The Münden Tunnel () is a

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 ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

on the Hanover-Würzburg high-speed rail line in

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 is situated south of the town of Hann. Münden between

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

and

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

. At a total length of , it is the second longest tunnel in Germany after the Landrücken Tunnel. The tunnel was built between 1983 and 1989. At the northern portal, which is located at , the trains cross the valley of the river

Werra The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the to ...

on the Werra Viaduct at Hedemünden, parallel to the A 7

autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

. At the southern portal, () they cross the ''Ickelsbach'' valley, after which the Mühlenkopf Tunnel follows immediately.

Tunnel description

The tunnel is a two-track concrete tunnel with a maximum permitted speed of 250 km/h. There is an

emergency exit An emergency exit in a building or other structure is a special exit used during emergencies such as fires. The combined use of regular and emergency exits allows for faster evacuation, and emergency exits provide alternative means of evacu ...

about halfway through the tunnel, at km 127 (), which is accessible through a 15 metre deep staircase. The maximum depth of the tunnel is 175 metres. Originally, two separate tunnels were planned, the ''Mündener Staatsforst'' tunnel (5,580 m) and the ''Lutterberg'' tunnel (4,440 m), to be joined by a bridge over the ''Wandersteinbach''. Due to ecological considerations, however, the line was lowered by 30 metres and the Wandersteinbach was crossed by means of a tunnel as well. The tunnel breakthrough was on October 6, 1988. On May 29, 1991 the tunnel was officially opened, along with the

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 ...

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 ...

part of the high-speed rail line. The cost of construction was about DM 200 million (€102 million).

References

External links

* Railway tunnels in Germany {{DEFAULTSORT:Mundener Tunnel Göttingen Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway Tunnels completed in 1989 Buildings and structures in Göttingen (district)