The Gießen–Gelnhausen railway (also known as the Lahn-Kinzig Railway) is a single-track, non-electrified mainline in the German state of

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 ...

. It runs from

Gießen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the German state () of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 university students. Th ...

via Nidda to

Gelnhausen Gelnhausen () is a town, and the capital of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located approximately 40 kilometers east of Frankfurt am Main, between the Vogelsberg mountains and the Spessart range at the river Kinzig (Main), Kinzig. ...

Operations

The line is part of the government-owned railway network (

DB Netz DB Netz () was a major subsidiary of that owned and operated a majority of the German railway system. It was one of the largest railway infrastructure managers by length (33,291 km as of 2019) and transport volume of its network. On 1 Janu ...

) and is currently (2012) served by passenger trains ( GTW 2/6) operated by the ''HLB Hessenbahn GmbH'', a subsidiary of

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 ...

, on behalf of the

Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) is a List of German transport associations, transport association that covers the Public transport, public transport network of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area in Germany. Its head offi ...

(Rhine-Main Transport Association, RMV). In the 2003/2004 timetable, which commenced on 14 December 2003, services on weekends and holidays was reordered. In addition, the Nidda–Glauburg–Büdingen–Gelnhausen section is served every morning and evening by bus line 374. Until the 2009/2010 timetable, this route was still called line 610 and served the whole line from Gelnhausen to Gießen.

History

Planning on the line began in 1862 and it was built and operated by the Upper Hessian Railway Company (''Oberhessische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'') and opened in several sections: An extension to Partenstein on the

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 ...

n Ludwig's Western Railway (''Ludwigs-West-Bahn'') did not come about. However, the line became important from 1888 with the integration of some branch lines in the

Vogelsberg The Vogelsberg () is a large volcanic mountain range in the German Central Uplands in the state of Hesse, separated from the Rhön Mountains by the Fulda (river), Fulda river valley. Emerging approximately 19 million years ago, the Vogelsber ...

and

Wetterau The Wetterau (, ) is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter (river), Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda (river), Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mounta ...

. The Upper Hessian Railway Company was nationalised in 1876 and its operations were taken over by the Grand Duchy of Hesse State Railways (''Großherzoglich Hessische Staatseisenbahnen'').

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Giessen-Gelnhausen railway Railway lines in Hesse Railway lines opened in 1869 1869 establishments in Europe Establishments in the Grand Duchy of Hesse Middle Hesse Giessen Buildings and structures in Giessen (district) Buildings and structures in Wetteraukreis Buildings and structures in Main-Kinzig-Kreis