Hochrheinbahn

Basel Bad Bf – Constance
Class 641 railcars in Lauchringen
Route number (DB) :	4000
Course book section (DB) :	730 (Basel – Singen) 720 (Singen – Konstanz)
Timetable field :	763 (Erzingen – Singen) 830 (Singen – Konstanz; 1996–2006)
Route length:	144.3 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	D4
Power system :	Erzingen – Konstanz: 15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Top speed:	160 km / h
Dual track :	Basel Bad Bf – Waldshut Erzingen – Konstanz-Petershausen
Legend from Mannheim Hbf from Basel Bad Rbf and from Weil Basel Bad Bf (until 1913) 270.688 Basel Bad Bf 260  m Basel tram Connection train to Basel SBB (former route until 1913) to Zell im Wiesental 273.2 State border Switzerland / Germany ,   ownership border BEV / DB Netz 273,610 273,600 Kilometer jump 273.9 Grenzacher Horn (Abzw) 275.6 Grenzach 262  m 278.0 Wyhlen 272  m 281.8 Herten (Baden) 275  m Federal motorway 861 283.4 Rheinfelden-Warmbach (planned) Rheinfelden (Baden) Gbf 285.2 Rheinfelden (Baden) 280  m 288.8 Flexing 284  m 293.6 Schwörstadt 288  m 297.1 Weir - Brennet 293  m Bad Säckingen- Wallbach (planned) from Schopfheim 302.4 Bad Säckingen (formerly Bf) 292  m to St. Blasien (never realized) 307.9 Murg (Baden) 297  m 309.0 Murg Gbf 311.2 Laufenburg (Baden) 313  m Rappenstein tunnel (337 m) 312.5 Laufenburg (Baden) East 318  m 315.7 Albert-Hauenstein Mühlbach near Hauenstein (70 m) 317.9 Albbruck 325  m 321.1 Dogern ( Hp & Anst ) 324  m Waldshut West (planned) 325.6 Waldshut to Koblenz Aarberg tunnel (352 m) Schlucht 331.1 Tiengen (Upper Rhine) 348  m 333.0 Stone aviaduct 334.0 Leek rings west 360  m Leek rings Rbf 335.1 Leek rings (formerly Oberlauchringen) 362  m Wutach Valley Railway to Immendingen Wutach Bridge Lauchringen (40.5 m) 341.1 Grießen (Baden) 390  m Ownership limit DB Netz / BEV 345.6 Erzingen (Baden) 401  m 345.8 Germany / Switzerland border 346.2 Trasadingen 402  m 348.9 Wilchingen - Hallau 414  m 351.5 Neunkirch 430  m 357.8 Beringen Bad Bf 445  m 359.2 Beringerfeld 447  m Roundabout Hauptstrasse 13 & 14 361.6 Neuhausen Bad Bf 440  m Charlottenfels tunnel (284 m) 364.0 Infrastructure border BEV / SBB Rhine Falls Railway from Winterthur 364.4 Schaffhausen S 8 S 33 364,421 364,492 Mileage jump Lake line to Stein am Rhein S 8 A4 motorway Schaffhausen RB 366.0 Infrastructure border SBB / BEV Herblinger Tunnel (530 m) 367.9 Herblings 425  m to the Thayng quarry 373.0 Thayngen S 24 Thayngen Rbf 374.7 State border Switzerland / Germany ,   ownership border BEV / DB Netz 375.6 Bietingen 435  m Federal highway 81 378.5 Gottmadingen 433  m Singener curve   Black Forest Railway from Offenburg 384.1 Singing (Hohentwiel) Singen (Hohentwiel) Rbf & Gbf formerly to Etzwilen 386.5 Sing industrial area 431  m 390.8 Boehringen - Rickelshausen 406  m 394.2 Radolfzell 398  m according to quantities 395,312 395,300 Mileage jump 397.4 Markelfingen 398  m 400,800 400,785 Kilometer jump 403.030 403.045 Kilometer jump 403.1 Allensbach 399  m 405.6 Hegne 400  m 408.4 Reichenau (Baden) 399  m 410.2 Constance-Wollmatingen 400  m 411.5 Constance-Fürstenberg 402  m 412.3 Constance-Petershausen 401  m 413.5 Rhine bridge in Constance 414.34 Constancy Route 4322 towards Kreuzlingen Hafen 414.76 State border Germany / Switzerland , border DB / SBB Mittelthurgau Railway to Wil / to Romanshorn Swell:

