Landshut–Plattling railway

Landshut–Plattling railway
Overview
Line number	5634
Technical
Line length	62,9 km
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Operating speed	140 km/h
Route number	931

Last updated April 16, 2019

The Landshut–Plattling railway is a single-tracked, electrified main line in Lower Bavaria, in southern Germany. It runs along the Isar river and is part of the line between Munich and Passau.

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.

Lower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state.

The Isar is a river in Tyrol, Austria and Bavaria, Germany. Its source is in the Karwendel range of the Alps in Tyrol; it enters Germany near Mittenwald, and flows through Bad Tölz, Munich, and Landshut before reaching the Danube near Deggendorf. At 295 km (183 mi) in length, it is the fourth largest river in Bavaria, after the Danube, Inn, and Main. It is Germany's second most important tributary of the Danube after the Inn.

History

The route was completed between Plattling and Pilsting on 15 October 1875 and between Landshut and Pilsting on 15 May 1880. It was intended to link Munich to Prague as the southern section of the Bavarian Forest railway, but due to the unfavourable terrain through the mountains of the Bohemian Forest, there was never a large amount of cross-border traffic on the line. Instead much of it went (as it still does today) via Regensburg and the Schwandorf–Furth in the Wald railway.

Prague is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, the 14th largest city in the European Union and the historical capital of Bohemia. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 2.6 million. The city has a temperate climate, with warm summers and chilly winters.

Bohemian Forest low mountain range in Central Europe

The Bohemian Forest, known in Czech as Šumava and in German as Böhmerwald, is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from Plzeň Region and South Bohemia in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria in Germany, and form the highest truncated uplands of the Bohemian Massif, up to 50 km wide. They create a natural border between the Czech Republic on one side and Germany and Austria on the other.

Regensburg is a city in south-east Germany, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the fourth-largest city in the State of Bavaria after Munich, Nuremberg and Augsburg. The city is the political, economic and cultural centre and capital of the Upper Palatinate.

Even as the route from Landshut to Pilsting was being built, the section from Pilsting to Landau (Isar) was expanded to two tracks. This second track was lifted in 1942, due to the war, and transferred to the occupied territories.

Electric operations began on 25 May 1976 in order to avoid the time-consuming and costly change of locomotives in Landshut and Plattling for trains on the Munich–Landshut–Plattling–Passau route. This 83 kilometre-long route was electrified and upgraded at a cost of 13 million DM (6.6 M euros). Three new bridges were built, one torn down and 1,035 catenary masts erected.

Operations

There are 35 level crossings on the Landshut–Landau (Isar) section.

Current operations

In the 2009 timetable the passenger trains services on route number KBS 931 are:

The Regional-Express service, Passau–Plattling–Landshut–Munich, which is worked every two hours by electric locomotives of Class 111 hauling two double-decker coaches and two Silberling local passenger coaches (or n-coaches) in push-pull operations with 374 seats in 2nd class and 42 in 1st class. At peak times they are reinforced by additional double-deckers and n-coaches. At the weekend, they operated with four double-deckers and two n-coaches.
In addition, since 1998, a Plattling–Landshut–Freising–Munich RegionalBahn train runs every two hours, sometimes only as far as Landshut or Freising, and comprising push-pull trains, formed from Class 143 locomotives with four to five n-coaches. These Regionalbahn trains are usually timetabled to meet at Dingolfing.
During morning and evening peak times other Regionalbahn trains are underway. In the afternoon, they also provide a connexion at Landshut to the Regional-Express trains from Munich. They are formed from Class 143 locomotives with five n-coaches or Class 111 locomotives with two double-deckers and four n-coaches.

In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with average speed at about 70–90 km/h as it calls at fewer stations than Regionalbahn or S-Bahn trains, but stops more often than InterCity services.

The Baureihe 111 is a class of electric locomotives built for the Deutsche Bundesbahn, and now owned by Deutsche Bahn AG.

Silberling is the colloquial name for the n-coaches of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, a type of regional passenger coach of which more than 7,000 units were built from 1958 to 1981. Nearly all of the coaches have undergone extensive modernisation – these modernised units are widely known as Mintling, Grünling ("greenling") or Rotling ("redling") after their exterior colours. The term Buntling ("colourfulling") is used to denote refurbished Silberling coaches in general.

Passenger trains are timetabled to cross at all available crossing stations en route.

In addition, quite a few long goods trains run from Dingolfing (BMW factory) via Landshut to Munich and Regensburg.

The BMW Group Plant Dingolfing is a network of BMW plants in Dingolfing with a total area of around 280 hectares.

Future of passenger services

With effect from the timetable change on 13 December 2009, passenger services are due to be exclusively providely by the Danube-Isar Express (Donau-Isar-Express),^[1] a Regional-Express line, that will connect Munich with Landshut, Plattling and Passau hourly.^[2] This was announced during the tender process to DB Regio. In addition a late weekend connexion from about 0:45 hours from Landshut to Passau will be provided. In connexion with this, the current Munich–Plattling Regionalbahn train will be scrapped.^[3] Once the Danube-Isar Express goes into service, trains will no longer stop at Otzing halt. However, the majority of trains will then call at the two other current Regionalbahn stations at Wallersdorf and Wörth (Isar). In order to provide hourly services at all stops, the route will have to be upgraded for higher speeds and longer double-tracked crossing sections.

Expansion measures

Before the arrival of the Danube-Isar Express, the section from Dingolfing to Landau is being modernised and upgraded to take higher speeds,^[4] a new platform is being built at Dingolfing on track 1 and an electronic signal box installed to reduce the waiting time when trains cross.^[5]

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References

Sources

Eisenbahnen in Niederbayern and der Oberpfalz, Walther Zeitler, Buch&Kunstverlag Oberpfalz, Amberg 1985/1997, ISBN 3-924350-61-2

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[1] DB press release

[2] StMWIVT press release ^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[3] BEG information

[4] Shortening of the journey times between Landshut and Plattling

[5] Modification to Dingolfing station