New Cologne – Groß-Gerau line

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The new Cologne – Groß-Gerau line (at least until the mid-1970s, the Cologne – Groß-Gerau supplementary line) was a planned new railway line between Cologne and Groß-Gerau (northwest of Darmstadt ) about 180 km in length.

The main reasons for planning were the acceleration of traffic between the Cologne / Bonn area, the Rhine-Main area and the Mannheim / Ludwigshafen area, as well as the relief of the two existing routes ( left and right Rhine route ).

The project, which had been examined in various versions since the 1960s, was supposed to be the first new high-speed rail line in Germany, but fell behind in planning due to regional resistance and disputes and was discarded in July 1978. The project initially resulted in the new Cologne – Koblenz line and finally the Cologne – Rhine / Main high-speed line planned from the mid-1980s and put into operation in 2002 .

course

The route design for the DB expansion program from 1970 provided for a route that would have left Cologne Central Station in an easterly direction. This should eliminate the need to change the direction of travel from Belgium / Aachen to the south. Trains between the Ruhr area and southern Germany were supposed to reach the new line via a route on the Cologne – Neuss line that had been kept free for several decades , without changing direction in Cologne Hbf. The route should initially follow the course of the right Rhine route and bend in a southerly direction at Cologne-Wahn . The Bonn-Beuel train station at kilometer 25 was intended to be the only intermediate passenger station on the route (before the branch to Wiesbaden and Frankfurt in the Rhine-Main area). The existing train station should be expanded along the way. The route was to leave the Rhine Valley near the train station and cross Westerwald and Taunus in a similar way to federal motorway 3 . Initially, it would have climbed to around 320 m in the Westerwald. The route would have crossed the autobahn in a south-easterly direction, for example at kilometer 35, in order to then run west of the autobahn in a straight line. Siershahn and Montabaur would have been bypassed to the east before the route in the autobahn curve southeast of Montabaur would initially have touched the trunk road in order to cross it north of Limburg (approximately at route km 100) in a south-westerly direction. In the Lahn valley, it would have dropped to around 120 meters in altitude, only to then climb up to 350 meters in the direction of the Taunus. The route would have run between Limburg and Diez before it would have rejoined the motorway at kilometer 125 in order to cross under it in a south-easterly direction. At Niedernhausen (approx. Km 135) the route would have met the autobahn again and would then have loosened again (further east of it).

Not far from route kilometer 150, Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden should be reached via two connecting curves to the Frankfurt – Wiesbaden railway line . Mainz was to be connected to the Kaiserbrücke by a branch line at Wiesbaden-Medenbach .

Shortly after crossing the Frankfurt-Wiesbaden railway line, the autobahn should first be crossed in a south-westerly direction and then the Main should be crossed. Then the Riedbahn , which was to be expanded for 200 km / h, should be reached near Groß-Gerau (at around 100 meters above sea level). The Mannheim main station was to be reached in the further course without changing the direction of travel ( western introduction of the Riedbahn ), where connection to the planned new lines Mannheim – Stuttgart and direction Karlsruhe – Basel should be made.

The planned length of the route was 181 km; the shortest existing route (via Mainz), on the other hand, was 203 km. According to the planning status of 1975, 19 percent of the route should run in the tunnel, 15 percent on valley bridges and one percent on other railway overpasses.

history

In 1963, Franz Kruckenberg presented a concept for a high-speed railway from Frankfurt to Cologne, which was to run on the right bank of the Rhine and largely based on the motorway and airports.

In a study presented to the board of directors of the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1964, the group for general studies examined different variants of new lines to bypass the left Rhine line, which was the busiest line in the F-Zug network at the time . All variants were discarded due to insufficient benefit in relation to the associated costs.

Specific preliminary planning for a new line between Cologne and the Rhine-Main area later found its way into regional spatial plans. In October 1969, the then Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt proposed a new line between Cologne and Frankfurt in a government declaration . There was a choice of one route to the left or right of the Rhine Valley. Due to the importance of the planned supplementary route for traffic in the direction of Nuremberg and Munich, but also due to its shorter route length and thinner population, preference was given to the route to the right of the Rhine.

