Alster Valley Railway
| Alster Valley Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Native name | Alstertalbahn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line number | 1241 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line length | 5.7 km (3.5 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electrification | 1,200 V DC third rail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operating speed | 80 km/h (50 mph) (maximum) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route number | 101.1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Alster Valley Railway (German: Alstertalbahn) is a railway line in Hamburg, which is nearly six-kilometre long. It is entirely double track and is served by line S1 of the Hamburg S-Bahn along its entire length. It leaves the extension of the Hamburg-Altona link line at Ohlsdorf station and runs to Poppenbüttel. The original plans envisaged an extension to Wohldorf or Volksdorf.
Shortly after the turn of the century, several villages in the area around Hamburg, including enclaves of the city sought a connection to the city’s railway network. Apart from the Alster Valley line, this effort led to the construction of the Forest Villages line (Walddörferbahn), starting in 1912. This line later became part of the Hamburg U-Bahn and is now mostly served by line U1. Just one year after the signing of the Ohlsdorf Treaty, which was the basis for the Hamburg-Altona City and Suburban Railway—the precursor of the S-Bahn—on 12 December 1905, a community group formed to promote the extension of the suburban railway through Ohlsdorf to the Alster Valley and beyond.
The Havestadt & Contag Company of Berlin was engaged to plan the building of the line. It was planned that they would be built as follows: the line would run from Ohlsdorf on the Hamburg-Altona link line to Poppenbüttel, where the line would divide. An eastern branch would run to Volksdorf and a western branch to Wohldorf. Trains would serve the two branches equally.
The Alster Valley Company (Alstertal Bahn GmbH), which had been founded on 4 May 1908 to operate the route, negotiated with the Prussian government and the city of Hamburg. Under the compromise negotiated, it was agreed that the line would only initially run only to Poppenbüttel, as the following villages to be served were exclaves of Hamburg and thus needed an additional special license. The initial section was planned to be double track and electrified throughout from the beginning.
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Wikipedia