The Rosenheim–Salzburg railway is a continuous double track and electrified main line railway almost entirely within the German state of Bavaria. It is an international transport corridor, linking to Salzburg in Austria.
History
Planning, treaty and Munich-Rosenheim-Salzburg Railway Society The first plan for a railway line between Rosenheim and Salzburg was in Friedrich List’s proposal in September 1828, which laid out as the main lines of the Bavarian network, a line from Bamberg via Nuremberg, Augsburg and Memmingen to Lindau, another from Kitzingen via Nuremberg and Augsburg to Munich and a third from Günzburg via Augsburg and Munich towards Austria. Simon Freiherr von Eichthal, a banker to the King of Bavaria, also called for a railway from Munich to Salzburg in 1835. On 5 January 1836, von Eichthal began a preliminary investigation of the building of the line. A messenger of the Bavarian government reported to the Austrian government on 7 April 1836 on the planned construction of the line. In 1838, von Eichthal failed to raise the necessary funds to carry the plan forward.
Negotiations with Austria began again in 1838. It was planned to build a connection from Salzburg to the proposed rail link from Vienna to Trieste. Austria had little interest in this project and, therefore, little was done in the following years. In Bavaria, where was a major economic crisis had broken out, Ludwig I said on 6 January 1842 that the completion of the construction of the Ludwig South-North Railway towards Austria was not possible. On 25 August 1843, a proposal for a west–east railway was finally issued. Ludwig I approved further negotiations with Austria on 22 October 1844. Friedrich August von Pauli, head of the Royal Railway Construction Commission (), travelled to Vienna in order to lead further negotiations. Austria also had limited resources for railway construction. On 10 September 1848, Joseph Anton von Maffei requested that the design, construction and operation be carried out by a private company. Maffei was then asked to present a plan. In the spring of 1849 the following route was selected: Munich–Glonn–Bad Aibling–Rosenheim–Prien am Chiemsee–Bernau am Chiemsee–Bergen–Freilassing–Salzburg. In August 1849, the plan for the foundation of a Munich-Rosenheim-Salzburg Railway Company (München-Rosenheim-Salzburger-Eisenbahn-Verein) was presented. The total cost would be 11 million guilders. The costs would be subscribed by 60,000 members of the company. The founding of the company was approved on 9 March 1850. The authorities sought to avoid a dispute over the route by modifying it. The new route ran via Holzkirchen rather than Glonn to give a better connection to the Miesbach coal field. Bavaria and Austria agreed to a treaty on 21 June 1851. This committed Bavaria to finish the Munich–Rosenheim–Kufstein/Salzburg railway by 1 March 1858. Austria was obliged, in return, to build a railway from Kufstein to Innsbruck by 1 March 1856 and to build a link from Salzburg to the Vienna–Trieste railway (Salzburg–Bruck) by 1 March 1858. Since the estimated cost of the railway continually increased from the beginning of 1852, the government now had to accept some of the costs. The state agreed to guarantee the society a return of two percent. At the beginning of 1852, it was questionable whether the company would be able to meet the specified opening date in the treaty at all. Therefore, the minister, Dr. Freiherr von Pfrodten sought a law that would allow the railway to continue to be built at state expense and operated as a state railway. Finally, on 7 May 1852 was decided to build the railway at government expense. In May 1854, the government announced that Austria would fail to comply with the opening schedule set out in the treaty because of the difficult terrain on the Salzburg–Bruck line. Bavaria then stopped all construction work. Austria was experiencing an economic crisis in 1854 and found it very difficult to negotiate a new treaty. The money for the construction of the railway was used for other purposes in the meantime. Negotiation of a new treaty was completed on 21 April 1856. The construction period for the Salzburg–Bruck railway was extended for five years. It has now estimated that the construction cost of the Rosenheim–Salzburg railway would be 9,412,985 million guilders.
Construction of the line On 1 September 1851, construction began on the Großhesslohe bridge near Munich. Meanwhile, the necessary land was acquired for the other sections of the line. In 1852, with the acquisition of the construction work by the Royal Railways Commission (Königlichen Eisenbahnbaukommission), Friedrich August Pauli was appointed executive of the board. Eduard Rüber was appointed as an architect of the railway line and Johann Georg Beuschel as the chief engineer. New Royal Railway construction divisions were established Between Munich and Salzburg. They organized and carried out the construction work. In 1852, Royal Railway construction divisions were opened in Rosenheim and Traunstein in 1853, Royal Railway construction divisions followed in Prien am Chiemsee and Freilassing. Contracts were called for the construction of the line in a total of 26 sections. In May 1854, contracts for all works were let, except for those between Munich and Großhesselohe. The line from Munich to Großhesselohe was commissioned on 24 June 1854. Work only finally resumed after 21 April 1856, with the conclusion of the new treaty. On 31 October 1856 the Großhesselohe–Rosenheim line was opened on 5 August 1858. This was followed by the opening of the Rosenheim–Kufstein railway.
