Ries Railway
Encyclopedia
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The Ries Railway is the current name of the line between Aalen
Aalen
Aalen is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district, and its largest city, as well as the largest city within the Ostwürttemberg region. In spatial planning, Aalen is designated a Mittelzentrum...
and Donauwörth
Donauwörth
Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria , in the region of Swabia . It is said to have been founded by two fisherman where the Danube and Wörnitz rivers meet...
via Nördlingen
Nördlingen
Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a complex meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...
. The name is derived from the Nördlinger Ries
Nördlinger Ries
The Nördlinger Ries is a large circular depression in western Bavaria, Germany, located north of the Danube in the district of Donau-Ries. The city of Nördlingen is located about southwest of the centre of the depression....
depression, and the line is operated by Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
(DB).
The line consists of a section of the Aalen–Nördlingen railway built by the Kingdom of Württemberg
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg was a state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which came into existence in 1495...
as the Rems Railway
Rems Railway
The Rems Railway , also known as the Rems Valley Railway was historically the main line route from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt via Aalen to Nördlingen. Today the designation Rems Railway only refers to the section from Stuttgart to Aalen, the Aalen–Nördlingen line becoming part of the Ries Railway...
and a section of the Nördlingen–Donauwörth railway built as part of the Ludwig South-North Railway
Ludwig South-North Railway
The Ludwig South-North railway , built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways...
by the Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
, two of the oldest lines in Germany.
Operations
The line is electrified and built as a single-track, except for the two-track section between Aalen and GoldshöfeGoldshöfe station
Goldshöfe station is a station in the German state of Baden-Württemberg at the junction of the Aalen–Crailsheim line and the Aalen–Nördlingen line . In addition to its function as a junction station it also serves the towns of Hüttlingen and Buch in the municipality of Rainau, both about two...
. The height of some platform edges is below the minimum standard of about 38 cm above the rails and the central platforms of smaller stations are only accessible by crossing the tracks on plank crossings.
Regional services
RegionalbahnRegionalBahn
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...
trains operate on the route every hour on weekday and every two hours on weekends. Trains are mostly operated as electric multiple units consisting of Alstom Coradia Continental (class 440) sets. The journey time in 2010, according to the annual timetable from Aalen to Donauwörth is 69 minutes. In the opposite direction trains take 81 minutes (12 minutes longer), because on the single track line the crossing stations are not located appropriately for symmetric scheduling. The crossings places are at Möttingen and Bopfingen.
Goldshöfe Station was originally built not to serve the location, but as a junction station on the lines from Aalen to Nördlingen and to Crailsheim. It is now used by many people from the nearby Hüttlingen community.
Freight traffic
The major freight user is the Marker cement plant in HarburgHarburg, Bavaria
Harburg is a town on Bavaria's romantic road with one of the most impressive remaining medieval castles in Germany. It is in the Donau-Ries district.The castle was first mentioned in 1150 and has never been seriously damaged by war...
.The Schwäbische Hüttenwerke (steelworks) in Wasseralfingen is also served by freight trains.
Diversion route
In the case of closures on the StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
–Ulm
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
–Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
route, the Ries Railway forms part of a diversion route for long distance traffic between Stuttgart and Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
As a result, before the Olympic Games in Munich
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....
, in 1971 and 1972, the line was electrified from Schorndorf
Schorndorf
Schorndorf is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located c. 26 km east of Stuttgart. Its station is a the terminus of line S2 of the Stuttgart S-Bahn....
to Donauwörth
Donauwörth
Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria , in the region of Swabia . It is said to have been founded by two fisherman where the Danube and Wörnitz rivers meet...
via Aalen and Nördlingen.
History
The line was built as part of the Ludwig South-North RailwayLudwig South-North Railway
The Ludwig South-North railway , built between 1843 and 1854, was the first railway line to be constructed by Royal Bavarian State Railways...
, opened between Donauwörth and Nördlingen on 15 September 1847, and the Rems Railway
Rems Railway
The Rems Railway , also known as the Rems Valley Railway was historically the main line route from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt via Aalen to Nördlingen. Today the designation Rems Railway only refers to the section from Stuttgart to Aalen, the Aalen–Nördlingen line becoming part of the Ries Railway...
, opened between Aalen and Wasseralfingen on 25 July 1861 and extended to Nördlingen in 1863.
In recent years the Ries Railway has been interrupted repeatedly by landslide
Landslide
A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments...
s at different points. The longest of these interruptions was at the Bildwasen tunnel between Lauchheim
Lauchheim
Lauchheim is a town in the Ostalbkreis district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Jagst, 12 km northeast of Aalen....
and Aufhausen between December 2002 and December 2003. It affected the tunnel entrance, which has now been extensively renovated. In the same period, from February 2003 to July 2003, a large slip occurred on a flood embankment between Ebermergen and Donauwörth, bringin traffic on the line almost to a complete halt. These circumstances prompted considerations of closing the track. Before the blocking the route, many trains ran continuously from the Rems Railway to Donauwörth. Since the reopening of the route operations on the Ries Railway are run almost entirely independently.