The Plauen–Cheb Line is a mainline railway in

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

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 most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, which was originally built and operated by the Kgl. Sächsischen Staatseisenbahnen (''Royal Saxon State Railways''). It runs from

Plauen Plauen (; Czech: ''Plavno'') is, with around 65,000 inhabitants, the fifth-largest city of Saxony, Germany after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest city in the S ...

Vogtland Vogtland (; cz, Fojtsko) is a region spanning the German states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and north-western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It overlaps with and is largely contained within Euregio Egrensis. The name alludes to the former ...

through Weischlitz,

Adorf Adorf () is a small town and municipality in the Vogtlandkreis to the south-west of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Gettengrün, a village within the municipality, borders on the Czech Republic. Etymology The name Adorf can be analysed as " ...

und

Bad Brambach Bad Brambach is a municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. It is the southernmost municipality in Saxony and also in what was formerly East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: ...

over the national border to

Cheb Cheb (; german: Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 30,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Ohře. Before the 1945 Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, expulsion of the German-speaking population ...

History

Planning and construction

The origins of the present mainline between Plauen–Cheb stem from the Vogtländischen Staatseisenbahn from Herlasgrün through Falkenstein/Vogtl. and Oelsnitz to Eger, which opened in November 1865. A direct track from Plauen to Bohemia was planned, and in October 1871 work started on the tracks from Plauen to Oelsnitz. To overcome the height difference between the Saxon-Bavarian Railway and the floor of the

White Elster The White Elster
Accessed on 16 Jan 2011. (, ) is a long river in central

central Germany and

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 ...

to Bohemia. The express trains from

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 ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

used the tracks as it was shorter than the route through Hof. After the First World War when Czechoslovakia was formed, the whole line remained in the control of the

Royal Saxon State Railways The Royal Saxon State Railways (german: Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen) were the state-owned railways operating in the Kingdom of Saxony from 1869 to 1918. From 1918 until their merger into the Deutsche Reichsbahn the title 'Royal' was ...

and the subsequent

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 ...

During World War II

After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

or annexation of

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

in Autumn 1938 the Vojtanov -

Františkovy Lázně Františkovy Lázně (; german: Franzensbad) is a spa town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,200 inhabitants. Together with neighbouring Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně, it is part of the West B ...

section became double track. At the end of the Second World War, the line was the target of heavy American bombing. On 8 April 1945, the station at Cheb was severely bombed so that rail traffic was no longer possible. Photographs from May 1945 show the impact of the bomb explosions and the severely damaged locomotives. On 12 April 1945 the viaduct across

Ohře The Ohře () or, slightly less commonly in English sources, the Eger (, Czech also: ''Oharka'' or ''Ohara'', Celtic: ''Agara'', pl, Ohrza), is a 316 km river in Germany (50 km) and the Czech Republic (266 km), left tributary of ...

in Cheb was damaged. Till the end of the war the Plauen Oberer Bahnhof station was attacked and almost totally destroyed.

Post War

At the end of the war on 9 July 1945, the section in the Czech Republic passed over to the

Czechoslovak State Railways Czechoslovak State Railways (''Československé státní dráhy'' in Czech or ''Československé štátne dráhy'' in Slovak, often abbreviated to ČSD) was the state-owned railway company of Czechoslovakia. The company was founded in 1918 a ...

ČSD. No compensation was received, because it was part of war reparations. The tracks in the German section were given as war reparations to the Soviet Union, and the second track was removed. The viaduct across

in Cheb was replaced with a temporary bridge which remained in place until 19 May 1951 when the bridge had been rebuilt. Cross border goods traffic resumed in 1957, and passenger trains in the Czech section between

Plesná Plesná (german: Fleißen) is a town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,900 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Lomnička, Smrčina and Vackov are administrative parts of Plesná. Geography ...

and Cheb. From the start of the 1960s crossborder passenger trains resumed, then an express DR Class VT 18.16 Karlex from

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 ...

to Karlovy Vary. The goods traffic regained its importance, and the ČSD build a new border station at Vojtanov. From the beginning of the 1980s the Czech section was electrified to the normal southern standard of 25 kV 50 Hz. The tracks between Vojtanov and Cheb went live 17 October 1983. The Deutsche Reichsbahn began to double the tracks in the 1970s, and the section Pirk–Adorf and Raun–Bad Brambach were completed by the end of the 1980s. Though the line is principally used by Regional Express trains there is still a need for some goods traffic. Since 1997 Vogtlandbahn has operated local trains from Zwickau–Bad Brambach, and from 2000 the trains have run over the Czech border to Cheb serving all the intermediate stations.

RegionalExpress 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 ...

-trains of the Deutsche Bahn ran from

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 ...

to Bad Brambach, but on the introduction of the ''Karlex'', in the mid 1990s there is no longer a need for this service.

Future developments

During the 1990s, restoring the second track through Bad Bambrach was discussed and in the long term this may happen. Similarly, it is possible that the line may be electrified- this was tied to the Leipzig City-Tunnel scheme.

Description of the route

From the Oberer Bahnhof (upper station) in Plauen, the route uses the tracks of the Leipzig and Hof line and passes over the Syra Viaduct and reaches the halt on the site of the former Plauen West station. There are seven stations and halts in Plauen, that before July 2008 was not in the Vogtlandkreis. From Kürbitz the tracks run alongside the

Elster Valley Railway Elster may refer to: Places * Black Elster (''Schwarze Elster''), a river in Germany * White Elster (''Weiße Elster''), a river in Germany and the Czech Republic ** Elster Viaduct, a railway bridge over the White Elster ** Elster Viaduct (Pirk) ...

as far as Weischlitz then follows the White Elster under the motorway bridge that carries the

Bundesautobahn 72 is a motorway in Germany. Construction of the autobahn started in the 1930s, but was halted by the outbreak of World War II. Due to the division of Germany, a part of the autobahn lay in ruins until after German reunification. Exit list ...

. From Pirk station, the section becomes doubled tracked, it passes through Oelsnitz/Vogtl. and on to Adorf/Vogtl. where it joins the tracks of the Chemnitz-Aue-Adorf Line. At

Bad Elster Bad Elster () is a spa town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. It lies on the border of Bavaria and the Czech Republic in the Elster gebirge hills. It is situated on the river White Elster, and is protected from extremes of t ...

the track bed leaves the Elster valley and swings through a series of tight curves through the highlands of the

Elster Mountains The Elster Mountains (german: Elstergebirge, cs, Halštrovské hory) is a small range of mountains, in Saxony and the Czech Republic, to the west of the Ore Mountains. They lie in a region known as Vogtland, and take their name from the River E ...

. Shortly before Bad Brambach the line passes in and out of the Czech territory. Shortly after Bad Brambach station the tracks cross the Czech border again and reach the Czech station of Plesná, and again pass over to Germany on the south side of the Kapellenberg hills. On a constant gradient the line descends into the Czech border station of Vojtanov. From here, the section is electrified. Shortly after the station there is a junction with the lines from Aš which formed the Cheb–Oberkotzau Line. More important is the station at the famous spa town of Františkovy Lázně, from here there is an express train to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and on into

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. Shortly before the final station in Cheb, the line passes over the imposing Ohře viaduct, one of the largest bridges built by the

References

* This article is sourced from German Wikipedia