Bonn-Cologne Railway Company

The Bonn–Cologne Railway Company (German: Bonn-Cölner Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, BCE) is a former German Railway company, founded in July 1837 in Bonn and granted a concession on 6 July 1840 to build and operate a railway line between Bonn and Cologne.

Two options were examined for the route: a direct line along the course of the Rhine would have been cheaper. This would have passed through a sparsely populated area, which would have produced few passengers. Half a century later this route was used by the Rhine Bank Railway (Rheinuferbahn) built by another Cologne-Bonn railway (Köln-Bonner Eisenbahnen)—now line 16 of the Cologne and Bonn Stadtbahns.

Another option was built, a 29 km-long line, later part of the West Rhine line (Linke Rheinstrecke). It runs in a wide arc through Roisdorf, Sechtem, Brühl and Kalscheuren to St. Pantaleon station in Cologne. This terminal station was built immediately after passing through the Pantaleon gate of the medieval Wall.

The site for Bonn station was strongly debated. The location in Poppelsdorfer Allee was finally selected, because it was easier to extend the line from there to the south.

The first earthworks were built in March 1842. The line was opened on 15 February 1844 after a grand ceremony of inauguration on 13 February. From the summer of 1844 six daily pairs of trains ran. The first four locomotives came from Manchester.

In 1844, the BCE increased its capital to fund an extension to Koblenz and the shares were oversubscribed fourfold. Construction of the new route, however, was delayed partly because Bonn University protested to the Prussian king Frederick William IV against the fragmentation of Poppelsdorfer Allee (avenue) on its land. The king finally commissioned the landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné to design of the intersection of the railway and Poppelsdorfer Allee.

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