The Wehra Valley Railway (German: ''Wehratalbahn'') was a 19.7 km long branch line from

Schopfheim Schopfheim is a town in the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Wiese, 10 km north of Rheinfelden, and 13 km east of Lörrach. The town is the birthplace of Gisela Oeri, Max Picard, and ...

Bad Säckingen Bad Säckingen ( High Alemannic: ''Bad Säckinge'') is a rural town in the administrative district of Waldshut in the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is famous as the "Trumpeteer's City" because of the book ''Der Trompeter von Säckin ...

in southwestern Germany, that was electrified in 1913 at the same time as the Wiesen Valley Railway. For part of its length it followed the river of the same name. The line runs through the Fahrnau Tunnel (''Fahrnauer Tunnel'') which, at that time, was one of the longest railway tunnels (3.169 km) 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 most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The Wehra Valley Railway was intended as a

strategic railway A strategic railway is a railway proposed or constructed primarily for military strategic purposes, as opposed to the usual purpose of a railway, which is the transport of civilian passengers or freight. Although the archetypal strategic railwa ...

circumnavigating Switzerland near

Basle , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...

and was laid ready to take a second track. Passenger services were withdrawn from the line on 23 May 1971. Goods traffic between Bad Säckingen and Wehr continued to run until 1 September 1990. On 31 December 1994 the line was closed. In a local council meeting on 19 April 2005, the town of

Wehr (Baden) Wehr may refer to: * WEHR, a former radio station owned by Penn State University * Wehr, Baden-Württemberg, Germany * Wehr, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany * Wehr, a village in Selfkant, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany People with the surname *Dic ...

called for an expert opinion to determine whether the line could be reactivated. The report from Tübingen-based local transport advisor Ulrich Grosse was positive, although its restoration would be relatively expensive and only possible for a short time. Initially the route will be protected from being built on. Currently checks are being carried out to see whether the Fahrnau Tunnel can be reopened.

External links

{{Commons, Wehratalbahn
Comprehensive information by the ''Eisenbahnfreunden Wehratal e.V.''

in the ''

Südkurier The Südkurier is a regional daily newspaper in Germany serving the regions northwest of Lake Constance, Hochrhein and Black Forest with its headquarters Konstanz, Germany. The paper appears with a circulation of around 130,000, six times per w ...

'' newspaper
Photos from inside the tunnel
Railway lines in Baden-Württemberg Strategic railways