The line was included in the expansion program presented in 1970 for the network of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . The line should relieve the congested existing lines in the Rhine Valley and shorten the distance between Cologne and Frankfurt from 222 km to 184 km. With a top speed of 200 km / h, the travel time between Cologne and Frankfurt am Main should be reduced from around 130 to around 70 minutes. Initial forecasts were based on around 100 passenger and freight trains per day, which should run on the route once the route is commissioned. With increasing traffic, a segregation according to speed classes was to be expected. The existing lines were to be used for long-distance traffic even after the supplementary line went into operation, and local passenger and freight transport on these lines should be expanded.

In 1971, the draft speed for the supplementary route was set at 300 km / h, although lower maximum speeds should be selected if necessary in the case of particularly high expenditures in short sections. In addition to high-speed traffic ( IC and TEE trains), TEEM and express freight trains weighing up to 1,000 t were to run on the route. The planned minimum radii were 7,000 m (in the exceptional case 5,000 m) with excess heights of up to 75 mm. The gradients should not exceed the 12.5 per mille stipulated in the EBO, although further gradients up to 25 per mille should also be checked due to technical progress (automatic clutches, electrical traction, etc.). The clearance profile should initially be 4.40 m wide and 5.40 m high (without pantographs and overhead lines) in order to meet the diverse requirements of rail freight transport. In the absence of experience with train encounters at speeds of over 200 km / h, a track center distance of 5.00 m was initially assumed; In tunnels, 6.00 m were discussed as well as two separate, single-track tubes. The distance between the operating stations was set at around 20 km and the establishment of transfer points was examined.

At the beginning of 1971, construction work was considered to be possible in 1973. The completion should take place by 1980. An early completion of a 50 km long section between Cologne and the junction to Frankfurt / Wiesbaden was considered in order to gain knowledge in driving tests in high-speed traffic up to 300 km / h. In mid-1971, the line was one of two lines that were subjected to in-depth route planning alongside the supplementary line from Hanover to Gemünden . Since the topographical maps required for this on a scale of 1: 5,000 were largely missing, these were made using aerial photography .

In the course of the corridor investigations commissioned on June 15, 1971, the costs of projects of various modes of transport in three selected corridors were compared with the benefits for the first time up to December 1974. Between Cologne and Frankfurt, in addition to the planned extension Cologne – Groß-Gerau , a deepening of the Rhine between Cologne and Koblenz was assessed. For 1985, sales of 80 long-distance passenger and 45 freight trains per day and direction were expected.

In 1971 the first detailed route investigations between the Rhine / Main and Rhine / Ruhr were carried out. On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport, a route for passenger and freight traffic with a maximum gradient of 12.5 per mille was to be developed. In 1973, the project for a new line between Cologne and Groß-Gerau was included in the first federal transport infrastructure plan. The planned 180-kilometer route should cost three billion D-Marks (around 1.5 billion euros ). With a top speed of initially 200 km / h, the travel time between Cologne and Frankfurt am Main should be shortened by one hour to one and a quarter hours. Construction was expected to start in 1974, and at the end - with the exception of the southernmost section - the entire route was to be built.

A major reason for planning was the congestion on the two existing Rhine routes, on which, for example, up to 651 trains were counted on workdays in June 1973 (with a capacity of around 600 trains). At the end of the 1990s, around 600 trains ran daily on the two Rhine routes. As early as the late 1980s, the rail corridor through the Rhine Valley was considered the most heavily used transport axis in Europe and the bottleneck in the German rail network.

