The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn (S-Bahn RheinNeckar) forms the backbone of the urban rail transport network of the Rhine Neckar Area , including the cities of Mannheim , Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen .
176-534: The S-Bahn operates over 437 km (272 mi) of route in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg , and in small sections in Saarland and Hesse . S-Bahn trains operate about 7.5 million kilometres per year, with 113 stations served by class 425 electric multiple units . The S-Bahn is about 437 km (272 mi) long and is one of the largest S-Bahn networks in Germany. The core area
352-533: A referendum except those in the administrative district of Palatinate won the necessary majority; however, almost 20 years passed before the referendums finally took place. On 19 January 1975, none of the regions concerned returned a majority for being transferred to another state. This put an end to decades of discussion. Only the AKK conflict , a dispute over the districts of Mainz-Amöneburg , Mainz-Kastel , and Mainz-Kostheim , has continued to exercise politicians up to
528-592: A benefit-cost ratio of 3.7. The district administrator and former director of the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region, Stefan Dallinger, stated that he was not aware of any project with such a good result. The board of the ZRN approved the modernisation in December 2003. The planning agreement was signed on 13 May 2004 and the construction and financing contract on 20 September 2007. The project
704-401: A bridge to the new platform. However, track 10a had to be blocked for train traffic. Track 10b continued to be used, but only from the south. Following a call of tenders in December 2013, DB Regio was awarded the contract for lot 1 (S1, S2, S3, S4, S33) with approximately 8 million train-kilometres per year for the period from December 2016 to December 2033. The intervening year due to delays in
880-675: A connection from St. Ingbert to Saarbrücken. St. Ingbert had been connected to the railway network since 1867 by the Würzbach Railway ( Würzbachbahn ) which began in Schwarzenacker . In 1869, both the Bavarian and Prussian governments were approached by committees with related plans. Due to financial stringencies, Bavaria rejected direct intervention, but the Saarbrücken Committee agreed to take over
1056-634: A connection to Heilbronn in Sinsheim . The second stage of expansion also included the integration of the Bruhrain Railway from Germersheim via Graben-Neudorf to Bruchsal into the S-Bahn network. This route was added to the S-Bahn network at the 2011/2012 timetable change on 11 December 2011 and is used by an extension of the S ;4, but which is designated as the S 33 to avoid confusion with
1232-642: A day starting in Germersheim , ran on the Rohrbach–Saarbrücken section. Scheduled passenger services had to be temporarily withdrawn, especially in the Saarbrücken area. Passenger services only recommenced after the operation of military trains had declined. The further course of the war affected the line and some of its structures. After Germany had lost the war and the French military had invaded
1408-490: A direct link from Homburg via Limbach and Kirkel to Rohrbach. This line opened on 1 January 1904; at the same time a second track was built between Scheidt and Rohrbach. The line was initially designated as part of the Glan Valley Railway ( Glantalbahn ), which was opened on 1 May of the same year and was also built as a strategic railway. A connecting curve in the Saarbrücken district of Halberg from
1584-722: A framework agreement was signed between the Saarland and DB for new local services, including a CityBahn service on the Saarbrücken–Kaiserslautern route with reduced stops and a Citybahn service on the Saarbrücken–Homburg route with stops at all stations. From 1991 onwards the IR ;27 InterRegio service ran on the Saarbrücken–Stuttgart route, continuing to Lindau and Bregenz at two-hour intervals. At
1760-439: A large amount of uniform equipment at the stations. The platforms were raised to 760 mm (30 in) and made accessible by the disabled, partly via elevators. They received new platform equipment, such as waiting rooms and seating. The platforms at Mannheim-Seckenheim, Mannheim-Rangierbahnhof, Ludwigshafen-Mundenheim and Ludwigshafen-Rheingönheim were raised temporarily using wooden planks, since no decision had been made on
1936-567: A line along the Dürkheim Valley also failed, since its side valleys were too low and, above all, the Frankensteiner Steige ( Frankenstein climb) would have had too steep. This route would have required stationary steam engines and rope haulage to overcome the differences in altitude. For this reason it was decided to proceed with a route along the valley through Neustadt. On 30 March 1838, some businessmen founded
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#17327811423442112-505: A line of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn . This required considerable modernisation and electrification between Graben-Neudorf and Germersheim. In addition, the three new stops of Germersheim Mitte/Rhein , Bruchsal Am Mantel and Bruchsal Sportzentrum were built. The upgrade of the line began in early July 2010 and lasted 17 months. The cost of the infrastructure work amounted to approximately €31.7 m. All stations were adapted for
2288-618: A new entrance building and its tracks were raised one metre higher. Land was acquired in the winter of that year and the construction began in March of the following year. The connection was 12.568 kilometres long. The tracks were built partly over rocks, but major earth moving was necessary. The connection was opened on 15 October 1879. It amounted to an extension of the Würzbach Railway (Schwarzenacker–St. Ingbert), which had been completed in 1866 and 1867 and branched off
2464-548: A new location. DB took it into operation in May 1969 and it was officially opened on 1 June. Its predecessor was then demolished along with the associated railway tracks. With the dissolution of the railway division of Mainz on 1 June 1971, the Ludwigshafen–Frankenstein section was transferred to the responsibility of the railway division of Karlsruhe. From 1 August of that year, the railway division of Saarbrücken
2640-546: A pure 15-minute interval schedule. Ludwigshafen-Rheingönheim and Ludwigshafen-Mundenheim are not usually served by lines S1 and S3. Line S1 usually serves Mannheim Rangierbahnhof and Mannheim-Seckenheim. On Saturday afternoons and Sundays, S2 from Kaiserslautern terminates in Heidelberg and S4 runs only between Germersheim and Mannheim. Although the lines run from 05:00 until 01:30, regular interval operations usually run only between about 08:00 and 21:00. On 14 December 2003,
2816-445: A recent cultivar , is the leading red grape cultivated on 7,626 hectares (18,840 acres), which is more than a third. Blauer Portugieser (4,446 hectares (10,990 acres)) and Spätburgunder (3,867 hectares (9,560 acres)) show also appreciable cultivated shares. In addition, Pinot blanc , Pinot gris , Chardonnay as white varieties and Regent and St. Laurent as red varieties have been increasing their share, as
2992-652: A result Neustadt and Homburg has fewer stops by long-distance trains. The route was temporarily the only one within the Palatinate with long-distance services. The ICE trains run on the Frankfurt–Saarbrücken–Paris route; some ICE and IC services run to Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich. In the first decades, the Ludwig Railway primarily served as an export route for coal from the Saar basin. Afterwards,
3168-571: A result of business consolidation. The unemployment rate stood at 4.1% in October 2018 and was lower than the German average. 49°54′47″N 07°27′00″E / 49.91306°N 7.45000°E / 49.91306; 7.45000 Mannheim%E2%80%93Saarbr%C3%BCcken railway The Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway ( German : Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn ) is a railway in the German states of Baden-Württemberg , Rhineland-Palatinate and
3344-618: A second two-track Rhine bridge between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen began in 1997. In 2006, the S-Bahn reached Homburg, which since then has formed the western terminus of the VRN. The introduction of the S-Bahn operation resulted in the modernisation of the stations along the line; The platforms have since been raised to a height of 76 centimetres to enable level access to the trains. The platforms between Ludwigshafen and Kaiserslautern are on average 210 metres-long, from Kaiserslautern they are 140 metres-long. Ludwigshafen (Rhein) Mitte station
3520-406: A shorter connection between Homburg and Saarbrücken than the previous route via Bexbach and Neunkirchen. The Hasseler Tunnel on the Würzbach Railway east of St. Ingbert became increasingly an operational problem due to its geological instability. The first option was a new lining for the existing tunnel, the second a new tunnel and the third a completely new route to Rohrbach that would not need
3696-743: A shorter connection to Saarbrücken, which was used by services on the Ludwigshafen–Saarbrücken route. Nevertheless, there were connections to Neunkirchen over the old Ludwig Railway. Most of the express trains were limited to the Mainz–Ludwigshafen–Homburg–Neunkirchen route. In later years, long-distance trains running on the Munich–Oostende route using the Landau–Rohrbach railway , opened in 1875, ran between Saarbrücken and St. Ingbert. In 1884, local services on
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#17327811423443872-647: A tunnel. Due to the strategic importance of the line, the Imperial Government intervened in the matter and chose the third option. Since the Palatinate Railway was not able to finance it fully, the Imperial Government subsidised the project. An approximately 5.7 kilometre long loop was built between Würzbach and St. Ingbert through Rohrbach and put in operation on 7 September 1895. The closing and dismantling of
