The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn (S-Bahn RheinNeckar) forms the backbone of the urban rail transport network of the Rhine Neckar Area, including the cities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen.
The S-Bahn operates over of route in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, and in small sections in Saarland and Hesse. S-Bahn trains operate about 7.5 million kilometres per year, with 113 stations served by class 425 electric multiple units.
Network The S-Bahn is about long and is one of the largest S-Bahn networks in Germany. The core area is in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. At Homburg (Saar), it touches the Saarland and it has three stations in Hesse between Neckarsteinach and Hirschhorn. Four of the seven lines run together on the core Schifferstadt–Ludwigshafen–Mannheim–Heidelberg section. Beyond this main line, the S-Bahn operates over six lines with terminuses in Homburg, Osterburken, Karlsruhe, Germersheim, Bruchsal, Eppingen, Aglasterhausen, Mainz and Bensheim.
Services operate on weekdays at intervals of 30 or 60 minutes, except for the S7 and S8, which currently have only a few services. The lines are shared with the other passenger and freight traffic. Linenumber Route Length Stations Railway lines Homburg (Saar) Hbf – Osterburkenvia Kaiserslautern Hbf – Neustadt (Weinstraße) Hbf – Schifferstadt – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Hbf – Mannheim Hbf – Heidelberg Hbf – Neckargemünd – Eberbach – Mosbach (Baden) - Seckach 202 km 54Mannheim–Saarbrücken, Rhine Valley Railway, Neckar Valley Railway, Neckarelz–Osterburken Kaiserslautern Hbf – Mosbach (Baden)via Neustadt (Weinstraße) Hbf – Schifferstadt – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Hbf – Mannheim Hbf – Heidelberg Hbf – Neckargemünd – Eberbach 133 km 39 Karlsruhe Hbf <> Karlsruhe Hbfvia Wörth (Rhein) – Rheinzabern – Bellheim – Germersheim – Speyer Hbf – Schifferstadt – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Hbf – Mannheim Hbf – Heidelberg Hbf – Wiesloch-Walldorf – Bruchsal 104 km 29 Schifferstadt–Wörth, Mannheim–Saarbrücken, Rhine Valley Railway Bruchsal – Germersheimvia Graben-Neudorf – Philippsburg 32 km 11 Bruhrain Railway Mannheim-Waldhof – Mannheim Hbf (– Karlsruhe Hbf)via Mannheim-Luzenberg - Mannheim Hbf (- Heidelberg Hbf - Wiesloch-Walldorf - Bruchsal - Karlsruhe-Durlach) 7 km(79 km) 3 (20) Riedbahn, Rhine Valley Railway Germersheim – Bruchsalvia Speyer Hbf - Schifferstadt - Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Hbf - Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Mitte - Mannheim Hbf - Heidelberg Hbf - Wiesloch-Walldorf 83 km 27 Wörth–Schifferstadt, Mannheim–Saarbrücken, Rhine Valley Railway Ludwigshafen (Rhein) BASF Nord – Germersheimvia Speyer Hbf - Schifferstadt - Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Hbf - Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Mitte - Mannheim Hbf - Heidelberg Hbf - Wiesloch-Walldorf – Bruchsal 38 km 15 BASF works railway, Mannheim–Saarbrücken, Schifferstadt–Wörth Ludwigshafen (Rhein) BASF Nord – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Hbf 5 km 4 BASF works railway Heidelberg Hbf – Eppingenvia Neckargemünd – Meckesheim – Sinsheim (Elsenz) 43 km 19 Elsenz Valley Railway, Steinsfurt–Eppingen (Heidelberg Hbf –) Meckesheim – Aglasterhausenvia Neckargemünd – Meckesheim – Waibstadt – Neckarbischofsheim Nord 39 km 14/16 Neckar Valley Railway, Elsenz Valley Railway, Meckesheim–Neckarelz Bensheim – Mainz Hbf via Heppenheim (Bergstr) – Weinheim (Bergstr) Hbf – Neu-Edingen/Friedrichsfeld – Mannheim Hbf – Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Hbf – Frankenthal Hbf – Worms Hbf – Mainz Hbf 108 km 31 Main-Neckar Railway, Rhine Valley Railway, Mainz–Ludwigshafen Mannheim Hbf – Bensheimvia Neu-Edingen/Friedrichsfeld – Weinheim (Bergstr) Hbf – Heppenheim (Bergstr) 6 Main-Neckar Railway, Rhine Railway, Neu-Edingen/Mannheim–Friedrichsfeld–Schwetzingen railway, Main-Neckar Railway Mannheim Hbf – Biblisvia Mannheim-Käfertal – Lampertheim 28 km 7 Mannheim–Frankfurt railway Karlsruhe Hbf – Groß-Rohrheimvia Graben-Neudorf – Waghäusel – Hockenheim – Schwetzingen – Mannheim Hbf – Lampertheim – Biblis 89 km 23 Rhine Railway, Mannheim–Frankfurt railway
