Weser-Aller Railway
| RB 76 Weser-Aller Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 EVB-151 in Rotenburg (Wümme) station
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| Course book section (DB) : | 124 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 27 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 120 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Weser-Aller-Bahn is a regional train in Lower Saxony that runs from Rotenburg (Wümme) to Verden under line number RB 76 .
Until December 8, 2017, the trains ran on weekends via Nienburg to Minden in North Rhine-Westphalia , the previous route can only be covered with two changes.
Route
The Weser-Aller-Bahn runs on the single- track Verden – Rotenburg line without stopping.
The route is part of a direct connection between Hamburg and the Ruhr area , which relieves the traffic via Bremen, Osnabrück and Münster as an alternative route , especially in freight traffic. Transports between Hamburg and Hanover are also partly carried through them. In order to create sufficient capacity for diverted long-distance and freight trains, the regional railways are sometimes switched to rail replacement services .
business
Current operation
The Weser-Aller-Bahn runs every two hours on the Verden – Rotenburg line . During the rush hour during the week, additional trains increase the offer at hourly intervals. The railway and transport company Elbe-Weser (EVB) is currently operating . The service is ordered by the Lower Saxony regional transport company . The operation is carried out with multiple units of the class 628 . In Verden there are connections to intercity and regional express trains in the direction of Hanover and to the regional S-Bahn Bremen / Lower Saxony to Bremen. In Rotenburg there is a direct connection to the metronom in Hamburg.
On the section between Nienburg and Bielefeld, the transport services are provided by the Porta-Express ( RE 78 ). Since the timetable change in December 2017, these have been carried out by the Eurobahn , using Flirt 3 electric multiple units .
Former company
The line RB 76 "Weser-Aller-Bahn" was introduced between Minden and Rotenburg at the timetable change in December 2002. The line replaced the line RE 76 "Weser-Aller-Express", which has been running under this name between Bielefeld since 1998 and Rotenburg frequented. With the conversion, the southern end point was shortened to Minden. Electric locomotives of the 110 series with n-cars were used. During the week some diesel multiple units of the 614 series are also available.
As a result of the cut in regionalization funds, the end-to-end connection was canceled when the timetable was changed in December 2007. Initially, the complete discontinuation of the line was considered. This would mean that the Nienburg – Minden railway would only be used for freight traffic and the Verden – Rotenburg railway as a diversion route for long-distance passenger traffic. The investments made a few years earlier for the recommissioning and expansion of the Petershagen-Lahde station would have become obsolete.
The line was partially broken when the timetable changed in December 2007. From Monday to Friday the Weser-Aller-Bahn trains ran from Rotenburg to Verden, where there was a connection to the Bremen-Hanover regional express to Nienburg. There it was possible to transfer to Minden. Since then, the Nienburg – Minden section has been part of the Porta-Express (RE 78), which continues to Bielefeld. At the weekend, the end-to-end connection was initially retained, which had been postponed by about an hour to the connection from Monday to Friday. The travel time from East Westphalia (including Bielefeld) in the direction of Bremen was shortened somewhat during the week; in the direction of Hamburg , the journey time was extended by up to an hour if the detour via Bremen took place.
On weekends and public holidays, the continuous connection from Minden to Rotenburg was heavily used by travelers from East Westphalia in the direction of Hamburg (with DB weekend ticket and Lower Saxony ticket ). However, the capacity utilization during the week for the now divided route is low, especially for the rural Nienburg – Minden section. One of the reasons for this is the need to change trains three times on the connection between Hamburg and East Westphalia for passengers with the Lower Saxony ticket (valid from / to Herford).
The breaking of the line led to a considerable loss of attractiveness for this relation. Since the number of passengers between Minden and Nienburg is relatively low, only two intermediate stops are served here, the route will only be able to be secured in the long term with travelers in the direction of Hamburg.
The passenger association Verkehrsclub Deutschland proposed to improve the line to link it with the regional train Hamburg – Tostedt and the regional express Minden – Bielefeld (–Düsseldorf) to a through connection Hamburg – East Westphalia. A continuous train service between Bielefeld and Rotenburg (Wümme) is already suitable to attract travelers for this route, since the detour routes via Uelzen , Wunstorf or Bremen mean time losses.
From December 2016 to December 2018, EVB operated the Weser-Aller-Bahn as a subcontractor of the DB Regio Nord. DB Regio continued to operate vehicles on weekends until December 2017. This circulation was eliminated because the line between Minden and Verden was shortened. After a tender for four years, EVB took over the operation of the line directly. The class 628 multiple units will continue to be used and the timetable will be retained.
Future operation
From December 2022, the line will be added to the network of the Regional S-Bahn Bremen / Lower Saxony and tendered with the other lines of the network. Then electric multiple units will be used on the line instead of the diesel multiple units.
literature
- Journal of schienenbus - June 2007
Web links
- Description of the RB 76 (Minden ↔ state border) in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
- KBS 124 Rotenburg - Minden
- KBS 124 Minden - Rotenburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mofair: End for SPNV Rotenburg - Minden? ( Memento of December 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), February 23, 2007 edition, accessed on August 14, 2013
- ↑ Maintaining and improving the quality of local rail transport in Lower Saxony , SPD district of Harburg
- ↑ LNVG, press release, evb prevails against competition, June 28, 2018 (PDF) ( Memento of July 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
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