Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway

Rhine Valley Railway
(Rheintalbahn)
Route number: 665 (Mannheim–Heidelberg)
701 (Heidelberg–Karlsruhe)
702 (Karlsruhe–Basel)
Line number: 4002 (Mannheim–Heidelberg)
4000 (Heidelberg–Karlsruhe)
4280 (Karlsruhe–Basel)
Line length: 270.7 km (168.2 mi)
Track gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in)
Voltage: 15 kV, 16⅔ Hz AC
Maximum speed: 250 km/h (155.3 mph)
State: Baden-Württemberg
Orientation: North-South
Stations and junctions
Legend
Palatine Ludwig Railway from Ludwigshafen
  S 1S 2S 3S 4 (RheinNeckar)
Riedbahn from Frankfurt via MA-Luzenberg
0.0 Mannheim Hbf
Rhine Railway from Karlsruhe
Riedbahn to Frankfurt via MA-Käfertal
HSL from Stuttgart (Container terminal bridge)
4.0 Mannheim Rangierbahnhof
Mannheim Rangierbahnhof (marshalling yard)
6.1 Mannheim-Seckenheim
8.5 Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld Süd junction
To Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld and Frankfurt
 via the Main-Neckar line
Schwetzingen–Mannheim line
9.0 Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld Süd
Main-Neckar line from Darmstadt
14.5 Heidelberg-Wieblingen (junction)
  (flying junction)
A 5
14.8 Heidelberg-Pfaffengrund/Wieblingen
to Heidelberg Hbf (old)
16.6 Heidelberg marshalling yard
17.5
19.1
Heidelberg Hbf
to Heidelberger Hbf (old)
Neckar Valley line to Jagstfeld S 1S 2S 5
from Heidelberger Hbf (old)
Former route from Heidelberg Hbf (old)
22.1 Heidelberg-Kirchheim/Rohrbach
26.5 St Ilgen-Sandhausen
32.1 Wiesloch-Walldorf
37.5 Rot-Malsch
40.1 Bad Schönborn-Kronau
42.4 Bad Schönborn-Süd
46.2 Ubstadt-Weiher
46.6 Ubstadt-Weiher (junction)
Connecting line to Bruchsal Rollenberg
Katzbach Railway from Odenheim S 31
  and Kraich Valley Railway from Menzingen S 32
Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway
Connecting line from Bruchsal Rollenberg
49.6 Bruchsal Nord (junction)
Bruchsal Stegwiesen
Bruchsal Schloßgarten
Bruhrain Railway from Graben-Neudorf S 33
51.6 Bruchsal terminus of S 33S 4/S 9
Western Railway to Stuttgart S 9
53.6 Bruchsal Bildungszentrum
55.9 Untergrombach crossover
56.8 Untergrombach
60.5 Weingarten (Baden)
Karlsruhe Stadtbahn S 4S 5
From Pforzheim
68.2 Karlsruhe-Durlach
to Karlsruhe freight station
Karlsruhe-Hagsfeld–Karlsruhe freight station freight line
Former route of the Rhine Valley Line
Rhine Railway Mannheim
former connection from Ausbesserungswerk (until 199x)
Karlsruhe freight yard (old) (until 199x)
Karlsruhe Hbf (until 1913)
former route of the Hardt Railway, Maxau Railway
72.9 Karlsruhe Hbf terminus of S 3
Alb Valley Railway S 1S 11
(former route of the Rhine Valley Line until 1913)
from Karlsruhe Albtalbf (where system changes)
Palatine Maximilian Railway to Wörth
Rhine Railway to Rastatt
