The Hessian Ludwig Railway (German: Hessische Ludwigsbahn) or HLB with its network of 697 kilometres of railway was one of the largest privately owned railway companies in Germany.
The Hessian Ludwig Railway was a product of the failed – or, more accurately, non-existent – railway politics in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Whilst the province of Starkenburg was given a central railway link, the Main-Neckar Railway very early on and the province of Upper Hesse at least had connexions to the railway network through the Main-Weser Railway at its periphery - the Grand Duchy had shares in both lines and they were operated as joint railways (Kondominalbahnen) – the third province, Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen), had no such facilities.
Because the state was not active in this area, there was an opportunity for private involvement in the shape of a joint stock company (Aktiengesellschaft). The HQ of the Hessian Ludwig Railway was therefore not based in the capital of Darmstadt, but in the provincial capital for Rhenish Hesse, Mainz. The first impetus for the construction of a line in Rhenish Hesse came not however from local people, but from outside; in particular the Bavarian Palatinate was interested. For military strategic reasons the Prussian state disapproved of a route running west of the Rhine. The Grand Duchy of Baden saw the project competing with the Main-Neckar Railway in which Baden also had shares.
When, in 1844, the Bavarian government issued a licence for railway construction in the Bavarian Palatinate, a northern expansion of the railway into Rhenish Hesse appeared attractive. In addition, the pioneer of the German railways, Friedrich List, personally championed the building of a line from Mainz to Worms. The grand ducal government in Darmstadt however, initially remained opposed, especially as it had passed a law in 1842 for a state railway system. From 1845 onwards, however, there were proponents in the government for a private railway for the province of Rhenish Hesse.
At first, the route to be used was totally unclear. The alternative from Mainz via Alzey to Worms was soon discarded in favour of a direct route along the Rhine. On 15 August 1845 a licence was granted to the Mainz-Ludwigshafen Railway Company (Mainz-Ludwigshafener-Eisenbahngesellschaft). The company was later renamed to the Hessian Ludwig Railway Company (Hessische-Ludwigs-Eisenbahngesellschaft) or HLB – in honour of Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, although he initially opposed the building of the line. In the times following the HLB got increasingly into financial deep water, because several share holders withdrew their money. Construction began in spring 1848. However, as the state purse became empty as a result of the revolution of 1848, the state could no longer be relied on to provide any support and the construction of the line threatened to grind to a halt. Not until August 1852 did the Hesse-Darmstadt government, decided to support the HLB. In addition a treaty was agreed with Kingdom of Bavaria for the entire Mainz–Ludwigshafen line.
Whilst the city of Worms would have preferred a station in the vicinity of the port, the HLB, after a degree of toing and froing, built it further west where it is today. Thereafter building proceeded apace and the 46 kilometre long route was opened in several sections from Mainz to Worms during the period 23 March (Mainz – Oppenheim) to 24 August 1853. From 15 November 1853 trains ran through from Mainz to Ludwigshafen. Initially there were 6 passenger trains daily (2 of which were expresses) in each direction between Mainz and Worms. In Mainz there was a connexion to the steamships of the Cologne and Düsseldorf Company for Steamships on the Rhine River (Kölnische und Düsseldorfer Gesellschaft für Rhein-Dampfschiffahrt).
On 1 of August 1858 the Rhine-Main line from Mainz via Darmstadt to Aschaffenburg in Bavaria was opened. Initially the Rhine river was crossed by a train ferry east of the railway station Mainz Neuthor (today: Mainz Römisches Theater station ) until a newly designed Rhine bridge was constructed by MAN-Werk Gustavsburg and given to traffic on 1 of December 1862. This line not only connected Mainz, second in importance after the grand-ducal capital, with Darmstadt. But it enabled also to run trains through from the Bavarian railways up the Rhine valley to Cologne and further on to Belgium.
Over the succeeding decades the following lines were added to the network and the HLB became the major provider of rail services within the two southern provinces of the grand-duchy (Rheinhessen and Starkenburg) as well as one of the largest privately owned railways of Germany.
In the early 1890s the HLB numbered its routes as follows:
On 1 April 1897 the HLB was nationalised and became part of the Prussian-Hessian Railway Operating and Financial Association. The abbreviation "HLB" was said by the local people to stand for Hoch lebe Bismarck (Long live Bismarck).
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The Hessian Ludwig Railway began operations with 6 steam locomotives from the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen; these sported (as was then common) illustrious names: Schenk (after Freiherr von Schenk, director of the Hessian Finance Ministry), Dalwigk (after Freiherr von Dalwigk, then Hesse's Ministerialdirektor and ex Territorialkommissär for Mainz - this engine hauled the first train on the Mainz - Oppenheim line), Gutenberg (after Johannes Gensfleisch called Johannes Gutenberg , the inventor of the printing press), Arnold Walpoden (after Arnold Walpoden, the initiator of the Rheinische Bund in 1254) as well as Mainz and Worms.
At the end of 1895, i.e. one year before the Hessian Ludwig Railway was nationalised, it had 216 locomotives.
In addition to 11 1st and 2nd class passenger coaches the HLB had 19 3rd class coaches and 36 luggage vans and goods wagons to begin with (there was no 4th class). In 1861 the HLB had 39 locomotives and in 1864 52.
At the end of 1895 the fleet comprised 544 coaches, 107 luggage vans, 1552 covered and 2240 open wagons.
Hesse or Hessia, officially the State of Hesse, is a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest metropolitan area is Frankfurt am Main.
