and
Rhine rivers The idea of building the Main–Weser Railway began in 1838 as a link between Kassel and the
Rhine-Main area running exclusively through the territory of
Hesse-Kassel (Kurhessen) and connecting the major cities of the electorate from Kassel to
Hanau via
Fulda. At that time it proved impracticable to build such a line (the route of the
Frederick William Northern Railway and the
Frankfurt–Bebra railway) because of its mountainous route, particularly at the watershed between the
Fulda and
Kinzig valleys at Distelrasen, where a tunnel was only completed in 1914. Instead, beginning in 1841, negotiations commenced with some other states and was interrupted several times. On 5 April 1845, a treaty was signed between the
Free City of Frankfurt, the
Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel, establishing a joint state railway company, known as a
condominium railway (
Kondominalbahn). This established the legal basis for the line via
Marburg,
Gießen, and
Friedberg through easier terrain to the originally preferred route, but which crossed national boundaries several times. In the southern sector, the route ran after its exit from the Main–Weser station in Frankfurt approximately parallel with the () (at that time, only partly built), along the current streets of Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage and Hamburger Allee to the then Kurhessen town of
Bockenheim, now the site of
Frankfurt (Main) West station. It then ran again through the territory of Frankfurt in
Hausen, through Kurhessen in
Eschersheim, and through Frankfurt territory in
Bonames. The line then went through the Grand Duchy of Hesse town of Boden bis Friedberg, then a piece of Frankfurt-owned territory in
Dortelweil.
Bad Nauheim was a Kurhessen
enclave within the Grand Duchy of Hesse
exclave of Oberhessen through which the line ran to Gießen. Under the treaty, each of the participating governments was responsible for the purchase of land on their territory. Financing the construction of the line proved to be more difficult. Construction occurred during the turmoil of the
revolutions of 1848 and a financial crisis in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. Work began on 6 August 1846 in Kurhessen territory. Here the Belgian engineer Frans Splingard and his colleague Edmund Hacault were in charge. In Frankfurt construction was directed by Remigius Eyssen. The building of station on almost all sections of the line in Kurhessen was directed by Julius Eugen Ruhl, the first Director-General of the Kurhessen railways. The first section between Kassel and
Wabern was opened on 29 December 1849. The first continuous rail service from Kassel to Frankfurt ran on 15 May 1852, after the opening of the line between Gießen and Langgöns, connecting the northern and the southern sections of the line. The second track was added in 1865—following twelve years of negotiations. The cooperation of the participating countries had not improved despite rapidly developing rail services. The second track significantly eased the transport of
Prussian troops in the
War of 1866, a war which led to the annexation by Prussia of two of the states involved in Main–Weser Railway, Hesse-Kassel and the Free City of Frankfurt. Their shares were subsequently transferred to Prussia. In 1880, Prussia also acquired the Grand Duchy of Hesse's shares in the company. Until the completion of the
Frankfurt–Bebra line in 1866, all express trains between Frankfurt and Berlin ran on the Main–Weser Railway. These trains ran on to the
Frederick William Northern Railway at Guntershausen to connect with the
Thuringian Railway. Express trains continued to run from Frankfurt to Berlin via Kassel until the end of
World War II. In the following years of the
American occupation trains also ran on this route. In 1878/79 the
Treysa–
Lollar section of the line was incorporated into the
strategic railway known as the
Kanonenbahn ("Cannons Railway") built between
Berlin and
Metz. During the 1960s, the first section of the line was electrified between Frankfurt and Giessen; electrification of the line was completed on 20 March 1967. The line was moved in the Kassel area in the second half of the 1980s in preparation for the construction of the
Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway. Construction began in July 1985. of soil was excavated over a length of and relocated at a cost of
DM 24.0 million. Operations on two tracks were maintained throughout.
Operation Steel Box also took place on the line in September 1990.
Long-distance services Services of
Intercity-Express line 26 run on the Main–Weser Railway from or via
Kassel and Frankfurt to
Karlsruhe at two-hour intervals. Services on
EuroCity line 62 also ran on the Gießen – Frankfurt section from December 2009 to December 2011. Until 2014 there were services that ran over the line to Konstanz, but these were cancelled at the timetable change at the end of 2014. There was also a direct connection to until the end of 2015, which was the first Intercity service on the line from Monday to Saturday. Since then, this IC service runs to Hamburg like the others. Even earlier there were direct long-distance services from Frankfurt via and
Siegen to
Hagen Hauptbahnhof and beyond to
Münster and . One train even went to
Copenhagen.
