First aspirations (1840–1870) Originally, it was planned to build a railway line in the north–south direction to Lauterbourg within the then
Bavarian Circle of the Rhine (
Rheinkreis), which failed, however, due to problems with the then border, as Lauterbourg was part of France at the time. Instead, the
Palatine Ludwig Railway (
Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn) was built between 1847 and 1849 from Rheinschanze (
Ludwigshafen from 1853) to
Bexbach; this mainly served the transport of coal. A
branch line from Schifferstadt to Speyer was also built at the same time. Plans for a north–south connection were subsequently developed. There were two options for discussion: one would run from
Neustadt via
Landau to
Wissembourg in
Alsace and continue from there to
Strasbourg. The other would extend the branch to Speyer via
Germersheim and
Lauterbourg to Strasbourg. The first option prevailed, because France hesitated and because the former option passed through territory that was more densely settled than a route along the Rhine valley. After the Schifferstadt–Speyer branch line, which was opened by the
Palatine Ludwig Railway Company (
Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft) in 1848, was extended to Germersheim in 1864, plans were developed to continue it through to Wörth and along the
Rhine to
Lauterbourg. Already in 1863, a local committee met in Maximiliansau (until 1938: Pfortz) not far from the Wörth floating bridge, with representatives of
Germersheim,
Bellheim,
Rülzheim,
Rheinzabern,
Wörth am Rhein and Pfortz. Also present was the mayor of the Alsatian city of Lauterbourg. The latter was open-minded to the plan and reported on French plans to build a trunk line on the
Lille –
Thionville –
Sarreguemines – Lauterbourg – Maxau –
Karlsruhe route, as part of a link from
London to
Vienna and the east. In addition, the French railway company
Chemins de fer de l'Est was interested in contesting competition in Strasbourg.
Planning, construction, opening and subsequent period (1870–1876) In the meantime, the political environment had changed. As a result of the
Franco-Prussian War, France had to cede
Alsace-Lorraine to the newly founded
German Empire. The
Palatine Maximilian Railway Company (
Pfälzische Maximiliansbahn-Gesellschaft), which owned most of the south
Palatinate railway network, and the newly founded
Imperial Railways in Alsace-Lorraine (
Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsaß-Lothringen) agreed to build a railway from Ludwigshafen via
Schifferstadt, Germersheim, Wörth and Lauterburg to Strasbourg. At first, the
Reichstag had resolved that the Alsace section had to be built and operated by a private company, but it was taken over directly by the imperial government for strategic reasons. Various railway engineers produced a general draft for the route from Wörth to Lauterbourg in 1872 and 1873 and then presented it to the Bavarian government. The latter gave the go-ahead for the project on 7 February 1874 in the form of a law giving an interest rate guarantee and it granted a concession on 18 August of the same year in the name of the Maximilian Railway Company for the
Palatinate Railway. The railway line was opened on 24 and 25 July 1876 together with the line from Germersheim to Wörth as part of the
Schifferstadt–Speyer–Germersheim–Wörth–Lauterburg–Strasbourg trunk line. The Maximilian Railway Company was responsible for the Palatinate segment and the Alsace-Lorraine Railways for the Alsace section.
Further development (1876–1930) In the first decades the line was mainly used for freight transport. Double tracking was completed on the section between Wörth and Lauterburg and the line from Schifferstadt in 1906. The express trains from
Berlin to Strasbourg, which had previously run via the
Neustadt–Wissembourg railway, now ran via Speyer and Germersheim, as this journey was shorter and there was now sufficient capacity on the line. From then on, the line including its northern continuation to Schifferstadt together with the Maximilian Railway was in close competition with the
Baden main line between
Mannheim and
Basel. The Palatine section, along with the other railways within the Palatinate, was absorbed into the
Royal Bavarian State Railways (
Königlich Bayerische Staatseisenbahnen) on 1 January 1909. The outbreak of the First World War brought the long-distance traffic to a standstill. After Alsace was ceded to France as a result of the First World War, the French section of the line became the property of the newly founded
Réseau ferroviaire d’Alsace-Lorraine, while the Palatine section became part of
Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR). The latter allocated its section to the newly created
Reichsbahndirektion (
railway division) of Ludwigshafen in 1922. In addition, DR ordered that the long-distance services run from now on through
Baden to keep them within their own territory as long as possible, thus making the Strasbourg–Wörth line less important. The so-called
Regiebetrieb (military operation) commenced in 1923 on the German part of the line as a consequence of the French occupation, which meant that the railway was operated by the French military until the beginning of 1924. Later, as the relations between Germany and France relaxed, cross-border freight operations again took place.