Rhenish Hesse or Rhine-Hesse is a region and a former government district in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, made up of those territories west of the Upper Rhine river that from 1816 were part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and of the People's State of Hesse until 1945. The hilly countryside is largely devoted to vineyards, comprising the Rheinhessen wine region.
Mainz Hauptbahnhof is a railway station for the city of Mainz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is used by about 60,000 travelers and visitors each day and is therefore by far the busiest station in Rhineland-Palatinate. The station was a trial area for a CCTV scheme using automated face recognition.
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to the end of the German Empire in 1918. The grand duchy originally formed on the basis of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, it changed its name in 1816 to distinguish itself from the Electorate of Hesse, which had formed from neighboring Hesse-Kassel. Colloquially, the grand duchy continued to be known by its former name of Hesse-Darmstadt. It joined the German Empire in 1871 and became a republic after the German defeat in World War I in 1918.
Mannheim–Frankfurt railway is a German standard gauge, electrified railway line and runs in southern Hesse and northern Baden-Württemberg between Frankfurt and Mannheim. It is also called the Riedbahn. The line runs through an area called the Hessische Ried, hence the name. The term Riedbahn was originally used for the Darmstadt–Worms railway and the two lines share the central section between Groß-Gerau and Biblis.
The Taunus Railway is a double-track electrified railway line, which connects Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, Germany. It is 41.2 km long and follows the course of the Main on its north side, running quite close to it in some places. Its first stage was opened in September 1839 and is thus the oldest railway line in the German state of Hesse and one of the oldest in Germany. Today it is used by Regional-Express trains between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden and the trains of line S1 of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn between Frankfurt-Höchst and Wiesbaden. Between Frankfurt Hbf and Frankfurt-Höchst, they run on the line of the former Hessian Ludwig Railway.
The Grand Duchy of Hesse State Railways belonged to the Länderbahnen at the time of the German Empire. In the 19th century, the Grand Duchy of Hesse consisted of three provinces. Between the rivers Rhine, Main and Neckar the province of Starkenburg embraced the Odenwald and the Hessian Ried. It also included the ducal residence of Darmstadt. West of the Rhine, was the province of Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen) with the towns of Mainz, Worms and Bingen. The province of Upper Hesse (Oberhessen), which included the Vogelsberg and the Wetterau was not directly linked by land to the others. As a result of its lack of territorial integrity, the state did not initially build its own state railway. Rather it took part in joint state railway projects with its neighbouring states: These were the:
The Odenwald Railway is a mainly single-tracked main line from Darmstadt and Hanau to Eberbach on the River Neckar, which crosses the Odenwald mountains in the German states of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg. Since 1882 the route has been operated throughout as a standard gauge line and since 2005 has been worked by diesel multiples owned by the VIAS private railway company.
The Rhine-Main Railway, is a railway line in southern Germany from Mainz via Darmstadt to Aschaffenburg. It was built by the Hessian Ludwig Railway and opened on 1 August 1858 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. Until 1862, when the railway bridge over the Rhine river constructed and assembled by MAN-Werk Gustavsburg was finished, a train ferry operated on the river.
The Frankfurt–Hanau railway was opened in 1848 and was one of the oldest railways in Germany. Today it is a double track electrified main line and part of the North Main Railway from Frankfurt am Main to Hanau.
The Mainz–Worms–Ludwigshafen Railway connects Mainz via Worms to Ludwigshafen in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. From there trains cross the Rhine via Mannheim or run south towards Speyer. It was opened in 1853 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
Mainz-Bischofsheim station is the station of the town of Bischofsheim in the German state of Hesse on the Main Railway from Mainz to Frankfurt am Main. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station. The station is served by the S-Bahn and regional trains. The station was opened at its current location in 1904.
The Gießen–Gelnhausen railway is a single-track, non-electrified mainline in the German state of Hesse. It runs from Gießen via Nidda to Gelnhausen.
Bingen (Rhein) Stadt station is, after Bingen Hauptbahnhof, the second largest station in the town of Bingen am Rhein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The station is located on the West Rhine Railway between Koblenz to Mainz. Furthermore, the station is the beginning and end of the Rheinhessen Railway to/from Worms. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.
Groß Gerau station is located approximately 500 metres north of the centre of the town of Groß-Gerau in the German state of Hesse on the Rhine-Main Railway, running from Wiesbaden and Mainz to Darmstadt and Aschaffenburg. A curve branches off near the station connecting to the nearby Groß-Gerau-Dornberg station on the Mannheim–Frankfurt railway. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station. The station name has no hyphen unlike the town it is in, following a Prussian government order of 1910, which applied because of Prussian finance for the line, even though the station was in the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
Hessische Landesbahn 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 in Hesse and across the state’s borders through its subsidiaries and affiliates.
The Worms–Bingen Stadt railway or Rheinhessenbahn is a non-electrified line that links Worms via Alzey to Bingen Stadt in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Alzey station is, along with the stations Alzey Süd and Alzey West, one of three stations in the urban area of the Rhenish Hesse town of Alzey in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station.
The Darmstadt–Worms railway is a standard-gauge railway that is now partially closed. It runs through southern Hesse through the Hessian Ried and so it is also called the Riedbahn.
The Worms–Rosengarten train ferry was a train ferry that operated from 1870 to 1900 between Rosengarten station, a former station on the eastern bank of the Rhine opposite Worms, and the city of Worms.