The Nahe Valley Railway () is a two-track, partially electrified main line railway in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which runs for almost 100 kilometres along the Nahe. It was built by the Rhine-Nahe Railway Company and connects Bingen am Rhein on the Left Rhine line with Saarbrücken. It was opened between 1858 and 1860 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. The section south of Bad Kreuznach is part of the regionally important transport corridor between the two major cities of Mainz and Saarbrücken.
History
First initiatives and the opening of the Neunkirchen–Saarbrücken section
As early as 1839, there were plans to build a railway connection between the Saar and the Middle Rhine, which could not be realised due to high construction costs.
The first section between Neunkirchen and Saarbrücken was built as continuation of the Palatine Ludwig Railway (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn, Ludwigshafen–Bexbach), which was completed in 1849 and had already been extended to Neunkirchen in 1850. The main railway was used to transport coal from the Saar district to the Rhine. The Palatine administration originally considered that St. Ingbert, which was in Bavaria, would be at the western end of the line, but this changed under pressure from Prussia. It wanted a connection in the long-term to Saarbrücken that ran only through its own territory and considered the Ludwig Railway should connect with it. For this reason, the line was built to Bexbach, from where it was later extended via Neunkirchen and the Sulzbach valley to Saarbrücken. Prussia also wanted the coal mines in the Holzhauertal and Landsweiler-Reden to be connected to the railway.
The management of the projected line in Prussia was the responsibility of the Royal Saarbrücken Railway (Königlich-Saarbrücker-Eisenbahn), which was also responsible for the Forbach Railway (Forbacher Bahn) from Bexbach via Neunkirchen and Saarbrücken to Forbach in France. The line between Neunkirchen and Saarbrücken was opened in 1852.
Formation of the Bingerbrück–Neunkirchen section
In 1856 construction of the line was undertaken by the private Rhine-Nahe Railway Company (Rhein-Nahe Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RNE) set up for this purpose. It would connect the Nahe Valley and the surrounding area with the Left Rhine line of the Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RHE) and the Hessian Ludwig Railway (Hessische Ludwigsbahn) in Bingerbrück and would stimulate economic development and open up the market for Saar coal by connecting the Saarland railways with the Middle Rhine Valley. It was proposed that the line be privately financed with a government guarantee of a return of four percent. The Prussian government took control of the project on 18 June 1856 and issued the concession for the railway’s construction and operation to the company on 4 September 1856. The Prussian government required the line to follow the course of the Nahe.
In two places, however, the territory of two other countries had to be crossed: the Herrschaft of Meisenheim, which still belonged to the landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg, and the Principality of Birkenfeld, which was part of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. Prussia argued about the route of the line, especially with Oldenburg. While Oldenburg would have liked to see the line pass through the city of Birkenfeld, Prussia insisted on a route through the Nahe valley. At the same time, an initiative from the neighbouring region of the Palatinate for another variant, which would have had the planned route leave the Nahe valley at Staudernheim and run to Altenglan through the Glan and then via Kusel either through St. Wendel or alternatively along the Oster valley. For tactical reasons, Prussia remained open-minded about these efforts, which led to Oldenburg giving way and accepting the route along the Nahe within its territory. After a contract was let for the construction of the line, construction of the 120 km-long single-track line began in 1857.
Construction of the line
The first 16 km section from Bingerbrück (now Bingen Hauptbahnhof) to Bad Kreuznach went into operation on 15 July 1858. This was followed by the sections to Oberstein on 15 December 1859 and to Neunkirchen (Saar) via Birkenfeld (now Neubrücke) and St. Wendel on 26 May 1860, with a total length of 52 or 53 km. The 21.2 km section to Saarbrücken was completed on 16 November 1852.
Even before the construction the line was finished, the Royal Railway Administration at Saarbrücken (Königliche Eisenbahn-Direction zu Saarbrücken) took over its management and operation. The railway was considered a regional lifeline that would promote industrialisation in this agricultural area of the upper Blies Valley and the Nahe Valley, which was affected by high unemployment, rural exodus and emigration.
The line connected to Bingerbrück on the Rhine and the Hessian Ludwig Railway (Hessische Ludwigsbahn) to Mainz on 17 October 1859 and down the Rhine to the Left Rhine Railway (Linke Rheinstrecke) of the Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, RhE) on 15 December 1859. This was followed by a connection with the Hessian Ludwig Railway to Mainz on 15 December 1859. At the beginning of November 1861, this was followed by the opening of the Bingerbrück–Rüdesheim train ferry, connecting to the Nassau Rhine Railway, opened in 1856 by the Wiesbaden Railway Company (Wiesbadener Eisenbahngesellschaft), which was nationalised in 1861 as the Nassau State Railway (Nassauische Staatsbahn).
Further development
The 121 km-long line of the Rhine-Nahe Railway Company was called by Arthur von Mayer the most expensive line in Germany; this was the result of its very difficult construction, which included a large number of tunnels, bridges, embankments and cuttings. The construction cost more than one million thalers per Prussian mile (7,532.5 metres), then a record sum.
