Ulm–München rail line

The Ulm-Munich line is a German railway line. The first part of the line was built by the Munich-Augsburg Railway Company ("Munich-Augsburg Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft") and opened in 1840. The remainder was built as part of the ‘’Bayerische Maximiliansbahn’’ (Bavarian Maximilian Railway), named after Maximilian II, king of Bavaria from 1848 to 1864. It was built for the Royal Bavarian State Railways as part of the the east-west connection between Neu-Ulm in the west via Augsburg, Munich and Rosenheim to the Austrian border at Kufstein and Salzburg in the east.

History

After the opening of the first German railway, the private Ludwigsbahn railway from Nuremberg to Fürth in 7 December 1835, local committees for the building of railways were formed all over Bavaria. The committees of Augsburg and Munich soon united and agreed to build a line between the two cities. The engineer Paul Camille Denis, who had completed the line between Nürnbergand Fürth, was given the job of finalizing the route and building the line.

The München-Augsburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was established on 23 July 1837 under Bavaria’s railway law enacted on 28 September 1836, although it had already received a royal concession on 3 July to build the line. The beginning of construction of the line was delayed to 1838 after some trouble in selling shares.

The 62 km line was opened in four stages:
* 1 September 1839 München – Lochhausen 12,5 km
* 27 October 1839 Lochhausen – Olching 6,6 km
* 7 December 1839 Olching – Maisach 5,7 km
* 4 October 1840 Maisach – Augsburg 37,1 km

The Lech was crossed for over 20 years by a 95 m-long timber bridge. It is said that king Ludwig I specified the last opening date on the beginning of the Octoberfest.

Bayerische Maximiliansbahn

In 1851, it was decided to build a line connecting the German states and Italy via the Brenner Pass and via Salzburg towards Vienna and the Semmering Pass. It promised good traffic flows to and from the Austrian Adriatic port at Trieste. Appropriate conventions were agreed with the Kingdom of Württemberg and with the Austrian government in 1851. The Munich-Augsburg railway was included in the new line.

The line connected to the Württembergische Südbahn in Ulm and ran for 84 kilometers to Augsburg.

Construction

The 83.7 km line from Augsburg to Ulm was opened in four sections:
* 1 May 1854 – Mitte Donaubrücke Ulm–Neu-Ulm, 1.3 km.
* 26 September 1853 – Neu-Ulm–Burgau, 38.1 km.
* 1 May 1854 – Burgau–Dinkelscherben, 17.9 km.
* 26 September 1853 – Dinkelscherben–Augsburg, 26.4 km.

The line today

The line between Augsburg and Munich is a major traffic axis and part of the Magistrale for Europe from Budapest through Vienna to Paris.

The line is used daily by about 300 trains and is Germany’s busiest line with a mixture of goods trains, regional passenger trains and long-distance high-speed trains.

Each hour an InterCityExpress train and a InterCity train run from Munich via Ulm to Stuttgart. Additional ICE trains run from Munich to Augsburg, branching to Nuremberg or Würzburg and on to further destinations. A similar service pattern also operates in the reverse direction.

Regionalexpress trains also run hourly between Munich and Augsburg, alternating to/from Ulm and Donauwörth.

From Mammendorf to Munich central station the line runs parallel to line S4 of the Munich S-Bahn of the MVV.

The Augsburg-Munich section was the first line of the Deutsche Bundesbahn on which trains could run at 200 km/h. The first test runs at 200 km/h were made in 1965 with Class E 03 locomotives.

Development

The line is double-track and electrified. Between Dinkelscherben and Munich-Pasing the line is equipped with LZB train control and certified for speeds up to 200 km/h. Between Mammendorf and Munich there are separate tracks for the S-Bahn. The stations between Ulm and Nersingen belong to the ‘’Donau-Iller-Nahverkehrsverbund’’ public transport federation (DING); between Dinkelscherben, Augsburg and Mammendorf to ‘’Augsburger Verkehrsverbund’’ (AVV) and from Mammendorf to Munich to the ‘’Münchener Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund’’ (MVV).

Augsburg–Munich upgraded line

The 43 km section between Augsburg and Olching line is being rebuilt to four-tracks and will be able to carry significantly more traffic. One pair of tracks will be dedicated to regional services (RB, RE) and goods traffic and the other to (IC/EC) and high-speed traffic (ICE) services. Heavy and more slowly running freight trains will no longer obstruct the passage of faster ICEs. The permitted speed on the high-speed tracks will be 230 km/h. Infrastructure for regional trains will be able to run at 160 km/h. On the line between Olching and Munich, freight, regional trains, and the Munich S-Bahn have their own tracks. The planned Augsburg S-Bahn will also have its own lines.

The railway upgrading work is divided into six sections for planning purposes. Work began on the western section between Augsburg and Kissing in 1998 and the new tracks were brought into service in 2003. A new bridge was built over the Lech in Augsburg in 2002 and in the same year work began on the eastern section between Mering and Olching.

Dates and facts

*Length of the Augsburg–Munich line: 61 kilometres
*Length of the line being upgraded: 44 kilometers
*Line speed: 230 km/h for ICE traffic; 160 km/h for regional and goods traffic Estimated completion date: 2010 The upgrading involved: acquisition of 95.3 hectares of land, 43 km of additional railway embankment, 7.5 km of new retaining walls, 116 km of new track and 104 points moved, 52 railway and 19 road bridges reconstructed or adapted, 46 km of noise barriers, nine island platforms and three passing lines adapted or rebuilt

In the federal transport investment plan for 2010, federal funding for the project is estimated to be euro 556 millions for the first stage of development (2006 prices). euro 303.5 millions had been spent up to 2005. 215 millions euro of federal funds are to be invested between 2006 and 2010. Beyond this period a shorthfall of euro 37.6 millions needs to be made up.Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung: [http://www.bmvbs.de/Anlage/original_995025/Investitionsrahmen-plan-bis-2010-fuer-die-Verkehrsinfrastruktur-des-Bundes-IRP.pdf "Investitionsrahmenplan bis 2010 für die Verkehrsinfrastruktur des Bundes"] , April 2007 de icon]

Ulm–Augsburg upgraded line

The line is at present as part of the project Stuttgart–Augsburg new and upgraded line between Ulm and Augsburg. Eventually this line should be part of the Magistrale for Europe from Paris via Strasbourg, Stuttgart and Ulm to Munich, Salzburg and Vienna.

Notes

References

*de|Bayerische Maximiliansbahn
*Ücker, Bernhard, 150 Jahre Eisenbahn in Bayern, Fürstenfeldbruck 1985 de icon
* Wolfgang Klee/Ludwig v. Welser, Bayern-Report, volumes 1–5, Fürstenfeldbruck, 1993–1995. de icon
*Dt. Reichsbahn, Die deutschen Eisenbahnen in ihrer Entwicklung 1835–1935, Berlin, 1935. de icon

External links

* [http://www.db.de/site/bahn/de/unternehmen/bahnwelt/bauprojekte/ausbau__neubau/augsburg__olching.html Deutsche Bahn site for the NBS/ABS Augsburg-Olching-München project] de icon