Hanoverian Southern Railway
Encyclopedia
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The Hanoverian Southern Railway (German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Hannöversche Südbahn) is a historical term but it is still a common name for the line between Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
and Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
. It is a German main line railway
Rail transport in Germany
, Germany had a railway network of 41,315 km. 19,857 km are electrified. The total track length was 76,473 km. Germany is a member of the International Union of Railways . The UIC Country Code for Germany is 80.-Overview:...
in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
and is one of the oldest lines in Germany, opened between 1853 and 1856 by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways
Royal Hanoverian State Railways
The Royal Hanoverian State Railways existed from 1843 until the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866...
.
History
Its northern sections from Hanover to Alfeld
Alfeld
For the town in the district of Nürnberger Land, see Alfeld, Bavaria.Alfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the Leine river in the district of Hildesheim and on the German Framework Road.-History and main sights:...
(opened in 1853) and Alfeld to Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
(opened in 1854) are part of a once important north-south route that continues in operation. The southern section, known as the Dransfeld Ramp (German: Dransfelder rampe) from Göttingen to Hannoverian Münden
Hann. Münden
Hann. Münden is the German official name of a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. The city is located in the district of Göttingen at the confluence of the Fulda and Werra rivers, which join to form the river Weser. It has 28,000 inhabitants...
opened on 8 May 1856 and closed in stages between 1980 to 1995. The connection from Hann. Münden to Kassel was added in 1856 and continues in operation as part of the Halle–Kassel line
Halle–Kassel railway
The Halle-Kassel Railway is a 218 km long main line operated by the Deutsche Bahn in Germany, which links Halle in Saxony-Anhalt with Kassel in the state of Hesse. It is mainly used by regional and east-west goods trains...
.
The term Hanoverian Southern Railway fell out of official use after was the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover
Kingdom of Hanover
The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg , and joined with 38 other sovereign states in the German...
by Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
after the War of 1866
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...
, but is now used by railway enthusiasts for the section between Hanover and Göttingen.
This line was built by the Royal Hanoverian State Railways and was therefore also intended to connect the trading centre of Münden with the capital of the Kingdom of Hanover. The route to Göttingen ran relatively easily through the Leine Valley, although it bypassed the major brewing city of Einbeck
Einbeck
Einbeck is a town in the district Northeim, in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road.-Economy:Einbeck is famous for its 600 year old beer brewery, home of Einbecker Bier, the origin for the term Bock beer...
. In order to avoid passing through the former state of Kurhessen
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...
, the line continued south through difficult terrain with steep grades between Dransfeld and Münden, known accordingly as the Dransfeld Ramp.
Until the 1960s, this whole length of the line was one of the most important lines in Germany. Due to the nearby post-war Inner German border, most rail traffic moved in a north-south direction, which made route next after the lines next to the Rhine between Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
and Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
(West and East Rhines) the busiest north-south link.
This changed in the case of the Dransfeld Ramp when in 1963 with the electrification of the North–South line between Hanover and Gemünden am Main
Gemünden am Main
Gemünden am Main is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main from Würzburg.- Location :...
and in 1964 with the electrification of the connecting Werra Valley line
Halle–Kassel railway
The Halle-Kassel Railway is a 218 km long main line operated by the Deutsche Bahn in Germany, which links Halle in Saxony-Anhalt with Kassel in the state of Hesse. It is mainly used by regional and east-west goods trains...
between Kassel, Münden and Eichenberg
Neu-Eichenberg
-Location:Neu-Eichenberg lies near the three-state common point shared by Hesse, Thuringia and Lower Saxony between Kassel and Göttingen .-Neighbouring communities:...
. The Göttingen–Dransfeld–Münden section remained unwired. After that trains took the route via Eichenberg, although it was eight kilometres longer, because it had much gentler grades and was electrified. The Dransfelder ramp had three trains each way on weekdays until 1980, when passenger services on section were closed. Two years later the track between Göttingen and Dransfeld was dismantled. The rest of the section was served from Münden for 10 to 15 years as a freight siding, which was followed by the closure and partial degradation of the track.
In response to the ever increasing traffic of the route in the 1960s, it was provided with new interlocking
Interlocking
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively referred to as an interlocking plant...
technology and additional passing tracks and upgraded infrastructure. The continuing increase in traffic led to consideration of the construction of a new line.
With the introduction of hourly InterCity
Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)
Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...
(IC) trains on the Hanover–Göttingen line it became chronically overloaded. IC trains shared the track with express, commuter and freight trains. As a result of its terminal station layout, Kassel was left out of the IC network, with trains taking the Göttingen–Bebra route.
During the establishment of the Hanover–Würzburg high-speed line part of the Southern Railway near Northeim was moved to the east. Only after operations commenced on the new line in November 1985, could work begin on the new line. In Hanover and Laatzen
Laatzen
Laatzen is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated directly south of Hanover.-Division of the town:In 1964, the municipalities of Laatzen and Grasdorf were merged into the city Laatzen...
nine crossings were abolished as part of the building of the high-speed line. More crossings were abolished in the common section between Göttingen and Edesheim
Edesheim
Edesheim is a municipality in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Paul Henri Thiry d’Holbach was born here....
.
With the opening of the high-speed railway in 1991, most of the long-distance traffic on the Southern Railway moved to the new line.
Operation today
Long-distance trains run almost exclusively on the high-speed line. Approximate hourly regional trains run on the Southern Railway on the HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
–Uelzen
Uelzen
Uelzen is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality....
–Hanover-Göttingen route, operated by Metronom
Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft
Metronom Eisenbahngesellschaft mbH is a non State-owned railway company based in Uelzen, Lower Saxony, the largest since December 2005. The company is exclusively for passenger and operates on behalf of the public transportation trains on the lines Hamburg-Bremen, Hannover and...
. Night trains and car-carrying passenger trains also use the "old" line. The line continues to be used frequently by freight trains.
Since the closure of the Dransfeld route to passenger trains in May 1980 all trains between Göttingen and Kassel run via Eichenberg.