4048-528: Is a common occasion. The deep Valleys of Rhine and Moselle with an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb ). Summers are hot and moist, while winters are cool. Freezing temperatures are rare and snow usually melts within hours. The mild climate allows palm trees , fig trees , stone pines , oleander shrubs, olive trees , almond trees and other exotic plants to be grown in this area. The forests in this region are home to common pests such as Melolontha Hippocastrani , that cause damage to
4224-491: Is a western state of Germany . It covers 19,846 km (7,663 sq mi) and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are Ludwigshafen am Rhein , Koblenz , Trier , Kaiserslautern , Worms , and Neuwied . It is bordered by North Rhine-Westphalia , Saarland , Baden-Württemberg and Hesse and by France, Luxembourg and Belgium . Rhineland-Palatinate
4400-571: Is identical with the Ludwig Railway between Ludwigshafen and Homburg and it therefore often referred to as the Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn . The remaining sections went into operation between 1867 and 1904. The line was electrified from 1960 to 1964. In its present form, the line has existed since 1969, when Deutsche Bundesbahn moved the Ludwigshafen Hauptbahnhof to its current location. Deutsche Bahn operates
4576-679: Is in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. At Homburg (Saar) , it touches the Saarland and it has three stations in Hesse between Neckarsteinach and Hirschhorn . Four of the seven lines run together on the core Schifferstadt – Ludwigshafen – Mannheim – Heidelberg section. Beyond this main line, the S-Bahn operates over six lines with terminuses in Homburg, Osterburken , Karlsruhe , Germersheim , Bruchsal , Eppingen , Aglasterhausen , Mainz and Bensheim . Services operate on weekdays at intervals of 30 or 60 minutes, except for
4752-635: Is not possible to increase the capacity of the line due to the joint use of the Rhine Valley Railway by local passenger, long-distance passenger and freight trains. The Riedbahn, the Main-Neckar Railway and the Mannheim–Heidelberg line are at their capacity limits due to the high level of long-distance passenger, regional passenger and freight traffic. The connections and cycle times of the S-Bahn must therefore be based on
4928-557: Is responsible for the Homburg–Saarbrücken section. Starting from mid-2010, the section between Ludwigshafen and Limburgerhof received a third track, which went into operation at the end of 2014. The freight track that have existed since 1900 were rebuilt. The equipping of lines with ETCS Level 2 has been reserved for the German Unity Transport Project No. 8 ( Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr. 8 ,
5104-819: Is the most forested state along with Hesse. The state's major rivers are the Rhine, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site Middle Rhine , and the Moselle . Several crater lakes of volcanic origin are in the Eifel , the largest of which is the Laacher See . Climatically, Rhineland-Palatinate can be divided into two areas: The Rhenish Massif with a typically humid continental climate (Dfb). Summers here are usually warm with much precipitation and winters tend to be dry and cold. Snowfall
5280-581: Is the renowned Schloss Wachenheim Group. This company is headquartered in Trier, with operations in several locations in Rhineland-Palatinate and three sites in France (Compagnie Française des Grands Vins (CFGV)). Other renowned sparkling wine producers such as Kupferberg , Deinhard , and Henkell also had their roots in the region, but now belong to companies outside the state as
5456-553: Is why the planners considered Bexbach, with an extension via Neunkirchen and the Sulzbach valley. A suggestion that the railway line run via Zweibrücken and from there along the Schwarzbach via Rodalben , Annweiler and Langenkandel on the Rhine, did not proceed. The eastern terminus was disputed between Speyer , the capital of the Palatinate and the emerging port and trading centre of Rheinschanze. A memorandum supporting
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5632-644: The Deutsche Reichsbahn period, the steam depots of the old Palatine Railway continued to be used. Locomotives of classes 01 , 03 , 44 and 64 were added. In addition, locomotives of classes 58.0 , 75.0 and 75.4 were operated. These steam locomotives operated between Mannheim and Saarbrücken after the Second World War. In the 1950s, class 01 locomotives hauled fast trains from Trier and class 03 locomotives hauled fast trains from Ludwigshafen and Kaiserslautern. Operations of local traffic
5808-783: The Homburg–Zweibrücken railway . Its main purpose was to provide a connection for coal trains from the Saarbrücken area to the South Palatinate Railway ( Südpfalzstrecke ; Landau – Zweibrücken ), which opened in 1875, to avoid the detour via Neunkirchen and Bexbach and a reversal in Homburg station . In this way the route used for transport of coal was shortened and the costs were reduced. The same thing applied to products from industrial towns such as Dillingen and Saarlouis , as well as from neighbouring Lorraine (then German Lothringen ). In addition, this resulted in
5984-464: The Mainz–Ludwigshafen railway . In the planning of mid-1971, the project for a new railway, which was to be built by 1985, was assigned the second highest priority. The Federal Transport Plan ( Bundesverkehrswegeplan ) of 1973 also contained plans for a new line between Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen. It was never built. In 1985 and 1986, a Franco-German working group developed six options for
6160-547: The Maschinenfabrik Emil Keßler and Maffei were acquired, respectively numbered Palatine No. 1 to 8 and 21 and Palatine No. 9 to 20. They bore names like Haardt, Vogesus, Denis and Alwens. Crampton locomotives with the numbers Palatine No. 26 to 63 were acquired in the 1850s. Locomotives of classes Palatine G 1.I and Palatine G 2.II, among others, were acquired for freight operations. Palatine T 1 locomotives were used for local and freight operations. At
6336-656: The Nahe Valley Railway in 1860. After that the trains of the Ludwig Railway ended in Neunkirchen. Long-distance services on the east–west route were not possible in the following years since fast trains on the Ludwigshafen–Neunkirchen route stopped at almost all the stations on the line. Express trains ran between Ludwigshafen and Neustadt on the Basel – Cologne route for the first time in 1860. At
6512-584: The Neustadt–Wissembourg railway and then used the Landau–Rohrbach railway to Hinterweidenthal . Between Ludwigshafen and Neustadt, it stopped at all stations. This service ran until 1976. From the end of the 1950s, DB operated an express train service to Paris over the Alsenz Valley Railway east of Kaiserslautern. At the same time, through cars ran through to Rome. A fast train also ran from Heidelberg to Saarbrücken. At first, there
6688-808: The Opel plant), Homburg (Saar) and at the terminus in Saarbrücken. In the meantime, all freight sheds have been closed. Along the Ludwigshafen–Schifferstadt section, additional freight trains run from BASF to Speyer or Germersheim . Between Weidenthal and Neidenfels, there is a siding called Glatz II , which supplies the Neidenfels paper factory of the same name. To the east of Neidenfels, there used to be another siding called Glatz I . The Homburg–Saarbrücken section has little freight traffic. Goods exchange trains run to St. Ingbert, which has freight facilities. Isolated freight traffic also run over
6864-522: The Palatinate Forest with several tunnels; it would have reduced travel time by another seven minutes at an estimated additional cost of 865 million D-Marks. A third option with a new line between Saarbrücken and Hochspeyer largely parallel to Bundesautobahn 6 with an estimated cost of 1.8 billion D-Marks would have provided a travel time reduction of 18 minutes. These plans were not implemented. The Mannheim–Weidenthal section of
7040-792: The Pennsylvania Dutch , Maryland Palatines , Ohio Rhinelanders , and Missouri Rhinelanders . The state of Rhineland-Palatinate was founded shortly after the Second World War , on 30 August 1946. It was formed mainly from the southern part of the Prussian Rhine Province (the Regierungsbezirke of Koblenz and Trier ), from Rhenish Hesse , from the western part of Nassau and the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate minus
7216-618: The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn . Between Mannheim and Kaiserslautern this results in services every half hour. Hourly Regional-Express services run between Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken and hourly Regionalbahn services run between Homburg and Saarbrücken and over the Saar Railway to Merzig and Trier . Regionalbahn services from Kusel to Kaiserslautern are added in Landstuhl. In the peak hour, two pairs of RE services run on
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7392-570: The Saar Protectorate until the latter was returned to German control in 1957. Rhineland-Palatinate's natural and cultural heritage includes the extensive Palatinate winegrowing region, picturesque landscapes, and many castles and palaces . Rhineland-Palatinate is currently the only federal state in Germany where nuclear weapons are stored extraterritorially under the responsibility and supervision of US forces . Several German-American ethnicities originated from this state, such as
7568-480: The Saarland from joining Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz was named as the state capital in the regulation; the "Mixed Commission" ( Gemischte Kommission ), named as the highest organ of state charged with the administration of the new state and with the preparation of an advisory state assembly, started its work in Mainz. However war damage and destruction meant that Mainz did not have enough administrative buildings, so
