The Hanover–Hamburg railway is one of the most important railway lines in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

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 ...

. It links the Lower Saxon state capital of

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 ...

with

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, running through

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle (district), Celle in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller (Germany), Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about ...

Uelzen Uelzen (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Uelzen (), is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the district of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality. Uelz ...

and

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

History

The main section of the route, the line from Celle to Harburg, was opened on 1 May 1847 by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways. It formed a junction with the so-called Kreuzbahn from

Lehrte Lehrte () is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 17 km east of Hanover. In the 19th century Lehrte was the most important railway junction in the former Kingdom of Hanover. As of the 2 ...

, then the most important railway hub in the Hanover region, to Celle. The Hanover–Lehrte–Celle railway had been opened as early as 15 October 1845. The Celle–Harburg section opened up the northeastern part of the

Kingdom of Hanover The Kingdom of Hanover () was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover, and j ...

. At that time Harburg was still Hanover's rival to the port of Hamburg; there was still no link across 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 ...

. In 1864 the line finally reached Hamburg with a detour over the Lauenburg–Hohnstorf ferry and the railway bridge over the Elbe from Harburg to Hamburg was rapidly completely following the

unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part). I ...

into the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

in 1872. By 1906 the line was open to the Hanoverian station, known today as

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (abbrev. ''Hamburg Hbf''), or Hamburg Central Railway Station in English, is the main railway station of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened in 1906 to replace four separate terminal stations, today Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is ...

. Junctions with other lines were formed including the

America Line The America Line (German: ''Amerikalinie'') is the official name of a railway line in northern Germany which is mainly of regional importance today. It runs in an east-west direction and links Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt with the Hanseatic city of Br ...

, the Aller Valley Railway from

Gifhorn Gifhorn () is a town and capital of the district of Gifhorn (district), Gifhorn in the east of Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 42,000 and is mainly influenced by the small distance to the more industrial and commercially import ...

via Celle and Schwarmstedt to

Verden (Aller) Verden an der Aller (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Veern''), also called Verden (Aller) or simply Verden, is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the river Aller. It is the district town of the district of Verden in Lower Saxony and an independent mun ...

, the

Wendland Railway The Wendland () is a region in Germany on the borders of the present states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Its heart is the Land Hannover, Hanoverian Wendland in the county of Lüchow-Dannenberg in ...

, the Braunschweig–Uelzen railway, several predecessors of the

East Hanoverian Railways The Osthannoversche Eisenbahnen AG (OHE) is a Celle based transportation company with railway network in North-eastern Lower Saxony around the Lüneburg Heath area of over 250 km. The OHE's main business is the transportation of freight ...

as well as the Celle–Brunswick, Lüneburg–Buchholz in der Nordheide, Lübeck–Lüneburg and Uelzen–Dannenberg railways. The link from

Langenhagen Langenhagen (; Eastphalian: ''Langenhogen'') is a town in the Hanover district of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. Overview Heath Railway to Celle, also called the Hare Railway (''Hasenbahn''), which had been started in 1913, was not opened until 15 May 1938. This enabled direct trains to be run through from Hamburg to South Germany without having to detour via Lehrte and change direction in Hanover. That said, the route was not doubled until 2 November 1964, prior to that many

passenger trains A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...

had to stop or pass through Lehrte. Since 6 April 1965 the line has been fully electrified. Goods trains do not go via Langenhagen as a rule, but through Lehrte and the Hanover freight bypass. The 1973 Federal Transport Plan foresaw the upgraded Hamburg–Uelzen–Hanover line as one of eight planned projects for the railway system.Rüdiger Block: ''Auf neuen Wegen. Die Neubaustrecken der Deutschen Bundesbahn''. In: '' Eisenbahn-Kurier Special: Hochgeschwindigkeitsverkehr''. No. 21, 1991, no ISSN, p. 30–35. The line was classified as an upgrade that was ''urgently needed'' in the 1985 Federal Transport Plan.Rüdiger Block: ''ICE-Rennbahn: Die Neubaustrecken''. In: '' Eisenbahn-Kurier Special: Hochgeschwindigkeitsverkehr''. No. 21, 1991, no ISSN, p. 36–45. Around 1970 a large number of trial runs took place on the line, which were used to research the requirements for the routine running of trains at 200 km/h. In order to have a longer high-speed section, the line was relaid in places at the end of the 1970s near

Unterlüß Unterlüß is a village and former municipality in the district of Celle in Lower Saxony, Germany. It became part of the municipality of Südheide on 1 January 2015. It is about 30 km north-east of Celle and 25 km south-west of Uelzen. ...

and Bienenbüttel. On 13 August 1980, locomotive number 120 002 set a new world speed record of 231 km/h for rotary current locomotives between Celle and Uelzen.Ohne Autor: ''Die weiteren Pläne der Neuen Bahn''. In: ''Bahn-Special'', ''Die Neue Bahn''. No. 1, 1991, Gera-Nova-Verlag, München, p. 78 f. The first section to be upgraded for 200 km/h running was the long stretch of line between Langenhagen and Uelzen which was brought gradually into service from 1978 and 1984. In 1984 the section between Lüneburg and Bevensen () followed, and in 1987 the final stretch from Meckelfeld to

