The Alzey–Mainz railway was opened on 18 December 1871 by the

Hessian Ludwig Railway The Hessian Ludwig Railway (German: ''Hessische Ludwigsbahn'') or HLB with its network of 697 kilometres of railway was one of the largest privately owned railway companies in Germany. Early history The Hessian Ludwig Railway was a product of ...

(), linking the two cities of

Alzey Alzey () is a ''Verband''-free town – one belonging to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fifth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, Germany, Worms, Ingelheim am Rhei ...

and

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

in the German state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

to each other.

Route

The non-electrified line is operated by

Regionalbahn The ''Regionalbahn'' (; lit. Regional train; abbreviated ''RB'') is a train categories in Europe, type of Regional rail, local passenger train (stopping train) in Germany. It is similar to the Regionalzug (R) and Regio (Swiss railway train), R ...

service RB 31 and

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 a top speed of and an average speed of about as it calls at fewer stations than ''R ...

line RE 13. It connects at

with services on the Donnersberg Railway (''Donnersbergbahn''), operating as RB 47. The section between Alzey and Armsheim is also used by services on the Rheinhessen Railway from Bingen to

Worms The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

. As the line from Armsheim to Mainz is single-track only, services can be operated at most every half-hour, with oncoming trains forced to wait in stations, usually in

Saulheim Saulheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location The muni ...

and Mainz-Marienborn (RB) or Mainz-Gonsenheim (RE).

Rail services

The line is now served by

service RB 31 and

service RE 13. Until the timetable change in December 2014, the line was operated by

DB Regio DB Regio AG () is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and therefore part of the DB Regio business segment, which also includes DB Regionn ...

, after which

vlexx Vlexx GmbH (stylized in lowercase in its logo) is a rail transport company based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; it is a subsidiary of the Regentalbahn, which in turn has been part of the Italian state railway Ferrovie dello Stato (FS ...

GmbH took over the service from Mainz to Kirchheimbolanden. The company had won the tender for the passenger operations. The ''Elsass-Express'' (Alsace Express) to

Wissembourg Wissembourg (; South Franconian: ''Weisseburch'' ; German: ''Weißenburg'' ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Wissembourg was a sub-prefecture of the department until 2015. The name ''Wissembourg'' ...

uses this part of the line on weekends and on public holidays.

Rolling stock

DB Regio

The track is served by both trains consisting of class 218 diesel locomotives hauling three double-decker carriages and by class 628 diesel multiple units, sometimes in coupled sets. In fact, class 629, a variation of class 628, was specially built for the very steeply graded line.

vlexx

vlexx GmbH has operated

Alstom Coradia LINT The Alstom Coradia LINT is an Articulated car, articulated railcar of the Alstom Coradia family manufactured by Alstom since 1999, offered in diesel and hydrogen fuel models. The acronym ''LINT'' is short for the German ''"leichter innovativer Na ...

diesel multiple unit since December 2014. Services are operated with LINT 54 as two-part diesel railcars with 162 seats or three-part diesel railcars with 264 seats.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alzey-Mainz railway Railway lines in Rhineland-Palatinate Railway lines opened in 1871 1871 establishments in Germany Rhenish Hesse Alzey-Worms Buildings and structures in Mainz-Bingen Transport in Mainz