Railway traffic in Frankfurt am Main

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Two local trains in front of Frankfurt's main train station
An InterCity in Frankfurt Central Station

Frankfurt am Main became an important hub in rail traffic very early on . Today 18 railway lines run towards Frankfurt. The most important rail operators in the Frankfurt area are Deutsche Bahn AG in freight , long-distance and regional transport (also with the Rhein-Main S-Bahn ) and the Hessian state railway .

Railway construction in the Frankfurt area

The railroad and small states

Small states in the Frankfurt area until 1866
The Taunusbahnhof, Frankfurt's first train station

Frankfurt has been a railway city since 1839. The small states shaped the Rhein-Main area by the end of the German war 1866. Here met in a confined space five sovereign states together:

The construction of railway lines was sometimes severely hindered due to envy and competition from the individual states. In spite of this, and thanks to its favorable geographical location, Frankfurt grew into an important railway junction. Decisive for this was the traditional function as a trade fair and trading city and the political importance as the seat of the organs of the German Confederation .

The railway lines to Frankfurt were isolated from each other. Each was run by its own company and had its own terminus . Operators were either private companies or a jointly owned company of the countries concerned, a “joint state railway ” or a condominium railway .

Surname opening States * Departure station course annotation
Taunus Railway 1839 FSF, HN, GHD Taunusbahnhof Höchst , Mainz , Wiesbaden Three states were already involved in the first railway line in the region from Frankfurt to the Nassau capital of Wiesbaden , built by Paul Camille von Denis : in addition to Frankfurt and Nassau, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, whose largest city, Mainz , received its first train station on the right bank of the Rhine. The operator was a private railway company . The line reached Hattersheim in 1839 and was completed in 1840.
Main-Neckar Railway 1846 FSF, GHD, Baden Main-Neckar train station Darmstadt , Heidelberg The owners were the three participating states. The Main-Neckar train station and the associated old Main-Neckar bridge were only completed two years after the route of the same name. Until then, the Main-Neckar-Bahn had to temporarily use Sachsenhausen station as the Frankfurt terminus. In Heidelberg there was the possibility of changing to the existing - albeit broad-gauge - Badische Hauptbahn .
Soden Railway 1847 HN Maximum Sod The oldest branch line in Germany ran from 1847 from the town of Höchst on the Taunus Railway to the then world-famous seaside resort of Soden. The client was the Sodener Actien-Gesellschaft , but the Taunus-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft then ran the business.
Frankfurt-Offenbach Railway 1848 FSF, GHD Sachsenhausen Offenbach The Frankfurt-Offenbach Railway was also completed in 1847, but due to unfavorable contracts with the Main-Neckar-Bahn had to hand over both its station and the locomotives that had already been delivered to it until it was able to complete its own Main-Neckar station. This Hessian-Frankfurt condom line was even allowed to use it . The start of operations in March 1848 was not planned and was forced by revolutionary Offenbach citizens. With the opening of the Bebraer Bahn in 1873, the traffic shifted to this and the FOE actually only had local significance.
Frankfurt-Hanau Railway Company 1848 FSF, KHK Hanau train station Hanau , Aschaffenburg The FHE was a private railway company under the leadership of the bankers Bethmann (Frankfurt) and Bernus du Fay (Hanau). Until it was connected to the Bavarian state Ludwigs-Westbahn in 1859, it was an island operation . In 1859 it was also connected to the Frankfurt West Train Stations via the connecting railway . The Hessian Ludwig Railway has been running the FHE since 1863 and also bought its operating company in 1872.
Main-Weser Railway 1850 FSF, GHD, KHK Main-Weser train station Bockenheim , Friedberg , Giessen , Marburg , Kassel The construction of the Main-Weser-Bahn, another joint state railway, began at both ends of the line. The Frankfurt end was opened to Friedberg in 1850 and extended to Butzbach that same year . In 1852 the gap was closed at Gießen and there was continuous traffic to Kassel . In times of small states, the Main-Weser Railway held the record of crossing a state border eleven times as far as Giessen. In Kassel there was a connection to the Carlsbahn to Bad Karlshafen and to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn to Westphalia and Thuringia .
Connecting track 1859 FSF The connecting railway, which is still owned by the city today, runs on the northern bank of the Main. Their task was to connect the Hanauer Bahn with the western train stations . The operator was initially the FHE, from 1863 (like this one) the Hessische Ludwigsbahn. 1869–73, 1880–1913 and in summer / autumn 1945 there was also passenger traffic on the connecting railway .
Homburg Railway 1860 FSF, GHD, HN, LHH Main-Weser train station Rödelheim , Oberursel , Homburg In times of small states, four states had to give their approval for the construction of this only 18 km short stretch. Since a fifth, Kurhessen, refused, the local town of Bockenheim , although the Main-Weser Railway already ran there and the operator Homburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (HEG) used its station, had to be bypassed to the west in order to use the Taunusbahn tracks and a connecting curve on the Rebstock to reach Rödelheim in Hesse-Darmstadt . The blockades and jealousies of the neighboring countries delayed the construction of this short railway line by 24 years. In 1880 the HEG was sold to the Prussian state.
Mainbahn 1863 FSF, GHD Main-Neckar train station Kelsterbach , Bischofsheim , Mainz The route to Mainz was hindered less by politics than by geography. The Rhein-Main-Bahn , opened in 1858, led from Aschaffenburg almost exclusively via the Hesse-Darmstadt area and Darmstadt Ludwigsbahnhof to the banks of the Rhine opposite Mainz , from where the Mainz-Gustavsburg trajectory was used to cross the river. The trajectory was only replaced by a new bridge at the end of 1862 . The Grand Duchy of Hesse was interested in connecting its largest city with Frankfurt, which is why this project, for once, did not experience any political hindrances. The operator was the Hessian Ludwig Railway.
* FSF : Free City of Frankfurt . GHD : Grand Duchy of Hesse (Darmstadt). KHK : Electorate of Hesse (Kassel). HN : Duchy of Nassau (Wiesbaden). LHH : Landgraviate of Hessen-Homburg .

