Saarbrücken – Sarreguemines railway line

Saarbrücken – Sarreguemines
Route number (DB) :	3251
Route number (SNCF) :	163,000
Course book section (DB) :	684 639 (1985) 284 (1944) 235f (1937)
Route length:	17.9 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV / 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	9.6  ‰
Minimum radius :	300 m
Legend Saar route from Karthaus 0.0 Saarbrücken central station (Bft) 208  m 1.0 Saarbrücken Central Station So (Bft) 2.7 Saarbrücken East 200  m to Homburg from Homburg Saarbahn from Walpershofen center 4.4 Brebach 194  m 6.5 Güdingen 194  m 8.7 Buebingen 195  m 11.2 Kleinblittersdorf 196  m 13.1 Auersmacher 196  m 16.0 Hanweiler-Bad Rilchingen 202  m 16.9 1.0 Saar , border between Germany and France from Béning 0.0 Sarreguemines 202  m according to Bitsch to Strasbourg

The Saarbrücken – Sarreguemines (German actually Saarbrücken – Saargemünd railway ), also known as the Obere Saartalbahn , is a double-track main line that runs from Saarbrücken via Kleinblittersdorf to Saargemünd (French Sarreguemines ), following the Saar .

history

On March 9, 1867, the responsible Prussian ministry passed a law to build the line. The State Treaty between Prussia and France for the construction of the border crossing at Sarreguemines was signed on June 18, 1867. The line was already completed in 1869, but since the connecting line from Saargemünd to Hagenau was still under construction, the first locomotive did not pass the Prussian Bridge between Hanweiler and Saargemünd until May 23, 1870 .

On June 1, 1870, the route was inaugurated in the presence of German and French government representatives. In Saarbrücken station Prussian and French military bands played side by side. Just a few weeks later, on July 16, 1870, the last passenger train left Sarreguemines for the time being, said goodbye to the French by throwing stones.

The line was originally intended to be part of a large railway line running from Brussels via Saarbrücken to Basel . After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 , this plan lost its importance after the Luxembourg – Metz – Basel railway line came completely into German ownership. In the 1940s there was still a high-speed train connection between Cologne and Strasbourg , but the route had long ceased to be of major importance for long-distance traffic .

On June 20, 1960, electrical operation to Brebach station was started as one of the first routes in Saarland . It was not until September 11, 1981 that the section up to the state border at Hanweiler-Bad Rilchingen was electrified. From September 1983, continuous electrical operation was possible up to track 1 of the Saargemünd train station . Since the rest of the station is not electrified, German overhead line voltage can be used without a system changeover point. The second track between Hanweiler and Saargemünd was dismantled due to lack of space on the Prussian Bridge.

The Saarbahn has been serving the route in local rail passenger transport since 1997 . Furthermore, Regional Express trains run between Saarbrücken and Strasbourg , which only stop at Saarbrücken Hbf and Saargemünd on the route.

Originally, the Bübingen Nord stop was planned on the route between the Bübingen and Güdingen stations . This was already in the timetable and in planning, but was abandoned due to the costs. The Deutsche Bahn also announced the station.

Route description

Starting at Saarbrücken main station , the route initially runs parallel to the Palatinate Ludwig Railway to the Saarbrücken Ost stop . This stop is only used on tracks 1 and 2 and is no longer a scheduled stop for trains in the direction of Sarreguemines. Here the route branches off to the south. In 1997, a track between Saarbrücken Ost and Brebach was dismantled to make room for the threading of the Saarbahn line at the Roman fort. Until 1945 there was also a branch to the Palatinate Ludwig Railway at the Roman fort, which, however, was no longer built after a road bridge was destroyed during the war. The Brebach train station was still responsible for the operation of the Halbergerhütte until 2015 ; in 2015 the rail connection to the Halbergerhütte was dismantled. The light rail cars are also parked here on the extensive track system. Until the 1990s, Brebach also served the rail connections of the Römerbrücke thermal power station , the wholesale market and some private companies. A railway bridge over the Saar was built in 1975 specifically to operate the German headquarters of Peugeot in the Güdingen / Unner district. In autumn 2005, apart from the siding to the Halbergerhütte, all the sidings were dismantled. The Saar Bridge was shut down in 2003.

View of Saargemünd (F) train station . Left track A with 15 kV contact line (DB system)

Behind Brebach, the route follows within sight of the Saar. The station building of the Güdingen stop was demolished in 2006. In Bübingen there were also some sidings, which were also closed in 2007. Kleinblittersdorf station has been rebuilt in recent years and a third track ( stump track ) has been added so that Saarbahn trains can also turn here in double traction . The station building is now privately owned. The new platforms were moved a few meters to the south and combined with a modern bus station . Here too, earlier private sidings have now been removed. The Saarstahl lime works is located in Auersmacher , from which a number of lime trains ran to Dillingen . After more than 80 years, the last scheduled lime train ran on this route on December 30, 2017, as Dillinger Hütte now sources its lime entirely from France. Especially for the shunting work, a small diesel locomotive from the RST company from St. Ingbert was kept here, which was mostly parked on a head track in Auersmacher.

Hanweiler station used to be a border station , but has now lost most of its tracks. The line becomes single-track before the station and crosses the Saar and the border with France on the Prussian Bridge . In Sarreguemines railway station , the line ends on platform 1 on the house platform .

traffic

The focus is on the operation of local and regional transport on the Upper Saar. For decades there were also express train connections between Saarbrücken and Strasbourg several times a day . Today the local traffic is carried out by the Saarbahn . Free travel for the disabled is only valid on the Saarbahn (also across borders) . The regional traffic from Saarbrücken via Saargemünd to Strasbourg is handled with identical German and French railcars of the 641 series of the DB and X 73900 of the SNCF .

The formerly extensive freight traffic (especially coal trains to France) is now limited to serving the Halbergerhütte and the Halberg-Guss company in Brebach. Furthermore, broken smelter lime from the underground Saarstahl mine Auersmacher is transported to the Dillinger Hütte several times a week .

literature

• Kurt Hoppstädter : The origin of the Saarland railways. Saarbrücker Zeitung Verlag und Druckerei GmbH, Saarbrücken 1961 ( publications by the Institute for Regional Studies of the Saarland, Vol. 2, ISSN  0018-263X ).
• Kurt Harrer: Railways on the Saar. One and a half centuries of railway history between technology and politics. Alba Verlag, Düsseldorf 1984, ISBN 3-87094-210-X ( Small traffic history ).

Web links

• Gerhild Krebs: Saarbrücken – Sarreguemines railway line in memotransfront.uni-saarland.de
• Course book from 1944

Individual evidence

1. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from July 31, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Traudl Brenner: Fates of the Bridge: Sometimes meaningless, sometimes indispensable , Saarbrücker Zeitung, May 6, 2010
3. ↑ https://www.oepnv-info.de/freifahrt/informationen/saarland/tarife-und-besonderheiten-saarland