The Wanne-Eickel–Hamburg railway is the shortest
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
link between the
Metropole Ruhr and the
Hamburg Metropolitan Region and hence one of the
most important railway lines in northwest Germany. The Route runs over the cities
Münster (Westfalen)
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...
,
Osnabrück
Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...
and
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
.
It was built between 1870 and 1874 by the
Cologne-Minden Railway Company
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
(CME) based in
Wanne-Eickel
Herne () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area directly between the cities of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen.
History
Like most other cities in the region, Herne (ancient Haranni) was a tiny village until th ...
, and branched off their main (Cologne-)Deutz–Minden route as part of the
Hamburg-Venlo railway
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
. Today it is an electrified
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 ...
which has a minimum of two tracks throughout. Parts of the route are equipped with ''
Linienzugbeeinflussung
Linienzugbeeinflussung (or LZB) is a cab signalling and train protection system used on selected German and Austrian railway lines as well as on the AVE and some commuter rail lines in Spain. The system was mandatory where trains were allowed ...
'' train control which enables speeds of up to 200 km/h to be attained.
Due to its constant use by goods and passenger trains rolling along the line, day and night, it has been given the nickname ''Rollbahn'' ("Rolling Line").
History
The railway was built by the
Cologne-Minden Railway Company
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
(CME) under contract to the
Prussian state
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 ...
as the eastern element of a line from Hamburg to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
(''Paris-Hamburg railway''). The western terminus of this line was to be the town of
Venlo
Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherland ...
on the Dutch railway network and it therefore went under the name of the ''Hamburg-Venlo railway''.
![Wanne Eickel Hauptbahnhof01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Wanne_Eickel_Hauptbahnhof01.jpg)
In order to form a junction between this line and their existing railway network, the CME extracted a concession from the Prussian state to make
Wanne station, a station which lay on the CME's main route from
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
to
Minden
Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Detm ...
, the branch-off point for the line to Hamburg, in order to be able to build the line to Venlo from
Haltern
Haltern am See (''Haltern at the lake'', before December 2001 only Haltern) is a town and a municipality in the district of Recklinghausen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated on the Lippe and the Wesel–Datteln Canal, approx. nor ...
about 25 km to the north (see
Haltern–Venlo railway
The Haltern–Venlo railway is now largely disused and dismantled line in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands.
It was opened in 1874 by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company (german: Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, ...
).
![Münster2018 (53)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/M%C3%BCnster2018_%2853%29.JPG)
On 1 January 1870 the first section was opened from Wanne to Münster and on 1 September of the same year its extension to Osnabrück followed. On 1 December 1872 the railway linked
Harburg in the Prussian province of Hanover across the
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...
with the
Hamburg Hanoverian station in Hamburg.
![Panorama-os-hbf](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Panorama-os-hbf.jpg)
The section from Osnabrück to Hemelingen was completed on 15 May 1873 and it had been extended to
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
by 16 August. The line was finally completed on 1 June 1874 with the opening of the remaining sections between Bremen and Harburg. In 1879 it was
nationalised
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
.
![Bremen Hbf Frontansicht](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Bremen_Hbf_Frontansicht.jpg)
In Bremen the CME initially built a goods station on the site of the present-day town hall, called the ''Hamburg station''. This was provisionally used for passenger services as well, when the old passenger station at Bremen was closed. After the new
Bremen Hauptbahnhof
Bremen Hauptbahnhof (German for ''Bremen main station'') is a railway station in the city of Bremen in northwestern Germany. It is the most important rail station for both the city and state of Bremen; InterCityExpress, Intercity, EuroCity, C ...
had been completed in 1891, the line was moved there and the old station torn down. The line to Hamburg was later used again by the
Bremen–Tarmstedt narrow gauge railway and is still recognisable today as the
Green Train (''Grünzug'') park railway between Forther Straße and Innsbrucker Straße.
