Gießen–Gelnhausen railway

Gießen–Gelnhausen
Overview
Locale	Hesse
Line number	3701
Technical
Line length	67.9 km (42.2 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	85 km/h (53 mph) (maximum)
Route number	631
Route map Legend  Operating points and lines[1][2]  Main-Weser Railway from Frankfurt (Main) Dill Railway from Wetzlar 0.0 Gießen Main-Weser Railway to Kassel Vogelsberg Railway to Fulda 1.9 Gießen Erdkauter Weg 2.1 Industrial siding 2.5 Erdkauter Weg MTG siding 3.4 Erdkauter Weg Bieber siding 6.2 Watzenborn-Steinberg 7.8 Garbenteich 9.1 Pfahlgraben Wetter former Wetter Valley Railway from Butzbach 15.2 Lich (Oberhess) former Wetter Valley Railway to Grünberg 18.6 Langsdorf (Oberhess) former Horloff Valley Railway from Mücke 21.8 Hungen former Horloff Valley Railway to Friedberg  reactivation planned 25.2 Trais-Horloff 28.2 Ober-Widdersheim 31.5 Borsdorf (Hess) Nidda Valley Railway from Beienheim former Nidda Valley Railway from Schotten 35.0 Nidda Nidda 41.7 Ranstadt Effolderbach Tunnel (673 m) 44.5 Effolderbach former Oberwald Railway from Lauterbach Nord 45.8 Glauburg-Stockheim Nidda Valley Railway to Bad Vilbel Industrial siding 49.2 Bleichenbach (Oberhess) 52.0 Büches-Düdelsheim 54.8 Büdingen (Oberhess) Büdingen Tunnel (535 m) 62.2 Mittel-Gründau Industrial siding from Rothenbergen 66.0 Lieblos Kinzig Valley Railway from Hanau 69.7 Gelnhausen Kinzig Valley Railway to Fulda

The Gießen–Gelnhausen railway (also known as the Lahn-Kinzig Railway) is a single-track, non-electrified mainline in the German state of Hesse. It runs from Gießen via Nidda to Gelnhausen.

Operations

The line is part of the government-owned railway network (DB Netz) and is currently (2012) served by passenger trains (GTW 2/6) operated by the HLB Hessenbahn GmbH, a subsidiary of Hessische Landesbahn, on behalf of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (Rhine-Main Transport Association, RMV).

In the 2003/2004 timetable, which commenced on 14 December 2003, services on weekends and holidays was reordered. In addition, the Nidda–Glauburg–Büdingen–Gelnhausen section is served every morning and evening by bus line 374. Until the 2009/2010 timetable, this route was still called line 610 and served the whole line from Gelnhausen to Gießen.

History

Planning on the line began in 1862 and it was built and operated by the Upper Hessian Railway Company (Oberhessische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) and opened in several sections:

Opening dates for sections

Date	Beginning	End	Length
29.12.1869	Gießen	Hungen	21.83 km
29.06.1870	Hungen	Nidda	13.23 km
30.10.1870	Nidda	Büdingen	19.79 km
30.11.1870	Büdingen	Gelnhausen	14.91 km

An extension to Partenstein on the Bavarian Ludwig's Western Railway (Ludwigs-West-Bahn) did not come about. However, the line became important from 1888 with the integration of some branch lines in the Vogelsberg and Wetterau.

The Upper Hessian Railway Company was nationalised in 1876 and its operations were taken over by the Grand Duchy of Hesse State Railways (Großherzoglich Hessische Staatseisenbahnen).

Notes

1. Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
2. Lothar Brill. "Photographs of tunnel portals on line 3701" (in German). Tunnelportale. Retrieved 20 February 2012.

References

• Adolf Kaiser (2010). 140 Jahre Eisenbahn in Oberhessen : Ein Jahrhundert verändert die Region. (in German). Büdingen, Hess: Geschichtswerkstatt Büdingen. ISBN 978-3-939454-59-5.
• Wilhelm Lepper. "Unterwegs auf unseren Straßen : Verkehrslandschaft Wetterau". Die Wetterau (in German). Friedberg 1983: Kreissparkasse Friedberg. p. 203. ISBN 3-87076-038-9.
• Jürgen Röhrig Schriftenreihe. Oberhessischen Eisenbahnen (in German).
• Jürgen Röhrig (11 July 2009). "Rübenwagen sind längst Geschichte". Gießener Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2012.