Hanoverian Southern Railway

Hanoverian Southern Railway is the historic, but still common name of the railway line between Hanover and Kassel.

History

For the construction of a railroad from Hanover to the south of the kingdom already sat down in the 1830s the then Counsel city of Göttingen, Ferdinand Oesterley, a. 1847 has also provided Rudolph mountain preparatory work for the "Connection Hanover -Kassel ". Your northern sections Hanover Alfeld Alfeld -Göttingen and were opened in 1853 or 1854 and, as part of the once important north - south route still in operation. The southern section from Göttingen to Hann. Munden, also known as Dransfelder ramp was opened on 8 May 1856, decommissioned in parts from 1980 to 1995. The connection of Hann Munden to Kassel has been added in 1856, he continues as part of the Hanoverian Southern Railway in operation.

The term Hanoverian Southern Railway has been rendered obsolete by the annexation by Prussia of course, but is taken over by railway enthusiasts in today's parlance. Meanwhile, the largest section of Hanover is attributed to the north-south route to Göttingen.

This railway line was built by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways also therefore built to the trading center Hann. Munden to connect with its port to the capital of the Kingdom of Hanover. Until Göttingen, the route was relatively easy lead through Leinetal - but bypassing the major brewing town of Einbeck. To avoid lines on Kurhessisches area of the then following the southern sector despite the difficult terrain and enormous slopes over Dransfeld to Hann was. Munden out. Hence the name comes Dransfelder ramp for this section.

Although the total distance to Kragenhof (just before Kassel) lay completely on Hanoverian and now of Lower Saxony region with the exception of the town of Brunswick Kreiensen, the two track pieces since Reichsbahn times Hanover -Göttingen Göttingen and Hann were. Munden treated operationally different. For one, they received different course book numbers ( Hannover- Göttingen: 202/250; Göttingen- Hann Munden: 202a/257. ), And on the other the responsibility of the Directorates was for the northern part in Hannover, for the southern sector in Kassel, later Frankfurt / M.

Until the 1960s, this route was along the entire length of a major main connections in Germany. Through the delineation after the Second World War, the traffic shifted in a north-south direction, which is next to the Rhine between Cologne and Frankfurt routes also made ​​itself felt on this north-south connection. This changed, at least for the Dransfelder ramp as 1963, the north-south route between Hanover and Gemünden ( Main) and 1964, the branching therefrom Werra route Kassel- Hann. Munden - Eichenberg were electrified. The section of Göttingen Dransfeld - Hann. Munden remained without contact wire. The trains took henceforth Although the eight kilometers long, but much poorer slope and electrified route via Eichenberg. The Dransfelder ramp remained weekdays three commuter trains per direction, 1980, passenger services were set to this section and began two years later with the removal of the tracks between Göttingen and whistles field. The remaining portion served by Hann. Munden from 10 to 15 years as a freight siding, up here decommissioning and partial track degradation followed. Thus, the Hanoverian Southern Railway was the section Göttingen- Hann. Munden interrupted.

Given the ever-increasing burden on the route, the route was provided in the 1960s with new interlocking technology and additional passing loops and reinforced the superstructure. The further increase in load resulted in discussions to build a new railway line.

With the introduction of hourly intercity transport the remaining section Hanover -Göttingen was chronically overloaded. IC shared the track with D, express and commuter and freight trains. Not infrequently followed each other several trains in the block distance. Kassel was separated due to his head station from IC power, the trains went by the way of Göttingen Bebra.

During the construction of the high-speed line Hannover -Würzburg the Hanoverian Southern Railway was moved in the area of ​​Northeim gravel lakes to the east. Only after the operation had been taken on the path laid out section in November 1985, construction work could begin on the new line. In the city of Hannover and Laatzen nine crossings were eliminated in the course of high-speed railway construction. Even in the common section north of Göttingen (up Edesheim ) several Bahnhübergänge were lifted. In the years 1978 and 1979, the planning approval for the necessary replacement equipment in this section have been adopted.

In 1991, when the high-speed line Hannover -Würzburg, which runs almost parallel to the Hanoverian Southern Railway between Hanover and Göttingen and multiple connections to this offering, was opened along its entire length, also lost the northern section of a major long-distance connections. IC connections led from then on the high-speed line and became increasingly converted to ICE connections. Inter Regio - and D trains, however, took to continue the path on the old route. The inter-regional trains have now been converted into IC. Since the high-speed line from 23:00 clock is solely reserved for the transport of goods, a traveling of Göttingen ICE take the route of the Hanoverian Southern Railway. Also Kassel received with the remote station Wilhelm height connection to the high speed network.

Operation

Hanover -Göttingen

While the ICE railway transport takes place almost exclusively on the high-speed line, to operate until the timetable change in December 2009, the umbezeichneten every two hours now to " Intercity ", former Inter -regional train Stralsund -Karlsruhe. The timetable change 2009 this IC line was - apart from individual trains - laid between Hanover and Göttingen on the high-speed line, so that the holding in Northeim, Kreiensen and Alfeld are omitted; on the existing line runs (as timetable year 2011) only one IC pair of trains daily.

Since December 2005, the metronome of the railway company of the same name served in the approximate hourly regional services between Hamburg and the Uelzen, Hanover and Göttingen, this replaced (up to Hanover Sarstedt -Hildesheim ) all regional trains of Deutsche Bahn; Wages - Hamelin- Elze - Nordstemmen - Hildesheim been used since 2003 to the timetable change in December 2011 by the euro rail. Since 2011, the North Western Railway took over the operation of the Weser Railway Valley Railway and Lamme.

Night and car trains are also on the "old" route on the go. As before, the route is heavily frequented by freight transport.

Göttingen -Kassel

After adjusting the movement of persons across Dransfeld in May 1980 all trains ran exclusively on Eichenberg. The neighboring places of Dransfelder route were as previously already, operated by the former railway bus 2554 today RBB line 120. In section Hann Munden -Kassel run coming across Eichenberg regional trains the cantus Transport Company of Göttingen and the regional trains of DB Regio. Here, too, takes place lively freight.

Dransfelder ramp

The former stretch of Göttingen Dransfeld by Hann Munden is largely converted to a bike path or reported as Fauna- Flora-Habitat area and overgrown. Individual plots are now built over with homes or commercial buildings.