7744-499: The Saarland that runs through Ludwigshafen am Rhein , Neustadt an der Weinstraße , Kaiserslautern , Homburg and St. Ingbert It is the most important railway line that runs through the Palatinate . It serves both passenger and freight transport and carries international traffic. The route was largely opened from 1847 to 1849 as the Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn (Palatine Ludwig Railway) between Ludwigshafen and Bexbach . The line
7920-649: The minister president of the new state by the French military government. Adolf Süsterhenn submitted to the Advisory State Assembly a draft constitution, which was passed after several rounds of negotiation on 25 April 1947 in a final vote, with the absolute majority of the CDU voting for and the SPD and KPD voting against. A point of contention involved the draft constitution providing for separate schools based on Christian denomination. On 18 May 1947, 53% of
8096-638: The "Bavarian railway company of the Palatine-Rheinschanze-Bexbach Railway" ( Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft der Pfalz-Rheinschanz-Bexbacher Bahn ) to develop the project. In May 1844, the company was renamed the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company ( Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft ). From March 1845, construction began under the leadership of Paul Denis . Coal from the Bexbach area would reach
8272-520: The "backbone" of the economy in Rhineland-Palatinate. The principal employer is the chemical and plastics processing industry, which is represented by BASF in Ludwigshafen . Boehringer , BioNTech , Joh. A. Benckiser , SGE Deutsche Holding, and Schott Glassworks conclude the top five companies in the state. Rhineland-Palatinate is Germany's leading producer of wine in terms of grape cultivation and wine export. Its capital, Mainz, may be called
8448-522: The 40 original S-Bahn trains (425.2), which had previously been mostly used for regional services in the Rhine-Neckar area. But rolling stock was also acquired from Hanover and North Rhine-Westphalia . In total, 77 vehicles (11x 425.0, 40x 425.2, 6x 425.3 and 20x 425.4) were converted during the first phase. A further 14 vehicles were converted in a second phase to April 2018, being first used on line S 6 to Mainz. The vehicles, which originally had permanently installed steps, received folding steps as part of
8624-404: The Americans to the French. To begin with, the French divided the region provisionally into two "upper presidiums" ( Oberpräsidien ), Rhineland-Hesse-Nassau (for the hitherto Prussian government districts and regions of Koblenz , Trier , and Montabaur ) and Hesse-Palatinate (for the hitherto Bavarian Palatinate and old Hessian-Darmstadt province of Rhenish Hesse ). The formation of the state
8800-426: The Bruchmühlbach-Miesau–Frankenstein section became part of the newly founded Westpfalz-Verkehrsverbund (Western Palatinate transport association, WVV). This became part of the VRN in 2006. The connecting curve at Kirkel to Geistkircher Hof had been closed by 2002. In December 2003, the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn went into operation and the Mannheim–Kaiserslautern section of the line was integrated into it. Construction of
8976-448: The Constitutional Court and the State Archives. In addition, the German Federal Archives and Federal Office of Hydrology were established in Koblenz in 1952. A sense of community developed only very gradually in the "land of the retort", which had been established largely without regard to the historical affiliations of its inhabitants. It was given little chance of survival, especially as it had very few large industrial centres. However,
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#17327811423449152-491: The First World War. At the beginning of the 1950s, a so-called Städteschnellzug ("city express", a supplement-free express train) ran on the Kusel–Heidelberg route between Landstuhl and Mannheim. In 1954, it was downgraded to a semi-fast train ( Eilzug ). It was discontinued in 1979. The Bundenthaler , which had started in Neustadt before the Second World War, was reactivated in 1951 and now departed from Ludwigshafen and ran to Neustadt, where it reversed and ran to Landau over
9328-428: The Kaiserslautern–Homburg and St. Ingbert–Saarbrücken sections at this time. The Ludwigshafen–St. Ingbert section of line, together with the other railways within the Palatinate, were absorbed into the Royal Bavarian State Railways ( Königlich Bayerische Staatseisenbahnen ) on 1 January 1909. In 1914, there were plans to upgrade the whole main line. The outbreak of the First World War prevented this. At
9504-508: The Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway. Subsequently, there was a limited upgrade. In the middle of 1993, an expert report was commissioned by the State of Rhineland-Palatinate and the Federal Ministry of Transport, which presented four different options for new and upgraded lines on the Hochspeyer–Neustadt section. The travel time improvements to be achieved were estimated to be between 1.43 minutes for selective improvements with an estimated cost of 10 million D-Marks and up to eight minutes with
9680-467: The Mannheim–Saarbrücken route, which stop at the IC stations and in Landstuhl and St. Ingbert. As of November 2000, the Intercity-Express services were operated with tilting trains. At the timetable change in May 2001, the hourly service was thinned out by DB and only operated hourly in the main traffic direction during the peak (in the morning to Mannheim, in the evening to Saarbrücken). Some IR services were replaced by RE services. IC services replaced
9856-514: The Neunkirchen–Worms route ran between Homburg and Ludwigshafen. After completion of the shortest possible route from Homburg to Saarbrücken via Limbach and Kirkel, the new route was used by through traffic. The number of passenger trains rose significantly. Trains from Neunkirchen only ran as far as Kaiserslautern. Fast trains on the Saarbrücken–St. Ingbert–Rohrbach section ran to Landau and beyond. The railway to Wörth , which branched off in Schifferstadt, including its extension to Strasbourg ,
10032-462: The Neustadt–Hochspeyer section of the line and over the Alsenz Valley Railway , which had been completed the year before. In 1875, an express train operated on the Ludwigshafe–Neustadt–Metz–Paris route. Since the Ludwigshafen–Mannheim section opened in 1867, primarily for freight traffic, there were only shuttle services between the two stations. The opening of the line from St. Ingbert to Saarbrücken via Schwarzenacker and Bierbach in 1879, created
10208-473: The Palatinate, the section of the line west of Hauptstuhl was closed to passenger traffic on 1 December 1918; three days later, however, it was reopened to passenger traffic. Rail operations across the Rhine to Mannheim was blockaded from 6 December. Freight traffic to Baden was permitted again from May of the following year and passenger trains ran again between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen from 10 August. The Homburg–Saarbrücken section became part of
10384-489: The Palatine Ludwig Railway Company had been part of since 1870, benefitted from the adoption of an interest rate guarantee law on 28 April 1872. Nevertheless, the talks with Saarbrücken were difficult as the approach to the very busy St. Johann-Saarbrücken station and the allocation of railway operations caused problems. In 1877, a treaty that guaranteed the construction of the line was concluded. This meant that St. Ingbert station had to be completely rebuilt. It received
10560-420: The Palatine Northern Railway. In 1996, VRN tickets could be used as far as Kaiserslautern. From 1993 to 1999, the number of passengers on the Weidenthal–Neustadt section rose from 1500 to 3270 per day. Neidenfels station went into operation between Lambrecht and Weidenthal in 1998. In May of the same year, the Federal Government and Deutsche Bahn signed a financing agreement worth 351.4 million DM to upgrade
10736-452: The Prussian Rhine Province ), the parts of the Province of Rhenish Hesse ( Rheinhessen ) west of the River Rhine and belonged to the People's State of Hesse ( Volksstaat Hessen ), parts of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau ( Montabaur ), and the former Oldenburg region around Birkenfeld ( Principality of Birkenfeld ). On 10 July 1945, the occupation authority on the soil of the present-day Rhineland-Palatinate transferred from
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#173278114234410912-436: The Reichsbahn assigned the timetable number of 279d. With the renewed separation of the area now called Saarland, in which the Eichelscheid–Saarbrücken section is found, only a few trains crossed over the border between Bruchmühlbach and Eichelscheid. They served only the workers employed in the Saarland. Regional services between Homburg and Saarbrücken ran both via Limbach and Kirkel and via Schwarzenacker and Bierbach, as in
11088-419: The Rhine bridge on 25 February. However, there were no festivities. The Rhine bridge was initially single track until the second track opened on 10 August 1867. The railway ran along the southern side of the bridge and the road along the northern side. Mannheim received a new station with the new line in 1876. As early as the end of the 1860s, local committees were involved in the establishment of
11264-421: The Rhine, there were calls for the construction of a line between Ludwigshafen and Mannheim in Baden from the end of the 1850s. In addition, there were plans for a Baden Odenwald Railway between Heidelberg and Würzburg , which was completed in 1866. In combination with this, a rail link across the Rhine would connect the Ludwig Railway with Bavarian Lower Franconia without crossing Württemberg . Added to this
11440-448: The Rhine-Neckar area became the last large densely populated area in Germany with an S-Bahn system—planning had lasted decades and involved the cooperation of the states of Baden-Württemberg , Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate . Following European-wide advertising for tenders, operation for 12 years from 2002 until 2015 was awarded to DB Regio . Beginning in 2001, the lines and stations were prepared for S-Bahn operations. €260 million
