History
The first section of the Lahn Valley Railway was opened from Oberlahnstein to Bad Ems on 1 July 1858, but shortly afterwards it was buried by a landslide. The Nassau Rhine Railway Company (Nassauische Rhein Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) opened in 1856, the first section of the Nassau Rhine Railway (Nassauische Rheinbahn) from Wiesbaden to Rudesheim, which was authorised in 1853. Due to financial and technical difficulties, the line was not opened to Oberlahnstein until 1862. It was extended to Niederlahnstein on 3 June 1864. The Stolzenfels–Oberlahnstein train ferry connected the right and the left Rhine lines for two years from the second half of 1862.
A direct connection was opened from Niederlahnstein to Hohenrhein junction on the Lahn Valley Railway in 1879. This meant that Oberlahnstein station lost some of its importance.
Around 1960, the entire East Rhine Railway from Cologne to Wiesbaden was electrified. The station building, which had been heavily damaged in World War II, was replaced by a new building in 1968.
On 30 May 1983, the Oberlahnstein–Friedrichssegen section of the Lahn Valley Railway was closed and dismantled. Thus Oberlahnstein station lost its function as a railway junction in the Rhine-Mosel-Lahn area, which has now largely been transferred to the Niederlahnstein station and Koblenz Central Station (Hauptbahnhof). However, no passenger trains had run on this section since the 1910s, except for a brief period after the Second World War.
In December 2007, an electronic interlocking was commissioned on the Right Rhine line. In the summer of 2008, the second phase of the project was completed and the Oberlahnstein–Niederlahnstein section was connected to the electronic interlocking system. [4]
Oberlahnstein depot
As early as 1862 a small locomotive depot (Lokstation) was established in Oberlahnstein, which later developed into the Oberlahnstein depot (Bahnbetriebswerk). The depot was disbanded as a separate unit in 1962, when the roundhouse was also demolished.
The Rheinsteig is a hiking trail following a mainly elevated path along the east bank of the Rhine River in Germany. Its 320 kilometres (200 mi) route stretches from Wiesbaden to Bonn, running parallel to the Rheinhöhenweg Trail and Rheinburgenweg Trail.
Lahnstein is a verband-free town of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Lahn with the Rhine, approximately 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south of Koblenz. Lahnstein was created in 1969 by the merger of the previously independent towns of Oberlahnstein on the south side of the Lahn and Niederlahnstein on the north side. In 2020, it had a population of 18,030.
Bingen (Rhein) Hauptbahnhof is a railway station in the German city of Bingen am Rhein on the West Rhine Railway. It is located in the borough of Bingerbrück. The station that serves central Bingen is called Bingen Stadt.
Boppard Hauptbahnhof is a station in the town of Boppard in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is located on the outskirts of the town near the Rhine. It is at a railway junction on the West Rhine Railway between Köln Hauptbahnhof and Mainz Hauptbahnhof, and it is the starting point of the Hunsrück Railway (Hunsrückbahn) to Emmelshausen. It has three platform tracks.
The West Rhine railway is a famously picturesque, double-track electrified railway line running for 185 km from Cologne via Bonn, Koblenz, and Bingen to Mainz. It is situated close to the western (left) bank of the river Rhine and mostly aligned to allow 160 km/h operation between Cologne and Koblenz and between Bingen and Mainz. Line speed between Koblenz and Bingen is restricted by the meandering nature of the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The East Rhine Railway is a major, double-track, electrified railway line, running along the right bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Wiesbaden. The 179-kilometer (111.2 mi)-long line forms two Deutsche Bahn routes. Route 465 extends from Cologne to Koblenz, via Troisdorf, Bonn-Beuel, Unkel, and Neuwied. From Koblenz, Route 466 extends to Wiesbaden, via Rüdesheim am Rhein. Together with the Taunus railway, the line is used by Stadt-Express line SE-10 of the Rhine-Main Transport Association, which runs from Frankfurt to Koblenz and Neuwied.
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.
Limburg (Lahn) station is a station in the city of Limburg an der Lahn in the German state of Hesse. It is on the Lahntal railway, running between Koblenz and Gießen.
Köln Süd station is located in the southwestern edge of the Innenstadt of Cologne in the district of Neustadt-Süd in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located between the streets of Luxemburger Straße and Zülpicher Straße. The station is a stop for regional services on the West Rhine Railway. The Cologne freight railway bypass branches off from the station over the South Bridge; it is also used as needed by passenger trains. The station has four platform tracks at two island platforms and two tracks without platforms, which are used by the intensive freight traffic. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.
The Frankfurt-Höchst station is an important station in the Frankfurt district of Höchst and is the second largest station in the city with twelve tracks. It is currently mainly used by S-Bahn, suburban and regional services.
The Nassau State Railway took over the privately built railway lines on the Rhine and Lahn rivers in the Duchy of Nassau from the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company in 1861 and extended them further. It was taken over by the Prussian State Railways in 1866.
The Lahntal railway or Lahn Valley Railway is a railway line between Niederlahnstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Wetzlar in Hesse, partly following the Lahn valley (Lahntal). Its western terminus was originally in Oberlahnstein. Trains now mostly operate between Koblenz and Gießen. The line was opened by the Nassau Rhine and Lahn Railway Company and the Nassau State Railway between 1858 and 1863 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
The Bingerbrück–Rüdesheim train ferry was operated as a train ferry from 1862 to 1900 across the Rhine between Bingerbrück now in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Rüdesheim now in the state of Hesse.
Engers station is a through station and a former railway junction in the district of Engers in the town of Neuwied in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is on the East Rhine Railway and was formerly also the beginning of a line to Au (Sieg) and had a large freight yard.
Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein station is the only station on the right (eastern) bank in the city of Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is on the East Rhine railway at the foot of the Ehrenbreitstein hill in the Ehrenbreitstein district, next to the Rhine.
Wiesbaden Ost (east) station is situated on the Frankfurt–Wiesbaden line in the German state of Hesse. It was opened as part of the Taunus Railway, which was opened in 1839/40. The station was opened as part of the last stage of construction of the line to Wiesbaden and was opened on 19 May 1840.
Rüdesheim (Rhein) station is in the town of Rüdesheim am Rhein in the German state of Hesse on the East Rhine Railway. It is on the western edge of the town, separated from the Rhine only by federal highway B 42. The entrance building is a double storey stucco building in a neoclassical style. It is now one of the cultural monuments listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.
Niederlahnstein station is, along with Oberlahnstein and Friedrichssegen, one of three stations in the town of Lahnstein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is a separation station on the East Rhine Railway and the Lahn Valley Railway and is located in the Niederlahnstein district and forms a public transport hub for the Rhine-Mosel-Lahn area.
Eltville station is the railway station of Eltville in the Rheingau in the German state of Hesse, on the East Rhine Railway from Wiesbaden to Koblenz. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station.
Hattenheim is a station in the town of Hattenheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate on the East Rhine Railway.