The regional planning procedure was initiated in February 1974 and later suspended.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the line was traded before the high-speed line Hanover – Würzburg ; the former Federal Railroad wanted to build the line as the first new line in Germany. In his corporate policy objectives , the Federal Transport Minister instructed the Deutsche Bundesbahn in December 1974 to build the Hanover-Würzburg and Mannheim-Stuttgart routes, while alternative routes were to be investigated for the route between Cologne and Groß-Gerau. While the two new lines decided in 1974 were also specified in the coordinated investment program for the federal transport routes of 1977, the investigations instructed by the Federal Ministry of Transport were still running that year, in which further solutions for improving traffic between Cologne and Frankfurt were to be examined. Based on this data, a decision should be made about the further planning steps and the route. After the route showed insufficient profitability in the update of the corridor studies for the coordinated investment program, the Deutsche Bundesbahn felt compelled to look for alternative solutions.

Due to the particularly dense population in the Rhine-Main area, the Federal Minister of Transport commissioned a route study in 1974 to link the new Cologne - Groß Gerau line with the existing rail network in the Rhine-Main area . Two institutes, coordinated by Gerhard Heimerl, were commissioned to investigate the routing of the new line through the Rhine / Main conurbation and the connection of the Rhein-Main airport to the long-distance transport network. The investigation area was initially limited to the section Niedernhausen –Groß-Gerau of the so-called Westerwaldtrasse (Cologne– Limburg –Groß-Gerau). It was later extended in the north (following a line on the left bank of the Rhine between Cologne and Koblenz, which was also discussed) to a connecting point near Wiesbaden-Schierstein and in the south to Mannheim-Waldhof . 25 feasible route variants (some with sub-variants) were developed for the investigation. The final report was presented in 1976. In 1976, a large-scale variant over Koblenz was prepared in planning to enable a comparison with the route over Limburg.

As a result of a long discussion as to whether the planned route should be on the left or right bank of the Rhine, planning of the route did not progress. Due to these conflicts over the large-scale route, the realization fell behind the north-south route opened in 1991.

In July 1978, Federal Transport Minister Gscheidle decided, at the urging of the Hessian Prime Minister Börner , to abandon the new line. He thus anticipated the relevant decisions of the Federal Railroad and the Federal Cabinet. The Hessian State Chancellery then instructed the District President Darmstadt not to restart the spatial planning procedure that had been stopped. Strong regional resistance is also considered to be a major reason for this step. The Trebur Action Group , among others, had campaigned against the new line . The project was thus temporarily removed from the federal transport infrastructure plan.

The new Cologne – Koblenz line was included as a new project in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1980, but its specific planning was initially postponed in favor of the new Hanover – Würzburg line. In the mid-1980s, planning was resumed in the form of a new line between Cologne and Frankfurt.

