The Winden–Karlsruhe railway is a mainline railway in the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, which in its present form has existed since 1938 and is electrified between Wörth and Karlsruhe. The current Winden–Wörth section was opened in 1864. A year later, the gap between the Rhine and the Maxau Railway (Maxaubahn), which had been opened in 1862, was closed. The route of the latter was changed during the relocation of the Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof. New sections of the line were also built between Wörth and Mühlburg mainly in connection with the commissioning of a fixed bridge over the Rhine.
The latter work significantly increased its importance. Today the route is operated together with the Neustadt–Winden section of the Neustadt–Wissembourg railway as timetable route 676. Several lines of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn also run between Wörth and Karlsruhe.
History
The first attempts to build a railway in the area of today's route stem from 1838, soon after the floating of the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft). In this context, a proposal was made for a route from Zweibrücken along the Schwarzbach and via Rodalben, Annweiler and Langenkandel (later: Kandel) on the Rhine, which was not accepted. In the period from 1847 to 1849, the east–west aligned Palatine Ludwig Railway (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn) was built from Ludwigshafen to Bexbach. This line was mainly used for the transport of coal. In 1855, the Palatine Maximilian Railway (Pfälzische Maximiliansbahn) was opened between Neustadt and Wissembourg to carry coal from Saargegend and Palatine agricultural produce to France.
However, the Palatine Maximilian Railway did not meet expectations in the first few years of its existence. In particular, the French railway company Chemins de fer de l'Est succeeded in blocking the competitiveness of all links to areas of France near the Rhine from outside of France through various measures such as the manipulation of tariffs. In addition, it supplied a large part of the demand for coal within the department of Haut-Rhin via the Rémilly–Saarbrücken railway to Frouard. This traffic continued over the railway to Strasbourg or along rivers to Mulhouse. Against this background, the Palatinate was forced to look for other markets, preferably on the other side of the Rhine.
As a result, the Palatine Maximilian Railway Company (Pfälzische Maximiliansbahn-Gesellschaft), which had built the line from Neustadt to Wissembourg, planned to build a railway branching off in Winden to Karlsruhe, especially as it had to increase its financial returns. It was hoped that the planned route would transport coal to better markets in the southern German countries of Baden, Württemberg and the main part of Bavaria, which was geographically separated from the Circle of the Rhine (Rheinpfalz). Initially, the planners considered a route possibly branching off in Rohrbach. However, taking note of the interests of Bergzabern, which also required a connection to the rail network, the company refrained from it.
Planning
The municipality of Kandel, in particular, fought strongly for such a line, referring in this context to the large number of inhabitants in its area and the creation of jobs in the construction of the railway. The Bavarian Karl Krazeisen, who was at that time a troop commander in the Palatinate, emphasised that such a route was necessary for strategic reasons.
In 1859, the Palatine Maximilian Railway Company received a concession for the line from the Ministry of Trade and Public Works. In the summer of the following year, the route and the design of the project were determined accordingly. However, there was resistance from the town of Germersheim, which instead supported the construction of a railway line through its territory and from there to Bruchsal. In a memorandum, the town of Germersheim and the commander of the Germersheim fortress also argued that a line from Winden to Karlsruhe, as opposed to a line though the territory of the fortress would not be military secure and that it was strategically important to establish a connection with the other fortresses like Koblenz, Landau, Mainz and Rastatt. The Palatinate government however rejected the Germersheim proposal.
In addition, several representatives of South Palatine municipalities came together in Rülzheim in 1860, which instead petitioned against a route via Winden and Kandel instead argued for a line from Landau via Offenbach, Herxheim, Leimersheim and Leopoldshafen to Karlsruhe. They argued that a route via Winden and Kandel was contrary to the public interest and would be exclusively a "coal railway", which primarily served its shareholders. Furthermore, they argued that their proposed route affected a greater number of places and people than the planned route through Kandel. In this context, they referred to the foodstuffs produced in Rülzheim, the weavers resident in Herxheim, and the trade in hemp and flax fibre and the handling of goods in the port of Leimersheim. In addition, the cultivation of tobacco and trading of cattle played an important role in the region. A connection to Speyer could be built at a later date from Rülzheim via Germersheim. The proposed route via Kandel would also be unsafe in a possible war because of its proximity to the French border. The government in Bavaria was of the same opinion. Nevertheless, the Rülzheim petition was unsuccessful.
Construction, opening and first years
Bavaria passed a law on 10 November 1861 that guaranteed the company a grant of interest for a total investment of one and a half million gulden. The concession followed on 28 June of the following year. Already the Maxau Railway had been opened on the Baden side from Karlsruhe to the right (eastern) bank of the Rhine near the hamlet of Maxau on 5 August 1862. The Winden–Maximiliansau section was approved on 14 March 1864. Although it ran through Minfeld, a district to the south-east of Winden, it did not have a station, because a cattle trough had had to be relocated for the track construction and this had led to conflicts.
