The Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway is a double-track, electrified high-speed railway between Hanover and Würzburg in Germany, in length. The line, built between 1973 and 1991, was the longest contiguous new project constructed by Deutsche Bundesbahn. The total costs were almost DM 11.9 billion (around €6.1 billion; 1980/90s prices).
The line is part of the core network of the Trans-European Transport Networks. It is scheduled to be used by around 110 long-distance trains daily at up to during the day and by an average of 26 freight trains at night with a total of , running at up to . In 2020, the number of passengers on the line was estimated to be 15.5 million. To date, it is the longest greenfield line for high-speed traffic in Germany.
Route Before the line was built, long-distance trains ran between Hanover and Würzburg via Alfeld, Kreiensen and Northeim to Göttingen (Hanoverian Southern Railway), continuing via Eichenberg, Eschwege West, Bebra, Bad Hersfeld, Fulda and Gemünden am Main to Würzburg (old North–South railway).
The upper edge of the rail is at heights between 50 m above sea level and 386 m above sea level. The new line is 35 kilometres shorter than the pre-existing lines between Hanover and Würzburg. It runs parallel to existing routes over a length of 51 kilometres.
At the time of the division of Germany, 70 percent of the line ran through the border zone.
Autobahn 7 also runs through all the major stops along the line. The federal highway 27 is also largely parallel, although this does not run through Hanover and Kassel.
Hanover–Göttingen section
The 327.4 kilometre-long new line begins at kilometre 0.0 in Hannover Hauptbahnhof. Running in a southerly direction, it follows the existing north-south line in Hanover's urban area via the Hannover Messe/Laatzen station, which is also served by long-distance trains (primarily during trade fairs), at km 8 towards Rethen. The two high-speed tracks run between Hanover Bismarckstraße and the junction in the middle with the tracks of the old line. The high-speed line leaves the parallel section at a grade-separated crossing and swings away from the old line in a south-westerly direction. It then crosses eleven bridges between Rethen and Barnten with a total length of 1.1 kilometres and runs on embankments up to eight metres high with a total length of 6.9 kilometres through the flood plains of the Leine and the Innerste. The Hildesheim loop, a single-track connecting curve, which is used by trains to and from the Hanover–Berlin high-speed railway via Wolfsburg, Braunschweig and Hildesheim, branches off at Sorsum (km 29).
With the entry into the Escherberg tunnel and two subsequent tunnels, the line leaves the North German Plain and passes through the Hildesheim Forest. Between Sibbesse and Bad Gandersheim, the line follows the course of a valley without major engineering structures, before after another six tunnels and five viaducts it reached the Leinegraben and the high-speed line at Edesheim swings back to run parallel with the north-south line. There, at km 77, it is possible to switch to and from the old line in both directions. Northeim is bypassed to the west, at Nörten-Hardenberg station at km 90 it is also possible to change tracks with the old line. Göttingen station is reached at kilometre 99.
Göttingen–Kassel section
In the section between the stations of Göttingen and , the line follows a fairly straight line. Almost 21 kilometres of the 44-kilometre section runs in tunnels, including the 10,525-metre-long Münden Tunnel (km 121), the second longest tunnel in Germany.
In the vicinity of the Fulda Viaduct in Kragenhof (km 133), the high-speed line begins to run generally parallel with the north-south line, which it will follow for nine kilometres to the southern outskirts of Kassel. The line passes the western edge of the Kassel marshalling yard and reaches Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station at route kilometre 144. The station, which was newly built as part of the high-speed line, bypasses the Kassel Hauptbahnhof terminus. In the Kassel area, the line runs for around 15 kilometres next to existing lines.
The highest costs per kilometre were incurred during the construction phase for the sparsely populated but topographically very complex section between Göttingen and the state border north of Kassel. In this section, the high-speed line runs past towns and villages at a distance of about 700 to 1000 metres, and a large part of the line is in tunnels anyway, in which the up to 400-metre-high elevations between Göttingen and Kassel are crossed. Exceptions are the Grone and Groß Ellershausen districts of Göttingen, for which noise barriers had to be built.
Kassel–Fulda section
The line then runs on the 89.96 km-long section between Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station and Fulda station, of which 47.79 kilometres run in 25 tunnels.
The route roughly follows the course of the Fulda, which is crossed three times. In the Bebra and Bad Hersfeld area, the line runs well to the west of the Fulda, some of it close to the A 7. Since the Fulda valley is too winding and narrowly built-up for a high-speed line and the side valleys largely run perpendicular to it, numerous structures are required on this section. Around two-thirds of the approximately 80-kilometre-long new section runs over 18 viaducts. The outstanding structures include the Fulda Viaduct at Solms (km 206), the longest bridge on the line at around 1600 metres, and the Rombach Viaduct (km 218), the second highest railway bridge in Germany at around 95 metres. After the 7,345 metre-long Dietershan tunnel, Fulda station (km 234) is reached.
Apart from the Fulda and Kassel junction areas, the new line runs almost entirely in uninhabited terrain in this section. The distance from settlements is usually at least 400 metres.
