Zwiesel–Grafenau railway

The railway line Zwiesel -Grafenau is a continuous single-track, non-electrified branch line in the Bavarian Forest, Lower Bavaria. It connects with Grafenau Zwiesel, from where connections are made in all directions.

History

The basis for the construction of this railway line, which entered into force on April 26, 1882 "Law on the treatment of existing Vizinalbahnen and construction of secondary sheets " short local train law. Then basing a law for the construction was adopted on 21 April 1884. After four years of detailed planning in 1888 started the construction by the Royal Bavarian State Railways and it was put into operation on 1 September 1890. In particular, the local glass and forest industries support the 2.46 million mark expensive construction of the railway financially. With 31.52 km long, it connects the cities and Grafenau Zwiesel in the Bavarian Forest. In Zwiesel Train has built following the Bavarian of the Eastern Railroad and on September 16, 1877 opened the Bavarian Forest railway platform Ling- Bavarian Eisenstein and opened to the September 3, 1928 line to ground corn.

An originally planned further construction to Freyung for local Ilztalbahn with connection to Passau was a station prevented by the Count Auer resistance of a route of about Riedlhutte and St. Oswald on the Schwaimberg. They hoped from a station near the town center a higher profit. Thus, the route via the Graf Auer urban area with two breakpoints in Grossarmschlag and Rosenau was led to the railhead. Subsequent plans to extend the route to Prince's Stone, so as to establish a connection with Passau, were dropped as well.

At the start you put a two tank locomotives D X. Two days after the opening of one of the two machines crashed shortly before Grafenau down the embankment. Only property had been damaged.

From 1930 to 1958 ended in Zwieselau station private Zwiesel Auerswald path that got with steam and diesel locomotives on a large rail network on 600 - mm gauge the wood supply to the railway line. The Verladegleise are now dismantled. There is only one breakpoint at the only remaining track. The former Holzverladebahnhof Klingenbrunn with extensive track systems and connection to the 600 mm narrow gauge railway in Spiegelau Forest Railway is now dismantled to just one track and demoted to a breakpoint.

Planned at the beginning continuous connection between Cham, Zwiesel, Grafenau and Passau was made with a rail-road bus until the year 1953. Due to the complex process of two-time shift from rail to road, and a turn on the road in Zwiesel, this compound was, however, reinstated in the year 1956.

On 27 and 28 August 1988 was organized in Zwiesel a large forest train hard. Here baptized Marion Zeitler, the wife of the provincial government of Lower Bavaria Dr. Herbert Zeitler this route including the railway line Zwiesel - ground corn on the name Forest Railway to distinguish it from the Bavarian Forest Railway.

In April 1952 received the depot platform Ling, which introduced the vehicles on this route, the first rail car of the VT series 95 These were followed from September 1955 their stronger successor to the VT series 98 Even after 13 years, in May 1965, ended the use of the VT 95 on this route. In the summer timetables 1980-1987 wrong on this route once or twice a week from an educated class 601 Alpen -See- Express between Dortmund and Grafenau. This ran between Gemünden and Zwiesel combined with the Alpen-See - Express Hamburg Altona- ground corn. In Frauenau it was due to the short platform of the unusual situation that it could only be exited from the rear power car and the three subsequent intermediate cars. In the 1980s, has been discussed repeatedly over a planned route decommissioning. In the winter timetable 1985/86 all Schienenbusleistungen were replaced on this route by car locomotive-hauled trains. Attracted about 1990 or postponed as the successor of the railcars locomotives of the series V100 one to two commuter cars with cab control car.

From 24 May 1993, the Regentalbahn took over with their Esslinger railcars on behalf of DB Regio Bayern the schedule on track. Short term were also converted to diesel railcar VT 09 and 10, former ETA 150 of the DB, used here. The operation is carried out since the beginning of 1997 with modern Regio-Shuttle - sets under the brand name Forest Railway. Freight traffic was shut down on 1 October 1994.

The Roadmap for 1999/2000 and 2001/2002 a total of 92 trains were conducted on this route every week. These distributed differently. Of these, 32 trains between Zwiesel and Frauenau, 16 trains between Zwiesel Spiegelau and 44 over the entire route. A peculiar feature 's weekend train at 17:11 clock by Spiegelau to Zwiesel dar. This drove combined with a train to Grafenau Zwiesel Spiegelau up, there both trains were separated. A tensile member drove back to Grafenau, the other to Zwiesel. In this timetable period, there were no regular train crossings more. Only occasionally perverse afternoon two trains at the same time on the track. The travel times on the total distance amounted to 48-50 minutes.