Prussian time

Prussian-Hessian territory swap 1886
The West Railway Stations before 1888
Hanau train station, 1893

After the German War in 1866, the Kingdom of Prussia occupied and annexed the Free City of Frankfurt, the Duchy of Nassau and the Electorate of Hesse. Prussia pooled its spoils of war in a new province of Hessen-Nassau and signed a contract with the also defeated Grand Duchy of Hessen for an extensive exchange of territory in its favor. This eliminated most of the state exclaves in the Frankfurt area. Prussia received from Hesse the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg, which had fallen to Hesse only a few months earlier, as well as the exclaves Rödelheim and Niederursel . In return, Hessen-Darmstadt received various former Nassau, Frankfurt and Kurhessian exclaves, which clearly rounded off its area, especially in the Wetterau . Except for the province of Upper Hesse, which still had no land connection to the rest of the Grand Duchy, and the small Voraunus community of Steinbach , there were now no more exclaves in the Frankfurt area. This and the founding of the empire in 1871 also made the construction and operation of railroads much easier. For example, the Homburg Railway, which was so severely hampered by the small states, now ran entirely on Prussian territory and in 1884 was given a direct connection via Bockenheim , which it had sought in vain for almost 50 years with the now defunct Hessian authorities.

At the time of the annexations by Prussia, the construction of the railway was by no means finished. Long-distance routes were even missing. For example, the Electorate of Hesse did not succeed in connecting its two largest cities, Kassel and Hanau, with one another through its own territory during the entire period of its existence. Regional traffic in the Taunus could also be expanded.

Operationally, too, much became easier now, because only two states were involved in the Main-Weser-Bahn and the private Hessian Ludwigsbahn brought more and more routes under its control by buying and building new ones.

The largest construction project within the city, however, was the construction of the Centralbahnhof that had been planned for a long time . Originally planned on the site of the Westbahnhöfe , it was then built 600 meters further west in the 1880s, for which the main-Weser and Main-Neckar railway lines had to be relocated and a new Main bridge had to be built for the latter .