11616-419: The S7 and S8, which currently have only a few services. The lines are shared with the other passenger and freight traffic. All lines have a 60-minute basic frequency. As a result of largely overlapping alignments in the core area services run at half-hourly frequency. On the core line between Schifferstadt and Heidelberg four lines run, each at hourly intervals, but due to problems of coordination may not provide
11792-492: The Scheidt direction towards Brebach on the line to Saargemünd (the official name of Sarreguemines at the time) was commissioned on 29 July 1905. A flying junction was opened in 1907 on the Schifferstadt – Ludwigshafen section of the line between the stations of Mutterstadt and Schifferstadt , which had been rebuilt with four tracks, starting in 1899. This avoided the delays that trains had previously experienced in Schifferstadt. Railway telephones were installed on
11968-436: The Schwetzingen-Hirschacker station began on 29 March 2021 and was completed in time for the timetable change in December 2022. The station has been in operation since then. At the end of July 2021, the new passenger underpass was inserted, which connects platforms 1 and 2. On the Hessian side, the Riedbahn between Mannheim and Groß-Rohrheim was also integrated into the network of the Rhine Neckar S-Bahn as line S 9. The line
12144-454: The beginning of 2006. Line S 6 replaced the previous Regionalbahn RB 44 service. In addition to the conversion of existing stations to make them compatible with S-Bahn operations, the new stations were opened in Dienheim and Frankenthal Süd at the timetable change on 14 June 2015. Construction began in 2012 and 2013 at Mainz Römisches Theater , Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim , Mettenheim and Bodenheim , and work at another ten stations
12320-437: The beginning of 2020 that the designation “S 9” would be used instead. This means that the entire route between Karlsruhe and Biblis will have a uniform line number (like RB 2 before it). New S-Bahn stations were opened in Hirschacker and Schwetzingen Nord in 2021 and Schwetzingen Nord station is expected to be opened by the end of 2025, but the proposed Graben-Neudorf Süd station is not currently considered compatible with
12496-502: The beginning of the 20th century, locomotives of classes P 2.I, P 2.II , P 3 , P 4 and P 5 were used to haul long-distance trains, some of them also local trains. Local traffic was especially hauled by locomotives of P 1.I, P 1.II, P 1.III and T 1 classes. Freight traffic was hauled by G 2.I, G 2.II, G 4.I, G 4.II and G 5 class locomotives. Class T 3 locomotives hauled traffic between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. In
12672-585: The beginning of the war, numerous military trains ran over the line from 9 to 16 August. 40 trains ran from Mannheim on a daily basis, 20 of them continued to Saarbrücken and the rest ran onto the Maximilian Railway in Neustadt. Between Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken, 20 trains per day came from Worms . Some trains also reached Saarbrücken from the Glan Valley. 40 trains
12848-617: The bridge over the Rhine to slow the Allied advance. After the Western Front reached the Palatinate in March 1945, the US Army resumed operations on the section of the line to the west of the Rhine to procure supplies. The first trains reached Ludwigshafen from Pirmasens via Landau and Neustadt on 25 March. From the end of March onwards, a single-track pile bridge was built for railway traffic between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen and
13024-799: The capital of the German wine industry, being the home of the German Wine Institute, the German Wine Fund in the Haus des Deutschen Weines (House of German Wine), and the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) Wine Bourse, which brings together the top winemakers of Germany and the wine merchants of the world. Of 13 wine regions producing quality wine in Germany, six ( Rheinhessen , Pfalz , Mosel , Nahe , Mittelrhein , and Ahr ) are located in Rhineland-Palatinate, with 65 to 70% of
13200-497: The center of Jewish life during medieval times. The Takkanot Shum ( Hebrew : תקנות שו"ם ), or Enactments of ShU"M were a set of decrees formulated and agreed upon over a period of decades by their Jewish community leaders. Today, there are approximately 20,000 Jews (0.5% of the population) living in the state. The gross domestic product (GDP) of the state was 147.0 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 4.4% of German economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power
13376-585: The completion of the lift and the staircase roofing in Neulußheim was delayed until December 2019. Due to the special location and construction of the station, large-scale work could only be carried out with a blockade of the whole station. Two compact stations were built in Mannheim-Rheinau and Mannheim-Neckarau, which allow a quick and barrier-free change to the trams and buses of the RNV . This work
13552-475: The construction of a new line at a cost of 1.39 billion D-Marks. During the German rail reform, the line became the property of Deutsche Bahn on 1 January 1994. From 1995 onwards, Neustadt (Weinstr) Böbig halt, which is located in the eastern area of Neustadt Hauptbahnhof , could be served by trains on the Ludwigshafen–Neustadt line, although previously it had only been served by trains on
13728-528: The contracting authorities decided to postpone the transfer of railway operations until December 2020, as it could already be foreseen—even before the end of negotiations on the contract—that the required new rolling stock would otherwise not be available on time. On 20 June 2017, after none of the unsuccessful bidders had filed a petition for review, DB Regio was awarded the contract. The included lines (S5, S6, S8, S9) will be operated by new Siemens Mireo rolling stock. A corresponding contract for 57 three-part sets
13904-707: The control of the Franks , to the control of the Holy Roman Empire , and saw fighting during the First and Second World Wars. The present state of Rhineland-Palatinate formed part of the French Zone of Occupation (1945–1949) after the Second World War. It comprised the former Bavarian Palatinate, the Regierungsbezirke ("government districts") of Koblenz and Trier (which formed the southern part of
14080-509: The costs on condition that the line was linked to the Saarbrücken–Sarreguemines railway . The Franco-Prussian War , however, prevented the conclusion of a treaty. After the end of the war, the construction of a main railway from Bruchsal via Germersheim , Landau and Zweibrücken to St. Ingbert was planned, which was finally built in the period from 1872 to 1877. The Palatinate Railway ( Pfälzische Eisenbahnen ), which
14256-409: The county of Saarpfalz . The Joint German-Luxembourg Sovereign Region ( Gemeinschaftliches deutsch-luxemburgisches Hoheitsgebiet ) is the only unincorporated area of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. This condominium is formed by the rivers Moselle , Sauer , and Our , where they run along the border between Luxembourg and Rhineland-Palatinate or the Saarland. The region has a vast history, from
14432-621: The development of the infrastructure of the Paris – Saarbrücken – Ludwigshafen corridor (later extended to Frankfurt) with ERTMS and ETCS. Clearing for speeds above 160 km/h required train protection with ETCS Level 2 and should have been implemented by the end of 2008, but was later postponed. The then plans proposed the remote control of the route from the Deutsche Bahn operations centre in Karlsruhe. The contract for equipping
14608-520: The direct connection from Würzbach to St. Ingbert followed and all trains ran on the new line between Hassel and Rohrbach. Already during the planning of the Würzbach Railway both Homburg and St. Ingbert had originally promoted a connection by the shortest route, which was, however, opposed by the communities along the Blies and the Würzbach. For strategic reasons, the decision was made to build
14784-546: The disabled and made barrier-free. The only exception was the halt of Bruchsal Am Mantel , which had no ramps and lifts for part of 2012. The Mainz–Ludwigshafen railway was integrated into the route of the new line S 6 at the minor timetable change on 10 June 2018. Early operations of S-Bahn trains using adapted class 425 stock were implemented on the Mainz–Worms–Frankenthal–Ludwigshafen am Rhein–Mannheim(–Weinheim–Bensheim) Regionalbahn route from
14960-591: The east of the Rhine on the Mannheim– Schwetzingen – Hockenheim – Waghäusel –Graben-Neudorf–Karlsruhe route (the Rhine Railway ) has been operated as the S 9 line, connecting the Rhine Neckar and Karlsruhe S-Bahn networks, since December 2020. This line was initially to be referred to as “S 8”. Since there is already a line with this designation at Karlsruhe Hauptbahnhof, it was announced at
15136-631: The east–west direction. The outbreak of the Second World War initially had no effect on passenger services. In 1941, an express train ran from Berlin via Paris to Madrid. In 1944, there were services for soldiers on leave using the main line from Mannheim to Saarbrücken on the Stuttgart–Saarbrücken, Frankfurt–Paris, Stuttgart–Calais and Vienna–Metz routes. In the Second World War, with few exceptions, there were no direct local services from Ludwigshafen to Saarbrücken. Shuttle services operated between Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof and Einsiedlerhof, to which
15312-654: The electorate adopted the Constitution for Rhineland-Palatinate in a referendum . While the Catholic north and west of the new state adopted the constitution by a majority, the majority in Rhenish Hesse and the Palatinate voted against it. On the same date the first elections took place for the state parliament, the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate . The inaugural assembly of parliament took place on 4 June 1947 in
