The Hamburg–Lübeck railway is one of the most important mainline railways of the
German states of
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
and
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
. It connects the two
Hanseatic
The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German town ...
cities of
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
and
Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
, and is part of the
line to Denmark. The line was opened in 1865.
Route
The line runs the south-west from Lübeck through mostly agricultural, undulating land. The
Trave
The Trave () is a river in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is approximately long, running from its source near the village of Gießelrade in Ostholstein to Travemünde, where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It passes through Bad Segeberg, Bad Old ...
river is crossed three times. The most important intermediate stop is
Bad Oldesloe
Bad Oldesloe () is a town located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the capital of the district of Stormarn.
The area has been inhabited since Mesolithic times. The flint tools found here from that era (6000–4500 BC) ...
, where the line connects with hourly services on the
line to Bad Segeberg and Neumünster, operated by
Nordbahn. Between
Ahrensburg
Ahrensburg () is a town in the district of Stormarn, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located northeast of Hamburg and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Its population is around 31,000. ''Schloss Ahrensburg'', the town's symbol, is ...
and
Hamburg-Rahlstedt the line runs along the Stellmoor
tunnel valley
A tunnel valley is a U-shaped valley originally cut under the glacial ice near the margin of continental ice sheets such as that now covering Antarctica and formerly covering portions of all continents during past glacial ages. They can be as l ...
. In the city of Hamburg the line crosses the
rail freight bypass and then runs parallel to the
S-Bahn
The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...
line until
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof
Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (abbrev. ''Hamburg Hbf'') is the main railway station of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Opened in 1906 to replace four separate terminal stations, today Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service AG. With an avera ...
is reached from the east.
History
The first plans to build a direct rail link between Hamburg and Lübeck were put forward in 1831. Because of the refusal of the Danish authorities to allow a direct line to be built through
Holstein-Glückstadt Holstein-Glückstadt or Schleswig-Holstein-Glückstadt is the historiographical name, as well as contemporary shorthand name, for the parts of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein that were ruled by the Kings of Denmark in their function as dukes o ...
, which was ruled by the
King of Denmark
The monarchy of Denmark is a constitutional political system, institution and a historic office of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Kingdom includes Denmark proper and the autonomous administrative division, autonomous territories of the Faroe ...
, the
Lübeck–Büchen line was built by the
Lübeck-Büchen Railway Company
The Lübeck-Büchen Railway (german: Lübeck-Büchener Eisenbahn, LBE) was a German railway company that built railway lines from Lübeck to Büchen and to Hamburg in the 19th century.
History Background
The first plans to build a direct rail ...
(''Lübeck-Büchener Eisenbahn'', LBE). This provided a connection between Lübeck and the
Berlin-Hamburg railway, but meant that trains to Hamburg had to take the route via Büchen. This was approximately 32 km longer that the direct line, which was only opened by the LBE on 1 August 1865. In 1875/76 the track was duplicated.
In 1963, the
Lübeck–Puttgarden and
Rødby Havn–Copenhagen lines were completed as part of the
Vogelfluglinie
The (German) or (Danish) is a transport corridor between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hamburg, Germany.
As the Danish and German names (literally: '' bird flight line'') imply, the corridor is also an important bird migration route between arctic ...
(literally: ''bird flight line'') to
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
. This increased the range of long distance trains between Lübeck and Hamburg. In addition to the trains to Copenhagen there were Interzone trains (trains between
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
and
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
) to
Rostock
Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...
. Express trains, the ''Merkur''
Trans Europ Express
The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...
and ''Trans-Europ-Express-Marchandises'' freight trains were hauled to
Puttgarden by the class DB-221 diesel locomotives.
In the 1960s and 1970s express trains in
push-pull operations were hauled by
class DB-220 diesel locomotives.
The
Travemünde–Lübeck and the Lübeck–Hamburg lines were electrified in 2008. Electric operation began from the timetable change in December 2008. Since that time,
Intercity-Express
The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed rail, high-speed trains high-speed rail in Germany, predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to ...
trains have also operated between
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, Hamburg and Lübeck.
Operations

The construction of the
Great Belt Bridge
The Great Belt Bridge ( da, Storebæltsbroen) or Great Belt fixed link ( da, Storebæltsforbindelsen) is a multi-element fixed link crossing the Great Belt strait between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. It consists of a road suspensio ...
between
Funen
Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as o ...
and
Zealand
Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020.
It is th ...
significantly reduced long-distance rail traffic on the Hamburg–Lübeck–Copenhagen route. Since December 2007
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the ...
ICE TD
The DBAG Class 605, commonly known as the ICE TD is a high-speed diesel multiple unit (DMU) train, formerly in service with Deutsche Bahn and DSB.
History Development
Following the successful inauguration of the Intercity-Express system ...
and
DSB IC3
The IC3 (or class MF) is a Danish-built high-comfort medium/long distance diesel multiple-unit train. The sets were built by ABB Scandia (later purchased by Adtranz, which itself was subsequently acquired by Bombardier Transportation) in Rander ...
trains have operated on the route.
Between Lübeck and Hamburg
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 average speed at about 70–90 km/h (top speed often 160 km/h) as it calls at ...
trains run every twice an hour from morning to evening from Monday to Friday and hourly on weekends. This section has the greatest number of train passengers in Schleswig-Holstein. The Regional-Express trains stop only in
Reinfeld,
Bad Oldesloe
Bad Oldesloe () is a town located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the capital of the district of Stormarn.
The area has been inhabited since Mesolithic times. The flint tools found here from that era (6000–4500 BC) ...
and at times in
Ahrensburg
Ahrensburg () is a town in the district of Stormarn, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located northeast of Hamburg and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Its population is around 31,000. ''Schloss Ahrensburg'', the town's symbol, is ...
.
Regionalbahn trains operate on the Hamburg–Bad Oldesloe section, stopping at all stations. They are almost always composed of double-decker coaches. They are propelled in push-pull mode by electric locomotives, either
class 112 or 143.
Ahrensburg-Gartenholz halt was built between Ahrensburg and Bargteheide in 2009. It opened in 2010. The opening was delayed because the station had to be modified. Although international trains never stop there, they do pass through, so the station has to comply with international standards.
Future

Starting in 2017, the Hamburg–Bad Oldesloe section will be upgraded for S-Bahn operations with new stations at Claudiusstraße, Bovestraße, Holstenhofweg and Pulverhof. By 2018, the railway crossing at the Hammer Straße in Marienthal will be replaced by an underpass, which is seen as a prerequisite for the expansion of the S-Bahn.
[ ]
Notes
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubeck-Hamburg Railway
Railway lines in Schleswig-Holstein
Railway lines in Hamburg
Hamburg S-Bahn
Railway lines opened in 1865