Construction work focussed on the Rosenheim–Kufstein line until early 1858 because the construction equipment was needed to complete the line on time. Further Royal Railway construction divisions were opened in Grabenstätt and Teisendorf. The construction work in the area of the Chiemsee and Simssee lakes progressed slowly. As the railway embankments slipped again and again, the embankments eventually had to be propped up with wooden scaffolding. A Roman settlement was also discovered during the construction work at Vachendorf. A trial run was operated on the Rosenheim–Traunstein section for the first time on 26 April 1860. This section is then put into operation on 7 May 1860. A trial run was operated on the section between Traunstein and Salzburg on 16 July 1860, which opened on 1 August 1860. On 12 August 1860, the entire line was opened in the presence of King Maximilian II and Emperor Franz Joseph. The celebrations lasted for three days.
Construction costs totalled 10,204,649 million guilders, of which 8,073,432 million guilders were for the embankment and the superstructure, 568,301 million guilders for the station buildings and 522,642 million guilders were for supervision and management. These were average costs in Bavaria.
Transport development in the country and railway duplication
In 1866 a branch line was opened from Freilassing towards Bad Reichenhall (now part of the Salzburg–Berchtesgaden railway). On 1 June 1871 the Munich–Mühldorf-Linz railway was put into operation. After that all traffic to Vienna ran over this route because it was shorter. On 15 October 1871 the Munich-Grafing–Rosenheim railway line opened. This route had better grades, which made the use of bank engines unnecessary. As the volume of traffic in Rosenheim station grew, the station was moved. The new station was opened on 19 April 1876.
There was a big boom in freight and passenger traffic in the 1880s. In order for goods and people to continue to be transported by rail, it was decided to duplicate the main lines of the Bavarian railway network. In 1890, the line was already served of 26 pairs of trains, including six pairs of expresses. Thus, a law was passed on 29 December 1891 that authorised the duplication of the lines between Munich–Grafing, Rosenheim and the Austrian border at Freilassing and between Rosenheim and the border at Kufstein. This anticipated the rise in traffic during the coming years. The contracts for the duplication of the Rosenheim–Freilassing line were let as nine sections. Duplication began in 1893 between Rosenheim and Stephanskirchen and it was completed over the entire route in 1894. The second main track between Rosenheim and Endorf went into operations on 1 August 1894. The duplication between Endorf and Prien was carried out and placed in operation at the end of 1894. This was followed by the commissioning of the second track between Prien and on 1 October 1895 and between Traunstein and Freilassing on 29 November. The second track between Salzburg and Freilassing was not put into operation until 1889 because of difficult conditions in Salzburg. The duplication between Rosenheim and the border at Freilassing cost a total of 4,115,500 Marks. In 1892, construction started on centralised interlockings at the stations of Prien am Chiemsee, Bad Endorf, Übersee, Bergen and Lauter. The track speed limit averaged 90 km/h. In the following period, the number of trains increased as a result of the duplication so that the route was served by 38 trains each way by 1900. The Orient Express ran over the Rosenheim–Salzburg line from 1897; it had previously run via Mühldorf and Simbach.
World War I and electrification The scheduled passenger traffic was severely restricted during World War I, so that only four pairs of trains ran each way from the beginning of the war. The line, however, became an important military connection to Austria and the Balkans.
In 1921, there were plans for the electrification of the Holzkirchen–Rosenheim, Rosenheim–Kufstein and Rosenheim–Freilassing lines. When the plans were completed in 1923, the Deutsche Reichsbahn did not have the financial means to implement them. When the Deutsche Reichsbahn Company was founded in 1924, the electrification of the main lines was seen as a major goal. Therefore, the electrification of the Munich–Grafing–Rosenheim, Rosenheim–Kufstein and Rosenheim–Salzburg lines was now planned. Electrification was completed between Munich and Rosenheim on 12 April 1927 and between Rosenheim and Kufstein on 15 July 1927. Electrification commenced between Rosenheim and Freilassing in August 1927. The overhead line between Rosenheim and Traunstein was completed on 21 March 1928. Operations commenced on the Traunstein–Freilassing section on 19 April 1928. The required electricity was partly supplied by the Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station. This was supplied through a substation in Rosenheim (completed on 5 March 1928), which was connected by a 110 kV transmission line to the power station. A substation was built in Traunstein, which was connected via another transmission line to the Rosenheim sub-station.
Second World War and reconstruction