Kiel–Lübeck railway

The railway route Kiel -Lübeck is a non-electrified, mostly single-track railway line to the east of Schleswig-Holstein. It connects with Kiel and Lübeck, the only two major cities of the country. The 81 km long route is currently in passenger traffic (as of 2013) operated by DB Regio.

Geography

The route extends from Kiel on the cities Preetz, Plön and Eutin to Lubeck by the Holstein hills and the mountain - ash section Eutin through Holstein Switzerland. This is surrounded by lakes, forests and terminal moraines and thus a major resort area.

History

The section Kiel- ash mountain was opened on May 31, 1866 in Holstein, together with the railway line Neumünster -Neustadt. Operators of both routes was the Altona- Kiel Railway Company ( LFS). Thus Kiel and Neumünster were connected to the Baltic Sea port of Neustadt on the track, but not yet with the important port city of Lübeck. The reason was that at that time as a free imperial city of Lübeck was not part of Schleswig -Holstein and there reigning in personal union Danish king did not want to finance industrial expansion of Lübeck.

It was only on April 10, 1873 came the connection of Eutin added to Lübeck on Bad Schwartau. This trail was built by the Eutin - Lübeck Railway Company (ELE). The LFS was nationalized in 1884, yielding ELE until 1941.

Now classified in Plön at the station platform canopy was erected in 1890 at the Holstein Switzerland train station, mined there in 1896 and the Prince Plön station ( right: Plon - Park Station ) rebuilt since 1910, this canopy is at Plön station.

Despite the different railway companies the passenger trains were soon in relation Kiel -Lübeck, while the other two branches route - Neumünster - ash mountain and Eutin -Neustadt - lost in importance. 1929, there was a D- train pair that ran between Kiel, Lübeck and Berlin. The D - train took about 95 minutes for the route Kiel -Lübeck. Other continuous passenger trains required approximately 150 minutes. The route Neumünster - ash mountain was then incorporated into the course book Table of the route.

Later, the route continued to gain importance. The mid-1970s drove on the D- train pair Schwarzwald- Express (Kiel - Seebrugg ) and several hedge Neil trains the route, including a pair of trains relation keel Bad Harzburg. The track was then as Route number 145:, recorded Flensburg- Lüneburg. Some express trains reversed accordingly continuously between these two cities. Many of these trains ran with railcars of Class 613

Between 1980 and 1985 several stations of the line for passenger were abandoned. This was in 1980 Bockholt and Kühren, 1981 Elmschenhagen, Kroog and Wahlstorf and 1985 Gleschendorf, Ottendorf, Timmdorf and Pansdorf. The latter was reactivated in 2000.

A first construction phase of the expansion project of the Kiel-Lübeck route has been implemented by June 2010. They included the construction of the railway station in Kiel- Elmschenhagen with junction possibility that expansion of the station Plön for system crossings ( including a comprehensive redevelopment of the station building and platforms ) and the expansion of the section Preetz ash mountain for speeds up to 140 km / h The building measures were intended to allow an approximate 30 -minute intervals between Kiel and Lübeck.

Current operating

Today the trunk is used for passenger with regional express trains every hour. The motor coaches used since 2009, the class 648 are partially supplemented reasons of capacity in the rush hour by locomotive-hauled trains. These trains are usually managed with the series 218 and five to seven modernized n- trolleys, as well as bi-level cars. The journey between the two cities is 69 minutes.

In addition, since June 2010, also operate regional trains with railcars on the entire route with a travel time of 87 minutes, so every day a more precise and to the rest of the route an approximate half hour is offered on the middle portion between Preetz and Eutin, the symmetry minute of the usual equivalent. Since December 2009, new vehicles of type LINT 41 are used.

There will be no scheduled freight more.

Train

The previously available through transport from the station via Flensburg Kiel to Lübeck Central Station - in some cases even Lüneburg- Uelzen - Brunswick - is now operationally separated, Kiel. The regional express and regional trains run so that there is a half hour approximately. There are currently (as of 2013) the following train movements:

View

In order to reduce the journey time to under 60 minutes, the number of double-track sections are increased as well as some Umtrassierungen be realized.

Also to be built a new station in the industrial area of Schwentinental - Raisdorf.

Others

The Plön station, which is right on the shore of the Great Plön Lake, made ​​famous by the ARD television series small town station that originated there; the station name was changed in the series in Lüttin.