Homburg Railway

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Homburg Railway
standard gauge
Electrification15 kV/16.7 Hz AC Overhead line
Operating speed120 km/h (74.6 mph)
Route map

Legend
Frankfurt Süd
0.0
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof tief
Main-Lahn Railway
City Tunnel ramp,
Main-Weser Railway
from Frankfurt (Main) Hbf
to Main-Neckar Bridge junction
to Frankfurt (Main) outer station
1.6
 Frankfurt (Main) Galluswarte
former main freight yard
2.4
Frankfurt am Main Messe
from main freight yard
beginning of the elevation section
3.3
 Frankfurt (Main) West
(high level)
branch to
Main-Weser Railway
Main-Weser Railway
to Friedberg
end of the elevation section
5.9
Rebstock curve
(Bad Nauheim–Wiesbaden line)
 Nidda bridge
6.6
 Frankfurt-Rödelheim
Kronberg Railway
/
 A 66
A 5
In der Wolfslach
Viaduct over the Steinbach
12.4
 Oberursel-Weißkirchen/Steinbach
13.7
 Oberursel-Stierstadt
Oberursel Gattenhöferweg
U3 from Heddernheim U3
Oberursel Frankfurter Landstraße
15.3
 Oberursel (Taunus)
A line to Hohemark U3
former connection to U-Bahn (line A),
originally Heddernheim–Hohemark light railway
A 661
19.0
 Bad Homburg
Viaduct over the Kirdorfer brook
22.7
 Seulberg
23.9
 Friedrichsdorf,
terminus of
Taunus line
to Brandoberndorf
 Friedberg–Friedrichsdorf line
Source: German railway atlas[1]

The Homburg Railway (

German state of Hesse. It was opened in 1860 as one of the first railway lines in Germany. It is now part of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn line S5 to Friedrichsdorf
.

History

Early on, there was support in Homburg for an efficient transport connection from Frankfurt in order to increase patronage to its spa and casino. In 1850 a horse-drawn

Main-Weser Railway
, just outside Frankfurt. The locals called the line with some exaggeration the "six nation railway".

When, after tough negotiations, at the end of June 1859 an acceptable route was found and the Homburg casino agreed to finance it, all countries concerned granted a concession to the British railway entrepreneur, Sir

Samuel Morton Peto and the Homburg Railway Company (Homburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, HEG) was founded. Construction under the direction of the famous railway engineer Edmund Heusinger von Waldegg was carried out very quickly and on 10 September 1860 the first passenger trains ran, the first goods train on 6 October 1860. In Frankfurt it connected with the Main-Weser station (Main-Weser-Bahnhof) on the Gallusanlage (a section of the old Frankfurt wall), and ran along the Taunus Railway
to the old vineyards (Rebstockgelände) west of Frankfurt, where it branched off to Rödelheim. It then went ran via Weisskirchen and Oberursel to Homburg, where it ended at a terminal station in Louisenstraße.

At its opening it had 28 first to third class carriages and luggage and freight wagons and four locomotives with a 1B wheel arrangement, supplied by Henschel with works numbers 46 to 49. In 1870, a similar locomotive was procured from Henschel with the works number 290. The number of carriages had been increased to 36. Initially eight pairs of trains ran daily.

Further development

Since 1884 the Homburg Railway begins at Frankfurt West station

The Prussian annexations after the War of 1866 simplified the situation for the railway. The whole route now ran through Prussia, except for one small piece at Weißkirchen station. The closing of the casino by the Prussian state in 1872 led to a significant fall in passenger numbers. In 1873 and 1874 the Kronberg Railway was built by a private railway company: it branched off after Rödelheim to Kronberg.

On 1 January 1880 the railway was sold to Prussia because the company could not afford and did not want the changes to the line required for connection to the planned new

Frankfurt West
), which had to be avoided in 1860, on the also nationalised Main-Weser Railway. The diversion, opened on 10 May 1884, shortened the line to 15.6 km from Frankfurt West. The old line through the vineyards was removed.

Extension and expansion

Old station in Homburg

In 1895, the

Usingen line from Homburg via Friedrichsdorf to Usingen was opened and some years later extended to Weilburg and Wetzlar on the Lahntal railway
. In Homburg a second terminal station (Homburg Neu, new Homburg) was built in Louisenstraße, 200 to 300 metres from the first station, on the site of the current town hall. A link line between the two stations enabled shunting. Planning of a line to Friedberg began in 1868, although construction did not start until 1898 and the line was commissioned on 15 July 1901. It branched off the line to Usingen in Friedrichsdorf.

New Homburg station

In 1907, the old Homburg stations were replaced with the current station, creating a through line to Friedrichsdorf. In 1912, Homburg was renamed Bad Homburg. Between 1907 and 1912 the entire route from Frankfurt to Friedrichsdorf and Friedberg was duplicated.

Connecting curves

On 1 September 1905, a link was opened at the request of

Taunusbahn to the north of Bad Homburg. The curve from Homburg to Höchst was demolished in 1963 during motorway
construction.

After 1945

After repairs to war damage the line recovered its importance for handling commuter traffic to Frankfurt. On 23 May 1954 a regular interval half-hourly timetable was introduced, initially hauled by class 78 steam locomotives and class V 80 and later V 100 diesel locomotives. The extension to Friedberg was downgraded to a single-track branch line due to war damage and a loss of profitability.

Following the completion of electrification on 26 September 1970 services were usually operated by trains hauled by

electric multiple units of class 420 terminating in Friedrichsdorf. Since 2003 the newer class 423
trains have operated on the line.

Operations

S5 S-Bahn train on Kirdorf Bach viaduct

The Homburg line is now used by S-Bahn

Main-Weser line. The Homburg line is integrated in the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund
(RMV) transport network.

Future

It is planned to extend line U2 of the Frankfurt U-Bahn from Bad Homburg-Gonzenheim to Homburg station.

A project known as Regionaltangente West (Regional Tangent West) would build a north–south line through

Frankfurt Airport Regional station
and could connect with the Bad Homburg line.

References

  1. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0
    .
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