The Hochrheinbahn , Hochrheinbahn or railway line Basel – Konstanz is a railway line from Basel via Waldshut , Schaffhausen and Singen (Hohentwiel) to Konstanz . It was built by the Grand Ducal Baden State Railways as part of the Badische Hauptbahn , which follows the Rhine upwards from Mannheim to Constance.

history

founding

The first section from Basel Badischer Bahnhof to Bad Säckingen opened on February 4, 1856, and Waldshut was reached on October 30, 1856 . Then further construction stalled, among other things due to renegotiations with Switzerland. The second section began in 1860 under Robert Gerwig . On June 15, 1863, the entire railway line to Constance was opened with a special train pulled by the Küssaburg steam locomotive . After all, there was already a connection to the Swiss railway network over the Rhine to Koblenz from August 18, 1859 . On May 30, 1870, the first serious railway accident occurred on the line, when a presumably drunk train driver crashed into the stationary passenger train No. 22 in Murg station.

First locomotives

In the first year of operation the following locomotives ran the route:

• Genus IIIc: Allemania, Dreisam, Kaiserstuhl, Hebel, Zähringen
• Genus V: Galileo, Keppler Newton, Laplace, Pambour
• Genus IX: eagle, falcon, comet, arrow, Elz, Wiese, Wutach, Rench, Lahr, Basel
• Genus IV: Brittania, Trevithick, Black Forest

Before and during World War II

It is noteworthy that on the basis of a state treaty, the entire railway (with the exception of Schaffhausen station ) - including on Swiss territory - was under the Baden State Railway and is still part of Deutsche Bahn today (not to be confused with Peage operation ). The international treaty of 1852 grants Switzerland the right to buy back the route located on Swiss territory after observing a five-year notice period. Although this option was discussed after the First World War , it was never implemented. During the Second World War , cross-border traffic was severely restricted, and Wehrmacht transports were not allowed to pass through Switzerland. In 1944/45, four pairs of passenger trains still ran continuously between Basel Badischer Bahnhof and Singen . In the timetable table it was expressly noted: "Passage through the canton of Schaffhausen is only permitted with a passport with special permit (visa)." Between June 8, 1945 and August 1, 1953, the German railways in Switzerland were under the administration of a Swiss Federal Council appointed trust authority.

The Hegau Railway planned in the first half of the 20th century would have been threaded out of the line towards Engen near Herblingen (today Schaffhausen).

After the world war

Most of the line has been double-tracked since 1987, only the section between Waldshut and Erzingen is still single-track today, as is the section between Konstanz-Petershausen and Konstanz. The sections between Laufenburg and Murg as well as between Erzingen and Schaffhausen have been expanded to two tracks in recent years. The route is only electrified between Erzingen and Konstanz . Electrification of the remaining route has long been called for from various sides.

present

On May 5, 2011 in Schaffhausen, the then Transport Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Tanja Gönner , and the construction director of the canton of Schaffhausen, Reto Dubach , signed the planning agreement for the electrification of the Hochrheinbahn between Basel (Badischer Bahnhof) and Schaffhausen. This includes increased cross-border rail traffic without changing trains along the entire border corridor in Konstanz, Schaffhausen, Waldshut and Basel, a planned dense timetable on the Upper Rhine route, the prerequisites for the planned S-Bahn expansion of the S-Bahn Schaffhausen , S-Bahn Zurich and of the Basel S-Bahn in the metropolitan areas of Basel and Zurich-Schaffhausen as well as the amount of planning costs. In addition, good transition options to long-distance traffic are to be created in Singen and Basel (Badischer Bahnhof) . The electrification should be completed by the end of 2025.

From November 2012 to October 2013, the section between Erzingen and Schaffhausen was expanded to double-track and at the same time electrified. The section between Schaffhausen and Beringen has been double-tracked since the railway was built, only the remaining 12.5 kilometers between Beringen and Erzingen still had to be expanded. The entire 18-kilometer section between Schaffhausen and Erzingen was electrified. For this purpose, around 900 catenary masts were erected and almost 50 kilometers of contact wire was stretched. In addition, a second stop was built in Beringen during the same period .