From 1897 the operation of all main railways in the Rhine-Main area was united in one hand, after the Ludwigsbahn was nationalized and the Grand Ducal Hessian State Railways were merged into the Prussian-Hessian Railway Community with the Prussian State Railways and the regional ones until the establishment of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920 - and carried out long-distance transport alone.

Surname opening Departure station course annotation
Bebra Railway 1868 Main-Neckar train station Bebraer Bahnhof , Hanau-Ost , Fulda , Bebra ff. Only two years after the annexation, Prussia was able to complete the long-term Hessian railway project Kassel-Bebra-Fulda-Hanau-Frankfurt. Until the opening of the Steinheim Main Bridge in 1873, the Bebraer trains were led to the western stations via the Hanau and connecting railway.
Kronberg Railway 1874 Main-Weser train station Rödelheim, Kronberg This suburban railway into the Taunus served then as now for excursion and commuter traffic. At first the trains started in Rödelheim, but soon there was a need for through trains. The private Cronberger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was nationalized in 1914.
Main-Lahn Railway 1877 Main-Neckar train station Höchst, Niedernhausen , Limburg This main line, built by the Hessian Ludwig Railway, used the Taunus crossing at Camberg to connect Frankfurt with Cologne. The construction was not pursued after the first section to Limburg. In Eschhofen there is a connection to the Lahn Valley Railway Gießen – Koblenz. In 1879 the branch line from Niedernhausen to Wiesbaden , the Ländchesbahn , was opened.
Riedbahn 1879 Goldstein train station Groß-Gerau, Riedbahnhof Mannheim The Riedbahn, also built by the Ludwigsbahn, was supposed to connect Darmstadt with Worms. However, the branches to Mannheim and Frankfurt soon proved to be very successful competition to the state-run Main-Neckar Railway, which ran in parallel.
Frankfurt Forest Railway 1889 Untermainbrücke station Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen - Neu-Isenburg , Niederrad and Schwanheim as well as connection to the Main-Neckar and Mainbahn Taken over by the city of Frankfurt from 1899 , incorporated into the Frankfurt am Main tram from 1925 .
Rodgaubahn 1896 Offenbach Central Station Bieber , Ober-Roden , Dieburg The suburban line from the southeastern Rhine-Main area with the branch line from Dietzenbach connected this area with the fast-growing industrial city of Offenbach and via this with Frankfurt.
Koenigstein Railway 1902 Maximum Kelkheim , Koenigstein After Soden (1847), Homburg (1860) and Kronberg (1874) as well as the trams of the Frankfurt local railway to Homburg and Oberursel -Hohemark (1899), Königstein was the last resort, villa and excursion destination in the Voraunus to have a rail connection. The starting point was at times the Höchst station, at times the main station.
Dreieichbahn 1905 Book cover Sprendlingen , Dreieichenhain , Ober-Roden The Dreieichbahn branching off from the Main-Neckar-Bahn in Buchschlag opened up the southern region.
Niddertal Railway 1907 Bad Vilbel Heldenbergen - Windecken , Stockheim This line branched off from the Main-Weser Railway in Bad Vilbel through the Wetterau into the Vogelsberg .
Frankfurt local train 1910 Frankfurt, Gallusanlage (shared transport with the city tram) Frankfurt-Heddernheim - Bad Homburg / Oberursel - Hohemark From 1968 included in underground line A : lines U2, U3