. The 95 individual measures cost 185 million DM (at 1991 prices). These included numerous improvements to the line that often required considerable earthworks.Horst J. Obermayer: ''Die Ausbaustrecken der Deutschen Bundesbahn'']. In: Herrmann Merker (Hrsg.): ''ICE – InterCityExpress am Start''. Hermann Merker Verlag, Fürstenfeldbruck 1991, , p. 69–71. During the preparations for

Expo 2000 Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially, some 40 million people were ...

two new

S-Bahn The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...

tracks were built between Hanover Hauptbahnhof and Langenhagen (today - Pferdemarkt station). The halt at Hanover-Herrenhausen was closed and replaced by the S-Bahn halt of Hanover-Ledeburg. A new halt, Langenhagen-Mitte, was built for both the S-Bahn and long-distance lines. From 2007 to 2009 the -long elevated railway (''Pfeilerbahn'') in the port area south of Hamburg Hauptbahnhof was torn down and rebuilt. It had been moved in order to provide a new approach to the central station that would not be threatened by flooding or involved any track crossings.

Planned new line

In a study carried out in October 1962 the ''Group for General Studies'' proposed the construction of a high-speed railway line between Hamburg and Hanover. The new route, capable of handling trains at speeds of up to 200 km/h, was to be 27 km shorter than the existing line and would reduce journey times to 60 minutes.

Further upgrade

A further upgrade of the line is planned, whereby the section from Stelle (where the tracks merge into the

marshalling yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

Maschen Maschen is a village in the municipality of Seevetal in Hamburg district in the German state of Lower Saxony. It lies south of Hamburg on the northern edge of the Lüneburg Heath and within the commuter zone of the city of Hamburg. Maschen Mars ...

) to

will be increased to three tracks. It is expected to be completed by 2012.''Planer nehmen Y-Trasse in Angriff''
In:

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

, 20 October 2008 In January 2009

Deutsche Bahn AG (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

tendered for two sections of the triple track upgrade between Stelle and Lüneburg; this including a four-tracked section between Stelle and Ashausen. The estimated costs of the contract which will run from October 2009 to July 2012 are around 255 millionen

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s (excluding tax).''D-Hamburg: Bauarbeiten für Eisenbahnlinien''
Document ''2009/S 8-010400'' of 14 January 2009 in the ''Amtsblatt der Europäischen Union''. If the 1985 Federal Transport Plan envisaged a triple track all the way to Celle, the current plans intend to relieve overloading on the existing line for the foreseeable future with the planned wye section (''Y-Trasse'').

Accidents

* On 3 June 1998 the

ICE Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

''Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen'' derailed in the immediate vicinity of the station at Eschede and rammed a bridge. In the

Eschede train disaster On 3 June 1998, part of an ICE 1 train on the Hanover–Hamburg railway near Eschede in Lower Saxony, Germany derailed and crashed into an overpass that crossed the railroad, which then collapsed onto the train. 101 people were killed and a ...

101 people were killed. The cause of the tragedy was a wheel tyre that had suffered from fatigue and fractured. * On 17 November 2001 there was a near miss at Bienenbüttel. The engine driver of an ICE was supposed to overtake a stationary goods train by switching to the oncoming track. In doing so he passed a set of points designed for 80 km/h running at a speed of 185 km/h without derailing. The cause was thought to be a mistake in switching the speed of the train from 60 to 80 km/h. By failing to notice the speed limit the line computer signalled the train control system a permitted speed of 200 km/h applicable to straight running, instead of the branch-off speed of 80 km/h.Eric Preuß: ''Eisenbahnunfälle bei der Deutschen Bahn''. transpress Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, , p. 108

Operation

The entire route of this electrified line, which has a minimum of two tracks, is worked by ''

InterCity Express Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE () and running under this category) is a high-speed rail system in Germany. It also serves destinations in Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands as part of cross-border services. It ...

'', ''

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

'', '' Metronom'' and ''

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. The latter have recently been taken over by Metronom as ''Metronom-regional'' (MEr) trains and, in places, by

commuter services. In addition there is heavy goods traffic on the line. Between Langenhagen-Pferdemarkt and Hanover

trains run in addition to the Metronom services, Celle is connected to the S-Bahn network via Lehrte. Fares set by the GVH apply between Großburgwedel and Hanover;

Celle district Celle () is a districts of Germany, district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Uelzen (district), Uelzen, Gifhorn (district), Gifhorn, Hanover (district), Hanover and Heide ...

is linked to the GVH with special time-related fares. Between Lüneburg and Hamburg fares are set by the HVV. Image:Hamburg Hauptbahnhof.jpg,

Image:Hamburg.Norderelbbruecke.wmt.jpg, North Elbe Bridge Image:Hamburg-Harburg Bahnhof.jpg,

Hamburg-Harburg station Hamburg-Harburg or Harburg () is one of four operational main-line railway stations (''Fernbahnhöfe'') in the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened on 1 May 1897, it is situated on the Hanover–Hamburg railway, Hannover-Hamburg, Wanne-Eickel–Hamb ...

Image:Hundertwasserbahnhof uelzen1.JPG,

Uelzen station Uelzen () is a railway station 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 i ...

Image:Hannover-hauptbahnhof.jpg, Hanover Hauptbahnhof

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanover-Hamburg Railway Railway lines in Lower Saxony Railway lines in Hamburg High-speed railway lines in Germany Railway lines opened in 1847 Buildings and structures in Harburg (district) Buildings and structures in Lüneburg (district) Uelzen (district) Buildings and structures in Celle (district) Buildings and structures in Hanover Region Hanover S-Bahn