The costs for the entire project, which also included the lifting of several level crossings , amounted to around 140 million Swiss francs. The double-track expansion was financed by Deutsche Bahn, while the electrification of the line was carried out by the Canton of Schaffhausen and the Swiss Confederation.

As a result of the rail expansions, when the timetable was changed in December 2013, the hourly basic offer in regional traffic could be increased to half-hourly intervals. During rush hour , the regional trains now even run every quarter of an hour between Schaffhausen and Erzingen (instead of the previously irregular half-hourly service on part of the route). The more than hourly transport services are provided by SBB GmbH , the German subsidiary of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

In March 2016, the state of Baden-Württemberg, the districts of Waldshut and Lörrach , the regional association Hochrhein-Bodensee , the Swiss Federal Office of Transport and the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Schaffhausen signed a joint memorandum of understanding to finance the electrification of the line between Basel and Erzingen notified. The expansion is estimated at 160 million euros. In September 2016, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport announced EU funding of five million euros for the project.

future

electrification

A planning agreement for electrification was signed at the end of April 2017. The financing agreement was signed on September 6, 2017. The European Union is supporting the project with ERDF funds amounting to five million euros.

The approval process is now running. It was also with engineering geological begun investigations (as of April 2018). In the course of electrification, the following is planned:

• Shorter travel times between Basel and Schaffhausen . A half-hour cycle is also being considered.
• Track lowering in the Rappenstein tunnel and in the Aarberg tunnel .
• Construction of a converter plant.
• Reactivation of the second track and platform at the Tiengen (Upper Rhine) train station.
• Reactivation of the currently closed platform 2 at Lauchringen station.
• Construction of a second track at the Grießen train station.

On September 30, 2019, another planning agreement was signed by the state of Baden-Württemberg, the districts of Waldshut and Lörrach and the canton of Basel-Stadt. In addition to electrification, this also envisages the expansion of the stations for denser cycles and the installation of switches and rails. The aim of the state of Baden-Württemberg is a completion well before the year 2027 or, if possible, in the year 2025. The plans should be submitted to the Federal Railway Authority for approval in 2020.

Current and planned bridge renovations

Replacement of the stone bridge in Albbruck with a reinforced concrete bridge .

The second steel lattice railway bridge over the Wutach in Lauchringen, built in 1908 (the first truss bridge built from wrought iron existed from 1862 to 1908), will be replaced after more than 100 years due to material fatigue in 2024 by a new single-lane steel bridge, which also runs parallel to the Wutach on both sides lying routes with spanned, replaced. Like the construction of the new bridge in Albbruck, this measure is used to rehabilitate the route and to maintain secure transport operations.

Step 2030

As part of the Strategic Development Program for Railway Infrastructure (STEP) of Switzerland with a planning horizon of 2030, the following adjustments are to be carried out on the Upper Rhine Railway from the perspective of Eastern Switzerland (in particular the cantons of Schaffhausen , Thurgau and St. Gallen ) as of 2014:

• The Erzingen –Basel Bad Bhf line must be electrified throughout
• The IRE should run between Basel Bad Bhf and Singen every half hour, the continuation should alternate in the direction of Friedrichshafen or Konstanz - St. Gallen , alternatively a wing (Swiss: Spangenzug) would be possible.
• The clock is to be postponed by 15 minutes in order to enable better connections in Basel, Schaffhausen and Singen (accompanied by appropriate measures on other routes).

This would enable a fast and attractive connection between the canton's capitals St. Gallen and Schaffhausen on the one hand and Basel on the other hand, and the Zurich and Winterthur area would be relieved. The condition is that Swiss subscriptions must be recognized. In addition, congestion in Basel Bad Bhf and Tiengen can be reduced.

The financing was still unclear as of 2014, according to the report of the Eastern Switzerland planning region for the STEP expansion in 2030, there are private investors who are ready to support the expansion project. In any case, the Swiss Federal Council was commissioned by the National Council to work towards these goals.

Today's operation

(Status: timetable year 2020)

While there were express and express train connections from Basel and Freiburg im Breisgau to Lindau and partly Munich until the 1990s , the route is now served by Interregio-Express trains with the route Basel– Singen and Basel– Ulm . The IRE have been using class 612 trains since May 1, 2018 . A regional train runs between Basel and Waldshut every hour, with most trains running to Lauchringen . At rush hour there is a half-hourly service between Basel and Waldshut. Several trains per hour run between Singen or Erzingen and Schaffhausen during the day. Then there are the trains of the Black Forest Railway between Singen and Konstanz .

