The Jerxheim–Helmstedt railway is a 22 km-long railway line in the south-east of the German state of
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
that was opened in 1858. It opened up the area south of the
Elm hills. Until 8 December 2007, there were passenger services on the route from
Brunswick via
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest ...
,
Schöppenstedt
Schöppenstedt is a small town in the district of Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the '' Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") of Elm-Asse.
Geography
It is situated southwest of the Elm and Asse hi ...
,
Jerxheim
Jerxheim is a municipality in the district of Helmstedt, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Jerxheim Rathaus.JPG, The town hall
Heeseberg-Turm-2 NS 2014-06-01.jpg, The observation tower
Personalities
*Kurt Meyer
Kurt Meyer (23 December 1910 – 23 ...
and
Schöningen
Schöningen is a town of about 11,000 inhabitants in the district of Helmstedt, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Geography
The town is located on the southeastern rim of the Elm hill range, near the border with the state of Saxony-Anhalt. In its curren ...
to
Helmstedt, which was last marketed as the Südelmbahn. The section from Helmstedt to Alversdorf freight yard has since been operated as a connecting line to a facility of the ''Energy from Waste'' (EEW) company, formerly half owned by
E.ON.
History
The first state-owned railway in the
German Confederation
The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...
was the
line from Brunswick to Wolfenbüttel opened by the
Duchy of Brunswick
The Duchy of Brunswick (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig) was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick ().
It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna ...
on 1 December 1838. It connected the two most important towns in the then
Duchy of Brunswick
The Duchy of Brunswick (german: Herzogtum Braunschweig) was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick ().
It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna ...
.
The
Wolfenbüttel–Oschersleben railway, running via Jerxheim, was opened on 16 July 1843. Until the opening of the
Berlin–Lehrte railway in 1871, this was part of the shortest connection between Hanover and Berlin.
A branch line was built from Jerxheim via Schöningen to Helmstedt, which opened on 20 July 1858. This was the only railway connection to Helmstedt until 1872. In that year, the
Brunswick–Magdeburg railway
The Brunswick–Magdeburg railway is an German main line railway. It is with the Berlin–Lehrte railway and the Hanover–Berlin high-speed line one of the most important east-west lines between Hanover and Berlin. Important intermediate stati ...
was opened through Helmstedt with a branch from
Eilsleben to Schöningen. While this line, like the Jerxheim–Helmstedt line, still had mainly local significance, some express trains ran between Schöningen and Jerxheim.
A connection to
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
and the southern Ruhr area existed via the
Jerxheim–Börßum railway opened in 1868 and the
Brunswick Southern Railway
The Brunswick Southern Railway (german: Braunschweigische Südbahn) was built by the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway as a link from its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway to the Hanoverian Southern Railway. It ran through the northwestern Harz For ...
to
Kreiensen
Kreiensen is a village and a former municipality in the district of Northeim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town Einbeck.
Geography
Kreiensen is situated on the river Leine, approx. north of Northeim, and so ...
. The Jerxheim-Schöningen section was double-track. In freight traffic, it was particularly important for the
lignite mines and sugar factories of the region.
Later secondary lines were added such as the
Jerxheim–Nienhagen (1890) and the
Brunswick–Schöningen (1902) railways.
With the
division of Germany
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 consisti ...
, the
inner-German border cut all east and south-east branching lines; only the Helmstedt–Magdeburg line was preserved. After the closing of the Jerxheim–Börßum line and several branch lines at the end of the 1970s, the Wolfenbüttel–Jerxheim–Helmstedt line was the only line remaining between the border and the Elm hills. It was preserved despite moderate traffic for industrial policy reasons; the open cast lignite mines in the Helmstedt lignite mining district and the
Buschhaus Power Station
Buschhaus Power Station is a lignite-fired power station near Helmstedt in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is operated by Helmstedter Revier GmbH, a subsidiary company of MIBRAG. Until end of 2013, the power station was owned by E.ON.
The stati ...
were connected to it.
Until December 2006, the regional trains on the Brunswick–Schöningen–Helmstedt line ran every two hours from Mondays to Saturdays with additional train trains in the peak hour. Then the service on the Schöppenstedt–Helmstedt section was reduced to six train pairs and finally closed at the timetable change in December 2007.
Closure of the Schöppenstedt–Helmstedt line
The relocation of the railway line to make room for the expansion of the opencast mines was considered by the Brunswick Region to be too expensive. Instead, the closure of the track was approved. Traffic between Schöppenstedt and Schoningen was also abandoned in December of 2007. The reason for this was the low passenger numbers, which were just over 200 per day on this section. It was intended that the saved "regionalisation funds" (''Regionalisierungsmittel'') would be used for new light rail vehicles and an improved level of service to Schöppenstedt to be operated by the ''Regionalstadtbahn von Braunschweig'' (Brunswick Regional
Stadtbahn
' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...
).
The section through the planned mining area between the branch junction Alversdorf and Schöningen was shut down by the
Federal Railway Authority
The German Federal Railway Authority (german: Eisenbahn-Bundesamt, ) has been the independent federal authority for the regulation of the railways in Germany since 1 January 1994. It is under the supervision and direction of the Federal Minist ...
(''Eisenbahn-Bundesamt'') on 15 November 2008; the Jerxheim–Schöningen section followed on 21 May 2009 and the Helmstedt–Alversdorf section on 26 April 2010, this section remains open for freight as a siding to the ''e.On'' company.
In a rating of 73 candidates in Lower Saxony for possible reactivation, the line had already been eliminated in the second stage and listed for "no further investigation". In February 2014, the association meeting of the ZGB debated a possible subsidy for the Schöppenstedt–Schöningen section. The decision was made to have the estimated annual costs of at least €140,000 checked by an expertand and then to decide whether the route should be subsidised or closed.
[ ]
By 2009, parts of the line between Helmstedt and Schöningen had already been dismantled to allow the expansion of the opencast mine. In Schöningen both platform tracks are still present, the station building is empty and the associated buildings are abandoned. The section from Helmstedt towards Schöningen is operated in freight traffic until shortly before the former Alversdorf. North of this, a siding branches off to the Buschhaus power station.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jerxheim-Helmstedt railway
Railway lines in Lower Saxony
Buildings and structures in Helmstedt (district)
Buildings and structures in Wolfenbüttel (district)
Railway lines opened in 1858