Rhine Railway (Baden)

Rhine Railway
Northern part
Overview
Native name	Rheinbahn
Line number	4020 (Mannheim–Rastatt) 4242 (Rastatt–border)
Locale	Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Alsace, France
Termini	Mannheim Haguenau
Service
Route number	700 (Mannheim–Karlsruhe) 702 (Karlsruhe–Rastatt) 710.4/41 (Karlsruhe Stadtbahn)
Technical
Line length	formerly ca. 122 km (76 mi) now: 92.2 km (57.3 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary (Mannheim–Rastatt:)
Operating speed	200 km/h (124.3 mph) (maximum)
Route map Legend Western approach to the Riedbahn from Ludwigshafen S1S2S3S4 0.0 Mannheim Hbf Riedbahn to Frankfurt to Heidelberg S1S2S3S4 High-speed line to Hockenheim 2.0 Mannheim factory station Freight railway from the Rhine Valley Railway 3.4 Mannheim-Neckarau 4.7 Altrip 6.4 Mannheim-Rheinau port 8.0 Mannheim-Rheinau former line to Ketsch (until 1966) A 6 Hockenheim-Mannheim HSL Main-Neckar Railway from Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld former line from Heidelberg (until 1967) 13.6 Schwetzingen 14.7 Oftersheim former line to Speyer (now siding) A 61 HSL from Mannheim 21.7 Hockenheim HSL to Stuttgart 24.5 Neulußheim 29.4 Kirrlach 29.9 Waghäusel 32.5 Wiesental HSL from Hockenheim HSL to Stuttgart Connecting line from Waghäusel Saalbach 34.6 Philippsburg Molzau (junction) Bruhrain Railway to Bruchsal S33 Graben-Neudorf Nord 39.6 Graben-Neudorf Bruhrain Railway to Bruchsal S33 Hardt Railway to Karlsruhe (until 1967) 45.5 Friedrichstal (Baden) 50.4 Blankenloch 55.1 Karlsruhe-Hagsfeld Freight bypass to Karlsruhe marshalling yard (former route of the Rhine Railway until 1913) line from Bruchsal, line from Pforzheim former connection to aw Karlsruhe (until 199x) Karlsruhe freight yard (old) (until 199x) Karlsruhe Hbf (old) (until 1913) former route of the Hardt Railway, Maxau Railway 60.7 Karlsruhe Hbf S3 Alb Valley Railway (former route of the Rhine Railway until 1913) from Karlsruhe Albtalbf (with system change) S 4S 41 Palatine Maximilian Railway to Wörth Karlsruhe West–Karlsruhe Rbf freight line Rhine Valley Railway to Rastatt S 31S 32 Palatine Maximilian Railway to Wörth S 51S 52 freight line from Karlsruhe marshalling yard 63.2 Karlsruhe-Dammerstock 63.3 64.8 (chainage change from route shortening in 1913) former line from Palatine Maximilian Railway 67.8 Forchheim (b Karlsruhe) 71.2 Block post Basheide To HSL to Basel and Rastatt Tunnel 73.1 Durmersheim Nord 74.1 Durmersheim 76.5 Bietigheim (Baden) 79.3 Ötigheim Rhine Valley Railway from Karlsruhe S 31S 32 82.9 Rastatt Rhine Valley Railway to Basel S 32S 4 Murg Valley Railway to Freudenstadt S 31S 41 86.6 Rastatt Industrie-Stammgl (siding) 86.6 DB Netz / AVG Network boundary 87.3 Depot 57 (munitions store) (siding) 90.2 Wintersdorf (Baden) (siding) 91.9 AVG / DB Netz Network boundary 92.0 DB Netz / SNCF Network boundary 92.3 28.8 Wintersdorf Rhine Bridge (528 m), Rhine,   Germany / France national border (siding) line from Lauterbourg 24.7 Roppenheim 21.8 Rœschwoog line to Strasbourg 16.4 Soufflenheim 11.4 Schirrhein 3.7 Oberhoffen former connecting line to Bischwiller line from Bischwiller and Vendenheim 0.0 Haguenau line to Wissembourg line to Sarreguemines Source: German railway atlas[1]

The Rhine Railway (German: Rheinbahn) is a railway line in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, running from Mannheim via Karlsruhe to Rastatt, partly built as a strategic railway and formerly continuing to Haguenau in Alsace, now in France.