The free ride for disabled also applies to the Swiss leg sections in the Basel and Schaffhausen. but not on the Waldshut – Koblenz Rhine crossing .

With regard to the number of passengers, the route is divided into five sections:

• The section between Basel and Waldshut , which is mainly characterized by commuter and feeder traffic to the industrial center of Basel.
• The section between Waldshut and Erzingen , which is relatively weak in terms of passenger traffic. With the train station in Lauchringen there is a connection to the touristically important Wutach Valley Railway .
• The section of the route located in the canton of Schaffhausen has a certain life of its own in terms of traffic in order to cover the needs within the cantons . In order to be able to introduce the half-hourly service within the canton of Schaffhausen, the Erzingen – Beringen line was expanded to two tracks in 2012/13 . Five level crossings - three in Wilchingen and two in Neunkirch (including the well-known S-shaped level crossing Erlen) - have been replaced by underpasses . Since December 2013, regional trains of the DB have been running here every hour and trains of SBB GmbH , the German subsidiary of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) in German local transport , every half hour . During the rush hour, the offer is condensed to 15-minute intervals. Electric articulated multiple units GTW 2/6 and GTW 2/8 from Stadler from the Thurbo regional train fleet are in use.
  The section from kilometer 364.0 to kilometer 366.042 with the Schaffhausen train station is owned by the Swiss Federal Railways , as can be seen from the Swiss railway signals.
• The section between Schaffhausen and Singen , which was electrified in 1989, is the link between the Gäubahn and the Swiss network of high-quality long - distance and freight trains . It can be used by both German and Swiss locomotives. The change of locomotive of the express and freight trains from Switzerland to Stuttgart does not take place in the border station Schaffhausen, but because of the hairpin in Singen (Hohentwiel).
  On the Schaffhausen – Thayngen section , in addition to the regional trains of the DB, the S24 of the Zurich S-Bahn runs every hour, making a total of three connections per hour.
• The section between Singen and Konstanz is served by SBB GmbH in local transport. In regional traffic from run Karlsruhe by bound regional express trains. The Konstanz station is also a border station with Switzerland, but without continuous connections. A cross-border S-Bahn is being planned.

criticism

The Swiss Federal Office of Transport examines the quality of regional transport every year on the basis of measurements by test customers and data. In 2020, Deutsche Bahn performed the worst in Switzerland with its Erzingen – Schaffhausen section. Among other things, punctuality, cleanliness, the condition of the stops and customer information were recorded, with punctuality making up half of the rating. If there is no improvement, the canton of Schaffhausen, as the customer, can demand an improvement in quality by means of an agreement. The main reason for the poor punctuality in regional traffic is the frequently delayed Interregio-Express Ulm – Basel.

photos

• 

  Küssaburg steam locomotive, 1856

• 

  Basel Badischer Bahnhof

• 

  Railcar 641 010 in front of the Rappenstein tunnel at the train station in Laufenburg

• 

  Railcar 641 012-0 in Waldshut station

• 

  Schaffhausen station

• 

  Singen train station

• 

  Railcar 641 017-9 "Dogern" of the Hochrheinbahn

• 

  Viaduct over the Steina near Tiengen

literature

• Rainer Gerber: 125 years of Basel – Waldshut: anniversary of the railway on the Upper Rhine . Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg 1981, ISBN 3-88255-789-3 .
• Hans Wolfgang Scharf: From Basel to Lake Constance 1840–1939 . In: The railway on the Upper Rhine . tape 1 . Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-88255-755-9 (Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahngeschichte, Volume 4).
• Hans Wolfgang Scharf: From Basel to Lake Constance 1939–1992 . In: The railway on the Upper Rhine . tape 2 . Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg 1993, ISBN 3-88255-756-7 (Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahngeschichte, Volume 5).
• Dietmund Schwarz: A village community and its railway history . 150 years of the railway in Lauchringen and on the Upper Rhine from Waldshut to Konstanz 1863 - 2013. 3rd expanded edition. Lauchringen 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-040605-8 .
• Rudolf Shoulder: The Baden High Rhine Route - From Basel to Lake Constance . Sutton Verlag, 2019, ISBN 978-3-96303-024-6 .