![2013-06-08 Highflyer HP L4729 cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Hamburg_Hauptbahnhof.jpg)
On 29 September 1907 the ''Venlo Station'' in Hamburg was switched from the Hanoverian station to
new Hauptbahnhof which had been opened on 6 December 1906 and the halt of ''Oberhafen'' was built on the new track next to the old terminus. By 1908 the Wanne–Osnabrück section was given a second track and soon thereafter the rest of the line was also doubled.
Particularly unusual are the multi-level stations in
Osnabrück
Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...
(crossing with the
Hanoverian Western Railway The Hanoverian Western Railway was a line from the Löhne to Emden, built by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways in the mid-19th century in the west of the Kingdom of Hanover in the modern German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. ...
) and
Dülmen
Dülmen () is a town in the district of Coesfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Dülmen is situated in the south part of the Münsterland area, between the Lippe river to the south, the Baumberge hills to the north and the Ems ri ...
(crossing with the
Dortmund–Enschede railway).
Planned four-track upgrade
After the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the Deutsche Reichsbahn planned to upgrade the Münster–Osnabrück line to four tracks. The procurement of land was soon largely complete and work began, not least on building a second tunnel alongside the existing Lengerich (West) Tunnel. The old tunnel was to continue to be used.
The
world economic crisis at the start of the 1930s weakened the country and brought the project to a standstill. Because the new Lengerich tunnel was ready and had a better line it was connected to the existing route and taken into service. The old Lengerich tunnel remained out of commission until the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
when it was put to use for a while as an underground arms factory. After the war it was returned to civilian use; at one stage being employed as a rifle range for an arms dealer.
Signs of the four-track upgrade can still be seen from immediately north of the tunnel to the area of Hasbergen in the shape of widened embankments and track overbridges. Here the expansion of the line was relatively well advanced.
Upgrade in the 20th century
In the 1960s the line was electrified.
In 1983 the
Hamburg S-Bahn
The Hamburg S-Bahn is a suburban commuter railway network in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together, the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the s ...
opened
its own line between the stations of
Hamburg-Harburg
Harburg is a Boroughs and quarters of Hamburg#Boroughs, borough of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It is also the name of Harburg (quarter), Harburg quarter in the borough, which used to be the capital of the Harburg (district), Harburg district in ...
and
Hamburg Hbf
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (abbrev. ''Hamburg Hbf'') is the main railway station of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened in 1906 to replace four separate terminal stations, today Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service AG. With an avera ...
(for routes ''S3'' and ''S31''), that ran between the South and North Elbe parallel to the high-speed line. Its halts at
Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg
Wilhelmsburg () ( nds, Willemsborg) is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') of Hamburg, Germany within the borough (''Bezirk'') of Hamburg-Mitte. It is situated on several islands between the Northern and Southern branches of the Elbe river (''Norderelbe'' a ...
and
Hamburg-Veddel
Veddel () is a quarter (''Stadtteil'') in the Hamburg-Mitte borough of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg on the homonymous island in the Elbe river, in northern Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a ...
were closed as a result.
Upgrade into a high-speed railway
The first federal transport plan (1973) proposed the upgrade of the Hamburg–Osnabrück–Dortmund line as one of eight major railway projects.
[Rüdiger Block: ''Auf neuen Wegen. Die Neubaustrecken der Deutschen Bundesbahn''. In: '' Eisenbahn-Kurier Special: Hochgeschwindigkeitsverkehr''. No. 21, 1991, no ISSN, p. 30–35.]
Other parts of the line between Hamburg, Bremen and Münster were taken into service in 1978 as
high-speed railway
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, line ...
s for speeds of up to 200 km/h. On the line between Hamburg and Bremen the section between
Sprötze and
Lauenbrück
Lauenbrück is a municipality in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Lauenbrück belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Verden, established in 1180. In 1648 the Prince-Bishopric was transformed into the Principality of Verden, whic ...