One year later, on 8 May 1865, the gap between Maximiliansau and the Maxau Railway was closed in the form of a bridge over the Rhine. This was built for road traffic in 1840 and had been modified to allow rail operations as well. It was the first pontoon bridge to be used on a railway in Europe and was therefore considered a technical innovation.
Further development
Although the line was used to carry passengers, the change of locomotive required to cross the Rhine prevented significant through traffic. Subsequently, a second track was installed between Winden and Wörth. From 1 January 1870, the management of the section of the line to the west of the Rhine was taken over by the newly founded Palatinate Railway (Pfälzische Eisenbahnen), which had been created by the merger of the Palatine railway companies, although the Maximilian Railway was still formally the owner and possessed the concession for its construction and operation. The Maximilian Railway was always responsible for the transfer of trains across the Rhine. The operator of the east-bank section was the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway (Großherzoglich Badische Staatseisenbahnen). From 1895 onwards the freight bypass railway branched off between the stations of Mühlburg and Knielingen; this carried a large part of the freight traffic. Telephone wires were installed along the Winden–Wörth section in 1907. Ticket barriers were installed at stations along the line from Winden to Maxau. On 1 January 1909, the Winden–Rheinbrücke section of the line together with the other lines in the Palatinate were taken over by the Royal Bavarian State Railways (Königlich Bayerische Staatseisenbahnen).
As early as 1900, the Baden Ministry of the Interior had approved the relocation of the Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof, since on the one hand it had reached the limits of its capacity and, on the other hand, the many level crossings in the urban area were increasingly an obstacle for pedestrians and trams. The new location was on the southern outskirts. As a result, the section of railway to the east of Knielingen had to be relocated. This would circumnavigate the city in a large semicircular arc. It was conceived as running from the western part of the freight bypass railway built in 1895 to just before the West station (Westbahnhof), which was also built in 1895 at the same time as the marshalling yard. On 23 October 1913, the new Hauptbahnhof and the relocated Maxau Railway were opened. At the same time, Mühlburg received a new station, which also serves as a junction station for the line that passed through Eggenstein and Linkenheim to Graben-Neudorf. The southern part of Eggenstein also had to be rebuilt. Until then, Mühlburger Tor station, which has since been abandoned, occupied this function. A few years later, Karlsruhe Zeppelinstraße (later called Karlsruhe West) station was added in the vicinity of the West station between Mühlburg and Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof.
Weimar Republic and the Third Reich (1920–1945)
In 1920, the line became part of the newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn. In 1922, the Palatinate section was integrated into the newly founded Reichsbahndirektion Ludwigshafen (railway division of Ludwigshafen) and the Baden section became part of the Reichsbahndirektion Karlsruhe. After the First World War, France occupied the Palatinate and the railways in the Palatinate were operated by the French military from 1923 to 1924. Over the decades, traffic had been steadily increasing. Since the railways had to comply with a timetable, these services had priority over the barge traffic. This caused congestion of the traffic on the Rhine. This situation was even worse for road traffic, which was only allowed to cross the bridge once the shipping traffic had cleared. The political and economic situation of the 1920s frustrated the plans for a permanent Rhine bridge. Baden and Bavaria provided money for the construction of such a bridge from 1934, after which work began. With the dissolution of the Ludwigshafen railway division in 1937 all of the line came within the jurisdiction of Karlsruhe from 1 February 1937. The local Reichsbahn-Betriebsamt (Deutsche Reichsbahn operations office, RBA) was also based in Karlsruhe.
On 4 April of the following year, a fixed Rhine bridge was opened near Maxau and the dismantling of the pontoon bridge followed. The former Maximiliansau station lost its function as a result. Instead, the locality was given a new station immediately to the west of the new bridge. At the same time, a new Mühlburg–Maxau section of the line was built. The route, which had previously passed through Knielingen, now ran along the south-western edge of the village, so Knielingen also received a new station. In addition, the Wörth–Karlsruhe section was subsequently rebuilt with two tracks.
Due to the new Rhine bridge, the main traffic flows, which had previously been on the Landau–Bruchsal and the Neustadt–Wissembourg axes, were now aligned towards Karlsruhe. Similarly, express trains on the Saarbrücken–Munich route from then on ran via Winden and Karlsruhe. In 1944, a connection was established from Karlsruhe West station to the Rhine Railway towards Rastatt for strategic reasons. At the beginning of 1945, rail traffic on the line came to a standstill as a result of the Second World War. In the same year, the bridge across the Rhine was destroyed in air raids.
Postwar and Deutsche Bundesbahn (1945–1993)