Kassel–Warburg railway

The Kassel–Warburg Railway is a line that connects Kassel in the north of the German state of Hesse with Warburg in eastern Westphalia. The line was opened in 1848 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.

Kassel–Warburg railway
Overview
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, Germany
Termini	Warburg (Westf) Kassel Hbf
Line number	2550
Technical
Line length	52.3 km (32.5 mi)
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Operating speed	140 km/h (87.0 mph) (maximum)
Route number	430
Route map line from Altenbeken Upper Ruhr Valley line from Hagen Twiste Valley Railway from Volkmarsen 292.9 Warburg (Westf) 297.4 Diemel, NRW/Hesse state border 299.0 Haueda 301.0 Liebenau Bz. Kassel Ostheim 307.0 Lamerden former Carl Railway from Bad Karlshafen 313.1 Hofgeismar-Hümme RT3 318.6 Hofgeismar 324.6 Grebenstein (former line 1848-1875) Grebenstein (until 1875) Esse 329.2 Immenhausen 333.5 Espenau-Mönchehof planned link to Speele line from Wolfhagen RT4 337.7 Vellmar-Obervellmar (original line west of freight yard) 338.5 Vellmar-Osterberg / EKZ 339.2 Kassel yard hill junction high-speed line from Göttingen line from Hannoversch Münden 340.2 Kassel-Jungfernkopf Wegmannstraße (until 2012) Geilebach 340.2 Kassel freight yard north 340.3 Kassel Nordwest junction Geilebach 341.4 Kassel-Harleshausen 341.5 Kassel freight yard 342.5 Kassel-Kirchditmold HSL to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe 344.0 freight line to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe freight line to Kassel Unterstadt line from Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe 345.2 Kassel Hbf RegioTram Kassel RT3 RT4 etc. Source: German railway atlas[1]

It forms part of the Mid-Germany Railway (German: Mitte-Deutschland-Verbindung), an east–west through line in central Germany, used by long-distance and regional passenger and freight trains.

History

Hofgeismar-Hümme station

Former Carl Railway junction

RegioTram near Liebenau between Hofgeismar-Hümme and Warburg

The track was originally built by the Frederick William Northern Railway (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn-Gesellschaft, FWNG) as the Carl Railway (or Charles Railway, German: Carl Bahn) from Kassel, the capital of the Electorate of Hesse (Kurhessen), to the port of Bad Karlshafen (then called Carlshaven, German for "Port Charles", after Charles I, Hesse’s ruler from 1670 to 1730) on the left bank of the Weser, one of the northernmost places in the contiguous part of Kurhessen.

The first section from Grebenstein via Hümme to Karlshafen on the south bank of the Wesser was completed on 30 March 1848. A few months later, on 29 August 1848, the remainder of the line was completed between Kassel and Grebenstein.

Soon after the completion of the line, rail transport became important for connecting with sea transport, so the Frederick William Northern Railway started building a new line from Hofgeismar-Hümme station towards Warburg in Westphalia, under an agreement between Kurhessen and Prussia. The small border town of Haueda was reached on 6 March 1849. Since the track in Westphalia was originally the responsibility of the Cologne-Minden-Thuringian Connecting Railway Company (Köln-Minden-Thüringische-Verbindungs-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft), which in the meantime became bankrupt, it was not until 6 February 1851, that the Royal Westphalian Railway Company (Königlich-Westfälische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) completed the section of its Hamm–Warburg line between Warburg and the border.

Route

The route is classified as a main line railway and has two tracks for its whole length. Electrification of the line was completed on 11 December 1970. It is classified as track class D4, which allows axle loads of 22.5 t and a linear load of 8.0 t/m. The entire route is equipped with the Punktförmige Zugbeeinflussung (PZB 90) train control system and the Geschwindigkeitsüberwachung Neigetechnik (GNT) speed monitoring system for Tilting trains (ZUB 262).

Operations

Long distance passenger transport is proved by five pairs of InterCity trains, approximately every two hours:

IC 51

(Binz – Stralsund –) Berlin – Halle – Naumburg – Erfurt – Eisenach – Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe – Warburg – Paderborn – Dortmund – Essen – Duisburg – Düsseldorf (– Cologne)

Regional transport on the line is provided by the following Regional-Express and Regionalbahn Lines, and is served by tram-train services of RegioTram Kassel:

Line	Route	Operator	Rollingstock	Frequency
RT3	Kassel Hbf – Vellmar-Obervellmar – Hofgeismar-Hümme (– Warburg) (nur HVZ)	RegioTram Kassel		030 min
RT4	Kassel Hbf – Vellmar-Obervellmar – Zierenberg – Wolfhagen	RegioTram Kassel		030 min
RE 17 Sauerland-Express	Kassel – Warburg – Bestwig – Schwerte – Hagen	DB Regio NRW	2x BR 612 (160 km/h)	120 min

References

1. Eisenbahnatlas Deutschland (German railway atlas). Schweers + Wall. 2009. ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.