Current Situation

At the track today is Zwiesel with only one station, all other eight stations are now only breakpoints, five required breakpoints. As part of the order one hours clock Spiegelau could regain his station as a crossing point function.

Track rehabilitation

After the track for 9.6 million euros was thoroughly renovated in 2002, could be driven with a travel time for the total distance Zwiesel -Grafenau of 50 minutes since 2003 in a two -hour intervals, which sailed now all trains. Overall, since 32 trains from 6:00 clock to 20:50 clock be performed. Thereby, the number of vehicle-kilometers decreased by 2 %. A proposed operation with a unified leadership of the trains in the direction of Zwiesel Plattling which a transfer-free connection Grafenau platform Ling would have allowed, was not realized until today.

In the summer of 2007, the 4.7 km long section of Zwiesel - Zwieselau was completely redone for 2.3 million euros. In October and November of 2008, another 2.9 km between the stations Frauenau and Spiegelau were renewed. After this renewal can be achieved for the timetable change in 2008 a slight acceleration of this route. Default schedule driving times can be achieved up to 47 minutes. There are already plans for further renovations on the stretch Klingenbrunn -Grafenau for the coming years. In particular, smaller crossings are to be abandoned in order to achieve travel times.

Stops renovation

The Grafenau station was completely rebuilt in the years 2007 and 2008. The railway tracks have been reduced as part of a restructuring of the station area on a shortened track. Situated on the station forecourt bus station was completely redesigned. Similarly, Freight halls were demolished in the immediate station environment. These were no longer needed since the cessation of freight in 1994. In these areas, a shopping center and car parking facilities was built. The city and the county Grafenau Freyung -Grafenau here invested a total of 1.3 million euros in this conversion, which included a revised road layout. In the summer of 2008, work began on the construction of a new railway platform, which east of the former, built right at the end of the track opposite the bus stop is. This 500,000 -euro platform was completed in November 2008. This shorter transfer distances between bus and rail have been implemented, and enables a barrier-free access to public transport. The breakpoint Frauenau was also renovated in 2009. Here, a new shelter was built with a seating area, and paved access. The platform to platform 1 of Zwiesler station is to be built for 600,000 euros to the summer of 2013 with a length of 90 m re. In order for the station to be fully equipped with platforms of height 55 cm and thus be a ground-floor access to the trains possible.

Hourly

As of December 2013, was appointed hour on this railway line with the other regions and cities of Eastern Bavaria the Bavarian Railway Company. Currently there on the track only a two-hour clock, and irregular parallel bus.

Currently, the route can only be driven by a train. In order to realize a crossing in Spiegelau, the section Zwiesel Spiegelau from a current driving time of 32 minutes must. to 27 min. be accelerated. This requires the resolution of level crossings and rehabilitation of the railway bridge in Zwiesler urban area that is currently accessible only to 10 km / h is planned. In addition, the line must be equipped with safety technology for the Zweizugbetrieb.

By the end of 2013, the railway line is, according to the DB Netz AG will be equipped with GSM -R and signal technology for the hour. For the acceleration of the planned route about 20 of the 62 crossings is to be dissolved. Here is one, together with the neighboring municipalities Zwiesel, Spiegelau Frauenau and with the right of way holders in negotiations .. This is to the travel time between Zwiesel Spiegelau and fall to under 25 minutes in the clock traffic from today's 30. The communities Zwiesel Spiegelau decided in August and September 2012 to create by building parallel paths to the railway line, the prerequisite for the conveyance of multiple crossings. The town of Zwiesel invested in 2013 for the preparation of the clock hours in their area a total of 466,000 euros. By the end of September 2013 succeeded between Zwiesel and Klingenbrunn station, especially in the municipality Frauenau, dissolve six crossings, and to negotiate with eleven other agreements. In the city Zwiesel will continue to struggle for the resolution of more traffic crossings Einsiedeleistraße and Glasberger way. The financing of this necessary replacement road so far failed due to objections of local residents who fear road development contributions.

Introduction of GUTi

During the year 2010, several municipalities introduced the GUTi called free use of public transport with a tourist card. In response, the utilization of the trains on this railway line increased to 80-100 %. In addition to student traffic in the morning and at noon, established themselves in the late morning and afternoon peak traffic more tourists. In the course of being driven increasingly in double traction on this route. This intensified the efforts to introduce at this distance is an hour.

Others

• The track is in its stage of construction from 1983 some of the published on 22 October 2006 Expansion " German Railroads Volume 7 The Bavarian Forest " of the Microsoft Train Simulator.