The Stuttgart–Singen (Hohentwiel) railway line is a 147-kilometer-long railway line in Baden-Württemberg that connects Stuttgart Central Station with Singen (Hohentwiel) and runs through the Korngäu region. The line was opened between 1874 and 1879 by the Royal Württemberg State Railways. It is part of the Gäubahn, which originally ran from Stuttgart to Freudenstadt and today also includes the connection to Singen (Hohentwiel). In the city of Stuttgart, it is known as the Panoramabahn between the main station and Vaihingen. Today, Intercity trains run on the electrified main line from Stuttgart to Zurich, and there is also a wide range of local transport options. It is also an important route in north-south freight traffic. The line is part of the overall TEN network, which is to be expanded by the end of 2050. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Route details: Route length: 147 km Track gauge: 1435 mm (standard gauge) Route class: D4 Power system: 15 kV 16.7 Hz ~ Minimum radius: 315 m Maximum speed: 160 km/h Train control: PZB Double track: throughout -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- story: Württemberg completed the section from Eutingen to connect to the Upper Neckar Railway in Horb on June 1, 1874. However, the aim was not to connect Horb via Gäu and Böblingen to Stuttgart. Rather, the Royal Württemberg State Railways created a connection between the Nagold Valley Railway coming from Pforzheim and Horb, the completion of which in 1874 made Horb a junction station. However, the Royal Württemberg State Railways did not initially attempt to build a much shorter direct connection from Stuttgart to Horb because of the gradients that seemed difficult to overcome. Construction of the Stuttgart-Eutingen section (1879) With the law of March 22, 1873, Württemberg decided to build a railway line from Stuttgart via Herrenberg and Eutingen to Freudenstadt, which was to close the gap between Stuttgart and Eutingen. Above all, this was to compensate for the disadvantageous route of the Upper Neckar Railway, which followed the course of the Neckar in a long loop, which greatly increased travel times. In November, work began from Stuttgart on the technically demanding route, which was planned by the Württemberg railway engineer Georg von Morlok. The route on a slope was complicated, requiring gradients of up to 1:52, pusher locomotives to Stuttgart-West, a large number of tunnels and deep cuttings, the 430-meter-long and 39-meter-high Vogelsang Dam and the 42-meter-high Ziegelklingen Dam. A total of 1,600,000 cubic meters of earth were moved. The section to Vaihingen was the most expensive of the entire route, which cost a total of 31 million marks. Many of the workers that Morlok needed to build the route came from Italy. In the winter of 1877/78, the railway already reached Herrenberg. After that, construction work progressed quickly. After a test run from Stuttgart to Freudenstadt had already taken place on August 20, 1879, the Royal Württemberg State Railways officially opened the Stuttgart-Freudenstadt route on September 2, 1879 (Sedan Day) with a special trip in which, in addition to Chief Engineer Morlok, the Württemberg Prime Minister Hermann von Mittnacht, the Stuttgart Mayor Theophil Friedrich von Hack and a number of other dignitaries took part. The construction of this route shortened the route from Stuttgart to Horb by 35 kilometers. During the Second World War, the Gäubahn was largely spared from major destruction until February 1945. Allied bombs caused severe damage to the Herrenberg and Horb train stations in 1944/45, but this did not permanently interrupt traffic. More serious was the damage caused by German troops in April 1945. They blew up several bridges between Stuttgart and Böblingen, bringing traffic to a standstill shortly before the end of the war. In April 1945, American and French forces occupied southwest Germany. The section between Stuttgart and Bondorf became part of the American occupation zone, while the section between Ergenzingen and Horb was now in the French occupation zone. After the destruction during the war, the route was not fully accessible again until August 13, 1946. The border between the French and American zones prevented through traffic between Stuttgart and Horb, which was not resumed until 1948. Compared to the line's heyday in the late 1930s, operations were greatly reduced and did not return to pre-war levels until the late 1950s. However, traffic with Berlin, for which the line had been expanded in the interwar period, was not resumed by the German Federal Railway, as the main Berlin-Erfurt-Würzburg-Stuttgart-Zurich line was interrupted by the division of Germany. ET 65 in Eutingen im Gäu As a replacement, the Federal Railway extended individual express trains from Zurich-Stuttgart to Hamburg from the 1950s. Due, among other things, to the large influx of Italian guest workers to Baden-Württemberg from the end of the 1950s, express trains from Italy to Stuttgart again ran. Initially, the Prussian P 10 and the Prussian P 8 were used. Between 1958 and the mid-1970s, diesel locomotives of the V 100 and V 200 series increasingly replaced the steam locomotives on the Gäubahn. The V 200.1 series was used for freight trains from 1964. