Werra Railway
The railway line Eisenach- Lichtenfels is a single-track main line in Thuringia and Bavaria, which was originally built and operated by the Werra Railway Company. It runs from Eisenach along the Werra about Meiningen to ice rink and earlier continue to Coburg and Lichtenfels. Because of course it also bears the name Werrabahn.
History
1841 included the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar- Eisenach and the duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Saxe-Meiningen a treaty establishing a railway from Eisenach to Coburg. 1845 was hit with the Kingdom of Bavaria, the agreement on the integration of Werrabahn to the Ludwig South - North Railway in Lichtenfels, and finally received in 1855 the newly founded Werra Railway Company the concession to build and operate the line.
On February 18, 1856 followed in Grimmelshausenmuseum Themar at the groundbreaking ceremony. Already on November 1, 1858, the entire route between Eisenach and Coburg with a length of 130.1 km, was inaugurated. It emerged 17 Reception Building, 10 roundhouse, a depot site, 22 houses for railway officials, 128 railway keeper's house, 179 level crossings, 63 under-and overpasses, 31 bridges and a tunnel at Förtha. There were up to 8470 workers (June 1858) deals with the construction.
The regular train service began on 2 November 1858, 24 locomotives and 367 wagons. The rest of the way with 30 km in length to Lichtenfels was taken in January 1859 in operation. All engineering structures had been designed from the outset for double-track operation. The two-pronged expansion but was only in 1910 on the route through the Thuringian Forest from Eisenach to Bad Salzungen ( 26.7 km ), and between Schwallungen and Wasungen (3.5 km), Meiningen and Grimmenthal (7.1 km), Coburg and Creidlitz (4.6 miles) performed.
From the depot site was created in 1863 for the Werrabahn the railroad repair shop, which still exists today as a depot Meiningen. All sections of the Werra Railway Company went on October 1, 1895 for 25 million marks in Prussian state owned. By 1945, the Werrabahn belonged to Reichsbahndirektion Erfurt, who set up an operational, transport and machine inspection in Meiningen. In the passenger and freight traffic had the side- long-haul especially for francs, including the day lying in the Free State of Thuringia part, or the southern Thuringia, a great importance. In the course book of the Deutsche Reichsbahn -Gesellschaft, the route was number 165
On April 8, 1945, the railway was shut down after blowing up bridges ice rink. Through the delineation was carried out on the section between the ice rink and already lying on the Bavarian region station Görsdorf no longer operating recording. The route closure was due to a dilapidated underpass for the section between Görsdorf and deep Lauter on 30 August 1949. Passenger traffic was carried out for the Lauter valley with a bus route to Rottenbach. Freight transport by low volume up but was maintained until 1 July 1976 to 6 April 1977, the tracks were dismantled. Even before 1989, the land was sold and built in Lauter and Doerfles -Esbach sections, which is why a restoration of the route is not possible.
On the leg Coburg- Lichtenfels, the electric traction was taken on October 5, 1950. It was one of the first electrification projects after the war at all. It should demonstrate the connection between the Free State of Bavaria and in 1920 united with him Coburg. In 1975, the electrification according to Neustadt bei Coburg was extended, and since 1991 the trains with electric locomotives to Sonnenberg (see railway Coburg- Sonneberg ).
Three arches of the bridge over the Main at Schney had been blown up on 10 April 1945. By October 1945 the island was a temporary repair with a Behelfsüberbau, which could be sailed by trains only at 20 km / hr. It was not until the beginning of 1969 the construction was replaced by a 130-meter long new.
The route Neustadt- Coburg- Lichtenfels had until 1970 419b the track number in the timetable of the German Federal Railroad, then the 830 and since then the 820, while the Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR route Eisenach -Meiningen Icefield bore the number 190 to December. In 1968, the route number was changed to 630, and from 1990 was this just between Eisenach and Meiningen, for the section of Meiningen ice rink after Sonnenberg 633 In today's timetable of Deutsche Bahn AG, the route Eisenach -Meiningen, the number 575 and the route Meiningen icefield -Sonnenberg, the number 569 as route numbers are assigned to 6311 and 5120 in Bavaria.