Karlsruhe West–Karlsruhe Rbf freight line
Karlsruhe-Dammerstock–Karlsruhe Rbf freight line
freight line from Karlsruhe Rbf (marshalling yard)
Rüppurr (until 1913)
76.2 Karlsruhe-Brunnenstück (junction)
(former route of the Rhine Valley line until 1913)
76.4
77.4
Km change as a result of route shortening
79.6 Ettlingen West
Alb Valley Railway
82.5 Bruchhausen
87.9 Malsch
91.7 Muggensturm
Rhine Railway from Karlsruhe S 4S 41
96.5 Rastatt
Murg Valley Railway to Freudenstadt S 31S 41
Former route of Rhine Railway to Haguenau
101.3 Rastatt Süd junction (current start of parallel HSL)
102.6 Baden-Baden-Haueneberstein
103.2 Sandweier crossover
105.3 Baden-Baden
Former line from old Baden station
108.3 Sinzheim Nord
109.5 Sinzheim (b. Bühl)
112.5 Baden-Baden-Rebland
116.9 Bühl (Baden)
119.2 Ottersweier
125.3 Achern Terminus of S 4S 32
Acher Valley Railway to Ottenhöfen
127.7 Önsbach
128.4 Önsbach crossover
131.7 Renchen
To Strasbourg
Rench Valley Railway from Bad Griesbach
137.9 Appenweier
138.7 Appenweier-Muhrhaag junction from Strasbourg
141.0 Windschläg junction to Offenburg freight yard
141.7 Offenburg Nord junction
145.5 Offenburg
146.1 Offenburg Süd junction Black Forest Railway to Singen
148.3 Schutterwald
154.4 Niederschopfheim
158.7 Friesenheim (Baden)
163.7 Lahr(Schwarzwald)
former line to Lahr town
166.1 Kippenheim
171.8 Orschweier
Former Rhine–Ettenheimmünster Local Railway
174.8 Ringsheim
177.7 Herbolzheim (Brsg)
181.0 Kenzingen
Kaiserstuhl Railway from Breisach
185.9 Riegel am Kaiserstuhl
188.8 Köndringen crossover
188.8 Köndringen
190.2 Teningen-Mundingen
192.7 Emmendingen
196.5 Kollmarsreute
Elz Valley Railway from Elzach
199.8 Denzlingen
202.6 Gundelfingen (Breisgau)
202.7 Gundelfingen junction
Rail freight bypass to Freiburg Gbf
205.0 Freiburg-Zähringen
207.0 Freiburg-Herdern
line from Breisach
208.3 Freiburg (Breisgau) Hbf
Höllentalbahn to Donaueschingen
212.5 Freiburg-St. Georgen
Rail freight bypass from Freiburg Gbf
214.6 Leutersberg (junction)
215.7 Ebringen
217.0 Schallstadt
219.9 Norsingen
Münster Valley Railway from Münstertal
222.9 Bad Krozingen
224.1 Tunsel
228.8 Heitersheim
231.8 Buggingen
232.8 Hügelheim
237.3 Müllheim
To Mulhouse
239.7 Auggen
239.7 Auggen siding
243.2 Schliengen
246.8 Bad Bellingen
250.0 Rheinweiler
252.8 Kleinkems
Klotz Tunnel (242 metres)
Kirchberg Tunnel (129 metres)
256.4 Istein
Hartberg Tunnel (307 metres)
258.3 Efringen-Kirchen
262.2 Eimeldingen
264.3
265.3
Haltingen km change
Former railway from Saint-Louis (1878–1937)
267.6 Weil am Rhein Terminus of S 5 (Basel)
Garden Railway to Lörrach S 5
267.6 German/Swiss border
270.7 Basel Bad Bf Terminus of S 6
Basel Trams
Wiese Valley Railway to Zell S 6
Connecting line to Basel SBB and Olten
Upper Rhine Railway to Konstanz

The Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway (also known as the Rheintalbahn, German for Rhine Valley Line) is a German railway line from Mannheim via Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Freiburg im Breisgau to Basel. It is part of the Baden Mainline (German: Badische Hauptbahn).

Contents

History

Date Start of section End of section
12 September 1840 Mannheim Hbf Heidelberg Hbf
10 April 1843 Heidelberg Hbf Karlsruhe Hbf
1 May 1844 Karlsruhe Hbf Rastatt
6 May 1844 Rastatt Baden-Oos
1 June 1844 Baden-Oos Offenburg
1 August 1845 Offenburg Freiburg Hbf
1 June 1847 Freiburg Hbf Müllheim (Baden)
15 June 1847 Müllheim Schliengen
8 November 1848 Schliengen Efringen
22 January 1851 Efringen Haltingen
1855 Haltingen Basel

The line was financed and built by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway (Großherzogliche Badische Staatsbahn). The first section between Mannheim and Heidelberg was opened in 1840, and it was completed in several sections to Basel in 1855.

The line was originally built to 1600 mm broad gauge, but since the surrounding countries built their railways to standard gauge (1,435 mm) the line was converted to standard gauge between 1854 and 1855.

Since Schwetzingen and Hockenheim missed by the line through Heidelberg, another line was opened in 1870 on the Mannheim–Schwetzingen–Graben–Eggenstein–Karlsruhe route. A shorter and more direct line from Graben to Karlsruhe via Blankenloch was added in 1895 as a strategic railway. This converted the Karlsruhe–Eggenstein–Graben section of the old line into a branch line, now known as the Hardt Railway and partly incorporated into the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn.

In the northern section between Mannheim and Karlsruhe there are two different lines, the Mannheim–Graben-Neudorf–Karlsruhe line (the Baden Mainline as such) as well as the Mannheim–Heidelberg–Bruchsal–Durlach–Karlsruhe line (the Baden-Kurpfalz Railway). Particularly after World War I it became a major line for international traffic. Beginning in the 1950s,the Rhine Valley line was progressively electrified, with the whole line fully electrified by the middle of 1958.

Under a German-Swiss convention, the entire line was supposed to be converted to at least four lines by 2008, so that it can serve as the main northern approach route to the new Gotthard Base Tunnel line to Italy. Deutsche Bahn is building a high-speed line for this project from Karlsruhe to Basel, including new and upgraded sections.

Between Karlsruhe and Rastatt two lines run relatively near each other, effectively providing four tracks. The double-track section between Rastatt station and Rastatt-Niederbühl is to be widened to four lines, probably by the construction of a parallel tunnel. Between Rastatt Niederbühl and Offenburg two new high-speed tracks have been completed next to the old double-track line. The Katzenberg Tunnel between Freiburg and Basel is currently under construction to avoid a narrow, winding section between the Rhine and the Isteiner Klotz hills. The remaining sections between Offenburg, Freiburg and the Katzenbergtunnel are still being planned.

Operations

The Rhine Valley line is today one of the most important lines of Germany both for passenger and goods traffic, including international traffic to and from Switzerland and France. The main railway stations are Mannheim, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Freiburg and Basel Bad. Other stations are Baden-Baden, Rastatt und Bruchsal.

Since December 2003, line S3 of the Rhein-Neckar S-Bahn has operated on the Mannheim–Karlsruhe section of line and S4 (SpeyerBruchsal) on the (SpeyerKarlsruhe) section. Lines S31, S32, S4 and S41 of the Stadtbahn Karlsruhe operate between Bruchsal and Achern.

At both ends of the line one the largest marshalling yards in Europe: Mannheim marshalling yard and Basel SBB marshalling yard in Muttenz. The other marshalling yards of this line in Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Freiburg im Breisgau and Basel Badischer Bahnhof have been closed.

Karlsruhe–Basel high speed line

On 21 January 1987 the Federal Minister of Transport Werner Dollinger wrote to Deutsche Bundesbahn agreeing to the construction a new line from Karlsruhe to Offenburg and Basel as part of the 1985 federal transport plan. The costs was estimated at the time to be about 2.3 billion D Mark and building should have begun by the end of 1987. Once finished travel time between Hamburg and Basel was expected to be reduced by over two hours to five and a half hours. The maximum speed between Karlsruhe and Offenburg would have been 250 km/h and 200 km/h between Offenburg and Basel.[1]

In March 1993 the first section, between Bühl and Achern (9 km) was put into service.[2]

The current plan of the project manager, DB ProjektBau, is the continued development of the line as the ‘’’Neu- und Ausbaustrecke Karlsruhe–Basel’’’ (i.e. a mixture of new high-speed line and upgraded line). This line forms the most important northern access route to the Swiss AlpTransit project and is therefore part of a bilateral convention for an increase in the efficiency in rail transport between Switzerland and Germany.

Between Appenweier and Karlsruhe the line is also part of the Magistrale for Europe from Paris to Budapest, which is supported by the European Union as part of its Trans-European Networks.

