Wehratalbahn
Schopfheim – Bad Säckingen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Route number (DB) : | 4401 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Route length: | 19.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power system : | 15 kV 16.7 Hz ~ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Maximum slope : | 10 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Minimum radius : | 360 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Wehratalbahn ( Schopfheim – Bad Säckingen railway ) was a 19.7 km long branch line from Schopfheim to Bad Säckingen . It partly followed the Wehra river of the same name . The "Fahrnauer Tunnel" was one of the longest railway tunnels in Germany at the time (3.169 km) along the route . The Wehratalbahn was designed as a strategic railway to bypass Switzerland near Basel and was prepared for the laying of a second track.
development
The Wehratalbahn line was opened on May 20, 1890; It was electrified in 1913, in view of the existing hydropower plants and the long Fahrnau tunnel at the same time as the Wiesentalbahn : First, single-phase alternating current with a frequency of 15 Hertz and a voltage of 15 kV was used. The electricity was supplied by the Augst-Wyhlen hydropower plant . Specially developed locomotives from the Baden State Railways were used. Even if the electrical frequency was increased to 16⅔ Hertz in 1936, so that other vehicles could now be used, the electrical traction remained an isolated operation until 1955 .
Shutdown
On May 23, 1971, passenger traffic on the Wehratalbahn was discontinued and the Hasel, Wehr, Öflingen and Brennet / Wehratal stations closed; 1977 the catenary was dismantled. Freight traffic between Bad Säckingen and Wehr was carried out until September 1, 1990. On December 31, 1994 the line was closed .
First of all, the route should be protected: on the one hand by preventing overbuilding, on the other hand by protecting it as a historical monument . The Wehra railway bridge was placed under monument protection and the track in the Fahrnau tunnel recognized as a cultural monument . The reactivation of the Fahrnauer Tunnel is currently being investigated. The city of Schopfheim does not intend to take over the building .
reactivation
With a resolution at the municipal council meeting on April 19, 2005, the city of Wehr (Baden) commissioned an expert report that was supposed to show whether a restart was possible. The report drawn up by Ulrich Grosse , a local transport consultant from Tübingen , was positive, but reconstruction was relatively expensive and only possible in the long term. A technical feasibility study by the company Pöyry Infra from Lörrach came to a similar assessment .
A report presented in the summer of 2020, again on behalf of the city of Wehr by the local transport consultant Grosse, sees a potential of up to 12,000 passengers a day for a restart, also through a ring train concept with an S-Bahn line from Basel via Weil, Schopfheim , Wehr , Bad Säckingen and Rheinfelden . Armed with the further Wehratalgemeinden , the counties and the Regionalverband high Rhein-Lake in the reopening of interest in an efficient transport connection between meadows and Hochrheintal and between Lörrach , Wiesentalstrasse and Constance . In this study, reactivation costs of around 100 million euros are estimated. On July 23, 2020, Sabine Hartmann-Müller (CDU), member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg , presented this feasibility study to the state transport minister Winfried Hermann as the representative of the Upper Rhine region .
literature
- Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 117-121 .
- August von Würthenau (editor): Memorandum on the construction of the railways in the Baden Oberland: Leopoldshöhe - Lörrach, Schopfheim - Säckingen, Weizen - Immendingen to bypass Swiss territory , Karlsruhe 1890 digitized
- Julius Kraus: The Wehratalbahn, a strategic bypass line. In: Das Markgräflerland, issue 1/1987, pp. 156–172, digital copy of the Freiburg University Library
Web links
- Extensive information from the Eisenbahnfreunden Wehratal eV
- Information about the route on Reiner Schruft's homepage
- Information on suedbadenbahn.de
- Report on the reactivation report in the Südkurier
- Pictures from inside the tunnel
Individual evidence
- ^ Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion in Mainz of February 9, 1924, No. 6. Announcement No. 148, p. 89.
- ↑ Christian Tietze: Island of the electricity pioneers. In: eisenbahn-magazin 12/2013, p. 37
- ↑ Dismantling of the overhead line on the Wehratalbahn. Retrieved February 13, 2018 .
- ↑ 40 years ago the last train left the Öflingen station. Südkurier , accessed on May 25, 2011 .
- ↑ We agreed on the goal of securing the route of the Wehratalbahn. Mayor Christof Nitz, alderman Ruthard Hirschner and Wehr's mayor Michael Thater clear up any irritations. In: Badische Zeitung. Badischer Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, March 2, 2013, accessed on September 8, 2013 .
- ↑ We have been walking for 40 years. Badische Zeitung , accessed on May 25, 2011 .
- ^ Badische Zeitung: Study sees great potential for the railway line - Wehr - Badische Zeitung. Retrieved July 19, 2020 .
- ^ Badische Zeitung: Railway study presented to Minister of Transport - Wehr - Badische Zeitung. Retrieved July 25, 2020 .