Königstein Railway
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The Königstein Railway (''Königsteiner Bahn'') is a 1902 opened, single-track and non-electrified secondary railway line that connects the town of
Königstein im Taunus Königstein im Taunus () is a health spa and lies on the thickly wooded slopes of the Taunus in Hesse, Germany. The town is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Owing to its advantageous location for both scenery and transport on the edg ...
with the city of
Frankfurt am Main 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 its na ...
on the southern edge of the
Taunus The Taunus is a mountain range in Hesse, Germany, located north of Frankfurt. The tallest peak in the range is ''Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are ''Kleiner Feldberg'' (825 m) and ''Altkönig'' (798 m). The Taunus range spans ...
in the German state of
Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
. The Regionalbahn line, which was also called the K-Bahn from 1989 to 1995, now runs from Koenigstein via
Frankfurt-Höchst station The Frankfurt-Höchst station is an important station in the Frankfurt district of Höchst and is the second largest station in the city with twelve tracks. It is currently mainly used by S-Bahn, suburban and regional services. It is the most im ...
as timetable route 646 to
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, also called Frankfurt Central Station and Frankfurt Main Station, is the busiest railway station in the German state of Hesse. Because of its location near the middle of Germany and usage as a transport hub for lo ...
.


Route

The line consists of a single track, but there are passing loops at the stations of Liederbach,
Kelkheim Kelkheim (), officially "Kelkheim (Taunus)", is a town in the Main-Taunus district in Hesse, Germany, close to Germany's financial center Frankfurt/Main. Geography Location Located on the southwestern slopes of the Taunus mountains, Kelkheim i ...
and Hornau as well as at the end stations. In Höchst, the railway leaves the railway embankment used by the S-Bahn and branches off to the northwest, soon reaching its last stop in the Frankfurt city area at Frankfurt-Unterliederbach, which used to be classified as a ''Bahnhof'' (station), but it has since been reduced to a ''Haltepunkt'' (halt, that is it has no sets of points). After the railway passes under an autobahn bridge, it reaches the first station in the
Main-Taunus-Kreis Main-Taunus is a Kreis (district) in the middle of Hessen, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region as well as the Frankfurt urban area. Neighboring districts are Hochtaunuskreis, district-free Frankfurt, Groß-Gerau, d ...
, ''Liederbach Süd''. This relatively new halt serves in particular the commercial area of the community. This is followed by Liederbach station, which is located exactly on the border of the two districts of Oberliederbach and Niederhofheim and provides the first crossing opportunity after Höchst. Prior to the incorporation of the two districts into Liederbach, the station was called ''Niederhofheim-Oberliederbach''. The second track is occasionally used, such as during delays. After running through fields and meadows, the railway reaches the halt of Münster, then the centre of the town of Kelkheim, where train crossings takes place. Stopping times deviate from the usual
symmetry minute The symmetry minute is a significant time point in the clock face timetables used by many public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport f ...
, with the scheduled arrival times is both direction being at 11 and 41 minutes after each hour. Shortly later, the railway reaches Hornau station, where the signal box controlling the line is located. The Königstein Railway then passes through the Kelkheim
municipal forest A municipal forest or municipal woodland is a forest or wood owned by a town or city. Such woods often have a higher density of leisure facilities like play parks, restaurants and cafes, bridleways, cycle paths and footpaths. Unlike an urban forest ...
(''Stadtwald'') and reaches the southern boundary of Königstein, which is also the beginning of
Hochtaunuskreis The Hochtaunuskreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Neighbouring districts are Lahn-Dill, Wetteraukreis, district-free Frankfurt, Main-Taunus, Rheingau-Taunus, ...
. After passing through the halt of Schneidhain and a 180° turn to the east, the line reaches Königstein station and thus the end of the line.


Operator

The
Hessische Landesbahn Hessische Landesbahn (Hessian State Railway, HLB) is a regional transport company owned by the German state of Hesse, based in Frankfurt am Main. It provides bus and rail passenger transport services and, to a lesser extent, rail freight services i ...
operates the Königstein Railway as part of the network of the
Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) is a transport association that covers the public transport network of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area in Germany. Its head office is located in Hofheim im Taunus. Organisation and area covered The RMV ...
(Rhine-Main transport association, RMV), as RMV line 12 (RB 12) until 2019. To make the line more attractive, it now also runs via the
Taunus Railway The Taunus Railway (German: ''Taunus-Eisenbahn'') is a double-track electrified railway line, which connects Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, Germany. It is 41.2 km long and follows the course of the Main on its north side, running quite close to ...
between Frankfurt-Höchst and Frankfurter Hauptbahnhof. It now represents an important addition to the
Rhine-Main S-Bahn The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The network compris ...
.


