Karwendel (train)

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Intercity Karwendel with locomotive 111 041 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the entrance from Mittenwald 1983

The Karwendel is a long-distance train that runs between Germany and Austria . The name Karwendel comes from the Karwendel mountain range of the same name south of Garmisch-Partenkirchen on the border between Bavaria and Tyrol , which the train passed on its journey over the Karwendelbahn . The train is primarily used for tourist traffic from the metropolitan areas to the Upper Bavarian and Tyrolean holiday resorts along the route.

The connection, which has existed since 1925, always had a special position due to specially constructed vehicle material and the use of long-distance vehicles on the mountain route. Today's InterCityExpress Karwendel is one of the few Deutsche Bahn trains that has a name in addition to the train number. This also includes the other ICE trains to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Werdenfelser Land , Wetterstein and Zugspitze .

history

Express trains from 1925

Since its opening in 1912, the Karwendelbahn has been of great importance for tourism to the holiday resorts, especially Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Mittenwald and Seefeld in Tyrol . Continuous traffic with long-distance trains was difficult, however, because the current express train passenger cars did not yet have an electric train heater for operation on the electrified route.

With the electrification of the Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen railway in 1925, continuous D-trains from Munich to Innsbruck became possible. In 1928 the D 164 left Munich daily at 2:00 p.m. and reached Innsbruck at 5:58 p.m. This timetable situation, with which the Karwendel can be reached from large parts of Germany in a day's trip, persisted into the war years and even to today's ICE Karwendel . The name Karwendel Express already occurs for these trains, but at that time it was not listed in the timetable.

Karwendel Express from 1930

Karwendel Express car preserved in the Nördlingen Railway Museum

In 1930 the Deutsche Reichsbahn put thirteen cars specially adapted for the needs of tourist traffic into service for the Karwendel Express , which had electric heating, a central aisle, particularly large windows, management and a special blue paintwork. At the vehicle parade for the centenary of the German railways in Nuremberg in 1935, four cars with the E 04 022 were represented as the Karwendel train .

A further 29 cars were procured for the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In the summer timetable of 1939, five pairs of express trains between Munich and Innsbruck are listed during the summer season, still without the name Karwendel Express .

At the end of the Second World War , the traffic in this form was stopped. The cars were used in the normal express train service until the 1970s. One copy is preserved in the Bavarian Railway Museum in Nördlingen.

post war period

For tourism , long-distance trains have connected northern and western Germany with the Karwendel region since the post-war period. In the seventies, the D 283/282 ran daily from Lübeck or Copenhagen to Seefeld and seasonally to Innsbruck roughly at the same time as the earlier D 164 on the Mittenwaldbahn. In addition, the tourist destinations were served by companies such as Touropa or Scharnow with special travel agency trains.

Ft / ICt Karwendel from 1969

Series 601

In 1969 a long-distance express multiple unit (Ft) was introduced under the name Ft Karwendel in this travel agency service . The vehicles used were the first-class multiple units of the 601 series, built for TEE traffic , which were available at the weekend for use in tourist traffic. After the vehicles were used in the newly created Intercity network in 1971, the Karwendel was also given the train numbers ICt (Intercity multiple unit) 11150/11151. During the winter sports season, the trains ran on Saturday morning from Frankfurt to Seefeld and back in the afternoon. They were not listed in the course book, but were used exclusively for the transport of package tourists by the tour operator .

Intercity / Eurocity Karwendel from 1979

Since 1979 Klais has owed the Karwendel its quality as the highest intercity or ICE train station in Germany

With the introduction of the two-class IC 79 intercity system in 1979, tourist traffic was partially integrated into the scheduled intercity network. For this purpose, individual intercity trains are run beyond the regular network, which is operated every hour , into the tourist areas. The tour operators book space allotments for their customers on these trains.