The Second World War and loss of significance (1930–1990) On 1 February 1937, the German section came under the management of the Karlsruhe railway division, since the one in Ludwigshafen was dissolved two months later. On 1 January of the following year, the French section of the line came to the newly established
Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF). Passenger traffic came to a standstill with the outbreak of the Second World War, while freight trains operated almost throughout the war. It was only in the middle of 1945, after the end of the war, that the operation were restored. The
Betriebsvereinigung der Südwestdeutschen Eisenbahnen (Union of south-west German railways, SWDE) took over operations on the German section in 1947; it was absorbed into the newly founded
Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) in 1949. The line was part of the area of responsibility of the railway division of Mainz until its dissolution on 1 August 1971, when the railway division of Karlsruhe was again responsible. After the Second World War, the line was downgraded to a secondary line. At the same time, cross-border traffic has been severely limited;
Berg (Pfalz), the last station on the German side, was the terminus for rail services. It was not until the 1950s that any trains crossed the border to Lauterbourg. Operations of the Ludwigshafen–Strasbourg express, which had mainly served the
French armed forces, was terminated on 11 June 1980, ending cross-border passenger services on the line. The remaining passenger services between Wörth and Berg were also discontinued on 1 June 1984. However, extensive freight traffic continued along the line. For example, up to five pairs of freight train were operated daily, often using French locomotives. During this period the transport of
dry casks over the line to and from the
nuclear reprocessing facilities at
La Hague and
Sellafield occasionally took place, which led regularly to protests by nuclear power opponents and resulted in a corresponding media presence.
Reactivation of passenger traffic on the German side (since 1999) In the course of the rail reform, the section of line in Germany became the property of
Deutsche Bahn. From 1999 until the end of 2002, excursion trains ran on the line from Wörth to Lauterbourg without intervening stops on Sundays and holidays from April to October. The excursion trains were called the
Bienwaldexpress and consisted of a total of four train pairs. The reactivation of daily passenger services took place at the 2002/2003 timetable change on 15 December 2002. Modern platforms were built at the disused stations of Hagenbach, Neuburg and Berg. The halt of
Maximiliansau Im Rüsten was re-established in 2002, as the development of Maximiliansau was increasingly oriented towards the Bienwald Railway in the west. The line is regularly used for the transport of nuclear waste. Since the prohibition of so-called nuclear reprocessing in 2005, transports of spent fuel no longer take place. However, highly radioactive waste packaged in glass chips (in particular from the French
La Hague reprocessing plant to the
Gorleben storage unit) continue to be carried along this line. On 8 September 2008, the line was blocked by three demonstrators near Berg, who had chained themselves to a concrete block under the tracks, prior to the running of such a transport. Using heavy equipment, the police managed to remove the activists after about twelve hours. The train with the nuclear waste containers had to wait for this time in Lauterbourg. In 2010, a train scheduled for this route with nuclear waste from La Hague had to be diverted at short notice via Strasbourg and
Kehl, because the track near the station was blocked by a
sit-in involving several hundred opponents of nuclear power.
Planning It is planned to abolish the need to change trains at
Lauterbourg, which currently still exists, by using the modern SNCF diesel multiple units of the Lauterbourg–Strasbourg on the route to Wörth. Four upgraded connections have been scheduled in Lauterbourg since December 2016. Starting from 2017, between the end of May and the end of October, there will be four regular trips between Wörth and Strasbourg on weekends. This is only possible with the use of SNCF diesel multiple units that are approved ro run on both the German and the French rail network. In addition, there was the idea of establishing a
Stadtbahn line from Strasbourg to the inner city of Karlsruhe. This idea, however, has not been pursued so far, since it is feared in France that it would encourage Strasbourg residents to shop in Karlsruhe. == Route==