The Flieden–Gemünden railway is a double track electrified railway line from

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

Flieden Flieden is a municipality in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany. Traditionally called a “Königreich” (Kingdom), it may show a crown in its coat of arms. Geography Flieden is located in a valley north west of the Landrücken between th ...

and

Schlüchtern Schlüchtern () is a town in the Main-Kinzig district, in Hessen, Germany. It is located on the river Kinzig (Main), Kinzig, approximately 30 km southwest of Fulda. Schlüchtern has a population close to 16,000. Location Schlüchtern is locat ...

via Jossa to

Gemünden am Main Gemünden am Main (; officially ''Gemünden a.Main'') is a town in the Main-Spessart, Main-Spessart district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main (river), ...

. The northern part of the line is in the

German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

and it crosses into

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

south of Jossa.

Route

The route runs from Fulda, initially on the same tracks as the line via

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, the Kinzig Valley line. At Flieden it leaves the Kinzig Valley line and runs through the

Spessart Spessart () is a ''Mittelgebirge'', a range of low wooded mountains, in the States of Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. It is bordered by the Vogelsberg, Rhön and Odenwald. The highest elevation is the Geiersberg (Spessart), Geiersberg at 586 metre ...

and Rhön foothills through the closed stations of Elm and Vollmerz, followed by Sterbfritz station, which remains open to passengers, and the abandoned stations of Mottgers and Altengronau Nord before reaching Jossa in the Sinn Valley. The route mostly follows the Sinn river and runs partly parallel to the Würzburg–Hannover high-speed line. There is a link to the new line south of Burgsinn through the Burgsinn depot. The old 388 metre-long Ramholz tunnel (built 1868-1871) has been replaced by a new 474 metre-long tunnel. The new tunnel was broken through in June 2007. Since 17 June 2008 trains running to the south have used the new tunnel.

History

The railway line was part of the old North-South line from

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

. It was opened in 1872. Prior to the opening of the Schlüchtern Tunnel in 1914 all trains between Frankfurt and Fulda on the train Kinzig Valley line had to reverse in Elm.

Operations

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 ...

trains run between Schlüchtern and Jossa roughly every two hours and roughly hour between Jossa and Gemünden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flieden-Gemunden railway Railway lines in Hesse Railway lines in Bavaria Standard-gauge railways in Germany Railway lines opened in 1868