The federal transport plan forecast that there would be 38 long-distance trains daily each way in the Offenburg–Basel section. It forecast that there would be 137 daily goods trains running from north to south and 147 daily goods trains running from south to north.[3]

Construction arrangements

The project is arranged into nine sections:

The line between Rastatt south and Offenburg has a speed limit of 250 km/h. This speed limit will also apply to the sections of new line between Offenburg and Kenzingen and between Buggingen and Basel. Although, new lines in Germany are now planned to allow 300 km/h running, the uncompleted sections of the Karlsruhe–Basel lines are continuing to be built on alignments suitable for 250 km/h running because little time-savings would be achieved with higher speeds.[3]

The building of two additional tracks in the Karlsruhe/Rastatt Offenburg section began from the Achern end in 1987. The planning approval process commenced in the Solingen-Basel section in February 1988.[8]

Time frame

Originally the project was to have been completed in 2008, in accordance with an agreement with Switzerland. By 12 December 2004, sections 2-6, from Rastatt-Süd to Offenburg, were complete, and other sections were under construction, notably the Katzenberg tunnel. The remaining sections were still in the planning phase. With Federal Budget cuts the project will now not be completed until 2020.[9] The Federal Government has indicated that it intends to make funds available for further sections as planning approvals are achieved.[3]

Cost and finances

According to unofficial estimates the cost of the project is about 4.6 billion.[10] In 2006 about euro 108 million was invested in it.[11]

Notes

  1. ^ Meldung Bau der ABS/NBS Karlsruhe–Basel genehmigt. In: Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau. 36, Nr. 1/2, 1987, S. 102 (German)
  2. ^ Meldung Erster Abschnitt der Neubaustrecke Karlsruhe–Basel fertig. In Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau. 42, No. 5, 1993, S. 361 (German)
  3. ^ a b c "Antwort der Bundesregierung auf die Kleine Anfrage der Abgeordneten Winfried Hermann, Alexander Bonde, Kerstin Andreae, weiterer Abgeordneter und der Fraktion BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN, Bundestags-Drucksache 16/5037" (in German). 2007-04-16. http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/16/050/1605037.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-18. 
  4. ^ DB ProjektBau (Hrsg.): Ausbau- und Neubaustrecke Karlsruhe–Basel: Planfeststellungsabschnitt 7.1: Offenburg Süd–Hohberg. 12 page Brochure with status of December 2008, Karlsruhe, (PDF-Datei, 2,0 MB).
  5. ^ Regierungspräsidium Freiburg: Aus- und Neubau der Rheintalbahn: Erste Bewertung des Regierungspräsidiums Freiburg im Anhörungsverfahren für Offenburg: Antragstrasse der Bahn in der vorgelegten Form nicht genehmigungsfähig. Press release of 18 January 2011.
  6. ^ DB ProjektBau (ed.): Ausbau- und Neubaustrecke Karlsruhe–Basel: Planfeststellungsabschnitt 7.3: Lahr–Mahlberg. 12 page brochure with status of December 2008, Karlsruhe (PDF-file, 1.7 MB)
  7. ^ Deutsche Bahn AG: Aus- und Neubaustrecke Karlsruhe - Basel: Planfeststellungsbeschluss für Haltingen - Weil am Rhein kann sofort umgesetzt werden. Press release of 11 February 2010, (PDF-file, 1.0 MB)
  8. ^ Jahresrückblick 1988. In Die Bundesbahn 1/1989, S. 63 (German)
  9. ^ "400 Millionen Euro für weiteren Aus- und Neubau der Bahnstrecke Karlsruhe–Basel" (in German) (PDF) (Press release). Deutsche Bahn. 15 September 2010. http://www.karlsruhe-basel.de/index.php/pressemitteilungen.html?file=tl_files/dokumente/Pressemiteilungen/Pressemitteilung_15_09_2010.pdf. Retrieved 2 September 2011. 
  10. ^ Holzhey, Michael (31 May 2005). "Wachstumskerne der Schiene – Investitionsschwerpunkte der Zukunft". BDZ Workshop. http://www.promobilitaet.de/downloads/050531_vortrag_holzhey.pdf. Retrieved 2007-06-29.  (German)
  11. ^ Investitionsbilanz 2006 der DB AG Eurailpress of 2 January 2007 (German)

References