15488-587: The establishment of numerous military bases, both Allied and Bundeswehr , helped to some extent to boost the economy. In 1956, under Article 29 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany , petitions were made in the regions of Koblenz, Trier, Montabaur, Rhenish Hesse, and Palatinate for their separation from the state and incorporation into the respective states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg. All petitions for
15664-560: The extent that they did not already meet this requirement, all stations on the Heidelberg–Karlsruhe route were extended to 140 m (150 yd) of platform length during the first expansion phase in order to enable S-Bahn trains to stop in double sets. In addition, the further measures at the stations on the Heidelberg–Bruchsal section of the line are still considered to be part of the first expansion stage. At six stations,
15840-678: The few remaining train paths on the routes, especially since the longed-for relief that would be provided by the planned Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed railway has receded into the future. According to the tenders, the originally planned "around the corner" connection of the two branches to Biblis and Bensheim in Mannheim was rejected as well as the connection from Mainz via Mannheim to Eppingen and Aglasterhausen. Previously, considerations of operating this service between Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof as an express line without intervening stops had already been rejected. Instead,
16016-551: The final configuration of the track or the future position of the platforms. The first stage was completed at the end of 2006 with the extension from Homburg to Kaiserslautern and the Mannheim- Speyer route to Germersheim . The Speyer route required electrification south of Schifferstadt and modification of three stations. A new station is under construction at Speyer Süd, but its opening has been delayed. A further extension from Germersheim to Graben-Neudorf to Bruchsal
16192-627: The foliage and soil. The Rhenish Massif forms roughly the northern half of the state, including the regions Eifel, Moselle Valley , Hunsrück , Westerwald , and parts of the Taunus . The Palatinate forms the biggest part of the southern half along with Rhenish Hesse . The Nahe Valley separates both parts. Rhineland-Palatinate is divided into 24 districts ( Landkreise ), 12 independent cities ( Kreisfreie Städte ). Listing with Vehicle registration plates of Germany Listing with Vehicle registration plates of Germany The following table shows
16368-513: The former Bavarian - Prussian national border and the interests of the towns along the Blies and the Würzbach in the shortest possible connection between Homburg and Saarbrücken. The Rhine , which formed the land border between Baden and Bavaria, had to be crossed between Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. For these reasons the line was completed in its present form only in 1904, with the exception of
16544-420: The former Prussian Eisenbahndirektion ( railway division ) of Saarbrücken. In this context, the Homburg (Saar) West customs station ( Zollbahnhof Homburg (Saar) West ), which handled freight traffic, was built. Customs controls for passenger traffic were handled in the stations of Homburg and Eichelscheid. The newly founded Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) managed the remaining part of the line and integrated it into
16720-475: The freight train tracks had to be relaid closer to the B 36 first. Track 12 was already in operation at the end of 2016, while track 11 was completed in August 2017. Since track 12 was already operating while the passenger underpass at the northern end of the platform had not been completed, a temporary solution had to be put in place by July 2017. Access to track 12 was therefore via track 10a and from there over
16896-535: The growing conditions improve in Rhineland-Palatinate. The state supports the wine industry by providing a comprehensive consultancy and education program in the service supply centers (German: DLR ) of the land. The Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding is fully financed by the state. Many well-known new varieties such as Morio-Muskat , Bacchus , Optima , and Regent have been created in these institutes. The worldwide leader in sparkling wine production, producing 224,4 million bottles in 2017/18,
17072-577: The headquarters of the state government and parliament was provisionally established in Koblenz . On 22 November 1946, the constituent meeting of the Advisory State Assembly ( Beratende Landesversammlung ) took place there, and a draft constitution was drawn up. Previously, local elections had been held. Wilhelm Boden was (after a short term of office as the Oberregierungspräsident of Rhineland-Hesse-Nassau) nominated on 2 December as
17248-623: The heavier locomotives. For this reason, a new railway bridge was built immediately adjacent to the 1867 bridge; it was opened in 1932. From 1933, the Communist resistance to Nazism used the Homburg (Saar) West customs station in particular for their purposes. With the reabsorption of the Saar area into the German Reich in 1935, the Reichsbahn was responsible for the whole route and the customs controls were removed. The Saareisenbahn
17424-690: The industrial centres in the south of Germany and Switzerland via Rheinschanze. The line was named after the Bavarian King Ludwig ;I and the town of Ludwigshafen am Rhein, which was then developing from Rheinschanze. The opening of the Ludwigshafenn–Neustadt section took place on 11 June 1847, the Homburg–Kaiserslautern section followed on 2 July 1848 and the Kaiserslautern–Frankenstein section
17600-727: The installation of about 1180 sets of overhead masts. On 10 October 2009, the overhead line was switched on. Since December 2009, the new line S 5 has operated from Heidelberg Hbf on the Neckar Valley Railway and the Elsenz Valley Railway to Sinsheim or every hour on the Steinsfurt–Eppingen railway to Eppingen . Trains only occasionally stopped at the two Heidelberg halts of Schlierbach/Ziegelhausen and Orthopädie for scheduling reasons until December 2016 and only hourly after that. Line S 51
17776-419: The interests of Speyer argued that it was an old trading town, whereas Rheinschanze was just a military base that would merely serve the transfer of goods. These endeavours were unsuccessful, as the part of the up-and-coming Rhine-Neckar Region to the east of the Rhine, especially Mannheim , was the focus of attention and the export of coal to the area beyond the Rhine was considered more important. Proposals for
17952-701: The large city hall at Koblenz . Wilhelm Boden was elected the first minister-president of Rhineland-Palatinate. Just one month later, Peter Altmeier succeeded him. The constitutional bodies – the Government ( Landesregierung ), the Parliament ( Landtag ) and the Constitutional Court ( Verfassungsgerichtshof ) – established their provisional seat in Koblenz. In the following period, Koblenz and Mainz each emphasized their suitability as
18128-497: The last IR services from 14 December 2002 and long-distance services were further reduced. An upgrade of the route took place from June 2007 with ICE trains running on the Frankfurt am Main – Paris route. The stops in Neustadt and Homburg dropped. Due to the low traveling speed (only about 100 km/h between Mannheim and Saarbrücken), it is not certain that these high-speed trains will continue to run over this route in
18304-483: The line became a major route for freight traffic between France and Germany. The line from Mannheim to Saarbrücken is one of the busiest freight traffic routes in Germany. Trains carrying combined transport within the European Union are dominated by containers , swap bodies , semi-trailers and other goods at high freight rates. Freight trains run between Mannheim and Homburg, continuing to Neunkirchen or along
18480-515: The line between Mannheim and Saarbrücken. This work was expected to be completed by 2004. The first stage saw an upgrade for tilting trains with a top speed of 160 km/h. The tracks on the St. Ingbert – Kirkel and Neustadt an der Weinstraße – Ludwigshafen sections are now ready for a line speed of 200 kilometres per hour. A bypass was built, which has allowed long-distance passenger and freight trains to bypass Schifferstadt since 2003. In 2000
18656-581: The line name "S 8" since December 2022. In order to increase the capacity at Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and to avoid the problems caused by two trains stopping simultaneously at each end of the same platform track on platform tracks 7, 9 and 10, the new platform F, which faces tracks 11 and 12, was built from September 2014. This was built exclusively for local traffic. The future S-Bahn line S 8 (Mannheim–Schwetzingen–Waghäusel–Karlsruhe) will use it. It will also be used by RE 1 (Koblenz–Trier–Saarbrücken–Mannheim) and RE 14 (Mainz–Mannheim). In preparation,
18832-549: The line to Mainz and amounts to six million train-kilometres annually. The transfer of operations for a term of 15 years would take place at the end of 2020 and the line to Mainz would follow at the end of 2021. As with the tendering of operations of the Stuttgart RE network, this contract was based on an early 2015 law on the contracting of the provision of railway operations in Baden-Württemberg. In December 2016,
19008-591: The line to the Kaiserslautern Military Community . The respective railway administrators always operated powerful locomotives on this line. In the early days, the workshops, later locomotive depots ( Bahnbetriebswerke ), were located in Kaiserslautern , Ludwigshafen and Neustadt . Others were located in Homburg , Mannheim and Saarbrücken . In the first years after the opening of the former Ludwig Railway, locomotives of
19184-466: The line was again used by numerous military transports; as early as 1938 deportations to Dachau had taken place in Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen. From 1943 onwards the line was regularly exposed to bombardment, initially the railway lines in Saarbrücken and Ludwigshafen were affected. This was followed by the bombing of Kaiserslautern and Homburg in 1944 and St. Ingbert towards the end of