Operation
1858 required the passenger trains for the 130 km between Eisenach and Coburg about four hours, 1934, the express train of Eger on Bayreuth and Lichtenfels to Eisenach two hours and ten minutes. 1939 sailed on weekdays an express train, two passenger trains and five passenger trains the track.
In the years after the Second World War remained, with few exceptions (eg the Express Train Bad Love Stone -Leipzig ) no high-quality passenger trains on the Werrabahn, apart from the section between Eisenach and Förtha, who from 1963 together with the railway line Förtha - Gerstungen of cross- border trains towards Bebra is frequented. In the last years of the GDR daily drove an express train from Bad Salzungen about Eisenach to Zwickau. On the other piece of Werrabahn Monday of construction workers express train drove mostly just after midnight from Bad Salzungen Meiningen and Erfurt to Berlin. Only on the short section between Meiningen and Grimmenthal drove several daily express trains with the objectives of Berlin, Leipzig, Halle ( Saale), Dresden, Görlitz and Stralsund, who moved to the railway track to Erfurt behind Grimmenthal of the Werrabahn. Among them was since 1976 the well-known cities express " Rennsteig ".
Today, the South Thuringia -Bahn GmbH hourly with the railcar of Eisenach in two hours after the ice rink, in 1990 took this at least two hours and 45 minutes, while in 1934 only one hour and 50 minutes at 108 km driving distance. Between Lichtenfels and Coburg, continue to Sonneberg, leave every hour trains of "Franken -Thuringia Express" Deutsche Bahn.
For closing the gap between the ice rink and Coburg Upper Franconia politicians felt obliged to give in the fall of 2008 a feasibility study for around 50,000 euros in order by the initiative of Pro Bahn. Also Mehdorn was the idea of such a gap plugging towards positive, but pointed to the responsibility of the Länder. The route of the 1977 mined route is overbuilt in Doerfles -Esbach. This area can according to statements by Pro Bahn Coburg / Südthüringen with the help of the new compound curve to the looping of the ICEs is relatively easy to drive around to Coburg. In Lauter the route in two places is overbuilt with a total of five houses. These houses could be bypassed by a slight tilting of the route to the east. While those skilled in the Thuringian page still went out in late 2008 estimated that around 60 million euros were sufficient for the reactivation of the 17 km -long section, numbered a report in early 2009, the cost to 103.4 million euros. From the Free State of Bavaria, these costs are considered too low mainly because of the lack of electrification. Together with a forecast at the low purchasing potential which does not reach the threshold of 1,000 passengers per day, this led in May 2009 to a negative attitude of the two countries concerned about the route reactivation ice rink -Coburg. When closed by the Thuringian state parliament election in 2009 coalition agreement between the CDU and the SPD, the two parties have agreed to advertise along with the Bavarian government in the federal government for closing the gap between the ice rink and Coburg, provided an expert report confirmed demand and economy.
In the early planning of the new Ebensfeld -Erfurt was a compound of Werrabahn with the new line, between Grümpen and Rauenstein been considered. The effort of at least 150 million euros was doing classified as too high, hence not pursued the plans. According to zoning approval in 1995 for the new Ebensfeld -Erfurt a connection option the Werrabahn is taken into account planning and at any time after completion of the new line feasible. However, this was rejected by the community Grümpen 1993. In March 2012, the industry and commerce Coburg and Suhl commissioned the development of a study designed to investigate the cost of a new connection between the ice rink and the future ICE stop Coburg. Published in October 2012 study shows that closing the gap is worthwhile and that this route is as soon as possible be included in the new Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2015. The Thuringian State Government followed this issue and announced the closure of the gap Werrabahn the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2015.
Constructional features
The exit Eisenach follows up to 1:50, even in sections 22.5 per thousand steep ramp in the Thuringian Forest, which with the 549 m long tunnel Förthaer (formerly referred to as Epichnellener tunnel) to about 100 m height difference ends. The route then slowly falls into the Werra valley and follows from Bad Salzungen the Werra to ice rink.
Behind ice rink, at an altitude of 437 m above sea level. NN, the route traverses the mountains Long before Coburg is reached at 295 m altitude, in this section with 22 km length is no longer in operation.