The Leipzig–Hof railway is a two-track main line in the German states of Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria, originally built and operated by the Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company. It runs from Leipzig through Altenburg, the Werdau wye junction, Reichenbach and Plauen to Hof. The Werdau–Hof section is part of the Saxon-Franconian trunk line (Sachsen-Franken-Magistrale), the line connecting Dresden and Nuremberg. Its first section opened in 1842 and it is one of the oldest railways in Germany.
As a result of the division of Germany after the Second World War, the line lost considerable importance. Even after German reunification in 1989/90, the line has not been able to regain its former importance, especially as government policy gave preference to the extensive upgrade of the parallel Großheringen–Saalfeld railway. The remaining long-distance services ended In 2006.
History
After its founding in 1835, the Leipzig–Dresden Railway Company (Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn-Compagnie, LDE) received a concession to build a railway on the Leipzig–Hof route, but the company waived its right due to the difficulties that were to be expected. Thereupon a railway committee formed in Leipzig, and other cities such as Plauen, Altenburg and Bamberg also expressed interest in a railway connection. However, the financing as well as the technical feasibility were not yet assured. Investors wanted to wait to see if the LDE and its Leipzig–Dresden railway would succeed and the Saxon state gave the project little support; only surveys of route for the line were carried out 1837.
Railway construction was finally approved on 20 June 1840, but railway construction was to be undertaken by a private company with interest-free state loans. A treaty covering the route of the line and the Hof border station was signed between the three states of Saxony, Saxe-Altenburg and Bavaria on 14 January 1841. However, the final route also touched the territory of Reuss Elder Line and Reuss Junior Line. On 12 June 1841, the Sächsisch-Baierische Eisenbahn-Compagnie (Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company) was founded in Leipzig, which, according to the concession, had to finish one-third of the line within two years, and the rest within another four years.
Railway construction began on 1 July 1841 under the leadership of Karl Theodor Kunz, and initially work was carried out on the easily built section of the line from Leipzig to Reichenbach. The Leipzig–Altenburg section was already completed in 1842. Test runs took place on the section on 6 September 1842 and it was opened on 19 September of the same year. The Altenburg–Crimmitschau section was put into operation on 15 March 1844. A branch was also opened to the remote town of Zwickau. The Crimmitschau–Werdau and Werdau–Zwickau sections were inaugurated on 6 September 1845. With the opening of the Werdau–Reichenbach section on 31 May 1846, a connection was also opened to the Vogtland.
The building of the viaducts at Werdau had already caused financial difficulties for the company. Two large viaducts were needed to cross the Göltzsch or Elster valleys. Since no experience had been acquired in building such large bridges, the two viaducts were ultimately twice as expensive as originally planned. The double-line construction as well as the complicated route surveyed between Plauen and Hof cost more than had been planned. On 21 September 1846, the Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company had to cease financing the construction work and asked the Kingdom of Saxony for help. On 1 April 1847, the Kingdom of Saxony purchased the company and operated it as the Saxon-Bavarian State Railways (Sächsisch-Bayerische Staatseisenbahn).
The private railway company had begun construction work on the Plauen–Hof section to obtain further revenue to finance the expensive bridge structures as quickly as possible. This section was opened on 20 November 1848 and the state railways started operations on the last section from Reichenbach to Plauen on 15 July 1851.
Opening dates Leipzig–Altenburg: 19 September 1842 Altenburg–Crimmitschau: 15 March 1844 Crimmitschau–Werdau: 6 September 1845 Werdau–Reichenbach: 31 May 1846 Plauen–Hof: 20 November 1848 Reichenbach–Plauen: 15 July 1851
Later history
The Neumark–Greiz line was opened in 1865; it was later extended to Neumark and connected to the Saxon-Bavarian railway. Trains on this line used the Neumark–Brunn section of the Leipzig–Hof line between 1865 and 1886. With increasing traffic, this section became congested, so from 1885 onwards a new track was laid parallel to the two existing ones and opened on the 19 May of the following year. It was nationalised in 1876 and it became part of the Saxon-Bavarian Railway. It was closed in 1999.
On 14 January 1867, a 6.8 km-long branch line was opened from Neukieritzsch to Borna. On 8 April 1872 this was extended by 55.7 km to become the direct Leipzig–Chemnitz line.
The inconvenient terminal station in Altenburg was converted into a through station between 1876 and 1878. This required a new alignment with a tunnel through a ridge south of the town.
On 1 September 1879, a 9.9 km-long branch line was opened from Gaschwitz (now in Markkleeberg) on the main line, running via Gautzsch (now Markkleeberg West) to the Plagwitz-Lindenau station of the Saxon State Railways on the southern outskirts of Leipzig.
The terminal station in Hof was replaced by a through station in 1880.
From 1888 to 1925, the Leipzig-Connewitz–Plagwitz railway branched off the Leipzig–Hof railway to the south of Connewitz station to connect the Leipzig Bavarian station with the Plagwitz-Lindenau station of the Saxon State Railways.