19360-660: The line was integrated in the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhien-Neckar transport association, VRN), founded in 1989. From 12 to 18 September 1990, the Operation Steel Box took place between Hauptstuhl and Ludwigshafen. The transport ministers of Germany and France agreed on 22 May 1992 to build the Paris–Ostfrankreich–Süddeutschland (Paris–East France–South Germany, POS) high-speed railway, including
19536-407: The line with ETCS was awarded to Ansaldo in December 2007. Around €50 million was spent on the upgrade in 2007. The route through the Palatinate Forest with its numerous tunnels between Neustadt an der Weinstraße and Kaiserslautern remained structurally unchanged contrary to the original plans. The Saarländischer Verkehrsverbund (Saarländ Transport Association, SaarVV) was founded in 2005; it
19712-531: The location of the bridge. This required the closure of the original Mannheim station, which was opened in 1840 at the current Tattersall tram stop north of the current Hauptbahnhof as the western terminus of the Baden main line . There was no consensus on this approach, so that further planning could only proceed at the beginning of 1864. The Ludwigshafen–Mannheim train ferry provided a provisional service from 1863. The ferry service quickly reached its limits, so there
19888-620: The long term. A route via Strasbourg and Karlsruhe will be considered as soon as the TGV line between Metz and Strasbourg is completed. Currently ICE and Intercity services run on the route from Saarbrücken to Frankfurt , Dresden , Stuttgart and Salzburg , stopping at Homburg, Landstuhl, Kaiserslautern and Neustadt (not all IC and ICE services stop at all the mentioned stations). Since 9 December 2007, ICE 3 services have alternated with TGV services from Frankfurt to Paris , which stop between Mannheim and Saarbrücken only in Kaiserslautern; as
20064-643: The newly created Territory of the Saar Basin ( Saarbeckengebiet ) on 10 March 1920, which was founded at the initiative of the victorious powers under the Treaty of Versailles with a duration of 15 years under League of Nations control. During this period it was within the French customs territory. Consequently, the Sarr Railway ( Saareisenbahn ) was administered by the Territory, which consisted of
20240-530: The newly founded Reichsbahn division ( Reichsbahndirektion ) of Ludwigshafen two years later. As early as 1920, DR put into operation the Einsiedlerhof marshalling yard , which replaced Kaiserslautern yard. The two main railway tracks immediately west of Kaiserslautern were rerouted directly north of the marshalling yard because of the limited space available. On 7 March 1923, the so-called Regiebetrieb (military operation) commenced, which meant that
20416-482: The north–south direction within the Palatinate , which had belonged to Bavaria since 1816, was set aside for an east–west line, which was mainly promoted by Palatine entrepreneurs as facilitating the transport of Saar coal to the Rhine. The planners revised their initial considerations of St. Ingbert as the western terminus, under pressure from Prussia, which wanted to have the long-term connection to Saarbrücken passing as far as possible over its own territory. That
20592-479: The older Schwarzenacker– Bierbach route. In 1920, some trains running between Saarbrücken and Homburg continued over the Glan Valley Railway to Bad Münster am Stein or Kusel . The annexation of the Saar area by Germany in 1935 caused an upsurge in local traffic, since the train trips no longer had to be broken in Homburg. From the 1930s onwards, trains once again ran on the Berlin–Neunkirchen route in
20768-400: The operating concept prescribed by the tender stipulates that the main line will be connected from Mainz via Worms and Mannheim to Bensheim, which was implemented in 2018. The Riedbahn line from Gross-Rohrheim, on the other hand, would end at Mannheim Hauptbahnhof, although it has now operates between Gross-Rohrheim, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Rolling stock based on the second series of class 425
20944-620: The operations. Until the early 1990s, the stations between Ludwigshafen and Neustadt, as well as between Landstuhl and Bruchmühlbach-Miesau, were of great importance for the transport of turnips. In 1990, the decline in freight traffic led to the dismantling of the Einsiedlerhof marshalling yard. Other marshalling yards, which were the starting point for Nahgüterzug ("local goods train") traffic, were located in Saarbrücken, Homburg, Neustadt and Ludwigshafen. There are large freight yards in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Kaiserslautern (mainly for
21120-484: The option open of annexing further areas west of the Rhine after the Saarland was turned into a protectorate . When the Americans and British, however had led the way with the establishment of German states, the French came under increasing pressure and eventually followed their example by setting up the states of Baden , Württemberg-Hohenzollern, and Rhineland-Palatinate. However the French military government forbade
21296-556: The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War , train traffic came to a standstill on 23 July 1870. On 19 August, services on the Palatine railways resumed with restrictions; express trains were allowed to run only if no military trains occupied the line. Local services had to operate at intervals that allowed military services to run freely. From mid-1872 onwards, some express trains between Cologne and Basel ran over
21472-497: The platforms were extended to 210 m (230 yd) in order to be able to use S-Bahn trains in triple sets due to the expected traffic volume. On 15 December 2019, the new Stettfeld-Weiher station was also put into operation. Shortly after the start of operation, a second stage of expansion was planned for the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn to integrate previously unserved cities and regions into the S-Bahn network. However,
21648-524: The present day. Rhineland-Palatinate shares international borders with France ( Grand Est ), Luxembourg ( Clervaux , Diekirch , Echternach , Grevenmacher , Remich , and Vianden ), and Belgium ( Wallonia ). Within Germany, its neighbours are Baden-Württemberg , Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia , and the Saarland . It is the ninth-largest state by area. Rhineland-Palatinate is part of the SaarLorLux euregion. With 42% of its area covered by forests, it
21824-399: The prevailing priorities. For example, there was no continuous passenger train from Ludwigshafen to Saarbrücken. Local services were largely restricted to the Homburg–Kaiserslautern and Kaiserslautern–Neustadt sections, with some continuing to Ludwigshafen. Between Homburg and Saarbrücken, regional trains operated both via the route through Limbach and Kirkel that had existed since 1904 and over
22000-399: The production of wine grapes in Germany having their origin within the state. About 13,000 wine producers generate 80 to 90% of the German wine export. The total estimated production from the six Rhineland-Palatinate regions was nearly 7 million hectoliters in 2018. Traditional grape varieties and a wide range of varieties developed during the last 125 years are characteristic for
22176-413: The rail corridor between Berlin and Nuremberg ) and freight corridor A ( Duisburg – Basel ). The planning is being revised (as of 2014). Some upgrading work is ongoing on the line and more sections of the line are being upgraded in order to have their maximum speed increased from 100 km/h or 160 km/h to 200 km/h. The forecasted completion date is end of 2019. Since the Ludwig Railway
22352-481: The railway was operated by the French military until the beginning of 1924. In this context, operations were blockaded from 30 May to 7 June. In 1926, a two-track freight railway was established between Kaiserslautern and the Einsiedlerhof marshalling yard. It included several halts, which were predominantly used for operational purposes. It was clear that the Rhine Bridge was no longer able to cope with
22528-581: The rebuild. The seats in second class received new upholstery with leather headrests. In the first class, which consists of 12 seats at the end of car 1, the seats are completely covered with real leather. Poles were used to protect the windows in the multipurpose areas. In addition, a new passenger information system was installed. 19-inch screens have been installed in the vehicles to provide up-to-date travel information and connection options. Surveillance cameras and USB charging points have been installed in all vehicles. All ticket machines have been removed from
22704-448: The region. Classical white varieties are cultivated at 63,683 hectares (157,360 acres). These comprise the famous Rieslings 14,446 hectares (35,700 acres), Müller-Thurgau (8,663 hectares (21,410 acres)), Silvaner (3,701 hectares (9,150 acres)), and Kerner (3,399 hectares (8,400 acres)). The share of red varieties grew constantly during the last decades and amounts to 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres). Dornfelder ,
22880-540: The relocation of the Ludwigshafen Hauptbahnhof in 1969. This is reflected in the chainage . The initial line was gradually opened from 1847 to 1849 as the Palatine Ludwig Railway ( Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn ) between Ludwigshafen and Bexbach. With the exception of the western Homburg–Bexbach section, it is now part of the Mannheim–Saarbrücken main line. The initial planning of a railway line in
23056-456: The route of the LGV Est and the connecting routes from Germany. It examined various options for new and upgraded lines between Saarbrücken and Ludwigshafen. The only option involving an upgrade of the existing line, estimated to cost 415 million Deutsche Marks , would have enabled a travel time reduction of 21 minutes. A second option provided an additional section of new line through