Web links

Commons : Hochrheinbahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hochrheinbahn: Images from the section Griessen - Erzingen - Schaffhausen; Class 641. In: Railway unique in southern Baden. Eisenbahnfreunde Wehratal eV, accessed on May 2, 2014 . 
• Construction project of Deutsche Bahn: Upper Rhine route
• Project website for the Hochrheinbahn from DB Netze

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ais.badische-zeitung.de
2. ↑ ais.badische-zeitung.de
3. ↑ forget-bahnen.de
4. ↑ ais.badische-zeitung.de
5. ↑ suedkurier.de
6. ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
7. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
8. ^ Regensburger Conversations-Blatt, No. 67 of June 8, Reitmayr, 1870.
9. ↑ Treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the Grand Duchy of Baden regarding the continuation of the Baden railways over Swiss territory. July 27, 1852. Retrieved September 13, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Andreas Gerber: Switzerland moves on the subject of the Upper Rhine route. Südkurier, September 27, 2013, accessed October 2, 2013 . 
11. ↑ No money for German public transport expansion. In: Basler Zeitung. 11th March 2013.
12. ^ Basel Government Councilor Wessels on the electrification of the Upper Rhine route. In: Badische Zeitung. March 16, 2013.
13. ↑ Electrification is getting closer. Südkurier, May 6, 2011, accessed May 6, 2011 . 
14. ↑ "Nüchilcher rail and Strassefäscht" Publibeilage of Schaffhauser Nachrichten of October 2, 2013, available on www.klettgaumobil.ch ( Memento of the original of 4 October 2013 Internet Archive ) : Information checked the archive link is automatically inserted and not yet . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
15. ^ Jean-Claude Goldschmid: Departure into the new Klettgau railway era . Schaffhauser Nachrichten, September 24, 2013, available at www.klettgaumobil.ch ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 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. 
16. ↑ klettgaumobil.ch
17. ↑ S-Bahn Schaffhausen gets going in Klettgau. SBB GmbH, accessed on October 2, 2013 . 
18. ^ Agreement on electrification of the Hochrheinbahn in the Südkurier on March 8, 2016.
19. ↑ EU funds expansion of the Hochrheinbahn . In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten . tape 72 , no. 229 , October 1, 2016, p. 5 .
20. ↑ Electrification of the Hochrheinbahn takes another step forward. In: vm.baden-wuerttemberg.de. Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, April 6, 2017, accessed on April 16, 2017 . 
21. ↑ Financing agreement for the Upper Rhine route. In: 2017-09-06. Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, September 6, 2017, accessed on September 6, 2017 . 
22. ↑ Upper Rhine route on bauprojekte.deutschebahn.com , accessed on May 1, 2018.
23. ↑ https://eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de/lb/inhalt/tunnelportale/4000.html#aarberg Narrow profile of the Aarberg tunnel
24. ↑ The starting shot for the expansion of the Hochrheinbahn has been given in the Singener Wochenblatt on September 30, 2019.
25. ^ No more diesel locomotives: Hochrheinbahn planning order issued in the Basellandschaftliche Zeitung on September 30, 2019.
26. ↑ bauprojekte.deutschebahn.com
27. ↑ STEP expansion step 2030 - planning region Eastern Switzerland. (PDF) report. Intergovernmental Conference in Eastern Switzerland, November 28, 2014, accessed on June 27, 2017 . 
28. ↑ Maximilian Halter: A new train will run in the region in the future: What will change on the Ulm-Singen-Basel route. Südkurier, April 29, 2018.
29. ↑ oepnv-info.de
30. ↑ oepnv-info.de
31. ↑ oepnv-info.de
32. ↑ klettgaumobil.ch
33. ↑ SBB Germany data sheet GSW PDF
34. ↑ SBB Germany website
35. ^ Robert Dedecius, Michael Frei: An S-Bahn for the agglomeration of Kreuzlingen-Konstanz. In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 1/2020. Minirex, ISSN  1022-7113 , pp. 52-54.
36. ↑ Stefan Ehrbar: The federal government praises and criticizes public transport operators. St. Galler Tagblatt of June 5, 2020, p. 3