The Bonn–Cologne Railway Company (, BCE) was a former German Railway company, founded in July 1837 in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and granted a concession on 6 July 1840 to build and operate a railway line between Bonn and

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

History

Two options were examined for the route: a direct line along the course of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

would have been cheaper. This would have passed through a sparsely populated area, which would have produced few passengers. Half a century later this route was used by the Rhine Bank Railway (''Rheinuferbahn'') built by another ''Cologne-Bonn railway'' (''Köln-Bonner Eisenbahnen'')—now line 16 of the

and

Bonn Stadtbahn The Bonn Stadtbahn () is a ''Stadtbahn'' system in Bonn, Germany, Bonn and the surrounding Rhein-Sieg area, that also includes the Trams in Bonn, Bonn Straßenbahn. Although with six actual Stadtbahn lines (as well as three tram lines) the network ...

s. Another option was built, a 29-km-long line, later part of the West Rhine line (''Linke Rheinstrecke''). It runs in a wide arc through Roisdorf, Sechtem, Brühl and Kalscheuren to St. Pantaleon station in Cologne. This terminal station was built immediately after passing through the Pantaleon gate of the medieval Wall. The site for Bonn station was strongly debated. The location in Poppelsdorfer Allee was finally selected, because it was easier to extend the line from there to the south. The first earthworks were built in March 1842. The line was opened on 15 February 1844 after a grand ceremony of inauguration on 13 February. From the summer of 1844 six daily pairs of trains ran. The first four

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s came from

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Extension to Rolandseck

In 1844, the BCE increased its capital to fund an extension to

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

and the shares were oversubscribed fourfold. Construction of the new route, however, was delayed partly because

Bonn University The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Will ...

protested to the

Prussian king The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...

Frederick William IV Frederick William IV (; 15 October 1795 – 2 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, was King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 until his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to as the " romanticist on the t ...

against the fragmentation of Poppelsdorfer Allee (avenue) on its land. The king finally commissioned the landscape architect

Peter Joseph Lenné Peter Joseph Lenné (the Younger) (29 September 1789 – 23 January 1866) was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect. As director general of the Royal Prussian palaces and parks in Potsdam and Berlin, his work shaped the development of 1 ...

to design of the intersection of the railway and Poppelsdorfer Allee. The BCE was authorised on 4 August 1854 to extend its line at least to Rolandseck. This was an important part of its success, as it was possible for travellers to change conveniently from train to steamship at the station. In addition the constriction of the Rhine Valley there made the construction of competing lines on the western side of the Rhine impossible. On 18 October 1855 the line was completed via Bad Godesberg and Mehlem to Rolandswerth and on 21 January 1856 the entire 14 km long extension to Rolandseck was opened.

Takeover of the company

On 1 January 1857, the Bonn–Cologne Railway Company was acquired by the

Rhenish Railway Company The Rhenish Railway Company (German language, German: ''Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', RhE) was along with the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (CME) and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company (BME) one of the railway companies that in the m ...

for 1.05 million

Prussian thaler The Prussian Thaler (sometimes Prussian Reichsthaler) was the currency of Prussia until 1857. In 1750, Johann Philipp Graumann implemented the ''Graumannscher Fuß'' with 14 thalers issued to a Cologne Mark of fine silver, or 16.704 g per thaler ...

s. Forty years later with the ''Köln-Bonner Eisenbahnen'' (KBE) was established with a similar name (but with more modern spelling), but it was not related to the BCE.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonn-Cologne Railway Company Defunct railway companies of Germany