23232-482: The route under timetable number 670. Some sections of the line are cleared for speeds of 200 kilometres per hour for the ICE and TGV services between Paris , Kaiserslautern, Mannheim and Frankfurt . The Mannheim–Homburg section was integrated in the network of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn in two stages in 2003 and 2006. Historically, the trunk line from Mannheim to Saarbrücken is a combination of different lines, due to
23408-682: The same time, there were the first IC services on the Saarbrücken–Dresden route and EuroCity services between Paris and Frankfurt. Both long-haul routes also operated at two-hour intervals. One year later, IC trains replaced all D-Züg services. The Mannheim–Homburg section has been used since the beginning by part of lines S1 ( Homburg – Kaiserslautern – Neustadt – Schifferstadt – Ludwigshafen – Mannheim – Heidelberg – Neckargemünd – Eberbach – Mosbach – Osterburken ) and S2 (same route, but only from Kaiserslautern and only to Mosbach) of
23584-557: The schedule laid down in the Realisierungsprogramm Rhein-Neckar-Takt 2010 (implementation program for the 2010 Rhine-Neckar clock-face timetable), which provided for further expansion to Homburg, Bruchsal, Karlsruhe, Eppingen , Darmstadt and Worms , between 2008 and 2010, was rejected again in 2006. The reasons for this were the reduction of funds made available under the federal Rail Regionalisation Act ( Regionalisierungsgesetz ) in accordance with
23760-676: The sets will not be Deutsche Bahn red, but light gray with dark grey sections in the door areas and a large S-Bahn logo. The yellow doors should stand out from the dark grey background. The following electric multiple units have city sponsorships: Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( / ˌ r aɪ n l æ n d p ə ˈ l æ t ɪ n ɪ t , - l ə n d -/ RYNE -land pə- LAT -in-it, -lənd- , US also /- ɪ n eɪ t / -in-ayt ; German: Rheinland-Pfalz [ˈʁaɪnlant ˈpfalts] ; Luxembourgish : Rheinland-Pfalz [ˈʀɑɪnlɑm ˈpfɑlts] ; Palatine German : Rhoilond-Palz )
23936-599: The so-called " Koch - Steinbrück paper" as well as the need to finance infrastructure measures required for capacity increases in the north of the region, in particular the Frankfurt–Mannheim high-speed railway . In November 2000, the Verkehrsforum 2000 proposed an extension to Eppingen for the first time. In August 2002, a " standardised assessment " for the electrification of all three routes to Aglasterhausen , Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld and Eppingen showed
24112-614: The state capital in a public debate. From the beginning, Minister-President Altmeier pressed for Mainz as the capital because he knew that the south of the country, especially the Palatinate, would not accept Koblenz, which was far to the north and formerly Prussian. On 16 May 1950, the Landtag decided to relocate itself and the Landesregierung from Koblenz to Mainz. After the government and parliament moved to Mainz, many state authorities and courts remained in Koblenz, including
24288-633: The ten largest cities of Rhineland-Palatinate: In 2018, 40.3% of the population of the state adhered to the Roman Catholic Church and 26.8% to the Protestant Church in Germany ; 32.9% of the population was irreligious or adheres to other religions. Muslims made up 5.0% of the total. The league of ShUM-cities in the later Rhineland-Palatinate comprised the Jewish communities of Mainz, Speyer , and Worms , which became
24464-499: The tender was covered by a transitional concession. The traffic continues to be operated with Class 425 multiple units upgraded for the purpose. In order to increase seating capacity, the rolling stock fleet is being expanded from 40 to 77 carriages, reaching 64 carriages in 2018 for the time being, achieved by adding six 425.3 sets acquired from Hannover . The package also includes push-pull trains to run to BASF from December 2017 and an improved service to Homburg from 2019. A quarter of
24640-626: The territory of Saarland , the rail network of which had its own administration from 1947, initially called the Saarländische Eisenbahnen (Saarland railways, SEB) and, from 1951, the Eisenbahnen des Saarlandes (Railways of the Saarland, EdS). Homburg became a customs station again. From 1949, Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) administered the section east of Homburg and integrated it into the Bundesbahn division of Mainz, which
24816-482: The timetable. The stations on the southern section between Graben-Neudorf and Karlsruhe were upgraded starting in 2011 and 2014 respectively. In the northern part of the line, the Neulußheim and Hockenheim stations already had the required platform lengths and heights, so only lifts had to be retrofitted. Work in Hockenheim and Schwetzingen was completed in March and July 2018 respectively. The platforms were rebuilt in Wiesental, Waghäusel and Oftersheim . However,
24992-408: The trains would be occupied by train attendants; in Rhineland-Palatinate this applies to all trains after 7 PM and half before. Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (Baden-Württemberg local transport company; NVBW) advertised lot 2, network 6b, by Europe-wide tender at the end of September 2015 after several delays. Originally, the tender was scheduled for early 2014. It includes operations on
25168-430: The upgrade of five Hessian stations, Lampertheim , Bürstadt , Bobstadt, Biblis and Groß Rohrheim. In addition, affected municipalities participated through the Zweckverband Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar and providied €8.2 m, while the federal government provided €11 m. Construction began on 7 July 2016 with a groundbreaking ceremony at Biblis station . Completion was planned by the end of 2017. The work in Bobstadt
25344-430: The vehicles. For Lot 2, 57 three-part Siemens Mireo sets were ordered in August 2017. These will be used from December 2020 on the new S-Bahn lines. The 70-meter-long sets have 200 seats, 26 bicycle parking spaces and free Wi-Fi for passengers. An integrated system to bridge gaps should allow people with reduced mobility to make a stepless entry and exit to 76 cm-high platforms without assistance. The exterior finish of
25520-448: The war on the French side for the Saarland section, in order to link it more closely to France. Electric locomotives could operate over the Saarbrücken–Homburg section from 8 March 1960 and on the Homburg–Kaiserslautern section from 18 May 1961. The electrification of the remaining section had been delayed mainly because of the numerous tunnels between Kaiserslautern and Neustadt that had to be enlarged. For this reason, this section
25696-400: The whole route of the historic Ludwig Railway. While trains used to transport coal from the Saar basin to the Rhine, the freight flow is now in the opposite direction. There are more than 120 freight trains every day on the line. The regional freight traffic along the line declined after the Second World War. Already in the 1980s, Übergabegüterzug ("goods exchange train") traffic dominated
25872-405: The year. As a result, railway installations were considerably affected. The entrance building of Kaiserslautern Hauptbahnhof was, for example, almost completely destroyed on 28 September and 18 December. The same was true for Hauptbahnhof Homburg . Lambrecht (Pfalz) station was destroyed by fire in March 1945 during combat operations. On 20 March 1945, the Wehrmacht destroyed
26048-432: Was 33,100 euros or 110% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 102% of the EU average. Rhineland-Palatinate leads all German states with an export rate around 50%. Important sectors are the winegrowing , chemical , pharmaceutical , and auto parts industries . "Distinctive regional industries" includes gemstones , ceramics and glass, and leather. Small and medium enterprises are considered
26224-402: Was assigned all railway lines within the newly created state of Rhineland-Palatinate . At the turn of the year in 1954/1955, the DB restored the Rhine crossing to its condition in 1932. With the integration of Saarland into the Federal Republic of Germany , it became responsible for the whole line; the Bundesbahn division of Saarbrücken replaced the EdS. The Germersheim Rhine Bridge , which
26400-406: Was built between the stations of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen Hauptbahnhof to overcome the great distance of the Hauptbahnhof from the city centre as a result of its relocation of in 1969. Weidenthal station was rebuilt with two new platforms about 800 metres closer to Frankenstein. On 14 May 2004, DB and the then French infrastructure operator RFF signed a declaration of intent on
26576-520: Was completed by June 2016. Mettenheim station was completed in September 2013. The planned establishment of stations in Roxheim and Worms Süd was abandoned as the responsible municipalities were unwilling to fund them. BASF SE in Ludwigshafen and its three stops, BASF Nord , BASF Mitte and BASF Süd , have been served by the S-Bahn since December 2018. This required the line to be upgraded and electrified. Since then, it has been served by trains operating as line S 44 . The line running to
26752-454: Was completed in September 2017; Biblis and Lampertheim have been completely rebuilt since June 2019. Groß Rohrheim station was completed in October 2020 and Bürstadt station in July 2021. The two stations in Mannheim that still need to be upgraded (Mannheim-Waldhof and Mannheim-Käfertal) and the new station in Mannheim-Neuostheim are scheduled to be built between 2021 and 2024. The trains running via Neuostheim and Käfertal have been running under
26928-403: Was completed on 2 December of that year. On 6 June of the following year, the Ludwig Railway reached Bexbach in the west. From August 1849, trains could run over the line from Ludwigshafen via Neustadt, Kaiserslautern and Homburg to Bexbach. The main line was completed to Neunkirchen in 1850 and two years later to Saarbrücken . Because of the rapid increase in traffic on both sides of
27104-411: Was demolished with the electrification. The tracks between Limburgerhof and Ludwigshafen that had been used exclusively for through freight traffic since 1899 had already been abandoned and were used for the storage of freight wagons. Ludwigshafener Hauptbahnhof was an operational obstacle because of its construction as a terminus. In the early 1960s, construction work for a through station started at
