuous trains were history. Regional traffic was also thinned out from 1999. Since then, around nine pairs of trains have run every day at approximately two-hour intervals.
Since the modernization of the Velgast train station in 1997, all operational processes there have been remotely controlled by an electronic signal box (ESTW). During the renovation work, the integration of the branch line to Barth was initially no longer taken into account, so that there were problems with operational management when trains were transitioning towards Barth. Massive protests prevented the route from being closed.
When the timetable changed on December 15, 2002, the Usedomer Bäderbahn (UBB) took over passenger traffic between Velgast and Barth. It also acquired the infrastructure from DB Netz . With the use of diesel multiple units , the overhead contact line installed in 1991 became superfluous and was dismantled in 2005. All switches and sidings, the signal boxes and the signaling technology in Barth station were also expanded. All level crossings between Barth and Velgast are controlled automatically. With the main line now ending at the platform, Barth is now only a stopping point from an operational point of view . This means that freight traffic or special trains hauled by locomotives to Barth are no longer technically possible.
The passenger trains have been running every 40/80 minutes between Velgast and Barth since December 10, 2017, after the traffic had previously been threatened with cessation. Before that, they ran every two hours between Stralsund and Barth.
Since December 2019, the transport service has been provided by DB Regio AG Nordost. A used railcar with 50 seats is used. This transport contract also includes the option to operate the route to Bresewitz every two hours from December 2022.
Outlook and reconstruction
There are now concrete plans to resume operations between Barth and Prerow. For this, the embankment between Bresewitz and Prerow would have to be restored and the Meiningen Bridge would have to be put back into operation as a railway bridge. It has been used by motor vehicles since the end of the Second World War. The new bridge is currently the biggest hurdle for the reconstruction of the route. After the UBB took over the infrastructure on the remaining route section, the considerations took on concrete form. The UBB has agreed with the municipalities on the route to reactivate it by 2015. In mid-2007 there were plans to reactivate the section to Tannenheim by the end of 2009 . The planning approval procedure for the Zingst passage has been running since July 2007 , where parts of the previous route are being used and can no longer be used for the reconstruction of the route.
In a profitability report for the reconstruction of the Darßbahn from 2009, the project was initially only certified with a cost-benefit ratio of 0.88. This would mean that the project would not be eligible for funding. The appraiser estimated 48 million euros for the reconstruction. Thereupon the Minister of Transport of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Volker Schlotmann , rejected the project. The results of the report and the decision of the minister were criticized from various sides. The local tourism association stated that the report only counted hotel guests, but not day-trippers and private overnight stays. The UBB referred to significantly lower costs after tenders.
On April 24, 2016, the Federal Railway Authority issued the planning approval decision for the Barth – Bresewitz section. On July 12, 2016, the district of Vorpommern-Rügen announced that the state government, represented by the state transport minister Christian level, was suing the plan approval decision. The costs to be borne by the state and the question of ownership of the Meiningen bridge to be clarified are disputed. The municipality of Pruchten also sued the higher administrative court. The coalition partners CDU and SPD agreed in October 2016 that the state government would advocate infrastructure financing at the federal level. A change of plan for the reconstruction of the Bresewitz – Zingst section was discussed in October 2017.
The management board of the DB Group took a decision in March 2019 to support the project and made an important decision about the financing. In general, the federal government has given a commitment to add around 34 million euros to finance the project - with an estimated total of 115 million euros for the Darßbahn. On June 18, 2019, the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Higher Administrative Court in Greifswald rejected the action brought by the municipality of Pruchten against the planning approval decision (Az. 5 K 258/16).
Even more far-reaching ideas envisage taking up the plans from 1925 and creating a connection from Prerow to Graal-Müritz to the Mecklenburg Spa Railway with a branch to Ribnitz-Damgarten . In view of the high number of holidaymakers and the annual growth in traffic on the Darß with only two road connections, these proposals have many supporters.
On February 4, 2020, Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig ( SPD ) and the Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure Andreas Scheuer ( CSU ) announced that the state and federal governments have come to an agreement on the outstanding financing issues. The most expensive part of the reconstruction of the route, the construction of a new bascule bridge to replace the Meiningen Bridge, at around 50 million euros , is to be borne by the federal government, one third by the state and one third by the Usedomer Bäderbahn . On August 18, 2020, the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania decided to rebuild the line from Barth via Zingst to Prerow. A construction period of at least 2027/28 is expected.
