Halberstadt–Vienenburg railway

Halberstadt–Vienenburg
Route number:	330
Line number:	6344
Line length:	34.3 km
Track gauge:	1,435 mm
Maximum speed:	120 km/h
Legend from Halle and Thale 86.6 Halberstadt Ost junctionto Blankenburg from Blankenburg 87.7 Halberstadt marshalling yard (Rbf) 88.9 Halberstadt 110 m to Magdeburg Halberstadt Friedhof 96.2 Ströbeck 142 m 103.4 Heudeber-Danstedt 188 m to Wernigerode 105.1 Mulmke junctionto Mattierzoll 108.2 Langeln 111.5 Wasserleben to Osterwieck 115.2 Schauen from Wernigerode 120.1 Saxony-Anhalt–Lower Saxony state border from Brunswick A 395 motorway 123.2 Vienenburg goods station (Gbf) Vienenburg 137 m to Langelsheim to Bad Harzburg to Goslar

The Halberstadt–Vienenburg railway is a 34 kilometre long main line north of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. The line was opened in 1869, but only the section between Halberstadt and Heudeber-Danstedt and a 3 kilometre long section of the line near Vienenburg are still worked. Both sections are single-tracked and unelectrified. Since 1996, traffic between Heudeber-Danstedt and Vienenburg has used the railway via Wernigerode running further to the south.

History

Vienenburg station

As early as 1841 and 1843 respectively, Vienenburg and Halberstadt, which later became the two stations at either end of this route, were connected to the railway network. Likewise, in 1843 the line from Oschersleben via Jerxheim to Wolfenbüttel was taken into service, as a result of which one could travel by rail between Vienenburg and Halberstadt, albeit on a route running a long way to the north. Nevertheless there were further plans for a railway close to the Harz Mountains, that would run westwards from Halberstadt.

In 1864 a state treaty between Prussia and the Brunswick was agreed that envisaged a railway line from Halberstadt to Vienenburg. A reasonably level route was chosen, at some distance from the Harz, running via Heudeber-Danstedt and Wasserleben. The Kingdom of Hanover, on whose territory Vienenburg was located, initially rejected this scheme however. Not until Prussia's victory in the Austro-Prussian War and the resulting annexation of Hanover could the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company (MHE) begin work on its construction in 1867. On 1 March 1869 the line was taken into service. Two years beforehand the MHE had opened the eastern extension of the railway towards Halle (Saale). In 1875 the line from Vienenburg to Hildesheim, in the shape of the Vienenburg–Langelsheim railway, also opened and, with that, the direct line from Halle to Hanover was complete.

The line suffered almost no damage during the Second World War but, as a result of the division of Germany, it was cut in 1945 between Vienenburg on the West German side and Wasserleben on the East German side, and later dismantled.

After the Wende there were attempts to reactivate the link between Halberstadt and Vienenburg. But because the line missed out larger towns like Wernigerode and Ilsenburg, the decision went in favour of the southern route, the Heudeber-Danstedt–Ilsenburg railway. Until 1945 this had also crossed the state border, to Bad Harzburg.

Because the trackbed of the old line was no longer usable in the area of Bad Harzburg, the Deutsche Bahn decided to build the new line, which branches off the old one at Stapelburg and runs northwards to the Halberstadt–Vienenburg route. Just before the state border it rejoins the old route and follows it to Vienenburg. Because the line uses the old trackbed on Lower Saxon soil, the project could be viewed locally as a renovation of an existing line, which enabled the installation of level crossings. On 2 June 1996 the new section, approximately 10 kilometres long, was opened. Since then passenger trains between Halberstadt and Vienenburg have used the Halberstadt–Heudeber-Danstedt section of the old line and the three kilometre long section on Lower Saxony territory, but otherwise they run along the southern route via Ilsenburg and Wernigerode.

Passenger trains were still using the section of line between Heudeber-Danstedt and Wasserleben until 28 September 2002, continuing along the track of the former Osterwieck-Wasserleben Railway to Osterwieck. Thereafter services were withdrawn and, by 30 June 2003, the line was closed by the Federal Railway Office.^[1]

The line from Halberstadt via Wernigerode to Vienenburg was converted in 2007 to take trains using tilting technology. In the new 2008 timetable, journey times shortened again due to the completion of renovation work.^[2] The Deutsche Bahn's Regional Express trains (HarzExpress) work the line every two hours between Halle, Halberstadt and Hanover, stopping at all stations, as do local services on the North Harz Network (Nordharznetz) operated by Veolia Verkehr Sachsen-Anhalt. At weekends Veolia runs an excursion service between Berlin and Wernigerode that uses the Halberstadt–Heudeber-Danstedt section.

Literature

• Dirk Endisch (2009) (in German), The line Halberstadt–Vienenburg, Stendal: Verlag Dirk Endisch, ISBN [[Special:BookSources/978-3-936894-36-6 |978-3-936894-36-6 ]]
• Josef Högemann (1995) (in German), Eisenbahnen im Harz (I). Band 1: The Staatsbahnstrecken, Nordhorn: Verlag Kenning, ISBN 3-927587-43-5
• Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee (2002) (in German), Rückkehr zur Schiene. Reaktivierte and neue linen im Personenverkehr 1980–2001, Stuttgart: transpress, ISBN 3-613-71185-0

References

1. ↑ List of lines closed by the Federal Railway Office in Saxony-Anhalt at Eisenbahn-Bundesamt, im Netz
2. ↑ Nordharzstrecke for the Neigetechnikverkehr freigegeben