The Nuremberg–Crailsheim railway is a major railway in the north of the German states of
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 ...
and
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
, which links
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
,
Ansbach
Ansbach (; ; East Franconian: ''Anschba'') is a city in the German state of Bavaria. It is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Ansbach is southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the river Fränkische Rezat, a ...
and
Crailsheim
Crailsheim is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Incorporated in 1338, it lies east of Schwäbisch Hall and southwest of Ansbach in the Schwäbisch Hall district. The city's main attractions include two Evangelical churches, a ...
. The line has the current
timetable number of 891.7 and is an important German railway line. The Nuremberg–Ansbach section is used as an alternative route when problems occur for long-distance services between Nuremberg and
Würzburg
Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River.
Würzburg is ...
(via
Uffenheim
Uffenheim () is a city in the Middle Franconian district of Neustadt (Aisch)-Bad Windsheim, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 14 km west of Bad Windsheim, and 36 km southeast of Würzburg.
Town structure
Uffenheim consists of 13 d ...
) and Nuremberg and
Treuchtlingen
Treuchtlingen is a town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. It has a population of around 12,000.
History
The spot where the town is situated was first settled by Celts, Romans and Franks. The town proper was founded in ...
(via
Gunzenhausen
Gunzenhausen (; bar, Gunzenhausn, link=no) is a town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Altmühl, northwest of Weißenburg in Bayern, and southwest of Nuremberg. Gunzenhausen is a nation ...
) and to relieve the
Nuremberg–Würzburg railway of some of its freight traffic.
History
A Bavarian politician, Gustav von Schlör advocated the planning of the line in 1862 during a tour of the route via
Fürth
Fürth (; East Franconian: ; yi, פיורדא, Fiurda) is a city in northern Bavaria, Germany, in the administrative division (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the t ...
and
Zirndorf
Zirndorf () is a town, which is part of the district of Fürth. It is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the Regierungsbezirk of Middle Franconia.
Neighbouring municipalities
The following towns and municipalities share borders with Zirn ...
to Crailsheim.
On 15 May 1875, the
Royal Bavarian State Railways
The Royal Bavarian State Railways (''Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'') was the state railway company for the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded in 1844. The organisation grew into the second largest of the German ...
(''Königlich Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'') opened the Nuremberg–Ansbach section on a direct route,
as the industrialist
Lothar von Faber
Johann Lothar Freiherr von Faber (born 12 June 1817 in Unterspitzgarten near Stein, Bavaria – 26 July 1896 in Stein) was a German industrialist. He inherited the pencil company Faber-Castell
Faber-Castell AG is a manufacturer of pens, pencils, ...
had succeeded in having the route of the line moved closer to his factories in
Stein
Stein is a German, Yiddish and Norwegian word meaning "stone" and "pip" or "kernel". It stems from the same Germanic root as the English word stone. It may refer to:
Places In Austria
* Stein, a neighbourhood of Krems an der Donau, Lower Austr ...
. On 15 June 1875, the line was extended to
Dombühl
Dombühl is a municipality in the district of Ansbach in Bavaria in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the ...
and, on 15 April 1876, to Crailsheim in
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
. Due to the ever-growing traffic, the line between Nuremberg and the border was duplicated by 1888.
On 19 May 1972, electrification was completed between Nuremberg and Ansbach and, on 19 May 1985, electrification was extended from Crailsheim to
Goldshöfe.
On 12 December 2010, operations of line S4 of the
Nuremberg S-Bahn
The Nuremberg S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Nürnberg) is an S-Bahn network covering the region of Nuremberg, Fürth and Erlangen which started operations in 1987 and is now integrated into the Greater Nuremberg Transport Association (Verkehrsverbund Gr ...
network was extended from Nuremberg to Ansbach. For this extension, all intermediate S-Bahn stations were upgraded to provide barrier-free access for the disabled, with the exception of Oberasbach,
where planning for the redevelopment had not yet been completed. An additional station at Petersaurach Nord, located between Heilsbronn and Wicklesgreuth, was opened on 12 September 2014. The S-Bahn extension to Dombühl via the reopened Leutershausen-Wiedersbach station, but without its former passing loop, opened in December 2017 and is served every two hours.
Route
The line leaves
Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof to the west, initially running parallel with the
lines to Bamberg and
to Augsburg. The line crosses the
Frankenschnellweg freeway and the connecting tracks to the former main freight yard and the cattle yard and passes through Schweinau, Schweinau station and the industrial area of Tillypark. It then crosses the
Ring line (''Ringbahn''), the ''Südwesttangente'' ("South-west tangent" freeway) and the
Main–Danube Canal and reaches
Nürnberg-Stein station, where the
Bibert Railway (''Bibertbahn'') branched off to
Unternbibert-Rügland until 1986. After the line crosses the
Rednitz
The Rednitz is a long river in Franconia, Germany, tributary of the Regnitz (more precisely: its southern, left headstream). The Rednitz is formed by the confluence of the rivers Franconian Rezat and Swabian Rezat, in Georgensgmünd ( district o ...
river, it runs through
Unterasbach and
Oberasbach
Oberasbach is a municipality in the district of Fürth, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 6 km southwest of Fürth, and 10 km west of Nuremberg (centre).
Stadtrat
The local council has 24 members.