Operating points
Saatel train station
Today's stop about one kilometer south of the village near the federal highway 105 has a large, three-story station building. It is no longer used for railway purposes and has been privately owned since 2003.
Kenz train station
Kenz also has a relatively large, two-story station building on the northeast edge of the village. Today it is a residential building. As in Saatel, only a waiting hall on the platform serves travelers.
Barth train station
Barth train station is on the southern outskirts. The station has meanwhile been dismantled to become a stop. The overhead line was finally dismantled in 2005. So only the station building and a platform exist. The station used to be the starting point for the narrow-gauge railways to Damgarten and Stralsund as well as the Barther Hafenbahn. These routes were operated by the Franzburger Kreisbahnen from 1895 until they were nationalized after 1945 . The narrow-gauge railways had a separate station section with a reception building and a locomotive shed.
For a long time a restaurant was housed in the former station building of the standard-gauge railway. The Usedomer Bäderbahn renovated the building and reactivated the travel center in the train station.
The listed former station building and the locomotive shed of the narrow-gauge railway have been empty for several years and make a very desolate impression. These buildings are to be demolished as part of the planned redesign of the Barth train station. So far this has not happened due to problems with the owner.
Tannenheim, Pruchten and Bresewitz railway stations
The reception buildings of the Tannenheim , Pruchten and Bresewitz train stations are identical two-story brick buildings that are now used as residential buildings. The grounds of the Bresewitz train station are used for the “Art on Rails” exhibition.
Tannenheim station building
Pruchten station building
Bresewitz station building
Zingst train station
The station opened in 1910 after the line was completed. After the end of regular rail operations in 1946, the dining room was converted into a hospital because diphtheria and typhus had broken out in Zingst . After that, the restaurant was used as a restaurant until 1956.
In the same year, the Reichsbahndirektion Greifswald converted the building into a company holiday camp. After the fall of the Wall, the holiday camp was closed and the building has been empty since then. So far, no buyer has been found because of the high renovation costs. Hope for a renovation is fed by a planned resumption of rail operations.
The main building is built in clinker construction with a deep sloping roof in a typical North German construction and was placed under monument protection during the GDR era. The building contained waiting rooms for 1st, 2nd and 3rd class, a restaurant, a baggage claim, two ticket offices and an apartment for the station master's family.
In addition to the main building, there were several outbuildings, for example for the ladies 'and gents' toilets, for the stables, fuel and a laundry room. For the catering there was a separate cold room ( ice cellar ) and a beer cellar. The station master had a separate toilet.
The Zingst station has now been historically restored and opened in spring 2013. Today it houses the "inn in the old station" and the Zingst accommodation service.
Prerow train station
The Prerow station as the terminus of the Darßbahn was a terminal station directly on the Prerowstrom . The reception building, built in 1910, is a typical north German brick building. After the railway operations ceased in 1944, the building stood empty for eight years. In 1952, it was converted into a school that served as a company holiday home during the summer holidays. This dual use ended in 1989 and the building stood empty for seven years. In January 2000 it was converted into a guesthouse with a restaurant.
Barth port railway
Barth has an inland port on the Bodden waters. During the GDR era, there was often a lack of ports, so that Barth had a certain importance as a cargo handling point, especially for wood. But the port is already much older. The route to the port has been three-pronged since 1895. The Franzburger Kreisbahnen operated them until they were nationalized. Passenger traffic on the Stralsund – Barth – Damgarten line was discontinued in 1968, and goods traffic a year later, so that probably no train has stopped at Barther Harbor since then.
Vehicle use
The initial operator, the Stettin Railway Directorate of the Prussian State Railway , used its existing vehicle fleet to operate the route. The presence of a 16 m turntable in Prerow suggests that z. B. the steam locomotive P 3.1 carried passenger trains. The maximum speed was 50 km / h. Due to the very simple superstructure of the line with Form 8 rails in simple nail construction and gravel bedding, heavy locomotives and higher speeds could not be driven.
With the increase in freight traffic, mainly steam locomotives of the Prussian class G 10 (class 57.1–3) and, from 1939, the class 50 were used on the Darßbahn . The smaller BR 57 steam locomotives with an axle base of 14,050 mm could still be turned by hand in Prerow. Since 1937 there was also a 16 m turntable in Barth station. This came from Altefähr and had become superfluous there due to the construction of the Rügen dam .
The passenger trains were driven with tank locomotives of the classes T 12 (class 74.4-13) and T 18 (class 78.0-5) until the mid-1930s . These were then replaced by class 64 steam locomotives .
