The Leipzig–Dresden line is a German railway line. It was built by the Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company between 1837 and 1839. It was the first long-distance railway and the first railway using only steam traction in Germany. It also included the first standard gauge railway tunnel in continental Europe. The Dresden Leipzig railway station was the first railway station in Dresden, the capital of Saxony. It was the terminus of the Leipzig-Dresden railway.
Work to upgrade the line as German Unity Transport Project (Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit) no. 9 has been underway since 1993. (12 page brochure) According to the federal government €1.115 billion of an estimated total cost of €1.451 billion had been invested in the project by the end of 2013 (net present value for planning, land acquisition and construction costs). Funds of €336 million were still available.
History
The line was built by the Leipzig-Dresden Railway Company (German: Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie, LDE) established by twelve businessmen in 1835.
The idea that a railway should connect Leipzig with Strehla (on the Elbe), was first suggested in 1830 by the Leipzig merchant Carl Gottlieb Tenner. After the economist Friedrich List (1789–1846) published plans in Leipzig in 1833 for a German railway system with Leipzig as a central node, Tenner's idea gained new force. In the same year, a railway committee was established and it addressed a petition requesting the building of a railway line from Leipzig to Dresden to the first Saxon parliament (Sächsischer Landtag) in Dresden on 20 November 1833.
After the railway had been approved by government decree on 6 May 1835, the Leipzig-Dresden Railway Company was founded by twelve citizens of Leipzig as a private corporation on 22 May. The shares of the company were fully subscribed at a price of 100 thalers within one and a half days, making capital of 1.5 million thalers available to the company.
In October 1835, the English engineers Sir James Walker and Hawkshaw examined the proposed routes and stated their preference for a northern route via Strehla (estimated cost: 1,808,500 thalers) rather than a route via Meissen (1,956,000 thalers).
Construction
On 16 November 1835, land acquisition began for the section between Leipzig and the bridge over the Mulde west of Wurzen. Ground was broken near Machern on 1 March 1836. The management of the construction for the whole project was in the hands of the Saxon Senior Waterways Construction Engineer (Oberwasserbaudirektor), Karl Theodor Kunz (1791–1863). But then the town of Strehla refused permission for the railway to be built through it. So the line was built seven kilometers to the south, crossing the Elbe in Riesa. The company's initial capital in 1837 was 4.5 million thalers, which was later increased to 6.5 million thalers. The first train crosses the Elbe bridge on 7 April 1839.
The line was brought into operation in several stages:
1837, 24 April: Leipzig–Althen (10.60 km) 1837, 12 November: Althen–Borsdorf–Gerichshain (4.32 km) 1838, 11 May: Gerichshain–Machern (2.93 km) 1838, 19 July: Weintraube–Dresden (8.18 km) 1838, 31 July: Machern–Wurzen (8.00 km) 1838, 16 September: Wurzen–Dahlen (17.53 km) 1838, 16 September: Oberau–Coswig–Weintraube (13.44 km) 1838, 3 November: Dahlen–Oschatz (9.56 km) 1838, 21 November: Oschatz–Riesa (13.07 km) 1839, 7 April: Riesa–Oberau (28.45 km)
On 7 April 1839, on the completion of the Elbe bridge at Riesa, the entire route from Leipzig to Dresden was finally opened. The travel time between Leipzig and Dresden was three hours and 40 minutes. On this occasion, a coin was issued with an engraving of an English B locomotive, which ran over the line in the early years.
It included the 513-metre-long Oberau Tunnel, the first standard gauge rail tunnel in continental Europe. The line was preceded only by the Prince William Railway, a narrow-gauge plateway opened in 1831 and the Bavarian Ludwig Railway opened in 1835, which was a short line and was initially operated largely by horse-drawn trains, partly because it was located a long way from coal fields and no railways existed to convey coal to Nuremberg. In contrast the Leipzig–Dresden Railway used only steam traction from its beginning.
Work began immediately on building a second track. The whole line was open for two-track operations by 1 October 1840. This was made possible because the subgrade along with all engineering structures had been designed from the outset for two tracks. Trains—following English practice—ran on the left until 1884.
Operations by the Royal Saxon State Railways
On 29 March 1876, the general meeting of shareholders decided to sell the Leipzig–Dresden Railway to the Saxon government. Operations and management of the Leipzig-Dresden Railway were transferred to the Royal Saxon State Railways (Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen) on 1 July 1876.
The development of the Leipzig–Dresden Railway from its beginnings as a private initiative of Leipzig citizens until its nationalisation in 1878 is reflected in Leipzig's railway heritage.
The Saxon part of the new Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (main station), which became the terminus for trains from Dresden, was put into operation on 4 December 1915.
After the First World War 1 April 1920, the Royal Saxon State Railways (recently renamed the Saxon State Railway) were absorbed into the newly established German National Railways (Deutsche Reichsbahn). The Leipzig-Dresden line came under the administration of the Dresden Reichsbahn Directorate.
From 1 July 1933 to July 1934 the Oberau Tunnel was opened up and turned into a cutting, because the tunnel was not wide enough as the loading gauge had increased. As a result, the distance between the two tracks did not allow two trains to pass in the tunnel.
