The Saarbrücken–Trier railway, known in German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 as the Saarstrecke (literally the "Saar line") in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

 and Saarland

Saarland

Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...

. It connects Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken

Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....

 and Trier

Trier

Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....

. It was opened in 1858 and 1860 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.

Route

From Saarbrücken the Saar line was opened along the Saar Valley to Merzig on 16 December 1858 and to Trier West on the left bank of the Moselle on 26 May 1860. The track stays on the right bank of the Saar and follows its many loops; as a result some of its 99 curves have very tight radii. Only one of the Saar loops, between Mettlach

Mettlach

Mettlach is a municipality in the district Merzig-Wadern, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Saar, approx. 7 km northwest of Merzig, and 30 km south of Trier.Villeroy & Boch's headquarters are in Mettlach....

 and Besseringen, is shortened by a tunnel.

From Trier the line continues as the Eifel Railway to Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 and Mosel line to Koblenz

Koblenz

Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...

. The line was built by the Royal Administration of the Saarbrücken Railway

Saarbrücken Railway

The Saarbrücken Railway was a divisions of the Prussian state railways that was responsible for the construction of the first railways in the Saarland...

 (Königliche Direction der Saarbrücker Eisenbahn), the first railway owned and operated by the Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n government.

History

The purpose of the 88 km long route was to connect the industries of Trier, Mettlach (pottery), Völklingen

Völklingen

Völklingen is a town in the district of Saarbrücken, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated near the border with France, on the river Saar, approx. 10 km west of Saarbrücken....

 (mining), Saarbrücken and the Saar region (mining and related industries) to the Ruhr

Ruhr

The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...

 and the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 ports. Contemporary sources described the line as 12.051 Prussian miles (each 7,532.5 metres) long with a projected construction cost of 5.6 million thalers

Vereinsthaler

The Vereinsthaler was a standard silver coin used in most German states and the Austrian Empire in the years prior to German unification.- Introduction :...

. At the end of 1859 the first railway reached Trier, although passengers had to use a horse-drawn carriage from Ponten (a district of Besseringen) over the mountain to Mettlach, since the tunnel was not yet complete.

The Saar line from the beginning was used by passenger and heavy freight trains.

From 1 April 1881, the line was part of the Royal Railway Administration (left Rhine) in Cologne (Königlichen Eisenbahn-Direction (linksrheinisch) in Köln) of 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...

.

Drastic change came at the end of the First World War. The greater part of the Saar line was controlled by the newly created French administration of the Saarland. The section south of Mettlach was taken over by the new Railways of the Saarland (Eisenbahnen des Saargebietes, SAAR) and the northern section operated ran the newly created German State Railways (Deutsche Reichsbahn

Deutsche Reichsbahn

Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...

). Following the reincorporation of the Saarland into Germany in 1935, the whole line was incorporated in the Saarbrücken Railway Administration (Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken).

Post-war period

Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Saar line was again divided in 1947. The section south of Saarhölzbach was now under the French controlled Railways of the Saarland (Eisenbahnen des Saarlandes, EdS), the northern section was first part of the Union of Southwest German Railways (Betriebsvereinigung der Südwestdeutschen Eisenbahnen, SWDE), which became part of Deutsche Bundesbahn

Deutsche Bundesbahn

The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...

 (German Federal Railway) in 1951. With the inclusion of the Saarland in West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 in 1957, the whole line became part of Deutsche Bundesbahn. But the stop for customs at Saarhölzbach was only abolished in 1959.

Electrification

Despite the strong mineral traffic, the Saar line was not one of the first lines of Deutsche Bundesbahn to be electrified. Electrification was first extended to Merzig

Merzig

Merzig is the capital of the district Merzig-Wadern, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Saar, approx. 35 km south of Trier, and 35 km northwest of Saarbrücken.-Municipalities:...

 and later to Saarhölzbach. Only in 1974 was the electrification completed to Trier and Koblenz. It is electrified at the standard German system of 15 kV, 16.7 Hz. It was proposed in the 1950s to electrify the lines of the Saar with the modern French electrification system of 25 kV, 50 Hz. Instead it was decided to canalise the Moselle between France and Germany.

Operations

Apart from heavy iron ore trains from the North Sea ports to the Dillinger Hütte

Dillinger Hütte

Dillinger Hütte is a steel producer in Dillingen, in the German Federal State of Saarland, and has a history stretching back more than three hundred years. The plant was originally founded in 1685, and was Germany's first Aktiengesellschaft, or joint stock company . The first continuous-caster for...

 steel works and the other steel works in the Saarland, rail freight on the line used to be dominated by trains carrying coal from the Saar’s mines.

Long distance services

In addition to regional passenger services, the line used to have long distance express ("D-train", D-Zug, short for Durchgangszug, literally “corridor train”) services. The D-trains ran from Saarbrücken and Trier over the Eifel Railway via Gerolstein

Gerolstein

Gerolstein is a town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde. Gerolstein is headquarters to a large mineral water firm, Gerolsteiner Brunnen...

 or over the Moselle line via Koblenz to Cologne. Until the electrification of the Trier–Koblenz line, D-trains ran fairly equally on both routes. Only afterwards was there a clear preference for the Moselle route.

