The Bautzen–Bad Schandau railway is a 64-kilometre long

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line in the state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, which connects

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin (), until 1868 ''Budissin'' in German, is a town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree (river), Spree river, is the eighth most ...

Bad Schandau Bad Schandau (; , ) is a spa town in Germany, in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district of Saxony. It is situated on the right bank of the Elbe, at the mouth of the valley of the Kirnitzsch and in the ar ...

via Neukirch/Lausitz,

Neustadt in Sachsen Neustadt in Sachsen is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated near the border with the Czech Republic, 35 km east of Dresden (centre), and 23 km southwest of Bautzen. At Neustadt, the ...

and

Sebnitz Sebnitz (; , ) is a town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in Saxony, Germany. Geography The town of Sebnitz lies in the valley of the river Sebnitz (river), Sebnitz and its side valleys between 251 and 460 m above Normalnull ...

. The railway was opened fully in 1898. The part between Neustadt in Sachsen and Bad Schandau is also known as ''Sebnitztalbahn'' (

valley railway). Today only the sections of Wilthen–Oberottendorf and Neustadt–Bad Schandau are still in operation.

History

Construction of the line began in 1874 and by the inauguration in 1877 had cost 9.8 million Reichsmark, 1 million of which going to the construction of the bridge over the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) 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 Republic), then Ge ...

at Bad Schandau. The Neustadt-Bad Schandau section opened on 1 July 1877 and the Bautzen-Neustadt section opened on 1 September 1877. Trains travelling on the 65 km long railway needed approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes. In Wilthen und Neustadt at the time, direct connections existed to the trains from and to Ebersbach and Dürrröhrsdorf. The railway celebrated its centenary on 1 July 1977. The central point was

Sebnitz railway station Sebnitz () is a railway station in the town of Sebnitz, Saxony, Germany. The station lies on the Bautzen–Bad Schandau railway and the Rumburk–Sebnitz railway. The station is served by DB Regio Südost. The line into the Czech Republic, t ...

, where an exhibition of trains was presented. Special trips were run on the heritage trains of the

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 Weimar Republic, German national Rail transport, railway system created after th ...

.Johannes Raddatz: ''Eisenbahn in der Sächsischen Schweiz, Band 4'' Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-941712-20-1; S. 44 The freight section between Bautzen and Wilthen closed on 31 December 1994. Since 12 December 2004, the non-stop passenger trains between Bautzen and Neustadt have also stopped. The section Neukirch-Wilthen is still used by local trains connecting Dresden and Zittau.

Services

The Bautzen–Bad Schandau railway is used by the following passenger services: * RE 2 Dresden Hbf - Bischofswerda − Ebersbach (Sachs) − Zittau (between Neukirch West and Wilthen) * RB 61 Dresden Hbf − Bischofswerda − Ebersbach (Sachs) − Zittau (between Neukirch West and Wilthen) * RB 71 Pirna - Neustadt - Bad Schandau (between Neustadt and Bad Schandau).

Images

File:Neukirch-Bahnhof-West-3.jpg, Station of Neukirch West, in German ''Neukirch (Lausitz) West'' File:22380-Neustadt-1923-Bahnhof-Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag.jpg, Neustadt (Sachs) station postcard, 1923 File:Bahnhof Sebnitz 4.jpg, Train at

, 2013 File:Sebnitztalbahn-km52,4-Hst-Amtshainersdorf-2.jpg, Amtshainersdorf, 2018 File:Bahnhof-Ulbersdorf.jpg, Ulbersdorf station, 2007 File:Die Bauten von Dresden (1878) Illustrationsseite 216a.jpg, Former Carolabrücke in

, 1878 File:Bad Schandau Carolabrücke 2.jpg, New Carolabrücke in Bad Schandau, 2008 File:Städtebahn Sachsen SB71, Bahnhof Bad Schandau.jpg, Städtebahn Sachsen engine at Bad Schandau station, 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bautzen-Bad Schandau railway Railway lines in Saxony Standard-gauge railways in Germany Railway lines opened in 1877 1877 establishments in Germany