Frankfurt–Bebra railway

The Frankfurt- Bebra railway (also Bebra railway or Bebra - Hanau railway called ) was a first Kurhessisches, later Prussian railway project. It includes the railway line Bebra - Fulda, in Hesse Kinzig Valley Railway and the railway line Hanau -Frankfurt ( südmainisch ).

Prehistory

The contours of the state of Hesse-Cassel were characterized by the center in Lower Hesse with its capital in Kassel, in the as province, the Grand Duchy of Fulda joined in the Southeast and it, in turn, further to the southwest, tube-like the province of Hanau, which surrounded the free city of Frankfurt in the north. Hanau was the second largest city of the Kürfürstentums. The country, however, was marked by low mountains, which could not be overcome with the railway system, which was in the first half of the 19th century are available. Therefore, Kassel and Frankfurt were first connected via the Main- Weser Railway, which crossed the province of Upper Hesse of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and, as Kondominalbahn belonged to the three riparian states. Hanau received by the private Frankfurt- Hanau Railway Company a separate connection to Frankfurt and - combined with dortigem switch - indirectly as well as to his state capital, Kassel.

With the progress of railway technology is more than 10 years later, possible also to connect from Kassel to Fulda Hanau to think that ran almost exclusively on kurhessischem area and should be operated by the State Railways. After the Kurhessische stands Assembly had adopted such a law could the connection be built since 1863.

Construction

Bebra had with the Friedrich- Wilhelms- Northern Railway already has a railway connection to Kassel. From there, the route to the south with the aim of Hanau was continued. For the Hessian and the beginning of the Prussian time the term was first Bebra - Hanau Railway. In order not to leave Kurhessisches territory, the train followed the valley of the Haune, not the Fulda River, which belonged to the Grand Duchy of Hesse. For a winding route was accepted. The first section between Bebra Hersfeld and was opened on 22 January 1866.

After the annexation of the electorate by Prussia because of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the project was taken over by Prussia and also started in the southern section of the building. The Kingdom of Prussia was able to open the course within two years, with trains between Hanau and Frankfurt were initially passed over the railway line Frankfurt- Hanau and Frankfurt railway connection to Frankfurt West train stations. In 1873 the Main Bridge at Hanau- Steinheim was completed, which made it possible to make the trains run in a newly built track over Offenbach am Main, Frankfurt Bebra railway station and the Main-Neckar bridge in Frankfurt Main-Neckar Railway Station. Due to the predetermined by the Main crossing constraint point had Hanau at the point at which the Frankfurt- Bebra railway crossed the continued range of Frankfurt- Hanau Railway Company on their way to Aschaffenburg, a large new station will be built ( Hanau east; later renamed in Hanau Hauptbahnhof ).

The new railway was built in 1874 the Royal Direction of Bebra - Hanau Railway assumed that was moved from Kassel to Frankfurt and from April 1, 1874 was named the Royal Railway Direction to Frankfurt am Main. On November 15, 1874, the name Bebra - Hanau railway by Frankfurt- Bebra railway was replaced.

Course

The route from Frankfurt to Hanau south and parallel to Main, then on the northern slope of the valley of the Kinzig, crosses the ridge and leads from there to Fulda.

The regional traffic sparsely populated region north of Fulda was low. Not even the branching branch lines changed little. In Bad Hersfeld starts since 1906, the crumpled Forest Railway, of which a remnant is still operated in freight traffic. There also branched 1912-1993 Hersfelder the circular path from. In Hünfeld there was a connection via Eiterfeld to Vacha, from Götzenhof could go from 1889 to 1986 through the northern Rhon to Hilders.

1914 a connecting curve south of Bebra was opened, the rides Frankfurt-Leipzig/Berlin without stopping in Bebra, but also allows without changing direction, hence the general common name "Berlin curve".

Changes

First, in 1888, the Frankfurt West stations were replaced by the main train station as the end point of the route.

Topographic problem point was to overcome the country back between Flieden and Schlüchtern. With the technical means available to the construction of a railroad tunnel of nearly 4 km in length was initially too complex and expensive. Instead, a hairpin was set up with Elm station as pointed sweeping train station. This had to change direction all through trains, which was in Elm increasingly untenable with increasing traffic volume and connection of the Fulda -Main railway in 1873. The technique for building a long tunnel has been greatly improved in the early 20th century, particularly by the now available dynamite. Thus began in 1909 the construction of the tunnel under the Schlüchterner Distelrasen, which was completed on 14 February 1914, and went into operation on 1 May. This tunnel is currently (2009) supplemented by a second tube and is then to be rehabilitated and back built on a track.

In 1963, the electrification was completed.

In its southern section of the Südmainische S -Bahn was built parallel between Offenbach and Hanau Hbf East. This route is nevertheless an independent infrastructure. Between Offenbach Ost and the Hanau main station, despite the best spatial proximity no way intersection with the Frankfurt- Bebra railway.

Operation

Since it was built, the traffic- importance of the route has changed several times. Until the Second World War it served mainly to traffic in relation Frankfurt -Leipzig. Due to the division of Germany was this east-west traffic to a standstill - apart from the transit and inter-zonal trains which plied now in Bebra with locomotive and direction changes. Thus, the main traffic direction shifted to north - south, from Hanover and Hamburg to Frankfurt and also on the Fulda -Main- track direction Bavaria. This meant that the historical connection now operationally divided into two parts:

• The railway line Hanau -Frankfurt on the south bank of the Main River
• The Kinzig Valley Railway between Hanau and Fulda
• The railway line Bebra - Fulda, connected via the Kinzig Valley Railway to Flieden to the railway line Flieden - Gemünden ( Fulda -Main -Bahn )