In the 1970s and 1980s, diesel locomotives of the DR series V 100/110 were mainly used on the remaining section to Barth . The sometimes very high freight traffic was also served by the DR series V 60 . The diesel locomotives of the DR series 132 , DR series V 180 and occasionally DR series V 200 (this series could only be used in summer because it has no train heating) were used for the express trains from Berlin.
After the fall of the Wall, modernized railcars of the DR class VT 2.09 and double-deck coaches with the electric locomotive DR class 243 ran here .
The Usedomer Bäderbahn operated diesel multiple units of the Stadler GTW type (DB class 646) from 2002 to 2019 .
literature
- G. Jonas, F. Schulz: Railway between the sea and the Bodden, a contribution to the history of the Darßbahn Barth-Prerow . German small railroad association Barth.
- H. Bergmann, A. Rickelt: Barth and his railroad . Axel-Dietrich-Verlag, Peenemünde 1995.
- Bernd Goltings: Railways between Stralsund and Rostock - traffic history of the peninsula Fischland-Darß-Zingst , Darß Verlag Prerow 2005, ISBN 3-00-015628-3 .
Web links
- Peter Wilhelm: Velgast - Barth - Bresewitz on bahn-in-pommern.de
- Lothar Schultz: The Darßbahn - what is it, what was it, what will it be? on www.mev-rostock.de (PDF file, 4.3 MByte)
- Richard Schröder: Railway line Velgast - Barth - Prerow (Darßbahn) on ostseestrecke.de
- Green light for the Darßbahn , in: Punkt 3 , Issue 3/2011, p. 12.
Individual evidence
- ^ The railway on the Darß: The first years up to the First World War. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009 ; accessed on August 31, 2012 .
- ↑ a b The railway on the Darß: The railway in the years 1918 to 1945. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on August 31, 2012 .
- ↑ various course books
- ↑ Report about the transfer trips on bahn-in-pommern.de, accessed on September 3, 2010.
- ↑ http://www.bahn-in-pommern.de/strecken/nebnv1.htm .
- ↑ http://eisenbahn.wikia.com/wiki/Streckenchronik_1991
- ↑ Train connection before the end. Online article in the Ostsee-Zeitung, November 11, 2015.
- ^ Signal to green for Darßbahn , Ostsee-Zeitung of June 28, 2007
- ↑ Darßbahn - Results of the profitability report presented today , press release of the Ministry for Transport, Building and State Development Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of December 17, 2009
- ↑ Bahn-Report , 2/2010, p. 40.
- ↑ Bahn-Report , 5/2010, p. 35.
- ↑ Plan approval decision according to § 18 AEG for the project recommissioning Darßbahn, section Barth - Bresewitz, in the communities Barth and Pruchten, district of Vorpommern-Rügen, rail km 29.875 to 38.301 of the route 6778 Velgast - Zingst. Federal Railway Office, April 24, 2016, accessed on September 22, 2016 .
- ^ Lawsuit against the reconstruction of the Darßbahn. Alba specialist portal public transport, July 14, 2016, accessed on September 22, 2016 .
- ↑ Robert Niemeyer: 130 years of the railway in Barth: What's next? In: Ostsee-Zeitung. September 19, 2018, accessed November 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Current consultation procedures for railway projects. State Office for Road Construction and Transport Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, archived from the original on July 22, 2017 ; Retrieved October 19, 2017 .
- ^ Bahn pushes the debate about Darß-Bahn again. In: NDR. March 27, 2019, accessed March 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Upper Administrative Court Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: PRESS RELEASE "Darßbahn" litigation. June 18, 2019, accessed June 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Prime Minister: Federal and state governments set signals for Darßbahn to green. February 4, 2020, accessed February 4, 2020 .
- ↑ Cabinet decides to build the Darßbahn , NDR report from August 18, 2020, accessed on August 18, 2020
- ↑ a b Barther Hafenbahn. In: ostseestrecke.de. August 26, 2008, accessed August 3, 2016 .
- ^ Art on rails , accessed on August 21, 2020
- ↑ Zingster Strandbote, July 2004
- ^ Hotel Alter Bahnhof in Prerow. In: prerow-bahnhof.de. Archived from the original on February 6, 2006 ; Retrieved July 19, 2007 .
- ↑ Historical railways. In: ubb-online.de. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016 ; accessed on September 15, 2017 .
- ↑ BR 646. In: ubb-online.de. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016 ; accessed on September 15, 2017 .