On 1 April 1920, the Royal Saxon State Railways was absorbed into the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR). The Leipzig–Hof line was then administered by the Dresden railway division (Reichsbahndirektion Dresden).
Although the line was one of the most important railways in Germany, it was long spared from Allied air raids. Thus, although some stations in the southern section of the line became the target of air raids in 1944, in contrast to other routes, largely scheduled operations continued until 1945. It was only in April 1945 that the Elster Viaduct was partly blown up by the Wehrmacht, and the Saale viaduct (near Unterkotzau) was significantly damaged by air raids. Rail traffic came to a standstill and was resumed only after the end of the war.
After the Second World War, no trains initially operated across the line of demarcation between the Russian and the American occupation zones at Gutenfürst. All the trains terminated in Gutenfürst and Feilitzsch. Interzonal freight traffic recommenced in 1946, passenger services only recommenced in 1947.
The Altenburg tunnel had to be converted into a cutting in the run-up to the electrification in 1958/59 because its roof was too low for the installation of overhead wire and because its damaged roof allowed surface water to penetrate.
Electrification was completed on the line from Leipzig Hauptbahnhof and Leipzig Bavarian station to Böhlen on 2 October 1961. Several more sections of electrification were opened, finally reaching Reichenbach on 20 December 1963.
The only local service between Hof and Feilitzsch was discontinued in 1972. On 30 October 1972 there was a serious railway accident in Schweinsburg-Culten when two express trains collided and 28 people died.
In the 1990s, the Planungsgesellschaft Bahnbau Deutsche Einheit ("planning corporation for German unity railway construction") developed plans for an upgrade of the railway lines between Leipzig and Zwickau, which had not been implemented by 2011.
The renovation of the Altenburg–Paditz section, which is about four kilometers long, was completed on 25 November 2013 after more than two years of construction; this work included the restoration of operations on two tracks. Since the summer of 2011, around €36 m have been invested and at the same time about 8 kilometres of track have been renewed; 11 kilometres were fully reconstructed and four railway overpasses and one road overpass as well as two culverts were built. In the area of the former Altenburg tunnel, about 1000 metres of support wall and 500 metres of trough construction were built. In the future trains in this section will be able to operate at up to 150 km/h.
Unimplemented upgrade between Plauen and Hof
The line between Plauen and Hof is almost twice as long as the straight line distance, which is around 26 kilometres, considerably increasing travel time. There have been plans for a new line between Plauen and Hof since 1874. All proposals have assumed that the new line would start at Weischlitz on the Plauen–Cheb railway. The route would then have run via Wiedersberg and reconnected with the existing line at Hof. From 1884 onwards the community of Plauen sent a petition to the Saxon Landtag (parliament) every year, but the request was not implemented.
A second serious attempt to promote a shortening of the route was made in 1913 and a third was made at the end of the 1930s. Preliminary work actually began, but it was stopped in favour of other projects with more military significance. The Werdau wye–Plauen section would have been upgraded to four tracks at the same time; the new section would have begun at Weischlitz and tunnelled under the heights of the Vogtland. The new line would have re-entered the existing railway network in Feilitzsch.
At the beginning of the 1990s, there were again discussions on the construction of a new route between Weischlitz on the Plauen–Cheb railway and Feilitzsch, which would have shortened the Plauen–Hof section from 49 to no more than 32 kilometres. Because of the high costs and the routing of interregional long-distance traffic between Berlin and Munich via the Großheringen–Saalfeld railway, the projection has not been implemented.
Integration of the Leipzig City Tunnel
In the course of the construction of the Leipzig City Tunnel, work was carried out on the Leipzig–Hof to integrate in the network. This work enabled the City-Tunnel to be integrated into the existing network, as part of the creation of the new S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland network.
Since the end of 2011, the S-Bahn line has been moved from the east side (route 6362) to the west side (route 6377) of Leipzig as a result of this work. Markkleeberg Nord station was rebuilt and Leipzig-Connewitz, Markkleeberg and Markkleeberg-Großstädteln stations were adapted. Several bridges were replaced and the track infrastructure were rebuilt with new overhead, turnouts and noise barriers. One track of line 6362 between Connewitz and Gaschwitz was dismantled to make space for the Markkleeberg Nord platform.
Gaschwitz station was renamed Markkleeberg-Gaschwitz with the start-up of the new S-Bahn network.
Electrification between Reichenbach and Hof
The electrification of the roughly 73 km-long section between Reichenbach and Hof made it possible to run electric trains between Leipzig and Dresden and Hof. This made the integration of Plauen and Hof into the electrically operated S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland possible.
Construction of the electrification started on 21 July 2010. The Reichenbach–Herlasgrün section was completed in December 2011. In addition to this, extensive work had to be carried out on the Göltzsch Viaduct and several road bridges with too little clearance for electrification were replaced.
The electrification of the Herlasgrün–Plauen section took place between February and December 2012. This included the renewal of three road overbridges.