It was opened in 1870 as an alternative to the Baden Mainline and runs mostly broadly parallel with the Rhine Valley Railway, which runs from Mannheim to Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Rastatt, Offenburg and Basel. The Rhine Railway originally ran from Graben-Neudorf to Karlsruhe via a more westerly route than the current route, which is now named the Hardt Railway and is partly used by lines S 1 and S 11 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. In 1895 the current route was opened to Karlsruhe and extended to Rastatt and Haguenau. The section over the border along the Rhine in France was closed in 1966.

The line is entirely within the Upper Rhine Plain. Therefore, it is almost straight and has no major engineering structures. From Karlsruhe Central Station to Hagsfeld it runs within the independent city of Karlsruhe; from Blankenloch to Waghäusel it crosses the Karlsruhe district through the municipality of Neulußheim to the abandoned halt of Hirschacker in the Rhein-Neckar district. The rest of the line is located within the independent city of Mannheim. The line crosses a total of eight municipalities: Karlsruhe, Stutensee, Graben-Neudorf, Waghäusel, Neulußheim, Hockenheim, Oftersheim, Schwetzingen and Mannheim.

The geographical situation of the abandoned halt of Altrip, which was on the boundary of the city of Mannheim, is unusual; Altrip lies on the opposite side of the Rhine in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, having been cut off by the straightening of the river, while the Rhine railway is exclusively located within Baden-Württemberg.

The Baden Mainline was opened in 1840 from Mannheim to Heidelberg and extended to Karlsruhe in 1844 and to Basel by 1855. However, the indirect route via Heidelberg bypassed part of the natural catchment area of Mannheim which was located close to the Rhine, including towns such as Schwetzingen and Hockenheim.

This led to a vigorous debate about the southern part of a proposed line from Mannheim to Karlsruhe close to the Rhine. The Grand Duke of Baden, Frederick I approved the building of a railway via Linkenheim, Eggenstein and Neureut to Mühlburger Tor (to the west of central Karlsruhe) and from there run on the Maxau Railway (Maxaubahn) to the old Karlsruhe central station (this route is now called the Hardt Railway, Hardtbahn), rather than a proposed route running further east to Karlsruhe on the current alignment. It was accepted that through traffic in the north-south direction might not run on the line and that it would instead continue to run on the Heidelberg–Karlsruhe line.

The construction of the Mannheim–Schwetzingen–Graben Neudorf–Eggenstein–Karlsruhe line via the Hardt forest was funded by the city of Mannheim. It was taken over by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway (Großherzogliche Badische Staatsbahn), on 4 August 1870, the day of its opening. The line was also known as the Rhine Railway, but there are also old maps that show it as the Rhine Valley Railway.

Shortly after the opening of the line in 1870, a problem became apparent during the Franco-Prussian War, in that military transports from Mannheim to Karlsruhe and continuing to the south had to reverse in Karlsruhe station. This led to the acceleration of the building of a curve between the Rhine Railway and the Rhine Valley Railway.^[2]

As it was expected that there would soon be another war with France, plans were made to build strategic railways. Against this background, the German general staff demanded above all a line on the Graben-Neudorf–Blankenloch–Karlsruhe–Durmersheim–Rastatt–Roeschwoog–Haguenau route. This was inaugurated in 1895, including a freight rail bypass of Karlsruhe. Since the line via Blankenloch was shorter and more direct, trains on the Rhine Railway from then on ran on the strategic line.

The now bypassed Karlsruhe–Eggenstein–Graben-Neudorf section was subsequently called the Hardt Railway and converted into a connecting line. To continue a journey on the Hardt Railway towards Mannheim it was necessary to change trains in Graben-Neudorf.

