Ermstalbahn

Metzingen (Württ) –Bad Urach
Route number (DB) :	4621
Course book section (DB) :	763, ex 325b
Route length:	12.260 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Maximum slope :	14.550  ‰
Minimum radius :	350 m
Top speed:	80 km / h
Legend from Plochingen 0.000 Metzingen (Württ) (formerly Metzingen ) 354 m to Tübingen 0.077 DB Netz AG / ENAG 1.700 Metzingen-Neuhausen (formerly Neuhausen b Urach ) 3.259 Erms 3.419 Metzinger Strasse 4.095 Dettingen fiefdom (since 1999) 4.491 Glemser Strasse 4.656 Dettingen-Mitte (formerly Dettingen b Urach ) 397 m 5.413 Dettingen outdoor pool (since 1999) 5,862 Kalferweg 6.549 Dettingen Gsaidt (since 1999) Connection to Munksjö paper mill 8.247 Bruehlbach 8,679 Bad Urach waterfall (formerly Weg z Urach waterfall ) Seltbachstrasse 9.700 Bad Urach Ermstalklinik (since 1999) 10.400 Bad Urach (until July 1983: Urach ) 463 m 11.070 Connection of Sattelmayer 11,447 URACA loading point 12.000 Erms and lower Mühlkanal 12.050 upper Mühlkanal 12,260 Art mill Künkele

The Ermstalbahn - formerly written Ermsthalbahn - is a single-track branch line in Baden-Württemberg . It connects Metzingen , where it branches off the Plochingen – Tübingen railway line, with Bad Urach (until July 1983: Urach ) on the northern edge of the Swabian Alb . The branch line follows the eponymous river Erms along its entire length and is now operated by the railway infrastructure company Erms-Neckar-Bahn Eisenbahninfrastructure AG (ENAG).

history

The Ermstalbahn was opened on December 27, 1873 as a private railway by the Ermsthalbahn company . The railway sold this to the Württemberg state with effect from April 1, 1904 , and the line was operated from then on by the Royal Württemberg State Railways . On August 2, 1919, the line was extended by 1.194 kilometers to the Künkele art mill. This extension was only used for freight traffic to the mill, but at the same time it was also an advance construction work for the extension in the direction of Münsingen , which was planned at that time , where a link with the Swabian Alb Railway was planned. After the First World War , the line was joined by the newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920 ; after the Second World War , the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) took over the operation.

In the summer of 1971 the line began to temporarily decline; at that time, the DB initially stopped operations on the final section between the loading point of the URACA pump factory and the art mill. On May 27, 1976, the last regular passenger trains for the time being ran to Urach, but freight traffic to URACA was still maintained. Occasionally, special trips with passenger trains also took place thereafter. In July 1983 Urach was upgraded to the spa town of Bad Urach, but freight traffic continued to decline. At the end of 1989, the sparse freight traffic between the alternative connection point Dettingen Gsaidt and Bad Urach was finally given up.

present

The efforts of the neighboring communities, especially in the spa town of Bad Urach, to revive rail traffic, initially resulted in the establishment of the Ermstal-Verkehrsgesellschaft (today Erms-Neckar-Bahn ), which opened the route on December 28, 1993 with effect from January 1 Acquired in 1994 from what was then the Deutsche Bundesbahn for a symbolic price of one D-Mark.

On August 1, 1999, regular passenger traffic to Bad Urach was resumed, and the DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee (RAB) was commissioned to handle the traffic . For diesel railcars of series 650 formed regional trains run since then every hour from Herrenberg coming over the Ammertalbahn and the Neckar-Alb-Bahn to Bad Urach, individual trips only operate between Bad Urach Metzingen or Reutlingen . This was preceded by tourist traffic on weekends in the summer of 1998.

A bus line, also operated by the RAB, runs parallel to the Ermstalbahn, the travel times of which are coordinated with the train schedule.

Tariff

The Ermstalbahn has been fully integrated into the Neckar-Alb-Donau (Naldo) transport association since January 1st, 2002 (date of foundation) , it runs through the Naldo tariff combs 219 (section Metzingen – Dettingen) and 221 (section Dettingen – Bad Urach). The community of Dettingen is assigned to both tariff groups at the same time with all four access points. For trips beyond the Naldo network border, the regular Deutsche Bahn tariff applies. This regulation is a special feature that can also be found in this form, for example, on the neighboring Ammertalbahn . The DB tariff is normally only used on routes whose infrastructure is owned by the DB Group. Otherwise, the so-called "NE kick-off tariff" is usually used, which is a special tariff for alternating traffic between Deutsche Bahn and non-federal railways (NE). Deutsche Bahn ticket machines are available at all stops ; all stations except for the starting point in Metzingen are unmanned.

Planning

For several years, due to the increased number of passengers, there have been considerations to integrate the Ermstalbahn into a regional Neckar-Alb light rail system based on the Karlsruhe model and to introduce a half-hourly service. This would involve electrification and a section-wise double-track expansion of the line.

In January 2016, the regional council of Tübingen began the planning approval procedure for the so-called "Module 1" of the Neckar-Alb tram. This includes u. a. the electrification of the Erms and Ammertal Railway. All stopping points should be brought to a uniform length of 80 m and a height of 55 cm. In addition, the extension of a pull-out track in Bad Urach and the establishment of a Dettingen Gsaidt crossing station are planned every half hour. The planning approval decision was issued on February 19, 2017.

literature

• Hans-Joachim Knupfer, Bernd Weckler: Once Urach and back! Knupfer Railway Books, Althengstett 1999, ISBN 3-934379-00-1 .
• Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 197-200 .

Web links

Commons : Ermstalbahn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Erms-Neckar-Bahn AG
• Private description of the Ermstalbahn
• Description of the disused section to the Künkelemühle on www.vergessene-bahnen.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Passenger traffic to Urach - Kbs 325b on db58.de, accessed on November 24, 2018
2. ^ Erms-Neckar-Bahn AG - Society - History. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; Retrieved November 22, 2013 . 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.  
3. ↑ See Ermstalbahn, which was reactivated for ten years. In: Interest group rail transport e. V. (Ed.): Bahn-Report , Issue 4/2009, Rohr, ISSN  0178-4528 , p. 69.
4. ↑ Regional-Stadtbahn Neckar-Alb plan approval section (PFA) 2 Ermstalbahn, explanatory report ( memento of the original from January 15, 2016 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.