At first, there was a sharp competition with the Palatine Ludwig Railway, since both lines primarily served the transport of Saar coal. In addition, Prussia endeavoured to influence the traffic flows from the north-western Palatinate to the Nahe. For this reason, for example, Heimbach station was built along with a road to the Palatinate town of Kusel. The RNE expressly pointed out that this station was specifically built for this town. The station lost its importance, however, as early as 1868, when the Landstuhl–Kusel railway, which branched off the Ludwig Railway was opened.
The revenue of the company after the start of operations was well short of expectations. Since the passenger traffic met the expectations of the builders only to the spas of Kreuznach and Münster, neither dividends nor interest on debt could be paid. As a result, the Prussian government was obliged to step in to meet its annual interest rate guarantee. This also meant that the government was unable to sell the line to the Rhenish Railway after the War of 1866.
For strategic reasons, a line to Kreuznach was built from Gau Algesheim in 1902, which required a new station to be built. From then on the old Kreuznach station served only as a freight yard.
The Birkenfeld station was five kilometres from the capital of the Principality of Birkenfeld. Therefore, the town and Degussa GmbH funded the construction of a railway from the town of Birkenfeld to Neubrücke. The original Birkenfeld was renamed Neubrücke station. The RNE took over the management of the Birkenfeld Railway and opened it on 5 October 1880.
As the line formed part of a route to the French border, it was soon duplicated. The line was connected to the Hindenburg Bridge, which was built between Rüdesheim am Rhein and Bingen-Kempten for strategic reasons. The bridge was built between 1913 and 1915 and destroyed in 1945. It connected a junction in Münster-Sarmsheim on the Nahe Valley Railway with the Right Rhine line. Because of the great military importance of the line, the RNE was acquired by the Prussian government with effect of 1 April 1881 and the company was dissolved. It became part of the Royal Railway Administration at Cologne, left Rhine (Königlichen Eisenbahndirektion Köln, linksrheinisch) of the Prussian state railways from 1 July 1883.
Between 1965 and 1979, the so-called Munzinger-Express also operated between Staudernheim and Bad Kreuznach.
Operator Until the timetable change on 14 December 2014, the passenger services were operated by DB Regio Südwest. Regentalbahn’s subsidiary vlexx GmbH now operates passenger services on the Nahe Valley Railway from Saarbrücken towards Mainz and Frankfurt. It uses diesel multiple units of the LINT 81 and 54 classes. Passenger services on the Bad Kreuznach to Bingen section are still operated by DB Regio Südwest.
Connection over the Rhine A line ran from Laubenheim over the Hindenburg Bridge for thirty years (1915–1945), carrying traffic across the Rhine to Rüdesheim and Geisenheim. The old railway embankments are still visible.
New tunnel construction Coal was mined near the original Bildstock Tunnel (481 m) and a pillar of coal had to be left in place to support the foundations of the tunnel. The former Saargruben (later Saarbergwerke AG; today: DSK) mining company wanted to remove this to extend its mine. In 1955, therefore, the new Bildstock Tunnel (341 m) was built with an improved 600 m radius, bypassing the former tunnel.
Accidents On 16 January 1918, the embankment between Kirn and Hochstetten (Nahe) was washed away during a storm by the Nahe and subsided. This caused the derailment of train 243, with troops on leave, causing the locomotive, van and three carriages to plunge into the river. 38 people were killed and 25 wounded.
Recent developments
The Nahe Valley Railway is one of the main axes of rail passenger traffic in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. During the last major rebuilding of the rail superstructure in 2004/2005, heavier rails (UIC 60 profile) were installed on concrete sleepers to allow the operation of tilting trains. The stations in Rhineland-Palatinate, formerly consistently in dilapidated condition, are gradually being rebuilt (like Neubrücke (Nahe), Kirn, Monzingen, Bad Sobernheim and from 2011, after years of dispute with Deutsche Bahn, also Bad Kreuznach). The rehabilitation of the tunnels on the line has now begun with the upgrade, relining and partial renewal of the tunnels at Heimbach and related slope safety measures.
In the Saarland, all stations, except Neunkirchen, have been equipped with electronic ticket machines.
For a while an upgrade of the line was considered for the northern branch of the Paris–Ostfrankreich–Südwestdeutschland (Paris–Eastern France–Southwest Germany) high-speed line. It was later decided to upgrade the Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway, because the costs for the electrification on the tunnel on the Nahe Valley Railway, which would have been required, were too high.
Rhineland Palatinate integrated timetable for 2015
With the introduction of the concept of the Rheinland-Pfalz-Takt 2015 (Rhineland Palatinate clock-face timetable) in the middle of 2008, services on the Nahe Valley Railway were improved. With the electrification of the line from Türkismühle to Neubrücke (Nahe) the Saarbrücken–Türkismühle Regionalbahn service was extended to Neubrücke. In addition, the Regionalbahn station of Hoppstädten (Nahe) is now only served by a bus conveying passengers to/from Neubrücke. This measure has already been implemented for the 2014/2015 timetable change. The electrification works meant that section the section between St. Wendel and Neubrücke (Nahe) had to be closed from 28 July 2014 to 4. September 2014. A rail replacement bus service was operated.