Ammer Valley Railway

Ammer Valley Railway
Overview
Native name	Ammertalbahn
Locale	Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Termini	Tübingen Herrenberg
Line number	4633
Technical
Line length	21.4 km (13.3 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Minimum radius	215 m (705 ft)
Maximum incline	1.7%
Route number	764
Route map from Plochingen 0.0 Tübingen Hbf to Sigmaringen to Horb 0.2 DB Netz AG / ZÖA Infrastructure boundary 0.5 L 370 0.7 Neckar 0.9 Schlossberg tunnel (288 m) 1.2 B 28 1.6 Tübingen West 2.7 Ammer canal 4.3 Ammer canal 4.3 Ammer 4.5 Ammern 4.8 Unterjesingen Sandäcker 5.9 Unterjesingen Mitte 6.0 L 372 6.6 Enzbach 7.3 L 359 7.5 Pfäffingen 7.5 former Manna company sidings 8.3 Käsbach 10.0 Entringen 11.2 K 6916 11.4 Breitenholz 12.2 Hardtwald bridge 14.6 Altingen 14.8 K 6917 15.2 Tübingen-Böblingen district boundary 15.8 A 81 16.3 K 1036 16.9 former Rigips company siding 17.3 Gültstein 17.5 K 1039 18.0 18.8 18.9 Herrenberg Zwerchweg 19.3 L 1184 19.7 20.1 Aischbach 20.4 Stuttgart–Hattingen railway from Hattingen 21.4 Herrenberg Stuttgart–Hattingen railway to Stuttgart Source: German railway atlas

The Ammer Valley Railway (Ammertalbahn) runs through the German state of Baden-Württemberg, connecting the university town of Tübingen with Herrenberg in the Böblingen district. It mostly runs through the valley of the Ammer river. The single-track, non-electrified, non-federally-owned railway is now owned by the Zweckverband ÖPNV im Ammertal (ZÖA), with operations carried out by DB Regio AG. In addition, individual services are operated by the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn (HzL), acting as a subcontractor for DB Regio.

The Herrenberg–Pfäffingen section was opened on 12 August 1909, while the Pfäffingen–Tübingen section was delayed to 1 May 1910, partly because the construction of the Schlossberg tunnel had not been completed. The swampy ground in the Ammer valley also had to be treated, with 13 metre long oak logs being driven into the ground to stabilise the track. Not least, a citizens' initiative had opposed the approach advocated by Tübingen mayor Hermann Haußer for the rail project. Scholars and artists saw their popular promenades along the streets endangered by the railway line. The dispute was known as the Tübinger Alleenstreit ("Tübingen allee dispute"). The Schwäbische Heimatbund ("Swabian homeland association") was founded in 1909 during this dispute. Its goal at the time was to prevent industrialisation destroying any more of the old than was really necessary.

Deutsche Bundesbahn discontinued passenger services between Entringen and Herrenberg on 25 September 1966. The Entringen–Gültstein section continued to be operated for freight traffic until 31 January 1998, while the Gültstein–Herrenberg section was abandoned and eventually dismantled in 1973. The section, however, was never legally shut down and it did not pass out of rail ownership.

On 26 July 1995, the Zweckverband ÖPNV im Ammertal ("municipal association for public transport in the Ammer valley", ZÖA) was established and bought the line from Deutsche Bahn in 1996. The 4.1 km-long section between Gültstein and Herrenberg was rebuilt enabling the line to be reactivated for passenger services over its full length on 1 August 1999. The single-track, non-electrified line was completely modernised and prepared for operations at up to 100 km/h. The stations of Tübingen West, Pfäffingen and Entringen are crossing stations with two platform tracks. Entringen is the station where services are scheduled to cross. In Herrenberg, the trains operate exclusively from platform 102, in Tübingen they operate from platforms 1, 2 or 13. The line is operated using direct traffic control (Zugleitbetrieb) with the train dispatcher located in the Tübingen signalbox.

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Wikipedia