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The Biederitz–Dessau railway is a double-tracked, standard gauge, electrified railway line in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...

 timetabled

Public transport timetable

A public transport timetable is a representation of public transport information to assist a passenger with planning a trip using public transport. A timetable details when vehicle will arrive and depart specified locations and may be organised for by route or for a particular stop...

 as (KBS) 254 and 256. The line begins in Biederitz

Biederitz

Biederitz is a municipality in the Jerichower Land district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany....

 near Magdeburg

Magdeburg

Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

 and runs via Güterglück

Güterglück

Güterglück is a village and a former municipality in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Zerbst....

 and Zerbst to Dessau Hauptbahnhof in Dessau-Roßlau

Dessau-Roßlau

' is an independent city and urban district in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Elbe and Mulde. The town was formed by merger of the independent city of Dessau with the town of Roßlau in the course of the Kreisreform Sachsen-Anhalt on 1 July 2007...

. Until 1871 the section from Zerbst to Roßlau was called the Anhalt Leopold Railway .

History

In order to link the town of Zerbst to the rapidly growing railway network, the parliament

Landtag

A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...

 of the Duchy of Anhalt decided to build a 13 kilometre long railway from Roßlau an der Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

 to Zerbst. This was opened on 1 November 1863. The operator was the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company who purchased the line on 1 October 1871 for a million marks and extended it on 1 July 1874 to Magdeburg. In 1882 the Prussian state railways

Prussian state railways

The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...

 took over the route.

The Biederitz–Dessau-Roßlau railway comprises the sections of Roßlau–Zerbst and Zerbst–Biederitz, opened eleven years later. Both sections are operated today as one route with timetable number  254.

Operation

In 2009 this line was worked by Regionalbahn

RegionalBahn

The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...

and Regionalexpress

RegionalExpress

The term Regional-Express denotes a type of regional train in Germany and Austria .It is best compared to a semi-fast train, as it calls at fewer stations than Regionalbahn or S-Bahn trains, but stops more often than InterCity services...

passenger trains owned by DB Regio

DB Regio

DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates short and medium distance passenger train services in Germany, and operates light and heavy rail infrastructure in the United Kingdom.-Germany:...

. The Regionalbahn trains ran every two hours from Magdeburg to Dessau. Regionalexpress trains also ran two-hourly between Magdeburg and Lutherstadt Wittenberg and between Magdeburg and Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

.