Upper Hessian Railway Company

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The Upper Hessian Railway Company was a private company with the goal in the Grand Duchy of Hesse belonging to the province of Upper Hesse to build railway lines and operate.

While the Main-Weser Railway connected Wetterau , located in the west of the province of Upper Hesse, to modern traffic as early as 1850 to 1852, the main part around the Vogelsberg remained without a railway connection for years. It was not until 1868/69 that the Oberhessische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was founded with the participation of the Frankfurt banking house Erlanger & Sons and with financial support from the Hessian state.

She had the lines to Gelnhausen (today Lahn-Kinzig-Bahn ) and Fulda (today Vogelsbergbahn ) built by a Belgian company from the Gießen train station . On December 29, 1869, traffic from Gießen to Hungen, on June 29, 1870 to Nidda and on October 30, 1870 to Büdingen, was opened. The entire stretch of the Lahn-Kinzig Railway to Gelnhausen, which created a 70 km cross-connection on the western edge of the Vogelsberg to the Kinzig Valley Railway , was completed on November 30, 1870.

The 106 km long connection from Gießen to Fulda led through the northern foothills of the Vogelsberg, the first section of which to Grünberg began operating on December 29, 1869. Here, too, the construction of the railway was delayed by the Franco-German war, so that it was possible to travel to Alsfeld on July 29, 1870 , to Lauterbach on October 30, 1870 and to Bad Salzschlirf at the end of the year . The remainder of the route to Fulda did not follow until July 31, 1871. Of the total length of both routes, 28 km were on Prussian territory.

The demand for services in both passenger and freight transport fell short of expectations. Therefore, there was a contract between the company and the Grand Duchy of Hesse, according to which it became the owner of the railway with effect from January 1, 1876. The state established a railway directorate for the Upper Hessian Railways in the provincial capital of Giessen.

This formed the cornerstone for the Grand Ducal Hessian State Railways .

literature

  • Arthur von Mayer: History and Geography of the German Railways , Berlin 1894