The IC 180/181, which came from Bremen via Munich, ran daily to Innsbruck and was named Karwendel , such a “vacationer intercity” . From the railhead Munich a locomotive broke the 111 series the train from a 103 off. Most of the train stopped in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and only a few cars continued to run over the mountain route. On the ÖBB route section from Mittenwald, the train was designated as an express train with the train number E 1180/1181.

In the later years the routes north of Munich changed repeatedly. From May 31, 1987, the Karwendel operated as EuroCity between Hamburg and Innsbruck for a year , and again as InterCity between 1988 and 2007, now to and from Dortmund . Over the years, the number of days running has been reduced, and in 2007 the train only ran from Munich to Innsbruck on Saturdays.

During this time, a label on the station building of Klais proudly pointed out that it was the highest intercity station in Germany. Today's inscription no longer mentions any type of train.

ICE Karwendel from 2007

ICE Karwendel in Berlin's Südkreuz station
ICE Karwendel in Seefeld in Tirol (2018)

Since December 2007 the Karwendel has been running as ICE 1206/1207 with the 411 series (ICE T) , but only on weekends to Mittenwald and seasonally further to Innsbruck. On the remaining days the trains ended in Munich . They traveled the route from Hamburg , Berlin-Gesundbrunnen , Halle (Saale) , Jena Paradies and Nuremberg .

Since the ICE Karwendel, as a train that ran outside the regular schedule , often had to wait for train crossings on the single-track route, its travel time from Munich to Innsbruck (3:27 hours) was significantly longer than that of the regional trains with stops at all stations (2:51 hours). Nevertheless, it was gladly accepted by the holidaymakers because it reached the holiday destination without changing trains. With their travel time and the hourly frequency, which is still condensed in the Austrian section by the Innsbruck S-Bahn , the regional trains now far exceed the timetable offers of earlier times on the Karwendelbahn.

Discontinued December 2017 to December 2018

In July 2017, the Mayor of Murnau , Rolf Beuting, announced that Deutsche Bahn was planning to discontinue the pair of ICE trains from Munich to Innsbruck on Saturdays. Only two pairs of trains from the Ruhr area and Hamburg-Berlin to Garmisch-Partenkirchen are to remain. The Karwendel area would then lose its long-distance train stops in Mittenwald and Seefeld.

The Deutsche Bahn gives the reason that the train is uneconomical due to the decreasing number of passengers. In addition, after the opening of the new Ebensfeld – Erfurt line, it no longer fits into the vehicle circulation. The passengers from the north benefited from the 1½ hour shorter journey time. The mayors of the Bavarian and Tyrolean neighboring communities are protesting against the decision. They fear that holiday guests who want a connection without changing trains will avoid the Karwendel area in the future. According to the mayor, around 20 to 25% of the guests traveled to Mittenwald by train.

In fact, only two pairs of ICE trains ran in the 2018 annual timetable that ended in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and did not transfer to the Karwendelbahn: ICE 620/1127 Wetterstein from / to Dortmund and ICE 1504/1507 from / to Hamburg in the Karwendel timetable . The train name Karwendel appeared neither in the DB's course book nor in the ÖBB's course book.

Timetable 2018/2019

Advertisement “Highest ICE train station worldwide!” At Seefeld train station

Since the timetable change in December 2018, the ICE Karwendel has been running again from Innsbruck via Seefeld, Munich, and now to Dortmund. The train pair is listed in the timetable as ICE 1221/1222. The ICE 1294/1297 Wetterstein also runs from / to Innsbruck again. The newly rebuilt Seefeld train station in Tyrol advertises with the superlative “Highest ICE train station in the world!” And makes ironic reference to the name of Klais as the highest intercity train station in Germany.