After the completion of the line via Blankenloch, the Rhine Railway developed into a busy line for through traffic, especially since it was the shortest line between Mannheim and Karlsruhe, rather than the route via Bruchsal and Heidelberg. In addition, trains running via Heidelberg had to reverse there until 1955.

Passenger services across the Rhine ended in August 1938 and have not been restored except between May 1942 and December 1944. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the French army blew up the western end of the bridge over the Rhine at Wintersdorf on 12 October 1939, but it was rebuilt by the German army and reopened in May 1940. German troops destroyed the whole bridge on 12 December 1944.^[3]

The French military rebuilt the bridge at Wintersdorf and freight traffic resumed over the Rhine in May 1949, but the bridge was closed to rail traffic at the end of the Cold War.^[3]

In the 1950s the Rhine Railway was electrified, like all major lines in western Germany. In subsequent years, several stations that were no longer viable were abandoned. The section over the Rhine (and the border) into France was closed in 1966. The original western course of the line between Graben-Neudorf and Karlsruhe (the Hardt Railway) was closed in 1967.

The relief of the very heavily congested Hockenheim–Graben-Neudorf section of the Rhine Railway was included in the planning of the Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed railway. At several points connections were provided to the existing line and a section of the old line was relocated. The Mannheim–Graben-Neudorf section was completed in 1987 as the first part of the new line and the Waghäusel Saalbach–Graben-Neudorf railway connected and reinforced the old and new lines.

The 21 km long section from Graben-Neudorf to Karlsruhe was upgraded from November 1987 as a connector between the Mannheim–Stuttgart high-speed line, which was opened over its full-length in 1991, and the Karlsruhe–Basel line; this work involved raising permitted speeds to 200 km/h and the elimination of nine level crossings.^[4]

Since then, long-distance trains have used the Rhine Railway on their way north from Graben-Neudorf. The passenger trains at this time mainly used Silberling carriages, hauled by class 141 electrics locomotives.

In 1997, Karlsruhe-Hagsfeld station, which had been disused since the 1980s, was reactivated in connection with the opening of the Karlsruhe–Blankenloch section of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. Since then, its serves as an interchange station between line S 2 of the Stadtbahn and regional line R 2, both managed by the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (Karlsruhe transport association).

Since 2000, the line has been served by Regional-Express services every two hours, running from Karlsruhe via Speyer, Ludwigshafen and Worms to Mainz. From Karlsruhe to Graben-Neudorf, the service runs on the Rhine railway. These services are operated with class 425 electric multiple units.

In 2015, the line was included in the network of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn. In 2004, some platforms were raised to serve class 425 S-Bahn sets. With the start of regular S-Bahn operations, all intermediate stations will be modernised and their platforms will be raised. New stations are to be built in Schwetzingen-Hirschacker, Schwetzingen Nord and Graben-Neudorf Süd.

A tram line was opened on the former track to Karlsruher Nordstadt in 2006.

The line is listed in the Deutsche Bahn timetable as line number 700. Traffic is very dense as many long-distance and freight trains use this route. Regional-Express services on the Karlsruhe–Mainz route make no intermediate stops between Graben-Neudorf and Karlsruhe.

Services between Mannheim and Karlsruhe are mainly operated as Regionalbahn services, which usually run half-hourly. Some Regional-Express services operate that stop in at least Graben-Neudorf, Waghäusel, Hockenheim and Schwetzingen.

• 
  A EuroCity at the entrance to Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof (August 1995)
• 
  Regional-Express RE 4 on the Mainz–Karlsruhe route in Graben-Neudorf (September 2005)
• 
  Overpass at Neulußheim station (Feb. 2004)
• 
  Schwetzingen station (December 2008)

• Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke (1985). UnsVergessene Bahnen in Baden-Württemberg (in German). Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss Verlag. pp. 64–68. ISBN 3-8062-0413-6.

• Timetable excerpt from 1944

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