Stendal–Uelzen railway

Stendal–Uelzen railway
	The Uelzen–Stendal route
Overview
Locale	Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony, Germany
Line number	6899
Technical
Number of tracks	2: Brunau-Packebusch to Rademin
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Operating speed	160 km/h (99 mph) (maximum)
Route number	305
Route map
	Legend
	Source: German railway atlas [1]

Last updated February 24, 2019

The Stendal–Uelzen railway is a mostly single-track, electrified main line and connects Stendal in the east of Altmark, Saxony-Anhalt with Uelzen in Lower Saxony. The most important stop along the way is Salzwedel.

Stendal is a railway station in the town of Stendal, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The station lies on the Berlin-Lehrte railway, Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway, Magdeburg-Wittenberge railway, Stendal–Uelzen railway, Stendal-Tangermünde railway and Stendal–Niedergörne railway. It is an important railway hub for regional trains and is also used by Intercity and Intercity-Express (ICE) trains regularly. Until the winter 2012 timetable Stendal station was only by Deutsche Bahn trains. Since December 2012, the station has also been served by some services operated by Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 3 station.

The Altmark is a historic region in Germany, comprising the northern third of Saxony-Anhalt. As the initial territory of the March of Brandenburg, it is sometimes referred to as the "Cradle of Prussia", as by Otto von Bismarck, a native from Schönhausen near Stendal.

Saxony-Anhalt is a state of Germany.

History

Renovated Salzwedel station Bf.Salzwedel7.jpg — Renovated Salzwedel station

The Stendal–Uelzen line was originally opened in 1873 as part of a direct connection from Berlin to the naval base at Wilhelmshaven by the Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company (MHE) and was opened as part of the so-called America Line.

The Magdeburg–Halberstadt Railway Company was a railway in Prussia. It was nationalized in 1879.

The America Line is the unofficial name of a railway line in northern Germany which is mainly of regional importance today. It runs in an east-west direction and links Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt with the Hanseatic city of Bremen.

In 1945, the line was cut by the Inner German border. West of the border a temporary terminus was created at Nienbergen as the former station in the Lower Saxon town of Bergen an der Dumme was 1,200 meters east of the Iron Curtain. The second track was removed in two phases in 1946 and the 1980s: first, the section from Wieren to Nienbergen was singled, then the second track was also removed between Wieren and Uelzen.

The Inner German border was the border between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990. Not including the similar and physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,393 kilometres (866 mi) long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia.

Bergen an der Dumme is a municipality in the district Lüchow-Dannenberg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The Polabian name of Bergen is Tjörska, probably derived from tjöra ‘mountain’.

The Iron Curtain was the name for the physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and its allied states. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union, while on the west side were the countries that were allied to the United States or nominally neutral. Separate international economic and military alliances were developed on each side of the Iron Curtain:

In the Soviet Zone, which became East Germany in 1949, trains initially ran between Stendal and Bergen. Border security measures were imposed between Salzwedel and Bergen on 7 October 1951 as Bergen station was only 1,200 meters from the border. Between Stendal and Salzwedel one of the two tracks was dismantled because the track material was supposedly needed for the construction of the Berlin outer ring.

East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a country that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. It described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state", and the territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II — the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR.

The Berlin outer ring is a 125 km (78 mi) long double track electrified railway, originally built by the German Democratic Republic to bypass West Berlin in preparation for the building of the Berlin Wall during the division of Germany. It was developed by East Germany for economic, transport policy, and military reasons between 1951 and 1961 and included parts of some older lines.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, the rebuilding of the Stendal–Salzwedel–Uelzen connection was added to the list of German Unity Transport Projects (Verkehrsprojekte Deutsche Einheit). The old line was completely rebuilt and established in 1999 as a single-track, electrified mainline railway and restored to operation. Part of the second track was also restored. The whole project took several years to complete. The 17.5 km long section between Brunau and district road 1005 in Klein Gartz now has two tracks and there is also an approximately one kilometre long passing loop west of the former Kläden station; the current Kläden station is now located further to the east on a single-track section. In addition, during the implementation of the German Unity Transport Project, all loading sidings near the line were dismantled and connecting sidings were reduced so that local freight movements are no longer possible on this line. The originally planned complete reconstruction of the line as a two-track line has not yet been realised.^[2]

Berlin Wall barrier constructed by the German Democratic, enclosing West Berlin

The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall cut off West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany.