Operating pattern All lines have a 60-minute basic frequency. As a result of largely overlapping alignments in the core area services run at half-hourly frequency. On the core line between Schifferstadt and Heidelberg four lines run, each at hourly intervals, but due to problems of coordination may not provide a pure 15-minute interval schedule. Ludwigshafen-Rheingönheim and Ludwigshafen-Mundenheim are not usually served by lines S1 and S3. Line S1 usually serves Mannheim Rangierbahnhof and Mannheim-Seckenheim. On Saturday afternoons and Sundays, S2 from Kaiserslautern terminates in Heidelberg and S4 runs only between Germersheim and Mannheim.
Although the lines run from 05:00 until 01:30, regular interval operations usually run only between about 08:00 and 21:00.
History
On 14 December 2003, the Rhine-Neckar area became the last large densely populated area in Germany with an S-Bahn system — planning had lasted over three decades and involved the cooperation of the states of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate. Following European-wide advertising for tenders, operation for 12 years from 2002 until 2015 was awarded to DB Regio.
First stage of development
Beginning in 2001, the lines and stations were prepared for S-Bahn operations. €260 million was invested for construction and €190 million for vehicles. An extra bridge was built over the Rhine between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, urgently required to increase capacity, a by-pass of Schifferstadt for long-distance traffic and Ludwigshafen-Mitte S-Bahn station in Berliner Platz. A new S-Bahn workshop was established near Ludwigshafen Hauptbahnhof.
It was considered important to provide a large amount of uniform equipment at the stations. The platforms were raised to and made accessible by the disabled, partly via elevators. They received new platform equipment, such as waiting rooms and seating.
The platforms at Mannheim-Seckenheim, Mannheim-Rangierbahnhof, Ludwigshafen-Mundenheim and Ludwigshafen-Rheingönheim were raised temporarily using wooden planks, since no decision had been made on the final configuration of the track or the future position of the platforms.
Extension to Germersheim The first stage was completed at the end of 2006 with the extension from Homburg to Kaiserslautern and the Mannheim-Speyer route to Germersheim. The Speyer route required electrification south of Schifferstadt and modification of three stations. A new station is under construction at Speyer Süd, but its opening has been delayed. A further extension from Germersheim to Graben-Neudorf to Bruchsal was opened in December 2011 and an extension of line S5 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn from Wörth am Rhein to Germersheim was opened in December 2010.
Extension to Homburg (Saar)
The upgrade of the Mannheim–Kaiserslautern line to Homburg was carried out as an urgent project in preparation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. However, it was not finished in time and services commenced in December 2006. Only line S1 runs to Homburg; S2 continues to terminate in Kaiserslautern. The city of Homburg did not participate financially in this extension.
Heidelberg–Karlsruhe route To the extent that they did not already meet this requirement, all stations on the Heidelberg–Karlsruhe route were extended to of platform length during the first expansion phase in order to enable S-Bahn trains to stop in double sets.