In 1973 three pairs of City-D-trains ran via Koblenz and Cologne to Düsseldorf. These trains were replaced in 1978 by InterCity

Intercity (Deutsche Bahn)

Intercity is the second-highest train classification in Germany, after the ICE. Intercity services are loco-hauled express services, usually over long-distances. There are Intercity routes throughout Germany, and routes generally operate with a two-hour frequency, with multiple routes giving a more...

-Comfort services, which were similar but had no dining car.

The Saar line was included in the InterRegio

InterRegio

The InterRegio is a train service seen in some European countries. Mostly they are trains that run "from region to region", as best described by Swiss Federal Railways.-Switzerland:...

 network, development of which began in 1988. From 1991, there were D-train services at two-hour intervals connecting Saarbrücken, Koblenz, Cologne, Münster

Münster Hauptbahnhof

-History:The original Münster station was opened in 1848 by the Münster-Hamm Railway Company, when it opened by the Münster–Hamm railway to the then capital of the Prussian Province of Westphalia as a terminus of its branch line from Hamm, where it connected with Cologne-Minden trunk line. The...

, Bremen

Bremen Hauptbahnhof

is the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Bremen in northwestern Germany. It is the most important rail station for both the city and the state of Bremen; InterCityExpress, Intercity, EuroCity, CityNightLine and DB NachtZug services call at the station, which is situated to the Northeast of the city...

 and Cuxhaven, with a section of these trains running to Greifswald

Greifswald

Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...

. This was complemented by express trains between Koblenz and Saarbrücken at hourly intervals. It was not until 1994, with the completion of the conversion of old rolling stock into the new InterRegio trains, that the D-trains were replaced by InterRegio services. In December 2002, the InterRegio services were all cancelled and the Saarland no longer has any long distance connections.

Regional services

Regional services has always played a large role on the Saar line, with trains between Saarbrücken and Saarhölzbach being denser than on the northern section towards Trier. Already in 1989 City-Bahn

City-Bahn

The City-Bahn was a German train category introduced by the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1984 for local train services, in order to make secondary routes more attractive. Old Silberling coaches were modernised and a more frequent fixed-interval service introduced. As its use spread the DB changed the...

 Saar services operated on the line. This was an hourly service from Saarhölzbach (some starting in Trier) via Merzig, Saarlouis, Völklingen and Saarbrücken to Homburg

Homburg (Saar) Hauptbahnhof

of the city of Homburg in the German state of Saarland. It is a through station with four platforms and seven platform tracks and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a station of category 3. It is located at the junction of the Homburg–Neunkirchen line and the Mannheim–Saarbrücken line...

. These services were reinforced every two-hour by express trains running from Merzig via Saarbrücken to Kaiserslautern, which only stopped on the Saar line in Dillingen, Saarlouis, Völklingen, although some also stopped in Beckingen

Beckingen

Beckingen is a municipality in the district Merzig-Wadern, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Saar, approx. 7 km southeast of Merzig, and 30 km northwest of Saarbrücken. There is an old train station ruin and in summer there are lots of festivals. The temperature there...

 and Bous

Bous, Germany

Bous is a municipality in the district of Saarlouis, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Saar, approx. 5 km southeast of Saarlouis, and 15 km west of Saarbrücken....

. In 1995, the City-Bahn were rebranded as Stadt-Express

Stadt-Express

The Stadt-Express , formerly City-Bahn , was a category of train in the Deutsche Bahn, that linked conurbations in Germany with the outer reaches of the surrounding countryside...

 services, which in 1998 was replaced 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...

 (RB) and Regional-Express (RE) services.

In 1996 it was planned, to replace the electrically hauled RE trains from Saarbrücken to Koblenz with diesel tilting trains from Saarbrücken via Trier to Cologne on the Eifel Railway. This project failed because of technical problems, so that RE services continue to run between Saarbrücken and Koblenz (Mosel-Saar-Express) with double-deck carriages. These connect in Trier with trains to Cologne. The Mosel-Saar-Express services runs every two hours and together with the RE 11 (Trier–Saarbrücken–Homburg (–Kaiserslautern)) services provide an hourly service on the Saar line.

In addition, RB line 71 services run from Trier via Merzig, Saarlouis, Saarbrücken, St. Ingbert

Sankt Ingbert

St. Ingbert is a town in the Saarpfalz district in Saarland, Germany with a population of 37361 . It is situated approx. 10 km north-east of Saarbrücken and 10 km south-west of Neunkirchen. Sankt Ingbert is an old industrial town, but most of its heavy industries have long closed down...

, to Homburg. These services run hourly with S-Bahn-like railcars of class 425 and 426

DBAG Class 425

The Classes 425 and 426 EMUs are a class of electric multiple units built by a consortium of Siemens, Bombardier and DWA and operated by DB Regio in Germany...

.