literature

  • Horst J. Obermayer: Paperback German passenger coaches. Franckh Verlag, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-440-04589-7 , p. 127 (about the Karwendel Express cars of the 1929 series)
  • Holger Graf among others: Experience the fascination of the railroad Guide through the vehicle collection of the Bavarian Railway Museum . Steinmeier Deiningen 2014, ISBN 978-3-943599-29-9 , page 95 (about B4ü bay 29 of the BEM)
  • Lutz Uebel, Wolfgang-D. Richter (ed.): 150 years of rail vehicles from Nuremberg. EK-Verlag Freiburg 1994, ISBN 3-88255-562-9 , pp. 130ff and 139 (about the Karwendel Express carriages of both series)
  • Siegfried Bufe: Karwendelbahn. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-87943-502-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Official course book 1928. Reprint Ritzau Verlag Landsberg 1979, ISBN 3-921304-47-4 .
  2. a b Kursbuch summer 1939 on www.deutsches-kursbuch.de
  3. ^ Ralf Roman Rossberg : History of the Railway. Siegloch Edition Künzelsau, 2nd edition 1984, ISBN 3-8003-0217-9 , p. 275.
  4. Course book 1944 : E164 to Seefeld with slightly longer travel times
  5. a b Description of the C4ü-bay 29 In: Horst J. Obermayer: Taschenbuch Deutsche Reisezugwagen. Franckh Verlag, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-440-04589-7 , p. 127.
  6. a b Lutz Uebel, Wolfgang-D. Richter (ed.): 150 years of rail vehicles from Nuremberg . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1994, ISBN 3-88255-562-9 , pp. 130 ff. And 139.
  7. ^ Program of the vehicle parade on December 8, 1935 , reproduced in Alfred B. Gottwaldt: Deutsche Reichsbahn 1935. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-440-04193-X , p. 69.
  8. Holger Graf et al.: Experience the fascination of railways. Guide through the vehicle collection of the Bavarian Railway Museum . Steinmeier Deiningen 2014, ISBN 978-3-943599-29-9 , page 95
  9. a b For example DB course books summer 1972 and summer 1976.
  10. Timetables of the FDt Karwendel 1969 and 1970 on www.welt-der-modelleisenbahn.com
  11. baureihe601.de .
  12. a b Timetables of ICT Karwendel 1971 to 1979 and IC Karwendel until 1984 on welt-der-modelleisenbahn.com .
  13. ^ Siegfried Bufe: Karwendelbahn. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-87943-502-2 .
  14. Klaus-Jürgen Vetter (Ed.): From TEE to Intercity. The great age of long-distance rail transport. GeraMond Verlag Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86245-129-6 , page 118.
  15. For example DB course book summer 1981.
  16. Page on EC Karwendel at www.grahnert.de with illustration of the timetable leaflets
  17. For example DB course books summer 1988, summer 1996 and 2005 to 2007.
  18. IC long-distance traffic in Werdenfels at the Pro Bahn passenger association .
  19. a b See DB course book 2007/2008 and current DB course book, kursbuch.bahn.de , route 960.
  20. Train compositions »2017» DB ICE »ICE 1206 Karwendel. In: vagonWEB. Retrieved August 27, 2018 .
  21. Train compositions »2017» DB ICE »ICE 1207 Karwendel. In: vagonWEB. Retrieved August 27, 2018 .
  22. A setback for sustainable tourism in the region , press release of the Murnau municipality from July 20, 2017.
  23. Resistance to ICE dismantling. In: Münchner Merkur . July 30, 2017.
  24. ICE train dismantling hits Tyrol. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper . August 6, 2017.
  25. 960 Munich - Mittenwald - Innsbruck . In: Deutsche Bahn (Hrsg.): Course book of the Deutsche Bahn . 2018 ( kursbuch.bahn.de [PDF]).
  26. 960 Innsbruck - Mittenwald - Munich . In: Deutsche Bahn (Hrsg.): Course book of the Deutsche Bahn . 2018 ( kursbuch.bahn.de [PDF]).
  27. a b ÖBB: 410 Innsbruck - Ehrwald Zugspitzbahn - Reutte in Tirol - Pfronten-Steinach 2018 ( oebb.at PDF, timetable images).
  28. File: Seefeld train station in Tirol (20181216 140609) .jpg