In addition, the further measures at the stations on the Heidelberg–Bruchsal section of the line are still considered to be part of the first expansion stage. At six stations, the platforms were extended to in order to be able to use S-Bahn trains in triple sets due to the expected traffic volume. On 15 December 2019, the new Stettfeld-Weiher station was also put into operation.
Second stage of expansion
Shortly after the start of operation, a second stage of expansion was planned for the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn to integrate previously unserved cities and regions into the S-Bahn network. However, the schedule laid down in the Realisierungsprogramm Rhein-Neckar-Takt 2010 (implementation program for the 2010 Rhine-Neckar clock-face timetable), which provided for further expansion to Homburg, Bruchsal, Karlsruhe, Eppingen, Darmstadt and Worms, between 2008 and 2010, was rejected again in 2006. The reasons for this were the reduction of funds made available under the federal Rail Regionalisation Act (Regionalisierungsgesetz) in accordance with the so-called "Koch-Steinbrück paper" as well as the need to finance infrastructure measures required for capacity increases in the north of the region, in particular the Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed railway.
Heidelberg–Eppingen/Aglasterhausen In November 2000, the Verkehrsforum 2000 proposed an extension to Eppingen for the first time. In August 2002, a "standardised assessment" for the electrification of all three routes to Aglasterhausen, Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld and Eppingen showed a benefit-cost ratio of 3.7. The district administrator and former director of the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, Stefan Dallinger, stated that he was not aware of any project with such a good result. The board of the ZRN approved the modernisation in December 2003. The planning agreement was signed on 13 May 2004 and the construction and financing contract on 20 September 2007.
The project was to cost €81.5 million, of which €66.9 m was for eligible building costs, of which the federal government paid 60% and the state of Baden-Württemberg paid 20% under the Municipal Transport Financing Act (Gemeindeverkehrsfinanzierungsgesetz). The remaining costs were assumed by the municipalities and districts.
The modernisation of 78 kilometres of line covered of track and included the installation of about 1180 sets of overhead masts. On 10 October 2009, the overhead line was switched on.
Since December 2009, the new line S 5 has operated from Heidelberg Hbf on the Neckar Valley Railway and the Elsenz Valley Railway to Sinsheim or every hour on the Steinsfurt–Eppingen railway to Eppingen. Trains only occasionally stopped at the two Heidelberg halts of Schlierbach/Ziegelhausen and Orthopädie for scheduling reasons until December 2016 and only hourly after that. Line S 51 was opened in June 2010; this branches off in Meckesheim over the Meckesheim–Neckarelz railway and runs every hour to Aglasterhausen.
In Eppingen there is connection to line S 4 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn and the Heilbronn Stadtbahn. Since December 2014, with the integration of the eastern Elsenz Valley Railway in the northern branch of the Heilbronn Stadtbahn, there has also been a connection to Heilbronn in Sinsheim.
Extension from Germersheim to Bruchsal
The second stage of expansion also included the integration of the Bruhrain Railway from Germersheim via Graben-Neudorf to Bruchsal into the S-Bahn network. This route was added to the S-Bahn network at the 2011/2012 timetable change on 11 December 2011 and is used by an extension of the S 4, but which is designated as the S 33 to avoid confusion with a line of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn.
This required considerable modernisation and electrification between Graben-Neudorf and Germersheim. In addition, the three new stops of Germersheim Mitte/Rhein, Bruchsal Am Mantel and Bruchsal Sportzentrum were built. The upgrade of the line began in early July 2010 and lasted 17 months. The cost of the infrastructure work amounted to approximately €31.7 m. All stations were adapted for the disabled and made barrier-free. The only exception was the halt of Bruchsal Am Mantel, which had no ramps and lifts for part of 2012.
Mainz–Worms–Frankenthal–Ludwigshafen am Rhein–Mannheim