Tauber Valley Railway

The Tauber Valley Railway is a single track non-electrified standard gauge railway line between Crailsheim and Wertheim. It runs along the Vorbach and blue Bach to Weikersheim, then along the Tauber. In the course book, the route is listed under number 782. Until December 9, 2006, she was registered under the number 788.

History

After completion of soil surveys in 1858 was started in 1864 with the survey work for the Tauber Valley Railway. The actual construction of the Tauber Valley Railway began in October 1866, the stretch of Lauda- Wertheim, in August 1868, construction began on the track section Mergentheim, Crailsheim, which cost almost 16 million guilders. As the first part of the leg Lauda- high Hausen was released in 1867, the rest of the route followed a year later. On 23 October 1869, the Royal Württemberg and Grand Duke of Baden governments took the route section Lauda- Mergentheim or Mergentheim, Crailsheim in operation - on that day the line was first fully navigated by Wertheim to Crailsheim. For the cure in Bad Mergentheim the Tauber Valley Railway was of great importance, as it was from the summer of 1939, coaches from Berlin to Bad Mergentheim from the start. During the Second World War, the Tauber Valley Railway was spared except for minor damage in Lauda and Crailsheim of attacks. In the 1950s, went on the Tauber Valley Railway Express trains which plied from Frankfurt to Ulm. Bad Mergentheim also was re- served for the cure since 1968 with year-round coaches from Hamburg and Duisburg and Dortmund. These coaches were not until 1988 and 1989 respectively set. In a collision between two regional express trains on 11 June 2003 north of the station Schrozberg six people were killed and 25 others injured.

Current Situation

The Tauber Valley Railway was repeatedly threatened by closure plans of Deutsche Bahn AG, which has not yet never realized. In 2003 began extensive renovation and modernization work at the track, so new tracks were partially relocated, renewed crossings, cleaned the track bed and restored a eingebrochener embankment in Laudenbach. These measures costing about 15 million euros. From October 2009 to March 2010, the tunnel Niederstetten was extensively renovated under full closure for nearly 5 million euros and simultaneously overtaken the distance between the low- Stetten and Schrozberg. Since 1 January 2006, the Tauber Valley railway is operated by the Deutsche Bahn subsidiary Westfrankenbahn both railway infrastructure companies as well as a railway company.

Passenger

By cycling tourism in the Tauber Valley and neighboring Maintal many cyclists use the web as a means of transport. To set the web on Main Valley and the Tauber Valley Railway from March to October special car for a bicycle transportation. Every year on the second Sunday in August there is a car-free Sunday in the Tauber Valley, the rotates annually between southern and northern Tauber Valley. On this day the Tauber Valley road is closed to traffic, it may be used only by bicycles and inline skaters. In addition, at this day on the Tauber Valley Railway special trains with very special discounted tickets and a superb bicycle transportation, which are widely used.

Since September 10, 2007 held at Satteldorfer station in the industrial area again trains. At the same time the bus was more focused on the Tauber train and heavily restructured and still mined existing parallel transport.

A community of interest fought after the success in the saddle village for the reactivation of the breakpoint in Wallenhausen (approx. 3,500 inhabitants), which took place after several delays of 15 December 2013.

On the route mostly DMUs DB - 628 series are used as well as railcar DB Class 642

Freight traffic

For occasional freight traffic along the route provide a manufacturing business in Gamburg (Tauber ) and the Wertheimer Mainhafen, which are served by trains. Also ply on the route trains in relation Nuremberg - of-gauge Aschaffenburg to bypass the bottleneck of Schwarzkopf tunnel on the Main-Spessart -Bahn between Würzburg and Aschaffenburg.

Remarkable was until the mid- 1990s, the transport of goods between Blaufelden ( port company Sigloch ) and Crailsheim (about 2,500 cars per year) but it took after the opening of the cargo center Koengen Deutsche Post AG that does not have its own railway siding, on 6 March 1995 drastically. Meanwhile, the operation was discontinued.