Today's rail routes from Frankfurt

Surname Route
number 		KBS Eröff-
voltage 		course annotation
Taunus Railway 3603 645.1 1839 Frankfurt Hbf - Wiesbaden Hauptbahnhof Here drive regional trains , RE and freight , from F-maximum and suburban railways line S1
Main-Lahn Railway 3610 627, 645.2 1877 Frankfurt Hbf - Limburg an der Lahn Regional trains (RB), RE u. Freight trains. S-Bahn line S2 also runs between F-Höchst and Niedernhausen station .
Königsteiner Bahn (K-Bahn) 9360 646 1902 Frankfurt Hbf - Königstein im Taunus S-Bahn-like suburban traffic with diesel multiple units; Management: HLB
Soden Railway 3640 643 1847 Frankfurt-Höchst - Bad Soden am Taunus Oldest branch line in Germany; Management: HLB
Kronberg Railway 3615 645.3; 645.4 1874 Frankfurt-Rödelheim - Kronberg S-Bahn lines S3 (to Niederhöchstadt ) and S4 run here
Limes Railway 3641 645.3 1972 Niederhöchstadt - Bad Soden S3
Homburg Railway 3611 637; 645.5 1860 Frankfurt (Main) West - Friedrichsdorf The S-Bahn line S5 goes via Westbahnhof, the Taunusbahn (Hochtaunus) directly from the main station to Grävenwiesbach or Brandoberndorf
Frankfurt local train Today's A-route of the Frankfurt underground 1910 Frankfurt-Heddernheim - Bad Homburg / Oberursel Former small train ; until 1982 rail (freight) traffic; Today underground line A - lines U2, U3
Main-Weser Railway 3900 630; 645.6 1850 Frankfurt Hbf - Kassel Here the S-Bahn line S6 goes to Friedberg ; In addition, all traffic to Central Hesse (Gießen, Marburg and Wetzlar) is carried here by regional express trains, plus the ICE line (Stralsund-) Rostock-Hamburg-Hanover-Kassel-Marburg-Frankfurt-Darmstadt-Karlsruhe, also an important one Freight line. The four-track expansion to Bad Vilbel is under construction and planned to Friedberg.
Frankfurt South – Aschaffenburg 3660 349; 351;
640 		1848 Frankfurt Süd - Hanau Hbf - Aschaffenburg Hbf (between Frankfurt and Hanau north Main) The route is used for freight, regional and long-distance traffic; Route of a future North Main S-Bahn (S7). A four-track expansion as part of the Nordmainische S-Bahn between Frankfurt (Main) Ost station and Hanau is planned.
Frankfurt – Göttingen 3600
3680 		349; 351; 615; 645.8; 645.9 1873 Frankfurt Hbf - Hanau Hbf - Fulda - Bebra - Göttingen (between Frankfurt and Steinheimer Mainbrücke south Main ) Long-distance and regional transport; S-Bahn - today in the tunnel through Offenbach in a different location - on its own route (3680), from Offenbach Ost parallel on its own track
Frankfurt Forest Railway today part of the Frankfurt tram 1889 Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen - Neu-Isenburg Formerly a small train through the city ​​forest , converted to tram operation from 1925.
Main-Neckar Railway 3601
3688
3655 		645.3; 645.4; 647; 650 1846 Frankfurt Hbf - Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof Important route for freight, regional and long-distance traffic; S 3 and S 4 as well as Dreieichbahn each on their own route
Riedbahn 4010 645.7; 655 1879 Frankfurt Hbf - Mannheim Hauptbahnhof Main axis of long-distance traffic between Frankfurt and Mannheim, important route for freight and regional traffic; S 7 to Riedstadt-Goddelau
Mainbahn 3520 471; 645.8; 645.9 1863 Mainz main station - Frankfurt main station Important route for freight, regional and long-distance traffic; S 8 and S 9 from Kelsterbach with regional trains on their own track
NBS Frankfurt – Cologne 2690 472 1999 Airport long-distance train station - Cologne High-speed route over Limburg for 300 km / h
Urban connecting railway without scheduled traffic 1859 Frankfurt-Griesheim - Frankfurter Osthafen Operator: Port Operations of the City of Frankfurt am Main ; Museum traffic through the Historical Railway Frankfurt
Airport railway 3683 471; 645.8; 645.9 1972 Frankfurt Hbf - Kelsterbach Regional and S-Bahn traffic: S 8 and S 9, until 1999 also IC.

See also

The central station

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 25 ″  N , 8 ° 39 ′ 45 ″  E