Current situation

In the 2010/11 timetable, the Regional-Express service RE 20 runs between Uelzen and Stendal every two hours and the Regionalbahn service RB 32 runs every two hours between Salzwedel and Stendal. Both services are operated by DB Regio. The RE services are operated with double-deck coaches mostly hauled by class 114 locomotives and the RB services are partly operated with class 425 EMUs. On Friday, an Intercity service is operated from Hamburg via Lüneburg, Uelzen and Stendal to Berlin, returning on Sunday. Until 13 December 2014, a train pair operated daily as a EuroCity on the Hamburg–Berlin–Wrocław route. Since April 2014, an InterRegio-Express has been operating the route from Berlin and Hamburg. During disruptions to long-distance traffic between Hamburg and Berlin services often also detour over the line via Wittenberg.

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 Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Austria and Germany.

DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates short and medium distance commuter train services in Germany.

As part of a program to upgrade links between seaports and the hinterland, a second track was built from December 2012 to November 2013 in the Uelzen district of Veerßen to the east of the Stendal–Uelzen line, so that traffic coming from the direction of Stendal could run to the north without crossing the Hanover–Hamburg line.^[3]

Future

The existing two-track section for crossing and overhauling between Brunau-Packebusch and Rademin, which is around 17.5 kilometre long, is to be extended to the east and west. This applies to the sections between Hohenwulsch and Brunaupark-Packebusch and between Rademin and Salzwedel. This involves a total of 22 km of additional second track at an estimated cost of about €57 million. The reason given for the project is to increase the capacity for freight and to improve the performance of regional traffic.^[4] In July 2013, Deutsche Bahn put the project out to tender.^[5] The estimated value of the contract, including overhead electrification, is €22 million, which is to be carried out between June 2014 and March 2016.^[6]

Notes

↑ Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. pp. 32–34. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
↑ Wirtschaftlich bauen. Schneller fahren (in German). Berlin: Planungsgesellschaft Bahnbau Deutsche Einheit. 30 November 1997. p. 13. (brochure)
↑ "Bauarbeiten in Uelzen im Rahmen des Sofortprogramms "Seehafenhinterlandverkehr"" (Press release) (in German). 3 May 2013.
↑ Oliver Schumacher (28 December 2011). "Bahn und Bund investieren rund 57 Millionen Euro in Ausbau der Eisenbahnstrecke Stendal–Uelzen (73/2011)" (Press release) (in German). DB Mobility Networks Logistics.
↑ "Deutschland-Leipzig: Gleisbauarbeiten (document 2013/S 130-225260)" (in German). The Official Journal of the European Union online. 6 July 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
↑ "Deutschland-Frankfurt am Main: Oberbauarbeiten (document 85822-2014)" (in German). The Official Journal of the European Union online. 13 March 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2013.

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References

Ralf Roman Rossberg (1991). Grenze über deutschen Schienen 1945–1990 (in German) (2 ed.). Freiburg: EK-Verlag. ISBN 3-88255-829-6.

External links

Media related to Stendal–Uelzen railway line at Wikimedia Commons
"Die Amerikalinie im Teilbereich Uelzen - Salzwedel" (in German). Retrieved 16 April 2014.
"1944 timetable with express services" (in German). Retrieved 16 April 2014.

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[Eisenbahnatlas-1] Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. pp. 32–34. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.

[pbde-1997-11-2] Wirtschaftlich bauen. Schneller fahren (in German). Berlin: Planungsgesellschaft Bahnbau Deutsche Einheit. 30 November 1997. p. 13. (brochure)

[3] "Bauarbeiten in Uelzen im Rahmen des Sofortprogramms "Seehafenhinterlandverkehr"" (Press release) (in German). 3 May 2013.

[4] Oliver Schumacher (28 December 2011). "Bahn und Bund investieren rund 57 Millionen Euro in Ausbau der Eisenbahnstrecke Stendal–Uelzen (73/2011)" (Press release) (in German). DB Mobility Networks Logistics.

[ted--5] "Deutschland-Leipzig: Gleisbauarbeiten (document 2013/S 130-225260)" (in German). The Official Journal of the European Union online. 6 July 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2013.

[ted-2014/S_051-085822-6] "Deutschland-Frankfurt am Main: Oberbauarbeiten (document 85822-2014)" (in German). The Official Journal of the European Union online. 13 March 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2013.