The line in the communist era In 1946 one of the two tracks was removed to provide the route as reparations to the Soviet Union. Even the previously four-track section between and was reduced to only one track. This meant that the capacity of one of the most important main lines in Germany had been reduced to only a fraction of its former level. Temporarily trains ran one way from Leipzig and Dresden on the line, while trains running in the other direction ran via Meissen and Döbeln. This system of operations proved problematic, however, as the hilly route via Döbeln meant that additional locomotives were always needed for heavy trains.
The second track had been rebuilt by 1967.
In the early 1960s, there were plans were for electrification of the line as part of the Saxon triangle. Electric-powered services operated between Dresden and Riesa from the winter 1969–1970 timetable and the remaining section was operated by electric trains from 1 September 1970. The electrification included the first use of spun concrete poles by Deutsche Reichsbahn. The power was supplied over 110 kV transmission lines from the power station in Karl-Marx-Stadt, which had two 25 MW steam turbines, and from the Muldenstein railway power station, which had three 11.3-MW steam turbines. However, the existing capacity was not enough for the rapidly growing rail traffic so steam and diesel locomotives were also used. Full electric operations were only possible with the commissioning of the Dresden power station with its three 32-MW turbines.
The table below shows the dates of the completion of the electrification:
Opening Section Comment 25 September 1969 Leipzig Hbf–Wurzen 28 September 1969 Riesa–Dresden-Neustadt 31 May 1970 Wurzen–Riesa 10 May 1974 Althen–Borsdorf junction Freight tracks
Upgrade to a high-speed line
After the German reunification in 1990, the line was one of the busiest railway in Germany and, like many other lines of Deutsche Reichsbahn, required urgent rehabilitation and modernisation. The project was approved as German Unity Transport Project No. 9 (VDE 9) by the Federal Cabinet on 9 April 1991. (13-page booklet)
The scheduled journey time between Leipzig Hauptbahnhof and Dresden Hauptbahnhof has been reduced to 47 minutes in 2014. In 1990, the travel time between Leipzig and Dresden had been 90 minutes.
Planning
The Reichsbahn divisions of Dresden and Halle developed a feasibility study until 14 November 1991. Initially it was planned that the existing route would be supplemented by about 105 km of new line. The new line would run between Dresden Hauptbahnhof and the Oschatz area to the south and west of the Elbe. The finalisation of the route depended on the result of continuing investigations. (Brochure (eight A4 pages) with status of January 1992) With a top speed of 250 km/h, the travel time of ICE trains would have amounted to around 35 minutes.
A supplementary examination of different options for a new railway (Neubaustrecke) and a reconstructed railway (Ausbaustrecke) were presented on 13 January 1992. The preliminary design for both options and the development of a synopsis for making a decision began on 23 January 1992. For economic reasons, the option of building a new line was rejected on 19 March 1992 as a combined new and upgraded line would have been about one billion marks cheaper than a purely new line.
The upgraded line would allow operations at 200 km/h, according to the status of the planning set out on the foundation stone (1992), it would have been completed in 1999 at a cost of 2.675 billion marks. 67 km of the line would have been upgraded and 48 km would have been new line. Riesa would in this case have been bypassed to the south by a new line that would have separated from the original line between Oschatz and Bömitz. The Jahna valley would have been spanned by an 800 m-long bridge and a new bridge would have been built over the Elbe near Merschwitz in the municipality of Nünchritz. The whole 115 km-long project involved the construction or renovation of 57 railway and 23 road bridges. Other important planned engineering structures also included the two-kilometre long Kockelsberg Tunnel. In a later stage a seven-kilometre long new section of line was planned as a southern bypass of Wurzen. The travel time between the stations of Leipzig and Dresden would fall to 45 minutes for long-distance services. The completion was initially scheduled for 31 December 1998.
In the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan of 1992, the proposed upgraded Leipzig–Dresden line ran approximately parallel to a section of the Berlin–Dresden railway for 13 km, but these plans were later modified. Between Böhla and Radebeul, only the Berlin–Dresden railway would now be upgraded for high-speed traffic and a link would be built to the Leipzig–Dresden railway. This would have saved about 370 million marks, significantly reduced affects in nature and landscape and allowed the separation of fast and slow traffic.
The preliminary design for the entire project was completed on 31 August 1992 and handed over to Deutsche Reichsbahn to check. It was confirmed in March 1993. The new route would follow the existing tracks between Leipzig and Wurzen as well as between Kornhain and Bornitz. The line would bypass Riesa to the south, cross the original line at Medessen and finally connect with the Berlin-Dresden railway near Böhla station. With 74 km of upgraded line and 41 km of new construction, the line would be able to operate over its entire length at 200 km/h. (brochure)
An application for planning approval for the new section was prepared in 1993. The preliminary design for the entire project was completed in 1995 with the completion of documentation for the regional planning process for the Bornitz–Weinböhla section. (Reprint from “Aktuell”) A scheduled rebuilding of the line between Engelsdorf and Leipzig as a four-track electrified line was rejected by the Federal Ministry of Transport on 27 August 1993. The preparatory work for the construction of this section, which had started in May 1993, was abandoned.