Homburg Railway

The Homburg Railway (German: Homburger Bahn ) is an 18 km long railway line from Frankfurt am Main to (Bad ) Homburg in the German state of Hesse. It was opened in 1860 was one of the first railway lines in Germany. It is now part of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn line S5 to Friedrichsdorf.

History

Early on, there was support in Homburg for an efficient transport connection to Frankfurt in order to increase patronage to its spa and casino. In 1850 a horse-drawn omnibus line provided an hourly service from Frankfurt to Homburg. But this soon was not enough to meet the needs of travellers. Projects to build railways failed in 1836, 1845, 1851 and 1856. These failures were caused by funding problems and the number of small states that the line would have to run through: the line which was eventually built was only 18 km long but it ran across the territories of four independent countries: the Free City of Frankfurt, the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Darmstadt), the Duchy of Nassau and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg. Nassau had concerns because it would increase the competition with its own spas. The Electorate of Hesse-Kassel's opposition forced the line to avoid the town of Bockenheim, which was in Hesse-Kassel territory on the Main-Weser Railway, just outside Frankfurt. The locals called the line with some exaggeration the "six nation railway".

When, after tough negotiations, an acceptable route was found and the Homburg casino agreed to finance it at the end of June 1859, all concerned countries granted a concessions to the British railway entrepreneur, Sir Samuel Morton Peto for the line and the Homburg Railway Company (Homburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, HEG) was founded. Construction of the line under the direction of the famous railway engineer Edmund Heusinger von Waldegg was carried out very quickly and on 10 September 1860 the first passenger trains ran on the line. The first freight train ran on 6 October 1860. The Homburg Railway in Frankfurt connected with the Main-Weser station (Main-Weser-Bahnhof) on the Gallusanlage (a section of the old Frankfurt wall), and ran on the tracks of the Taunus Railway to the old vineyards (Rebstockgelände) west of Frankfurt, where its own line branched off to Rödelheim. It then went ran via Weisskirchen and Oberursel to Homburg, where it ended at a terminal station in the street of Louisenstraße.

At its opening the Homburg Railway had 28 first to third class carriages as well as luggage and freight waggons and four locomotives with a 1B wheel arrangement. The locomotives were supplied by Henschel with the factory numbers of 46 to 49. In 1870, a similar locomotive was procured from Henschel with the factory number of 290. The number of carriages had been increased to 36. Initially eight pairs of trains ran daily between Frankfurt and Homburg.

Further development

The Prussian annexations after the War of 1866 simplified the situation for the Homburg Railway Company. The whole length of the route now ran through Prussia, except for one small piece at the station of Weißkirchen. The closing of the casino by the Prussian state in 1872 led to a significant fall in passenger numbers. In 1873 and 1874 the Kronberg Railway was built by a private railway company. It ran on the line of the Homburg Railway and branched off after Rödelheim station to Kronberg. On 1 January 1880, Homburg Railway Company was sold to Prussia because the company could not afford and did not want the changes to the line required for connection to the planned new Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. It thus became part of the Prussian state railways. The line was diverted to connect at Bockenheim station (now Frankfurt West station)—which had to be avoided in 1860—on the also nationalised Main-Weser Railway. The diversion, which was put into operation on 10 May 1884, shortened the line to 15.6 km from Frankfurt West Station. The old line through the vineyards was removed.

Extension and expansion

In 1895, the Usingen line from Homburg via Friedrichsdorf to Usingen was opened and some years later extended to Weilburg and Wetzlar on the Lahn Valley Railway. In Homburg a second terminal station (Homburg Neu, new Homburg) was built for it in the street of Louisenstraße; it was built 200 to 300 metres from the station on the line from Frankfurt, which was on the site of the current town hall. A link line between the two stations enabled shunting. Planning of a line to Friedberg began in 1868; although construction did not start until 1898 and the line was commissioned on 15 July 1901. It branched off the line to Usingen in Friedrichsdorf.

In 1907, the old Homburg stations were replaced with the current Homburg station, creating a through line to Friedrichsdorf. In 1912, Homburg was renamed Bad Homburg. Between 1907 and 1912 the entire route from Frankfurt to Homburg, Friedrichsdorf and Friedberg was duplicated.

Connecting curves

On 1 September 1905, a link was opened at the request of Emperor Wilhelm II through the Frankfurt vineyards (Rebstockgelände), initially only for freight and special trains. It branched off Homburg line south of Rödelheim station towards Höchst and was used from 1908 by passenger trains on the Bad Nauheim–Wiesbaden line (Bäderbahn, Spa Railway), the line between the spa (German: Bad) towns of Wiesbaden, Bad Homburg and Bad Nauheim. A link between this line and Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof was opened on 15 March 1927 and is still used by trains connecting to the Taunusbahn to the north of Bad Homburg. The curve from Homburg to Höchst was demolished in 1963 during motorway construction.

After 1945

After the repair to war damage to the line recovered its importance for handling commuter traffic to Frankfurt. On 23 May 1954 a regular interval half-hourly timetable was introduced, initially hauled by class 78 steam locomotives and class V 80 and later V 100 diesel locomotives. The extension to Friedberg, however, was downgraded to a single-track branch line due to war damage and a loss of profitability.

Following the completion of electrification on 26 September 1970 services were usually operated by trains hauled by class 141 electric locomotives. From 25 September 1977 S-Bahn services were operated by electric multiple units of class 420 terminating in Friedrichsdorf. Since 2003 the newer class 423 trains have operated on the line.

Operations

The Homburg line is now used by S-Bahn S5 services running between Frankfurt South and Friedrichsdorf and Hessische Landesbahn-operated RB 15 services running on the Taunusbahn between Frankfurt and Friedrichsdorf and Brandoberndorf. S-Bahn line S3 (Darmstadt–Bad Soden) and line S4 (Darmstadt/Langen–Kronberg im Taunus) continue to use the section of the Homburg line from the City Tunnel to Rödelheim. Line S6 uses the Homburg line tracks as far as Frankfurt West station instead of the parallel Main-Weser line. The Homburg line is integrated in the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) transport network.

Future

It is planned to extend line U2 of the Frankfurt U-Bahn from Bad Homburg-Gonzenheim to Homburg station. A project known as Regionaltangente West (Regional Tangent West) would build a north–south line through Frankfurt Airport Regional station and could connect with the Bad Homburg line.

References

• Track data from Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2007. ISBN 978-3-89494-136-9.