The Halle–Vienenburg railway is a 123kilometre long non-electrified main line north of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. It is an important connection between the metropolitan area of Halle (Saale) and the northern Harz mountains. It was opened in several sections between 1862 and 1872 by the Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company (Magdeburg-Halberstädter Eisenbahngesellschaft, MHE) and is now maintained by DB Netz except for the disused section between Heudeber-Danstedt and Vienenburg. Since 1996, traffic between Heudeber-Danstedt and Vienenburg has used the railway via Wernigerode running further to the south.
The main line, or mainline in American English, of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected. It generally refers to a route between towns, as opposed to a route providing suburban or metro services. For capacity reasons, main lines in many countries have at least a double track and often contain multiple parallel tracks. Main line tracks are typically operated at higher speeds than branch lines and are generally built and maintained to a higher standard than yards and branch lines. Main lines may also be operated under shared access by a number of railway companies, with sidings and branches operated by private companies or single railway companies.
Halle (Saale) is a city in the southern part of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. It is the largest city of the state and the fourth-largest of former East Germany.
The Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company was a railway in Prussia. It was nationalized in 1879.
Between Halle Hauptbahnhof and Halle-Trotha, a single-track electrified line of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland runs parallel to the Halle–Halberstadt railway, but there is no connection between the lines in Halle-Trotha.
Halle (Saale) Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in the city of Halle in southern part of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The station is situated east of the city centre and is a category 2 station.
S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland represents an enlargement of the previous Leipzig-Halle S-Bahn. It is an electric rail public transit system operating in the metropolitan area of Leipzig-Halle, Germany. This S-Bahn network had developed from two separate S-Bahn networks of Halle (Saale) and Leipzig, which were established separately in 1969 and then linked in 2004. With the opening of the Leipzig City Tunnel on 15 December 2013 as a new artery, the network was extended to the federal states of Thuringia and Brandenburg. The locomotive-hauled double-decker trains had been replaced by electric multiple unit Bombardier Talent 2 trains.
History
Vienenburg station
As early as 1841 and 1843 respectively, Vienenburg and Halberstadt were connected to the railway network. Likewise, in 1843 the line from Oschersleben via Jerxheim to Wolfenbüttel was taken into service, as a result of which one could travel by rail between Vienenburg and Halberstadt, albeit on a route running a long way to the north. Nevertheless, there were further plans for a railway close to the Harz Mountains, that would run westwards from Halberstadt.
Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest concentration of timber-framed buildings in Germany. It is an episcopal see of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick. It is also home to the Jägermeister distillery and houses a campus of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences.
The first section, from Halberstadt to Wegeleben, was opened in 1862 along with the Halberstadt–Thale railway. Only three years later the Wegeleben-Aschersleben section went into service.
In 1864 a state treaty between Prussia and the Brunswick was agreed that envisaged a railway line from Halberstadt to Vienenburg. A reasonably level route was chosen, at some distance from the Harz, running via Heudeber-Danstedt and Wasserleben. The Kingdom of Hanover, on whose territory Vienenburg was located, initially rejected this scheme however. Not until Prussia's victory in the Austro-Prussian War and the resulting annexation of Hanover could the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company (MHE) begin work on its construction in 1867. On 1 March 1869 the line was taken into service. Two years beforehand the MHE had opened the eastern extension of the railway towards Halle (Saale). In 1871, this line was extended to the neighbouring village of Könnern, and, in 1872, the last section to Halle (Saale) was completed.
Prussia was a historically prominent German state that originated in 1525 with a duchy centred on the region of Prussia on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised and effective army. Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany.
The Duchy of Brunswick was a historical German state. Its capital was the city of Brunswick (Braunschweig). It was established as the successor state of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the course of the 19th-century history of Germany, the duchy was part of the German Confederation, the North German Confederation and from 1871 the German Empire. It was disestablished after the end of World War I, its territory incorporated into the Weimar Republic as the Free State of Brunswick.
Wasserleben is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Nordharz.
In 1875, the line from Vienenburg to Hildesheim, in the shape of the Vienenburg–Langelsheim railway, also opened and, with that, the direct line from Halle to Hanover was complete.
Hildesheim[ˈhɪldəsˌhaɪ̯m](listen) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 103,804 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about 30 km (19 mi) southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Leine River. With the Hildesheim Cathedral and the St. Michael's Church Hildesheim has become a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.
