The Eisenach–Lichtenfels railway (also called the Werrabahn in German—Werra Railway) is a single-tracked
main line
Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to:
Transportation
Railway
* Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system
* Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...
with a
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
of in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
and
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
in southern and central Germany, that runs mostly along the river
Werra
The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the t ...
. It runs from
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
via
Meiningen
Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 25,000 (2021). to
Eisfeld
Eisfeld is a town and a municipality in the Hildburghausen (district), district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Werra, 12 km east of Hildburghausen, and 19 km north of Coburg. The former municipalit ...
and, formerly, continued to
Coburg
Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...
and
Lichtenfels. It was opened in 1858 and is
one of the oldest railways in Germany. The railway company that built it, the ''Werra Eisenbahngesellschaft'' with its headquarters in Meiningen was also often called the ''Werrabahn''. The company also ran various lines branching off the Werra Railway.
History
![Werra-Eisenbahn-G](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Werra-Eisenbahn-G.jpg)
In 1841 the Grand Duchy of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (german: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) was a historical German state, created as a duchy in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been in personal union since 1741. It was rais ...
and the duchies of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-d ...
and
Saxe-Meiningen
Saxe-Meiningen (; german: Sachsen-Meiningen ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin dynasty, located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia.
Established in 1681, by partition of the Ernestin ...
signed a treaty to establish a railway from Eisenach to Coburg. In 1845 an agreement was made with the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
to connect the Werra Railway to the
Ludwig South-North Railway The Ludwig South-North railway (''Ludwig-Süd-Nord-Bahn''), built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways. It was named after the king, Ludwig I, whose infrastructure priorities had ear ...
in
Lichtenfels and finally in 1855 the newly formed ''Werra Railway Company'' (''Werra-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'') received a concession to build and operate the line.
On 18 February 1856 a groundbreaking ceremony was celebrated in
Grimmelshausen
Grimmelshausen is a municipality in the district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe afte ...
near
Themar
Themar () is a town in the district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Werra, 11 km northwest of Hildburghausen, and 14 km southwest of Suhl.
Main sights
* St. Bartholomew's Church, Themar
* St. J ...
. On 1 November 1858 the whole line was formally opened between Eisenach and Coburg with a length of 130.1 km. There were 17
signal box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
es, 10
roundhouses, a depot, 22 houses for railway officials, 128 gatekeepers’ houses, 179 crossings, 63 underpasses or overpasses, 31 bridges and a tunnel at Förtha. In June 1858, 8,470 workers were involved in the construction.
Regular services began on 2 November 1858 with 24 locomotives and 367 wagons. The remaining 30 km of the line to Lichtenfels was put into operation in January 1859. All construction works had been designed from the outset for two-track service. Several sections were duplicated by 1910: the line through the
Thuringian Forest
The Thuringian Forest (''Thüringer Wald'' in German), is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side i ...
from Eisenach to
Bad Salzungen
Bad Salzungen () is a town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wartburgkreis district.
Geography
Location
Bad Salzungen is situated on the river Werra, east of Tiefenort and south of Eisenach.
Divisions
In July 2018 the former m ...
(26.7 km), between
Schwallungen and
Wasungen
Wasungen () is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Werra
The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialec ...
(3.5 km), between Meiningen and
Grimmenthal (7.1 km) and between Coburg and
Creidlitz
Creidlitz is a southern suburb of 1705 inhabitants (30 June 2010) of the city of Coburg in the county of Upper Franconia in the state of Bavaria in Germany.
Geography
It is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) south of Coburg and at the northern edge of ...
(4.6 km).
All assets of the Werra Railway Company were acquired by the
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n state on 1 October 1895 for 25 million
marks
Marks may refer to:
Business
* Mark's, a Canadian retail chain
* Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain
* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel '' ...
. The line was administered by the
railway administration of the
Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
until 1945.
On 8 April 1945, bridges in
Eisfeld
Eisfeld is a town and a municipality in the Hildburghausen (district), district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Werra, 12 km east of Hildburghausen, and 19 km north of Coburg. The former municipalit ...
were blown up, closing rail operations. The establishment of the
border between occupation zones led to the closure of the line between Eisfeld and Görsdorf Station, which is in Bavaria. The line closed on 30 August 1949 due to a dilapidated subway on the section between Görsdorf and Tiefenlauter. Passenger traffic was maintained in Bavaria by a bus service up the Lauter valley to
Rottenbach. Freight trains operated to Tiefenlauter until 1 July 1976 but on 6 April 1977 the line was closed and subsequently dismantled. By 1989 land had been sold and partly built on in
Lautertal and
Dörfles-Esbach
Dörfles-Esbach is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Districts of Germany, district of Coburg (district), Coburg in Bavaria in Germany.
References
Coburg (district)
{{Coburgdistrict-geo-stub ...
, so restoration of the line is not possible.
Electric train services commenced on the Coburg–Lichtenfels section on 5 October 1950. It was one of the first electrification projects in Germany after the war. It was intended to strengthen the relationship between Coburg region and Bavaria, following Coburg's unification with Bavaria in 1920. Electrification was extended on the
Coburg–Sonneberg line to
Neustadt bei Coburg
Neustadt bei Coburg (also written ''Neustadt b. Coburg'') is a town in the district of Coburg in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 15 km northeast of Coburg, as its name indicates.