(20.1 km) went into service for high-speed services between 1978 and 1984. In 1982 the section between Lauenbrück and
Scheeßel
Scheeßel (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Scheeßl'') is a municipality in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Wümme, approx. 10 km northeast of Rotenburg, 45 km east of Bremen, and 70 km south ...
was upgraded, and between 1983/84 and 1986 the section between Scheeßel and Utbremen (40.1 km) followed suit (the last 9.7 km finally being completed in 1990). On the line between Bremen and Münster the section between Dreye and Kirchweyhe (4.0 km) was upgraded in 1983 for high-speed services. In 1984/85 most of the (67.3 km) sections between
Bramstedt
Bramstedt is a village and a former municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2014, it is part of the municipality Hagen im Bremischen.
Bramstedt belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. In 1648 ...
and
Bohmte
Bohmte is a municipality in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Hunte, approx. 20 km northeast of Osnabrück. The foundation of today's Bohmte is a result of the regional reorganization of 1972 ...
followed, and the remaining (3.2 km) stretch was done in 1986.
[Rüdiger Block: ''ICE-Rennbahn: Die Neubaustrecken''. In: '' Eisenbahn-Kurier Special: Hochgeschwindigkeitsverkehr''. Nr. 21, 1991, no ISSN, p. 36–45.]
The expansion of the 287 km long line between Münster and Hamburg, consisting of 195 individual measures, cost 550 million
deutschmarks
The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...
(at 1991 prices). This included the new triple-tracked section between Bremen and Hamburg.
[Horst J. Obermayer: ''Die Ausbaustrecken der Deutschen Bundesbahn''. In: Herrmann Merker (Hrsg.): ''ICE – InterCityExpress am Start''. Hermann Merker Verlag, Forstenfeldbruck 1991, , p. 69–71.]
Triple-track upgrade
In June 1986 a third track between
Buchholz (branching to the
Maschen Marshalling Yard
Maschen Marshalling Yard (german: Maschen Rangierbahnhof, abbreviated to ''Maschen Rbf'' or ''AM'' in the official railway directory) near Maschen south of Hamburg on the Hanover–Hamburg railway in Germany is the largest marshalling yard in Eur ...
) and
Rotenburg Rotenburg may refer to:
*Rotenburg (district), Lower Saxony, Germany
*Rotenburg an der Wümme, capital of the district
*Rotenburg an der Fulda, near Kassel in Hesse
*Rothenburg ob der Tauber, in the Franconia region of Bavaria
*Hersfeld-Rotenburg, ...
went into service,
[Gunther Ellwanger: ''Neubaustrecken und Schnellverkehr der Deutschen Bundesbahn. Chronologie.'' In: Knut Reimers, Wilhelm Linkerhägner (Hrsg.): ''Wege in the Zukunft. Neubau- und Ausbaustrecken der DB''. Hestra Verlag Darmstadt, 1987, , p. 245–250] in order to be able to better handle goods and passenger traffic alongside one another. In fact, in connexion with that the Rotenburg-Verden and Nienburg-Minden lines were to be doubled in order that goods traffic could be diverted from the Ruhrgebiet-Bremen section onto the four-track Hamm-Minden line. These plans have however had to take a back seat.
Bremen Freight Bypass and Mahndorf Curve
When the
Hamburg-Venlo railway
The Cologne-Minden Railway Company (German, old spelling: ''Cöln-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'', ''CME'') was along with the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company and the Rhenish Railway Company one of the railway companies that in the mid-19th ...
was built, the
Hanseatic city
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German t ...
of Bremen (like Hamburg) was still not a member of the
German Customs Union
The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...
(''Zollverein''); in fact this did not happen until 1888.
![Bremerbahnen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Bremerbahnen.png)
In order to be able to transport goods from the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial region to Harburg without incurring taxes in the German customs area a treaty-approved goods line was built due east past Bremen which also reduced the journey time considerably because it was almost 13 km shorter than the main route which ran in a loop through Bremen state territory.