Fulda–Würzburg section
South of Fulda station, the new line follows the Frankfurt–Göttingen railway for around four kilometres to Bronnzell, where the Frankfurt–Göttingen railway stops running parallel and turns in a south-westerly direction towards Frankfurt am Main. From this line, the Flieden–Gemünden railway branches off at Flieden to Gemünden and Würzburg. A series of shorter tunnels is followed by the 10,779 metre-long Landrücken Tunnel (km 251), the longest tunnel in Germany. At the north portal of the tunnel, the new line reaches 386 m above sea level its highest point. After the line descends to the Main Viaduct in Gemünden, it ascends further south. At the Burgsinn depot (km 283) there is the option of connecting from the Flieden–Gemünden railway, which runs to Gemünden and from there via the Würzburg–Aschaffenburg railway to Würzburg, onto the new line directly to Würzburg and vice versa.
The Nantenbach Curve coming from the Würzburg–Aschaffenburg railway merges into the high-speed line in Rohrbach operations station (km 302).
After the Main Viaduct at Veitshöchheim (km 321), the line runs through two more tunnels, turns to the left in the last one and merges via a ramp into Würzburg Hauptbahnhof (km 327) at a grade separated junction.
History The general route between Hanover and the Main valley resulted from the wish to eliminate existing bottlenecks on the heavily used north-south route.
In 1970, an average of 142 trains per working day and direction ran on the section between Fulda and Flieden (1967: 123). With an average load of 150 to 159 trains between Hanover and Flieden, 43 percent of all regular freight trains were delayed by more than 30 minutes at the end of the section. In June 1973, 367 trains ran between Northeim and Nörten-Hardenberg (near Göttingen) on weekdays, with only 288 being able to operate smoothly. At the end of the 1970s, 160 trains per day ran between Hanover and Würzburg, according to the then Deutsche Bundesbahn, 40 more than "technically and economically justifiable". The section between Gemünden am Main and Würzburg was particularly badly affected. With up to 380 trains per day, an operating performance that had not previously been thought possible was achieved. Despite modern signalling systems, operational quality restrictions (particularly in terms of punctuality) were unavoidable. A forecast made in the early 1980s for 1990 estimated that 249 trains per day would run in each direction between Hanover and Göttingen and 250 between Fulda and Flieden.
The first preliminary drafts of a new line for the development program for the Deutsche Bundesbahn network were developed between 1968 and 1970. On 4 August 1969, the head office of Deutsche Bundesbahn issued a first planning order for a new line that would run from Nordstemmen (south of Hanover) via Fulda to Würzburg. With the approval of the DB network development program in 1970, the executive board (Vorstand) and board of directors of the then national railway made it possible to commission planning for new and upgraded lines. The line between Hanover and Gemünden am Main was one of the most urgent projects. In 1971, a contract for the planning of the line was issued.
The line was to run parallel with the existing line between Hanover and Nordstemmen for around 30 kilometres, then leave the Leine valley, head southwest over the Vogler (around 260 metres high) into the Holzminden area, then follow the Weser to the east and cross it at Würgassen (a district of Beverungen). Hümme (near Hofgeismar) would be bypassed to the east at about kilometre 100 before reaching a through station at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe at about kilometre 135. North of Kassel, the line would be linked to the planned Dortmund–Kassel supplementary line. The line would pass over the Knüll mountains at a height of 420 metres with links to the existing line west of Fulda. Overcoming the Hessian ridge was planned as the third major climb on the line, in order to then reach Gemünden at an altitude of 150 meters via the Sinn valley.
The selected route, which would have been suitable for passenger and freight traffic, emerged as the most favourable solution from the requirement to connect both Kassel and the line to Frankfurt south of Fulda. The 275-kilometre route was intended to reduce the length of the rail link between Hanover and Gemünden by around 60 kilometres. The travel time in long-distance passenger transport would fall from around 160 minutes to 90 minutes. Construction was scheduled to begin in 1973 and be completed in 1980. Earlier completion of individual sections was considered. It was estimated to cost DM 4.2 billion (around €2.1 billion).
The routing of the supplementary line, which was intended for both passenger trains and freight trains weighing up to 1,000 t, was at a design speed of 300 km/h, although lower maximum speeds would also be selected if necessary due to particularly high expenditures on short sections. The planned minimum radii were 7,000 metres (5,000 metres in exceptional cases) with a cant of up to 75 millimetres. The gradients should not exceed the 1.25% specified in the railway regulations (Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebsordnung—EBO), although technical advances (automatic couplings, electric traction, etc.) should also allow gradients that exceed this, up to 2.5%. The loading gauge would initially be 4.40 metres wide and 5.40 metres high (without pantograph and overhead line) in order to meet the diverse requirements of rail freight transport. Due to a lack of experience with trains traveling at speeds of more than 200 km/h, a track spacing of 5.00 metres, in tunnels an increased spacing of 6.00 metres was considered as well as two separate single-track tunnels. The distance between the depots was set at around 20 kilometres and the establishment of transfer points was examined.