Local subdivisions
Neustadt bei Coburg is subdivide ...
in 1975 and to
Sonneberg
Sonneberg in Thuringia, Germany, is the seat of the Sonneberg district. It is in the Franconian south of Thuringia, neighboring its Upper Franconian twin town Neustadt bei Coburg.
Sonneberg became known as the "world toy city", and is home to ...
in 1991.
Three arches of the bridge over the Main at Schney were blown up on 10 April 1945. In October 1945, a temporary repair was made to the bridge, allowing operations at 20 km/h. At the beginning of 1969 this was replaced by a new bridge, 130 m long.
Operations
![Immelborn-stb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Immelborn-stb.jpg)
In 1858 passenger trains took about four hours to cover the 130 km between Eisenach and Coburg. In 1934, express trains from Eger via Bayreuth and Lichtenfels to Eisenach took two hours and ten minutes. In 1939, on weekdays an express train, two semi-fast (
Eilzug An Eilzug (pl: ''Eilzüge'', cs, spěšný vlak, sk, zrýchlený vlak, English: ''Regional fast train'') is a type of passenger train in German-speaking countries which roughly equates to a British 'fast-stopping train' or 'semi-fast train'. The t ...
) trains and five stopping trains operated daily on the line, each way.
In the years following the Second World War, there were no high-quality passenger trains on the Werra line, with a few exceptions, such as the Bad Liebenstein–Leipzig express train. In the last years of
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
a daily fast train ran from Bad Salzungen via Eisenach to
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...
. On another section of the line an express train for construction workers ran on Monday, generally shortly after midnight, from Bad Salzungen via Meiningen and
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. Only on the short section between Meiningen and Grimmenthal did fast trains run more often than daily to destinations including Berlin,
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
,
Halle (Saale)
Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the Germany, German States of ...
,
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
,
Görlitz
Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...
and
Stralsund
Stralsund (; Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, Neub ...
, alternating between the Werra line via Eisenach and the
direct line to Erfurt. Among them was the well-known ''Städteexpress'' ("city express"), ''Rennsteig'', that first ran in 1976.
Today, the
Sud-Thüringen-Bahn operates hourly
diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...
s from Eisenach to Eisfeld, taking two hours. In 1990 this trip took two hours and 45 minutes, although in 1934 it took only one hour and 50 minutes for the 108 km route. Between Lichtenfels and Coburg, continuing to Sonneberg,
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
operates services alternately every two-hours as
Regional-Express
In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at f ...
Lichtenfels–Sonneberg and
Regional-Express
In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at f ...
Nuremberg–Sonneberg trains. Furthermore,
agilis
agilis Eisenbahngesellschaft (railway company) and agilis Verkehrsgesellschaft (transportation company) operate railway passenger services in Bavaria. The companies do not capitalise their names. They are subsidiaries of BeNEX GmbH and the Hamb ...
operates hourly trains between Lichtenfels and Coburg, continuing to
Bad Rodach
Bad Rodach () is a town in the Coburg (district), district of Coburg, in Upper Franconia, a north Bavarian Regierungsbezirk, Germany. It is situated 10 km southeast of Hildburghausen, and 17 km northwest of Coburg. Since 1999 the city ha ...
.
There has been pressure to reopen the 17 km long closed section between Eisfeld and Coburg in
Upper Franconia
Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) is a ''Regierungsbezirk'' (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle F ...
, which would require some rerouting because of building on its route. An estimate in early 2009 was that this would cost to €103.4 million. The government of Bavaria regards this estimate as too low, mainly because it does not include electrification.
References
Notes
Sources
* Wolfgang Bleiweis, Stefan Goldschmidt and Bernd Schmitt: ''Eisenbahn im Coburger Land''. Verlag Eisenbahnfreunde Steinachtalbahn-Coburg, Coburg 1996,
* Steffen Dietsch, Stefan Goldschmidt, Hans Löhner: ''Die Werrabahn''. Verlag Eisenbahnfreunde Steinachtalbahn-Coburg, Coburg 2008,
* Hans-Joachim Fricke, Hans-Joachim Ritzau: ''Die Inner German Border and der SchienenTransport''. Pürgen 2004,
* Georg Thielmann: ''Die Werrabahn''. Wachsenburg-Verlag, Arnstadt 2002,
External links
1931 network mapof the Erfurt
division
Division or divider may refer to:
Mathematics
*Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication
*Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division
Military
*Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...
1944 timetableon railway transport in northwest Upper FranconiaRailway video at Bahnorama-TV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenach-Lichtenfels railway
Railway lines in Thuringia
Railway lines in Bavaria
Meiningen
Railway lines opened in 1858
1858 establishments in Germany
Buildings and structures in Wartburgkreis
Buildings and structures in Schmalkalden-Meiningen
Buildings and structures in Hildburghausen (district)
Coburg (district)
Buildings and structures in Coburg
Buildings and structures in Lichtenfels, Bavaria
Buildings and structures in Lichtenfels (district)