Regional services regional service on a staff training operation in
Friedberg (2006), running to
North Hesse set as S6 near Groß Karben
Regional-Express services run between Frankfurt and Kassel (
Main-Weser-Express) and between Frankfurt and
Siegen (
Main-Sieg-Express). The latter leaves the line in Gießen, where they have to reverse to continue towards Siegen. The Main-Weser-Express runs hourly and is operated alternatively by
DB Regio as line 30 and by the
Hessische Landesbahn (HLB) as line 98, but the latter service does not always go through to Kassel and has more intermediate stops. The Main-Sieg-Express is exclusively operated by the Hessischen Landesbahn as line 99 operated and runs on the Frankfurt-Gießen section at two-hour intervals, mostly in coupled-sets, together with line 98, with trains dividing in Gießen. It is also served by
Regionalbahn services operated by DB Regio between Marburg and Gießen as well as between Gießen and Hanau via Friedberg. Since December 2006,
Mittelhessen-Express services are formed in Gießen from two coupled Regionalbahn trains coming from Treysa and
Dillenburg and then together run to Frankfurt at a higher speed. In the opposite direction, the uncoupling of the sets also takes place in Gießen, with both trains then continuing as Regionalbahn trains to Treysa or Dillenburg. There is also an
S-Bahn service between Friedberg and
Frankfurt South station via the
City-Tunnel. The Treysa–Kassel section was operated until December 2015 as part of
Kassel RegioTram and was designated as line
RT 9. The weekend
RegioTram services were, however, replaced by Regionalbahn services on at the end of May 2007, and services on working days were also later replaced as well. Since 14 December 2014, two of three services have been operated on weekdays by
Kurhessenbahn (a Deutsche Bahn brand) using
class 628 diesel multiple unit sets. FLIRT multiple units operated by Hessische Landesbahn replaced the RegioTrams on line RT 9 at the 2015/2016 timetable change on 13 December 2015. Numerous trains that branch off on branch lines at Bad Vilbel, Friedberg, Gießen, Cölbe, and Wabern also run for a while on the mainline. Many freight trains also run on the line, including numerous container trains or trains carrying new agricultural machinery (such as tractors and combine harvesters). Military trains also regularly use the line.
Rolling stock used Main line of the HLB in Gießen as
RegioTram on line RT 5 in
Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station Talent 2 electric multiple units are used for the hourly
Mittelhessen-Express between Frankfurt and Treysa, which are operated by DB Regio Mitte. Talent-2 sets have run since March 2013 on the through Gießen–Friedberg–
Hanau Regionalbahn service, which has operated since December 2012. These sets replaced
Silberling carriages hauled by
class 143 locomotives or GTW 2/6 sets operated by Hessische Landesbahn. Class 143 locomotives occasionally haul modernised Silberling carriages between Gießen and Marburg, Kirchhain and Treysa in the peak hours. The DB
Regional-Express services between Frankfurt and Kassel are almost exclusively operated as double-deck push-pull trains, hauled by Bombardier
TRAXX (class 146) locomotives. At the 2010/2011 timetable change,
Hessische Landesbahn (HLB) took over the operation of some services between Frankfurt am Main, Marburg and Siegen, branded as the
Main-Sieg-Express, on behalf of the
Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (Rhine-Main Transport Association) and the
Zweckverband Nahverkehr Westphalen-Lippe (municipal association for local transport of Westphalia-Lippe). Newly procured three and five-part
Stadler Flirt railcars are used. These partly replaced Deutsche Bahn's double-deck push-pull trains and rebuilt Silberling carriages. The trains are usually uncoupled in Gießen with portions continuing to Marburg and Siegen. The
RegioTram service that ran between Kassel and Treysa until December 2015 consisted of a
low-floor RegioCitadis (class 452). The
S6 S-Bahn section south of Friedberg is operated by
class 423 S-Bahn sets. The
ICE line 26 trains consist of
ICE T sets. Occasionally, during construction or breakdowns on the
Hanover–Würzburg high-speed railway,
Intercity-Express services are also diverted between
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof and
Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, which as a result do not stop in Fulda and Hanau. Freight traffic is also operated in the form of end-to-end trains by various railway companies.
Feeder services The trains that connect
Glauburg-Stockheim and
Nidderau with Frankfurt over the
Nidda Valley Railway, as well as Nidda to Frankfurt via Friedberg, are hauled by
TRAXX (class 245) diesel locomotives in the peak hour, otherwise
Desiro (class 642) railcars are used.
Class 628 diesel railcars are found between
Cölbe and Marburg, sometimes also running to Gießen, which serve the
Kreuztal–Cölbe railway to
Erndtebrück and the
Warburg–Sarnau railway to
Frankenberg (Eder). Most trains on the
Edersee Railway (
Ederseebahn,
Bad Wildungen–Wabern) continue over the Main–Weser Railway to Kassel Hbf. == Planned development==