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Temporary conversion of long-distance traffic to multiple units: By 1991, the number of express trains on the Gäubahn had increased to eight pairs of trains per day, five of which went beyond Zurich to the cities of Milan, Genoa, Lecce and Naples. However, traffic beyond Stuttgart further north was largely discontinued. In 1991, only one pair of express trains continued to Nuremberg, for example. The express trains were pulled by series 110 and 181. From 1993, the German Federal Railways, or from 1994 its legal successor Deutsche Bahn AG, attempted to further reduce the travel times of long-distance trains. To this end, test runs were carried out with the Pendolino, which has been used successfully in Italy, and the Swedish high-speed train X2000. Between 1993 and 1995, two pairs of EuroCity trains replaced the traditional express trains. RABe multiple units of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) were used for a short time. Since German tilting technology trains were not yet operational, two tilting technology train pairs of the ETR 470 series operated by the Swiss Cisalpino AG replaced some of the express trains for the first time from March 1, 1998, without initially reducing travel times. In 1999, Deutsche Bahn withdrew all locomotive-hauled trains from the line in long-distance traffic, with the exception of the Insubria IC train pair. ICE trains of the 415 series equipped with tilting technology were used for the first time, and together with the ETR 470 from Cisalpino AG, they now covered the majority of long-distance traffic. The latter took over the Italian traffic on the Stuttgart-Milan route, while the ICEs were used between Stuttgart and Zurich. The through trains from Stuttgart to Genoa and Naples, however, were discontinued. In 2005, Deutsche Bahn discontinued the Intercity Insubria. A year later, in December 2006, the Cisalpino connections were also cancelled due to significant defects in the trains, and direct connections to Italy have not been available since then. From December 2006, the seven-part ICE T series 411 was used for ICE services, instead of the previously used five-part series 415. After problems with vehicle availability and delays, ICE operations on the Stuttgart-Zurich route were discontinued on March 21, 2010 and replaced by Intercity trains with Swiss Federal Railways carriages. Long-distance traffic was then operated solely with Swiss Federal Railways carriages until 2017. The ICE T trains were only to be used again when they were allowed to run at high speed again, which ultimately did not happen. The Swiss Federal Railways had previously opposed efforts by Deutsche Bahn to use rolling stock from the former Interregio on the international line.[16] In spring 2012, Deutsche Bahn spoke out at a European timetable conference in favour of discontinuing long-distance traffic between Stuttgart and Zurich, but was again defeated by resistance from the Swiss Federal Railways --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gäubahn traffic Long-distance traffic: Until the timetable change in 2017/2018, long-distance traffic only ran every two hours. Böblingen was not served from 2004 to 2013. Since December 2017, Deutsche Bahn IC2 trains have been running alternately with SBB sets. This results in an hourly service, with the SBB sets only stopping in Böblingen, and the IC2 trains also stopping in Herrenberg, Gäufelden and Bondorf. Since then, local tickets have also been valid on long-distance trains. Because their locomotives of the 146.5 and 147 series do not have approval for use in Switzerland, their journeys end in Singen. At the end of the day, a pair of trains also run from or to Radolfzell. Since December 2022, DB KISS multiple units with Swiss approval have been used until the IC2 can be used in Switzerland. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gäubahn traffic Regional transport: The Regional Express service on the Gäubahn is operated by Deutsche Bahn. In 2004, Deutsche Bahn switched the regional express trains on the Stuttgart-Singen route, which had previously only been operated with locomotives and n-cars, to the newly delivered series 425 multiple units, which were partially replaced by double-decker carriages pulled by series 146.2 locomotives from 2006. According to passenger statistics presented in mid-2015, the number of passengers on regional transport on the Gäubahn has increased by around ten percent since 2012. Since December 2017, the Intercity trains have been running hourly and are available for local transport tickets. They alternate between SBB EuroCity carriages and DB Intercity 2 sets, with the latter also serving the additional stops of the previous regional express trains, while the trains to and from Zurich only stop in Böblingen. In addition to this hourly service, the Regional Express line RE 14A continues to run between Rottweil and Stuttgart every two hours, with a branch in Eutingen and a section of the train running from there as line RE 14B to Freudenstadt.[36] Trains of the 442 series in the state design are used on this route. In addition, between May and October, the "Bodensee" bicycle express runs on weekends from Stuttgart to Radolfzell and Konstanz, which has space for up to 60 bicycles. S-Bahn train in Stuttgart-Österfeld station Between Herrenberg and Stuttgart-Rohr, the route is served by the S1 line of the Stuttgart S-Bahn. In Rohr, the trains change to their own S-Bahn line, which initially runs parallel through Stuttgart-Vaihingen to Stuttgart-Österfeld and from there forms the connecting line that leads underground to the main station, from where the S1 line continues to Kirchheim (Teck). In a southerly direction, the S1 already runs on the main track of the Stuttgart-Horb line at Stuttgart-Vaihingen station, but then switches back to the S-Bahn line for a short section to stop in Stuttgart-Rohr. The 430 series is used. The S-Bahn is also operated by Deutsche Bahn and runs every half hour. On weekdays, however, the S-Bahn runs every quarter of an hour during peak hours. Between Herrenberg and Eutingen, Deutsche Bahn operates regional trains during peak hours on weekdays that are coordinated with the S-Bahn timetable. However, some of these trains do not end in Eutingen, but in Bondorf. On weekdays, a Karlsruhe Stadtbahn train operated by Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft also runs between Freudenstadt, Eutingen and Bondorf, where it connects to the IC, which in turn can be used to reach the S-Bahn in Herrenberg. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Horb: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rottweil: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rottweil: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Immendingen: I would be very happy if the route also came to Train Simulator Classic 2024. Best regards BR430