History

Its operating company, the ''Kleinbahn AG Höchst-Königstein'' gained a concession to build the Königstein Railway in 1901 as a
Kleinbahn The term ''Kleinbahn'' (literally 'small railway', plural: ''Kleinbahnen'') was a light railway concept used especially in Prussia for a railway line that "on account of its low importance for general railway transport" had less strict requirements ...
(light railway); this company later developed into the ''Frankfurt-Königsteiner Eisenbahn'' (FKE). Construction began at the ''Höchst am Main'' station (before its incorporation into Frankfurt) on the Taunus Railway. The line was opened on 24 February 1902. The company first had bought three locomotives which were similar to the Prussian T 9.1. Followed by three more of the same type in 1903 (sold in 1910), 1913 and 1924 as well as a
Prussian T 3 The Prussian Class T 3 steam locomotives procured for the Prussian state railways were 0-6-0 tank locomotives. Together with the Prussian T 2 they were the first locomotives that were built to railway norms. The first units were delivered by Hen ...
in 1906, there were no further machines up to 1947 when two
Palatine P 5 A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times.
from
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 ...
were bought. Apart from few other steam locomotives, which were partly short time lend, the FKE switched powers to diesel engines, buying several Esslingen railbuses in 1959 and renting Class V 100 and Class V 160 from
Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained ...
operating as push-pull trains with "Silberling"-coaches.Günter H. Köhler / Andreas Christopher ''Eisenbahnen im Rhein-Main-Gebiet'',
Eisenbahn-Kurier ''Eisenbahn Kurier'' (German language, German for ''Railway Courier''), or EK, is a monthly magazine published in Freiburg im Breisgau, Freiburg, Germany, whose focus is on Rail transport, railway and Rail transport modelling, model railway theme ...
, 1983, S. 94 ff.
Since 1987 the FKE runs railcars ''VT 2E'' by
Linke-Hofmann-Busch Alstom Transport Deutschland, formerly Linke-Hofmann-Busch, is a German manufacturing company originally established in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) to produce locomotives and rolling stock. Its origins lay in the wheelwright business of Gottf ...
. Since 2006 the fleet consists of
LINT 41 The Alstom Coradia LINT is an articulated railcar manufactured by Alstom since 1999, offered in diesel and hydrogen fuel models. The acronym ''LINT'' is short for the German ''"leichter innovativer Nahverkehrstriebwagen"'' (light innovative local ...
railcars, too.


Train crash near Oberliederbach in 1966

On 17 November 1966, there was a heavy train crash on the line between Unterliederbach and Liederbach. While the train's driver had left to take a break, the three-car diesel multiple unit, which had been waiting unattended in Kelkheim Hornau, started moving towards Frankfurt, because the parking brake had not been activated. Due to the gradient of the track, the train accelerated to well over 100 km/h. An attempt to derail the train in Kelkheim-Münster failed. The railcar finally collided head-on with an oncoming passenger train at Oberliederbach. The driver and fireman of the steam locomotive saved themselves by jumping off. Seven passengers died and there were 80 injured in the accident. The dead included the only passenger on the driverless railcar. For unknown reasons, the twenty-two-year-old had not been able to pull the emergency brake to prevent the disaster, or at least alleviate its extent and perhaps save his life. Another train from Frankfurt was prevented from continuing towards Liederbach just in time.


K-Bahn

From 1989 to 1995, the line had the brand name of ''K-Bahn'', which, despite its short lifespan, is still often used today. In addition, the former light railway was highlighted on the line map of the former ''Frankfurter Verkehrsverbund'' (Frankfurter transport association, FVV) with its own colour. Similarly, in 1993, when the branch line also operated by the FKE under the name of
Taunus Railway The Taunus Railway (German: ''Taunus-Eisenbahn'') is a double-track electrified railway line, which connects Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, Germany. It is 41.2 km long and follows the course of the Main on its north side, running quite close to ...
was revived and it was given the brand name of ''T-Bahn''. In 1995, the
Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) is a transport association that covers the public transport network of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area in Germany. Its head office is located in Hofheim im Taunus. Organisation and area covered The RMV ...
(RMV) was founded, thus ending the short history of the K and T-Bahns. Both were named using the uniform RMV numbering scheme (lines 12 and 15).


Prospects

At the beginning of November 2014, it was announced that the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund and
Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...
had agreed to use new railcars with
fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
propulsion ( iLINT) on the lines of the Taunus network (12, 13, 15 and 21) from 2018 at the earliest.


References


Footnotes


Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Konigstein Railway Railway lines in Hesse Railway lines opened in 1902 1902 establishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Hochtaunuskreis Buildings and structures in Main-Taunus-Kreis Transport in Frankfurt Taunus