The Vienenburg–Langelsheim railway was a nearly 18-kilometer-long railway along the northern edge of the Harz in the German state of Lower Saxony. It was mainly used for freight traffic. It was opened in 1875, but it lost its importance with the closure of a line connecting to the east as a result of the division of Germany after the Second World War and it is now closed and dismantled.
Long-distance passenger services were moved after the nationalisation of the MHE to the more northerly lines of the Prussian state railways, but the line retained significance for long-distance freight traffic.[2]
During World War II, traffic increased further as the route was an important part of the connection between the Ruhr and central Germany.[2] The line suffered almost no damage during the Second World War but, as a result of the division of Germany, it was cut in 1945 between Vienenburg on the West German side and Wasserleben on the East German side, and later dismantled.
After the Wende there were attempts to reactivate the link between Halberstadt and Vienenburg. But because the line missed out larger towns like Wernigerode and Ilsenburg, the decision went in favour of the southern route, the Heudeber-Danstedt–Ilsenburg railway. Until 1945 this had also crossed the state border, to Bad Harzburg.
Because the trackbed of the old line was no longer usable in the area of Bad Harzburg, the Deutsche Bahn decided to build the new line, which branches off the old one at Stapelburg and runs northwards to the Halberstadt–Vienenburg route. Just before the state border it rejoins the old route and follows it to Vienenburg. Because the line uses the old trackbed on Lower Saxon soil, the project could be viewed locally as a renovation of an existing line, which enabled the installation of level crossings. On 2June 1996 the new section, approximately 10 kilometres long, was opened. Since then passenger trains between Halberstadt and Vienenburg have used the Halberstadt–Heudeber-Danstedt section of the old line and the three kilometre long section on Lower Saxony territory, but otherwise they run along the southern route via Ilsenburg and Wernigerode.
Passenger trains were still using the section of line between Heudeber-Danstedt and Wasserleben until 28September 2002, continuing along the track of the former Osterwieck-Wasserleben Railway to Osterwieck. Thereafter services were withdrawn and, by 30June 2003, the line was closed by the Federal Railway Office.
At the end of the 1990s the Halle–Halberstadt section was completely converted in order to enable it to handle tilting trains with a top speed of 160km/h. The entire control and safety equipment was modernised (including the installation of an electronic signal box at Sandersleben), the track layouts of many stations were reduced to the minimum necessary. Several stations were abandoned completely.
The line from Halberstadt via Wernigerode to Vienenburg was converted in 2007 to take trains using tilting technology. In the new 2008 timetable, journey times shortened again due to the completion of renovation work.[3]
Rail services
The Deutsche Bahn's Regional Express trains (HarzExpress) work the line every two hours between Halle, Halberstadt and Hanover, stopping at all stations, as do local services on the North Harz Network (Nordharznetz) operated by Veolia Verkehr Sachsen-Anhalt. At weekends Veolia runs an excursion service between Berlin and Wernigerode that uses the Halberstadt–Heudeber-Danstedt section.
The stations between Halle (Saale) Hauptbahnhof and Halle-Trotha are on a separate track operated as part of line S7 of the S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland.
Goslar is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Göttingen, Northeim, Hildesheim and Wolfenbüttel, the city of Salzgitter, and by the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (Nordhausen).
Ilsenburg is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is situated under the north foot of the Harz Mountains, at the entrance to the Ilse valley with its little river, the Ilse, a tributary of the Oker, about six 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of the town of Wernigerode. It received town privileges in 1959. Owing to its surrounding of forests and mountains as well as its position on the edge of the Harz National Park, Ilsenburg is a popular tourist resort.
Darlingerode is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. On 1 July 2009, it was incorporated into the town of Ilsenburg.
The Duchy of Brunswick State Railway was the first state railway in Germany. The first section of its Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway line between Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel opened on 1 December 1838.
The Langelsheim–Altenau (Oberharz) railway was a railway line, that ran through the Upper Harz in Central Germany. It was also called the Upper Harz Railway or Harz Railway. It was built in order to enable the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company to access the mines in the Harz mountains.
The Bundesstraße 6n is a German federal road that runs east-west from the Vienenburg district of Goslar to Bernburg, where it connects to the A14. It was originally planned to be the A 36 motorway. It is intended to have four lanes running from the A 395 near Vienenburg through Wernigerode, Blankenburg, Quedlinburg, Aschersleben over the A 14 to Bernburg (Saale).
The Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway is a 47 km long German main line railway in the northern foothills of the Harz. It is one of the oldest lines in Germany and the first government-owned railway in Germany.
The Magdeburg–Thale railway is a predominantly single-track, non-electrified main line railway that connects Thale, in the northern Harz, with Magdeburg, the capital of Saxony-Anhalt. Its eastern section between Magdeburg and Halberstadt was opened in 1843 and it is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
The Köthen–Aschersleben railway is one of the oldest railway lines in Germany, with its eastern half opened in 1846. It forms an east-west link in the state of Saxony-Anhalt and connects several major towns.
The present-day Heudeber-Danstedt–Vienenburg railway is a 32 kilometre long main line, that serves the northern edge of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. Its main role is the handling of tourist traffic in the Harz and the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways there, but it is also worked by goods trains to and from the rolling mills in Ilsenburg.
The Hanover-Altenbeken Railway Company was among the companies of the German "railway king" Bethel Henry Strousberg. Its route network at the end of the first phase consisted of two lines, Hanover–Altenbeken and Weetzen–Haste. In addition, a branch line was opened from Linden-Küchengarten to Linden-Fischerhof for freight transport. The Löhne–Hamelin–Hildesheim–Vienenburg line was built in a second phase up to 1875. The section to Hildesheim is now known as the Weser railway, further east it is operated as the Hildesheim–Goslar line. This extended the network from the Weser Uplands to the Harz.
The Frose–Quedlinburg railway, also called the Balkan ("Balkans") locally, was a standard gauge branch line on the northern rim of the Harz Mountains in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The line runs from Frose via Gernrode to Quedlinburg. It was closed in 2004. The Gernrode–Quedlinburg section was subsequently converted by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railway Company to metre gauge. Since 26 June 2006 the line has been re-opened as part of the Selke Valley Railway.
The Hildesheim–Goslar railway is a 53 kilometre long, double-track and non-electrified main line in the northern Harz foothills in the German state of Lower Saxony. It serves mainly to connect with the tourist region in the northern Harz with Hildesheim and Hanover. It is served by the HarzExpress, running between Halle, Halberstadt, Goslar and Hannover Hauptbahnhof. The most important station and junction of the line is Salzgitter-Ringelheim station.
Bad Harzburg railway station serves the spa town of Bad Harzburg in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the southern terminus of the Brunswick–Bad Harzburg railway, one of the oldest lines in Germany, and the eastern terminus of a branch line to nearby Oker station. Regional rail services are operated by Deutsche Bahn AG and Erixx GmbH.
Goslar is a railway station located in Goslar, Germany. The station opened on 23 March 1866 and is located on the Vienenburg–Goslar railway, Hildesheim–Goslar railway and Neuekrug-Hahausen–Goslar railway. The train services are operated by Erixx, Deutsche Bahn and Transdev Sachsen-Anhalt.
Halberstadt station is a station on the Magdeburg–Thale railway in Halberstadt in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. A terminal station was opened in the town in 1843. A new through station was opened in another part of the town in 1868. The first service from Halberstadt ran to Magdeburg. Two more lines were added during the next few decades. In the Second World War, the station suffered heavy damage. Extensive modernisation work took place between 2008 and 2010. The entrance building and the locomotive depot are listed buildings.
Vienenburg station is a station in Vienenburg in the German state of Lower Saxony. It once formed a railway junction in the northern foothills of the Harz, parts of which still exist. The station has one of the oldest surviving entrance buildings in Germany. It belongs to the station category 5.
Sandersleben station is the station of Sandersleben in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It lies at the crossing of the Halle–Vienenburg and the Berlin–Blankenheim railway lines in the municipality of Arnstein and was used to connect between two different concentration camps facilitated by the Nazis.
Dirk Endisch (2009). The line Halberstadt–Vienenburg (in German). Stendal: Verlag Dirk Endisch. ISBN9783936893366.
Josef Högemann (1995). Eisenbahnen im Harz (in German). 1: The Staatsbahnstrecken. Nordhorn: Verlag Kenning. ISBN3-927587-43-5.
Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee (2002). Rückkehr zur Schiene. Reaktivierte and neue linen im Personenverkehr 1980–2001 (in German). Stuttgart: transpress. ISBN3-613-71185-0.
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