History of the railway in Bayreuth

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The history of the railway in Bayreuth began after intensive efforts to the port of Bayreuth by the first lease Railway to the Bavarian railway network in 1852. The resulting station quickly developed into a railway junction in northern Bavaria. With the progressive rationalization of freight traffic , the Bayreuth node has lost its central importance.

Beginnings

The railway pioneer Friedrich List had already proposed on September 5, 1828 that Bayreuth be connected to a railway line. On February 11, 1836, a Nuremberg committee had received approval for the construction of a railway from Nuremberg via Bamberg to the northern border of the Kingdom of Bavaria . As early as March 18, 1836 - less than four months after the first train had left Germany - the Bayreuth city ​​magistrate sent a request to the Bavarian king to build a railway from Nuremberg via Bayreuth to Hof . Since the aforementioned Nuremberg Committee failed due to financial problems, the Bavarian state took the construction of the railway into its own hands. Contrary to Bayreuth's wishes, preference was given to the route variant via Bamberg and Lichtenfels to Hof . The state treaty with the Kingdom of Saxony on the continuation to the north dates from January 14, 1841.

In a letter to the king on March 19, 1841, the city administration asked "not to be excluded from the railway line". In a letter dated July 12, 1841, the city council of Bayreuth gave further arguments for a guided tour of Bayreuth. On June 15, 1843, the king approved the route excluding Bayreuth, without first publishing it. In the decision, which the city only received in mid-1844, the construction of a branch line to Bayreuth was suggested. A corresponding application was made immediately.

Leased railway

In the following years King Ludwig I abdicated and passed power to his son. Presumably that played a role in delaying the implementation of the plan. A "royal resolution" of July 25, 1850 made it possible for the Bavarian state to "lease the operation of private railways" and led to the solution to the problem: On September 28, 1850, the city asked for permission to build a railway to and from Neuenmarkt to their introduction in the local state train station, furthermore to the subsequent operational management by the “Royal General Administration of the Railways” and the granting of a rent to be determined in advance in order to be able to provide the necessary capital. The contract was signed on January 6, 1852 with a lease term of 50 years. King Maximilian II signed the concession deed on July 29, 1852. With this first Bavarian leased railway , Bayreuth was one of the first Bavarian cities to be connected to the emerging German railway network.

The question of the location of the future Bayreuth train station was lively discussed. Concerns about the risk of flooding and the avoidance of unnecessary inclines led to the choice of the site at the Brandenburg Gate . Construction work began in October 1852. They progressed rapidly and ended in just 14 months. The ceremonial opening of the first Bayreuth Railway took place on November 18, 1853, after test drives from the middle of the month. Due to the lengthy discussion about the location, there was initially no adequate station building - construction of which was not even started until August 1856.

Eastern Railway

Bayreuth station remained the terminus for ten years . On December 1, 1863, the private Royal Bavarian Eastern Railway had reached the city from Weiden . From then on, the station building was used jointly by both railways, but the tracks, with connections to one another, remained separate for the time being. The through station thus created had no through trains. In Bayreuth you had to change trains in both directions, although the connections were hardly coordinated with each other. The Ostbahn remained single-track to this day, but the railway bodies and bridges were designed from the outset for the subsequent construction of a second track.

Fichtelgebirgsbahn

Central station from 1879

On July 15, 1877, Bayreuth's third main route was added from the direction of Nuremberg, coming from Schnabelwaid . The so-called Fichtelgebirgsbahn was the first railway into the city that the state of Bavaria had built itself. At the level of the later Kreuzstein junction, it met the Ostbahn line and still runs 1.6 kilometers in length, parallel to that through the city to the main train station. The now too small station building was replaced by a larger and more representative new building in 1879; the old building was still used by the railway operations and construction inspection and the Royal Bavarian Post .

From Bayreuth's point of view, the construction of this line was a disappointment. From the start it was designed to be single-track, with the major routes leading far past the city. The local traffic expert Fritz Alexander Streit called this circumstance the "peak of malice". The city was "artificially relocated to the railway corner, the geography turned upside down". The three surrounding railway stations Neuenmarkt , Kirchenlaibach and Schnabelwaid became the epitome of the traffic-related standstill and regression. Lord Mayor Theodor von Muncker commented in 1899: "I wish a gracious judge who is responsible for these sins".

Branch lines

The first branch line from Bayreuth opened on August 15, 1896. She left the station heading north and soon turned east. Here, in the Sankt Georgen district, the second Bayreuth train station was built. Via the suburb of Laineck, which has meanwhile been incorporated, and the market town of Weidenberg, it opened up the southwestern Fichtel Mountains to Warmensteinach . Especially during the winter sports season, this train was used so heavily that the capacity of the terminus was barely sufficient. Since January 1, 1993, the section from Weidenberg to Warmensteinach has not been used for "technical reasons". As far as Weidenberg, the route was upgraded and is now operated by a private company.

The second branch line was the one to Hollfeld . On March 12, 1904, the railway, which shared the track of the railway to Schnabelwaid as far as the Kreuzstein junction, was opened to traffic. It connected the rural area of Franconian Switzerland with the city and made it possible for townspeople to go on excursions into this wonderful landscape. Initially, three new train stations were built in the city. The Bayreuth Altstadt station, which was far outside the center, soon became a branch station for the branch line to Thurnau, which opened on September 26, 1909 . Their trains also began and ended in the main station. There was no continuous passenger traffic beyond Thurnau to Kulmbach , it was broken in Thurnau. From Bayreuth to Kulmbach and back you drove the faster main line via Neuenmarkt (- Wirsberg ).

Shutdowns

On January 1, 1983, the Thurnauer Bahn was finally shut down after it had only been operated by freight trains since June 3, 1973. Beyond the Bayreuth Altstadt train station, the Hollfeld line suffered the same fate on September 28, 1975. Freight traffic was only maintained until October 14, 1994. In the meantime, both lines have been dismantled, the Kreuzstein junction no longer exists.

See also

literature

  • Robert Zintl: Bayreuth and the railroad . Gondrom, Bindlach 1992, ISBN 3-8112-0780-6 .
  • Manfred Bräunlein: The Eastern Railways . Lorenz Spindler, Nuremberg 2000, ISBN 3-88929-078-7 .

supporting documents

  1. ^ Robert Zintl: Bayreuth and the Railway , p. 107.
  2. Bernd Mayer : Bayreuth as it was. Flash lights from the city's history 1850–1950 . 2nd Edition. Gondrom, Bayreuth 1981, p. 42 f .