27280-519: Was dominated by locomotives of classes 23 , 38 , 71 and 78 and the operations of goods traffic were hauled by class 44 and 50 locomotives. Among others, classes 93.5-12 and 94.5 were used for shunting. Following the electrification of the line, which resulted in the closure of the locomotive depots in Neustadt and Homburg, DB's new locomotive classes were used. For decades, freight operations, were dominated by class E 40 locomotives, local traffic by electric locomotives of class E 41 hauling
27456-450: Was double-track from 1906. Most of the express trains to Strasbourg, which previously ran to Neustadt and, after a reversal, continued over the Maximilian Railway to Alsace, now ran from Schifferstadt via Speyer, Germersheim, Wörth and Lauterburg . Passenger trains on the line to Kusel , which branched from Landstuhl, usually operated from/to Kaiserslautern. During the First World War, the passenger services were significantly reduced due to
27632-422: Was established in 1946 after World War II , from parts of the former states of Prussia (part of its Rhineland and Nassau provinces ), Hesse ( Rhenish Hesse ) and Bavaria (its former outlying Palatinate kreis or district), by the French military administration in Allied-occupied Germany . Rhineland-Palatinate became part of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 and shared the country's only border with
27808-437: Was finished in Mannheim-Rheinau at the end of April 2018, except for minor residual work, and the "compact station" was officially opened on 12 July 2019. In contrast, the case for building Neckarau station would be "examined in terms of the costs and benefits of the whole line", so it may not in fact be built. In the meantime, temporary platforms were built on tracks 1 and 2, which were completed in May 2020. Construction work at
27984-399: Was invested for construction and €190 million for vehicles. An extra bridge was built over the Rhine between Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, urgently required to increase capacity, a by-pass of Schifferstadt for long-distance traffic and Ludwigshafen-Mitte S-Bahn station in Berliner Platz. A new S-Bahn workshop was established near Ludwigshafen Hauptbahnhof. It was considered important to provide
28160-415: Was not opened continually from east to west, stage coaches , were used to take over the traffic between the two parts of the line. From 1850, the trains operated in the west to Neunkirchen and two years later to Saarbrücken. After the completion of the Mainz–Ludwigshafen railway in 1853, three passenger trains per day travelled between Homburg and Ludwigshafen on the Mainz– Paris route until Prussia opened
28336-417: Was opened in 1905 to the east of Saarbrücken, was closed and then dismantled. In August 1945, the route was released for passenger traffic. The section of the line to the west of the Rhine came to under the control of the Vereinigung der Südwestdeutschen Eisenbahnen (Union of south-west German railways) from 1947 to 1949 during the French occupation. The Homburg–Saarbrücken section once again became part of
28512-525: Was opened in December 2011 and an extension of line S5 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn from Wörth am Rhein to Germersheim was opened in December 2010. The upgrade of the Mannheim–Kaiserslautern line to Homburg was carried out as an urgent project in preparation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup . However, it was not finished in time and services commenced in December 2006. Only line S1 runs to Homburg; S2 continues to terminate in Kaiserslautern. The city of Homburg did not participate financially in this extension. To
28688-402: Was opened in June 2010; this branches off in Meckesheim over the Meckesheim–Neckarelz railway and runs every hour to Aglasterhausen . In Eppingen there is connection to line S 4 of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn and the Heilbronn Stadtbahn . Since December 2014, with the integration of the eastern Elsenz Valley Railway in the northern branch of the Heilbronn Stadtbahn , there has also been
28864-480: Was ordained on 30 August 1946, the last state in the Western Zone of Occupation to be established, by Regulation No. 57 of the French military government under General Marie-Pierre Kœnig . It was initially called Rhenish-Palatinate ( Rheinpfälzisches Land or Land Rheinpfalz ); the name Rhineland-Palatinate ( Rheinland-Pfalz ) was first confirmed in the constitution of 18 May 1947. The provisional French government at that time wanted originally to leave
29040-439: Was originally planned to run only as far as Biblis , but the Bergstraße (district) was able to have it extended with the fare boundary between the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (VRN) and the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) moved to Groß-Rohrheim. At the end of January 2016, the state of Hesse concluded an implementation and financial agreement with DB Station&Service under which the state of Hesse invested €5 million in
29216-404: Was put into operation by the Seventh United States Army at the end of April. From June, the bridge of 1867 had temporarily taken into railway operations again. The flying junction between Schifferstadt and Limburgerhof, which had been affected by the combat operations, was taken out of service and the line now consisted of only two tracks in this area. The Halberg–Brebach connecting curve, which
29392-430: Was rebuilt in March 1945, contributed to the fact that through traffic increasingly concentrated on the main line from Mannheim to Saarbrücken. In May 1959, the Bundesbahn established a connection between Mundenheim and Mannheim to bypass Ludwigshafen Hauptbahnhof. Because of its great importance for long-distance traffic, the electrification of the line began in 1960. Corresponding plans already existed immediately after
29568-416: Was renamed as the Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken . This led to the gradual dissolution of the railway division of Ludwigshafen over the next two years. The Saarbrücken–Hochspeyer section came under the control of the railway division of Saarbrücken in 1936, the rest with effect from April 1937 came under the control of the railway division of Mainz. After the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939,
29744-406: Was responsible for the entire section of the line from immediately west of Frankenstein. The development program for the network of Deutsche Bundesbahn presented in 1970 contained a newly built railway ( Neubaustrecke ) between Hochspeyer and Ludwigshafen on a straightened route by 1985. It would be ten kilometres shorter than the existing line. In the Frankenthal area there would be a link with
29920-409: Was signed between DB Regio AG and Siemens in August 2017. The second stage of construction includes further projects that should have been implemented gradually by the end of 2017. Due to the high utilisation on the Rhine Valley line on the Bruchsal–Heidelberg section it is planned to extend the platforms from 140 to 210 metres, so that longer trains can run. This is necessary, above all, because it
30096-527: Was still no regular interval timetable. The line between Mannheim and Kaiserslautern was used by an express service on the Würzburg–Pirmasens route. Between 1970 and 1975, the line was used by the TEE 50/51 service ( Goethe ). There was a clear improvement in long-distance services from May 1985 onwards. With the introduction of the Saar-Palatinate regular interval timetable ( Saar-Pfalz-Takt ) there were hourly operations between Mannheim and Saarbrücken with Intercity (IC), D-Züg and Eilzug services. In 1989,
30272-401: Was strong support in both cities for a bridge. Construction began in February 1865 and the work went well. The masonry material was sourced from the quarries along the Haardt ; The railway carried about 24.000 cubic metres of ashlar . The iron superstructure was installed in July 1866. This was followed by load testing of the bridge on 21 and 22 January 1867 and the first train crossed
30448-438: Was temporary only accessible on a single-track basis; the trains were allowed to run at 40 kilometres per hour at most. Due to the restricted capacity, several freight trains ran over the Landau–Rohrbach and Langmeil–Monsheim railways towards Worms from 20 March 1960. The line could be operated electrically along its whole length from 12 March 1964. The flying junction that had existed since 1907 north of Schifferstadt
30624-513: Was the fact that the upgrading of the Mainz pontoon bridge and the extension of the Appenweier–Kehl railway to Strasbourg in 1861 threatened to reduce the competitiveness of the Ludwig Railway. In a treaty concluded at the beginning of 1862, the two countries agreed that Baden would take over the construction of the pylons and abutments. Bavaria was given responsibility for the superstructure including tracks and flooring. In July of that year, Baden and Bavarian representatives reached an agreement on
30800-418: Was to cost €81.5 million, of which €66.9 m was for eligible building costs, of which the federal government paid 60% and the state of Baden-Württemberg paid 20% under the Municipal Transport Financing Act ( Gemeindeverkehrsfinanzierungsgesetz ). The remaining costs were assumed by the municipalities and districts. The modernisation of 78 kilometres of line covered 110 km (68 mi) of track and included
30976-431: Was used from the start of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn in 2002. These sets have a toilet and fewer entrance doors than class 423 sets. They have a floor height of 780 mm. Their folding steps allow a level crossing from the platform. With the growing network of lines, additional rolling stock was required. Thus, starting in October 2015, 37 additional vehicles were rebuilt for Lot 1 of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn in addition to
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