The high-speed line Cologne – Rhine / Main was built from the mid-1990s and opened in 2002.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Project Group Corridor Investigations in the BMV (Ed.): Investigation of investments in traffic routes in selected corridors in the Federal Republic of Germany: Report of the project group "Corridor Investigations" in the Federal Ministry of Transport . Verlag Neue Presse, Coburg 1974, ( series of publications by the Federal Minister of Transport , issue 47), pp. 11, 30 f., 45 and Appendix 10.
  2. ↑ a b Route study DB new line Cologne - Groß Gerau in the Rhine-Main area. Part 1: Summary Report . 113 pages, Frankfurt, 1976, pp. 5-7.
  3. ↑ a b c Werner Hagstotz: Concern and collective action in rural areas . Verlag Haag + Herchen, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, ISBN 3-88129-475-9 , pp. 266, 268.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Paul Werner: Expansion and expansion of the route network of the German Federal Railroad . In: Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau , issue 1/1971, January / February 1971, pp. 16-20
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Heinz Delvendahl: The supplementary routes Cologne - Groß-Gerau and Hanover - Gemünden after the expansion program: basics of the route and routing . In: Die Bundesbahn , year 45 (1971), issue 7, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 325-330
  6. ↑ Central transport management of the German Federal Railroad (ed.): New lines of engineering structures: bridges, tunnels, elevated railways, supporting structures . Brochure (28 pages) from November 1975, p. 5 f.
  7. ^ Wilhelm Blind: Setting the course for the new Cologne – Rhein / Main line . In: The Federal Railroad . No. 2 , 1990, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 189-194 .
  8. ↑ Group for General Studies of the German Federal Railroad (Ed.): High-speed route for the main traffic flows in the Federal Railroad network . Study completed September 1964, pp. 5, 6.
  9. ↑ Walter Engels, Wilfried Zieße: The new Cologne – Rhine / Main line - an interim balance . In: Die Bundesbahn , 10/1991, pp. 965–975.
  10. ↑ a b No “line of reason” in Bonn . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 21, 1989.
  11. ^ Eduard Sitzmann: Operation on new routes . In: Die Bundesbahn , year 45 (1971), issue 7, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 331–338.
  12. ^ Paul Werner: The tasks of the planning department within the ZTL . In: Die Bundesbahn , year 45 (1971), issue 19/20, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 987-994.
  13. ↑ Peter Kaniut, Egbert Form: The role of the EBA in major DB AG projects using the example of the Cologne – Rhein / Main railway line . In: Railway technical review . 51, No. 9, 2002, pp. 554-564.
  14. ↑ Federal Railway Office, Frankfurt / Main branch (ed.): Planning approval according to § 18 (1) AEG for the Cologne-Rhine / Main, Wörsdorf railway line, km 2,131,900 to km 2,135,430. Part 32.2, Ref .: 1024 - P - FFM-1 - 0066 - 94 . Frankfurt 1997, p. 159.
  15. ^ Rüdiger Block: On New Paths. The new lines of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: Eisenbahn-Kurier Special: High-speed traffic . No. 21, 1991, excluding ISSN, pp. 30-35.
  16. ↑ Where to build . In: Der Spiegel , Edition 9, 1973, p. 33 f.
  17. ↑ THE General Assembly of Representatives in Berlin . In: Die Bundesbahn , 6/1973, pp. 402–405.
  18. ↑ German Bundestag (Ed.): Briefing by the Federal Government Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 1st stage . tape 7 , no. 1045 , October 3, 1973, ISSN  0722-8333 , p. 101 ( BT-Drs. 7/1045 ).
  19. ↑ Joachim Seyferth: The new lines of the German Federal Railroad ( rail book 1) . Josey-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-926669-00-4 , p. 9.
  20. ↑ DBProjekt GmbH Cologne – Rhein / Main, project management (ed.): New Cologne – Rhein / Main line: A concept of today for the traffic of tomorrow , brochure (28 pages), Frankfurt am Main, March 2000, p. 22.
  21. ↑ a b Schnellbahn Köln - Groß-Gerau to the files . In: Official Gazette for the Groß-Gerau district , July 7, 1978.
  22. ↑ a b Roland Heinisch : The ICE 3 on the Cologne – Rhein / Main line: a technological leap in the railway system . In: Railway technical review . 51, No. 12, 2002, pp. 761-766.
  23. ↑ a b Instead of cinema . In: Der Spiegel , Issue 53, 1977, p. 59.
  24. ^ Heinz Bubel: The technical design of the new lines of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: Der Eisenbahningenieur , 28 (1977), Issue 1, pp. 11-18.
  25. ^ Wilhelm Linkerhägner: New and expanded lines of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In: Jahrbuch des Eisenbahnwesens , 1977, pp. 78–85.
  26. ↑ G. Vogt: The Federal Railroad has big plans . In: Der Steuerzahler , ISSN  0490-9690 , issue 11/1978, p. 112.
  27. ↑ New Mannheim – Stuttgart line . In: Die Bundesbahn , 1976, No. 12, p. 790.
  28. ↑ a b c Report on the new Cologne – Frankfurt (M) line under discussion again . In: Railway technical review . 34, No. 4, 1985, p. 274.
  29. ↑ New Cologne – Koblenz line . In: The Federal Railroad . tape 57 , no. 12 , 1981, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 979 .