Western Entrance to the Riedbahn

The new line passes under the passenger and freight tracks of the Mannheim–Saarbrücken railway on the northwestern approach to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and then runs over a 2,200 m long viaduct that crosses several intersecting roads in the port area. This viaduct is interrupted by two tied-arch bridges, one over a port channel, while the other is the Western Riedbahn bridge (Riedbahnbrücke West) over the Neckar. Adjoining the viaduct is an almost 2,000 m–long embankment, which is interrupted by a five-span prestressed concrete bridge; it lies partly on the route of the Riedbahn's approach to the original Riedbahnhof (Riedbahn Station) in Mannheim, which had been disused since 1971. It connects with the old Riedbahn (Mannheim–Frankfurt railway) at a level junction in Mannheim-Waldhof station, which was extensively adapted. Three new stations were built on the line to the west of Mannheim: Mannheim-Handelshafen, Mannheim-Neckarstadt and Mannheim-Luzenberg. The line follows the route of the Neckarstadtbahn (Neckar light railway), which was closed in the 1960s. Heavy and slow freight trains still use the original (eastern) approach to the Riedbahn. The line has been built for a top speed of 160 km/h. The maximum gradient is 1.25% (apart from a 1.39% ramp at Mannheim Hauptbahnhof). In cross-section it has been built with a distance between the two tracks of 4.00 m and a formation width of 10.0 m. The line is now operable in the region of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (to kilometre 1.4) at 60 km/h, increasing on the way to Handelshafen station to 120 km/h and on the rest of the line at 160 km/h. It is equipped with the traditional H/V signalling system and PZB train control system and from kilometre 5 and beyond with the LZB in-cab signalling and train protection system. == History ==

Background In an international treaty contracted in 1843 by the former states of Baden, Hesse and the Free City of Frankfurt, it was agreed that the preferred route of the planned Main-Neckar Railway (Main-Neckar-Bahn) would end in neither Mannheim nor Heidelberg. Instead the new line would run to Friedrichsfeld, which is between them. The Riedbahn, which was opened later and eventually developed into a direct line from Frankfurt to Mannheim, was apparently designed for through traffic from Frankfurt via Mannheim to the Palatinate rather than for traffic from Frankfurt via Mannheim to Karlsruhe. The Baden Mainline, the first railway line connecting to Mannheim, came from the southeast, and as a result the central station was built to the southeast of the city centre. This caused a problem of connecting to the Riedbahn, which was opened to Mannheim from the north by the Hessian Ludwig Railway in October 1879. This originally came from Darmstadt, although later a direct connection from Frankfurt was built. The company built its own station, the Riedbahnhof (Ried station), on the northern outskirts of Mannheim, north of the current Kurpfalz bridge. This had no connection to the Baden Mainline. Through traffic to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof was not possible until 1880 when a bypass was opened via Käfertal to the Rhine Valley Railway, so that the Riedbahn now reached Mannheim Hauptbahnhof from the southeast. Continuing to Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, however, required locomotives to be unhitched and moved to the back of trains so that they could reverse direction. Shortly before the First World War and in the mid-1920s it has been proposed that the Riedbahn be rerouted through the port area to reach the Hauptbahnhof. Before the Second World War the city of Mannheim suggested in an expert opinion that the Riedbahn's approach to Mannheim be rerouted to the west via Lampertheim, Frankenthal and Ludwigshafen. The time advantage from removing the reversal of train would have been lost as a result of the extra 10 km of this route. Both the 1943 B3 program developed just before World War II and the more limited remodeling plans of 1950/51 contained an approach of the Riedbahn from the west to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof. The latter plans envisaged a 9.5 km long new line from Mannheim-Waldhof with a grade-separated junction in the station area. For cost reasons, the project was abandoned gradually in the early 1950s. Finally, after 1953, the city of Mannheim deleted this proposal from its plan. Direct access from the Riedbahn to the Mannheim node was proposed in a study for the Executive Board of Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) in 1964. The project was resumed in 1970, initially as a regional transport project of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the city of Mannheim. The Board of Directors of Bundesbahn agreed to the proposal in August 1970. The reversal of the trains required all station tracks to be crossed. The Western Entrance to the Riedbahn project was developed to resolve these problems. Planning The new line was divided into three sections for planning: the approach to the northwestern end of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (section 1: 0.0 to 0.9 km), the line between km 0.9 and 5.9 (section 2) and the integration into Mannheim-Waldhof station (section 3: 5.9 to 9.5 km). Transport Minister Kurt Gscheidle approved the construction of the 9.1 km long overall project on 7 September 1978. In the projections developed for planning in the late 1970s, an annual average of about 35 express trains and 35 local trains as well as 55 to 60 long-distance trains were expected each workday in both directions. While the local trains would serve all three proposed new stations, express trains would only stop at the Westkreuz station (km 2.1), which would provide the best link to the urban transport network. As part of the works three new stations (Luzenberg, Neckarstadt, Handelshafen) were built. Waldhof station was completely rebuilt. In the spring of 1985, leaflets and films were issued on future operations on the line to help drivers acquire route knowledge. The new line was inaugurated on 2 June 1985 by German Transport Minister Werner Dollinger. With the commissioning of the Western Entrance to the Riedbahn, the journey time was reduced by around ten minutes. In combination with the new Mannheim–Stuttgart line to the south, the journey time between Frankfurt and Stuttgart was shortened by more than an hour. Operations Apart from regional services of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar, the line is now served by three Intercity-Express routes connecting southern Germany with Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Dortmund. French TGV trains running between Frankfurt and Paris and Frankfurt and Marseille use the line. == Costs==

In the preliminary design, the construction costs (without planning costs) was estimated at DM 215 million at 1975 prices. 26 percent of this was for by land acquisition, compensation and preliminary work in Mannheim and another 31 percent was attributed to bridges. 20.5 percent attributed to substructure and superstructure, 3.5 percent for the local stations and 19 percent for railway technical equipment. In mid-1982, the planning cost was DM 280 million (at 1981 prices), of which more than DM 140 million had been spent. About DM 100 million had been spent by the autumn of 1981. Almost DM 250 million had been spent by the end of 1984 out of a total of DM 290 million (1985 prices). ==References==