The Friedberg–Hanau railway is a 32.2 km long double-track, electrified mainline in the German state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

. It connects Friedberg and

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

. The line has the timetable number of 633 and it is integrated in the

Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) is a transport association that covers the public transport network of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area in Germany. Its head office is located in Hofheim im Taunus. Organisation and area covered The RMV ...

(Rhine Main Transport Association) as Regionalbahn service RB 49.

History

The line was authorised under an act of 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 parliament of 11 June 1873 and opened by the

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

in two phases. The first section was opened from Hanau to Heldenbergen-Windecken (now

Nidderau Nidderau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig district, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated approximately 12 km north of Hanau, and 20 km northeast of Frankfurt. Nidderau was created in the merger of the municipality of Heldenbergen with the to ...

) on 1 December 1879. The second section opened from Heldenbergen-Windecken to Friedberg for freight on 15 September 1881 and for passenger traffic on 15 October 1881.

Significance

The importance of the route lies in freight traffic. It forms part of a trunk route from the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

region to Bavaria via the

Ruhr–Sieg railway The Ruhr–Sieg railway is a 106 km long double-track, electrified main line from Hagen to Siegen via Iserlohn-Letmathe, Finnentrop and Kreuztal in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The line, which has many tunnels, runs primarily ...

, the

Dill Railway The Dill Railway (German: ''Dillstrecke'') is a 73 km-long double-track electrified railway line, which runs from Giessen in Hesse to Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 2002 InterRegio trains operated the connection to Düsseldorf, Nord ...

and the

Main–Weser Railway The Main–Weser Railway (German: ''Main-Weser-Bahn'') is a railway line in central Germany that runs from Frankfurt am Main via Gießen to Kassel. it is named after the railway company that built the line and also operated it until 1880. It was op ...

from

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

to Friedberg via and continuing from Hanau via the Main–Spessart Railway. The line is used as a detour during operational failures that occasionally occur due to the high utilisation of the Main–Weser Railway between Frankfurt and Friedberg or during construction work. In passenger transport, the line was formerly served by the Regionalbahn trains of the

Hessische Landesbahn Hessische Landesbahn (Hessian State Railway, HLB) is a regional transport company owned by the German state of Hesse, based in Frankfurt am Main. It provides bus and rail passenger transport services and, to a lesser extent, rail freight services i ...

(HLB), using GTW 2/6 rolling stock. There were no passenger services from Saturday evening until Monday morning and on public holidays. Although the line is electrified, the only vehicles used for passenger transport are diesel multiple units. Since December 2011, DB Regio Hessen has had the concession to operate services on the line with

Bombardier Talent The Talent is a multiple unit railcar manufactured by Bombardier that was developed by Waggonfabrik Talbot in Aachen shortly before the company was acquired by Bombardier in 1995. The name ''Talent'' is an acronym in German for ''TALbot LEicht ...

2 electric multiple units. As the vehicles were not yet approved for operations the line continued to be served by GTW 2-6 operated by HLB. These were staffed by DB Regio Hessen. From June 2013, DB Regio Hessen has operated this service at 2-hour intervals (every hour at peak hour on weekdays) with Talent vehicles, now numbered as RB 49. File:FLIRT Cantus Erbstadt-Kaichen.jpg, A FLIRT passes through the former Erbstadt-Kaichen station File:Nidderau Bahnhof GTW2-6 VT628 V218.jpg, Crossing of GTW 2/6 and trains on the Nidder Valley Railway in Nidderau File:Bf Nord3.jpg, GTW 2/6 coupled set towards Friedberg stops in Hanau Nord File:E 140 Nidderau.jpg, Freight train in Nidderau

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Friedberg-Hanau railway Railway lines in Hesse railway lines opened in 1879 1879 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Wetteraukreis Buildings and structures in Main-Kinzig-Kreis