At one time a link was planned from the Sagehorn–Dreye goods line to the
Hanover–Bremen railway as part of the S-Bahn concept for Bremen, which would have enabled a through S-Bahn line from Nordenham to Rotenburg (Wümme). The project foundered due to its high cost. At the crossing an IC crossing station, Bremen-Mahndorf, had also been planned. The shortcut was worked for several years by the Hamburg–Cologne
Metropolitan line. Currently an
ICE Sprinter pair of trains uses the line to circumvent Bremen Hbf. Tracks pass over the
Friedenstunnel in Bremen.
Operations
The railway is the backbone of rail passenger services between the Ruhr and Hamburg with at least one
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 ...
pair of trains running per hour. The majority of these trains only run from Münster to Hamburg over the historical route (timetable routes 120 Hamburg–Bremen and 385 Bremen–Münster). By contrast, between Dortmund and Münster they initially use the
Dortmund–Enschede railway and then the single-tracked
Preußen–Münster railway
The Preußen–Münster railway is a 45 kilometre-long, largely single-track and electrified main line railway from Münster to Lünen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is served by a Regionalbahn service called ''Der Lüner''.
Hi ...
. Additional long-distance trains usually run over a detour via the
Dortmund–Hamm railway and
Hamm–Münster railway. ICE-Sprinters (and also the former
Metropolitan) trains run past Bremen directly to Hamburg in order to save time by using the goods route.
The southern section of the Münster–Wanne-Eickel line (route no. 425) is also regularly used by passenger services, especially the two-hourly IC trains from Norddeich Mole via Münster, Wanne-Eickel, Duisburg, Cologne and Koblenz to Luxemburg.
Local services
In the conurbations of Rhein-Ruhr, Bremen and Hamburg regional trains also run on this railway. A short section between the stations of ''Recklinghausen Süd'' and ''Recklinghausen Hauptbahnhof'' is also worked by some trains of the
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn
The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ci ...
(route ''S2''). Between Münster and Osnabrück the
Regionalbahn service RB 66 (''Teuto-Bahn'') is operated hourly by
WestfalenBahn
WestfalenBahn is a railway company operating regional train service in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, Northern Germany. It was founded in 2005 by Essener Versorgungs & Verkehrsgesellschaft, Minden Museum Railway, moBiel and Verkehrsbe ...
. Between Bremen and Hamburg services are operated an hour by
metronom
Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a German non-entirely-state-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony since December 2005. The company's activities focus exclusively on passenger transport, operating services from Hamburg to Bre ...
.
New S-Bahn Line S 9
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn
The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ci ...
11. September 2020 ''Recklinghausen Hauptbahnhof '' via
Gladbeck
Gladbeck () is a town in the district of Recklinghausen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Gladbeck is quite a young town, first recognised 21 July 1919 when it was given town rights. The town established itself around five farming villages, Br ...
,
Bottrop
Bottrop () is a city in west-central Germany, on the Rhine–Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck, and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and rail cent ...
,
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
,
Wuppertal
Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...
to
Hagen
Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...
. Connecting route 2223 from
Abzwg Blumenthal.
See also
*
List of scheduled railway routes in Germany
NB: The scheduled routes given here are based primarily on the timetable of the Deutsche Bahn dated 9 December 2007.In addition the list of routes (see external links) reflects those of the German Regional Railway (''Deutsche Regionaleisenbahn'') ...
Literature
* Deutsche Reichsbahn, Horst-Werner Dumjahn: ''Die deutschen Eisenbahnen in ihrer Entwicklung 1835–1935''. Reichsdruckerei, Berlin 1935, Nachdruck with Vorwort von Horst-Werner Dumjahn: Dumjahn Verlag, Mainz 1984,
* Detlev Höhn: ''Am Knick der Rollbahn. Eisenbahnen in Lengerich''. Eisenbahn-Geschichte No. 30, p. 4–13.
References
External links
*
osnabahn.deInformation about the railway in and around Osnabrück
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wanne-Eickel-Hamburg railway
Railway lines in Hamburg
Railway lines in Lower Saxony
Railway lines in Bremen
Railway lines in North Rhine-Westphalia
High-speed railway lines in Germany
Osnabrück
Railway lines opened in 1870
1870 establishments in Germany