The election in 2020 showed the ...
and continues between the
Bibert river to the north and
federal highway B14 to the south through
Roßtal
Roßtal is a market town in the district of Fürth, Bavaria, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the mos ...
and
Heilsbronn
Heilsbronn is a town in the Ansbach district of the Mittelfranken administrative region of Franconia, in the German state of Bavaria between Nuremberg and Ansbach, in the wooded valley of the Rangau. Its hallmark is the ''Katharinenturm'', a medi ...
to
Wicklesgreuth. There
a branch line runs to
Windsbach
Windsbach is a town in the district of Ansbach, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 20 km east of Ansbach, and 29 km southwest of Nuremberg.
Geography
Location
Windsbach is located in the Rangau area on the river Franconian Rezat. The ...
and a siding runs to the United States Army military base at
Katterbach. Near
Lichtenau forest, the line continues to
Sachsen bei Ansbach
Sachsen is a municipality in the district of Ansbach in Bavaria in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the ...
and from there runs parallel with the
Fränkische Rezat
The Franconian Rezat (german: Fränkische Rezat) is a river in southern Germany. It is the western, left source river of the Rednitz. It rises in the Franconian Heights near Oberdachstetten. It flows generally east through the towns Lehrberg, ...
and from the Ansbach district of Eyb it runs next to the railway line from Treuchtlingen to Ansbach station.
After the station, the line to Würzburg branches off to the northwest, while the line to Crailsheim turns to the southwest to
Leutershausen-Wiedersbach, running along the southern edge of
Frankenhöhe
The Franconian HeightsBavarian State Chancellery, ''Information about Bavaria'', 1981, p. 11. (german: Frankenhöhe) are a hill ridge, up to , in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in South Germany.
Location and boundaries
The Franconian Heights l ...
(a highland). In Eichholz, the line bends to avoid the Rüsselholz (a forest) and runs to the north west after a left turn between the forest and the Klosterberg (a mountain) runs to the former railway station of Dombühl. This was the starting point of a
line to Rothenburg and Steinach and is still the starting point of for the
line to Nördlingen, which is now only used for freight and museum excursions. The line continues under the
A 7 and
A 66 autobahns, through Schnelldorf station to the Bavaria/ Baden-Württemberg border, connects near Beuerlbach with the
Tauber Valley Railway
The Tauber Valley Railway (German: ''Taubertalbahn'') is a single-tracked, unelectrified, standard gauge railway between Wertheim am Main, Wertheim and Crailsheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It runs alongside the Taube ...
(''Taubertalbahn'') and ends in Crailsheim station.
Construction standards
The route is double track and electrified throughout. The line speed between Ansbach and Nuremberg Hauptbahnhof is between 120 and 160 km/h. Regional traffic between Roßtal-Wegbrücke and the change of tracks Roßtal is restricted to 60 km/h. In addition the stations of Nürnberg-Stein, Roßtal, Wicklesgreuth, Ansbach and Dombühl are equipped with overtaking tracks.
Stations
The refurbished goods shed of the former station in Ellrichshausen was one of five winners of the Peter-Haag Prize (for the preservation of Baden-Württemberg rail heritage) in 1989. The shed was built by Georg von Morlok in 1874 and now houses a private automotive museum.
Transport networks
The Nuremberg–Schnelldorf section is served by
Regionalbahn line R7 and is integrated into the ''Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg'' (Greater Nuremberg Transport Association, VGN).
Operations
In long-distance traffic,
InterCity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
trains runs on the Nuremberg–
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
–
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
route. From the end of 2017, double-deck Intercity sets have been used for long-distance traffic between Nuremberg and Karlsruhe.
In regional traffic,
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 ...
services on the Nuremberg–Crailsheim–Stuttgart route were previously formed of
Class 111electric locomotives and
Silberling
Silberling is the colloquial name for the n-coaches of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, a type of regional passenger coach of which more than 5,000 units were built from 1958 to 1981. Nearly all of the coaches have undergone extensive modernisation ...
carriages as
push-pull trains. In order to avoid capacity bottlenecks, the Silberling carriages were replaced by double-decker wagons with high entrances at the beginning of 2017. The trains of the Nuremberg S-Bahn, which operate between Nuremberg and Dombühl, are operated with class 442 (
Bombardier Talent 2
The Talent 2 is a multiple unit railcar manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. The train began production in 2008 and first entered service with Deutsche Bahn in 2011.
Despite having the same name as the original Talent, designed by Wag ...
) electric multiple units.
S-Bahn extension from Ansbach to Dombühl
On 7 October 2009 the Bavarian Ministry of Transport and the
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 ...
signed an agreement to plan to extension of line S4 of the S-Bahn from Ansbach to Dombühl. Construction of the €5 million project, including the adaptation of the line and signalling and the reopening of
Leutershausen-Wiedersbach station, was originally planned to be completed in December 2013,
but was delayed until the end of 2017.
In the contract for the Nuremberg S-Bahn for the period from December 2017 to December 2029, which was advertised at the end of 2013, the extension of the S-Bahn beyond Ansbach to Dombühl at two-hour intervals was considered.
[.] It was not until June 2016 that an agreement was reached on the infrastructure upgrade needed for the 23 km extension. Of the costs of €5.5 million, the state of Bavaria will fund €2.2 million and also contribute to the planning costs.
With a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony, construction work was started on 23 March 2017. The two-hour extension of the S-Bahn service requires an extra 170,000 train-kilometres per year to be operated.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuremberg-Crailsheim railway
Railway lines in Bavaria
Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg
Railway lines opened in 1875
1875 establishments in Germany
Rail transport in Nuremberg
Buildings and structures in Fürth (district)
Buildings and structures in Ansbach (district)
Buildings and structures in Ansbach
Buildings and structures in Schwäbisch Hall (district)