Frankfurt-Offenbach Local Railway

The Frankfurt-Offenbach local railway (German: Frankfurt-Offenbacher Lokalbahn) was a former railway in the Frankfurt am Main area, which developed from the state-owned Frankfurt-Offenbach Railway (Frankfurt-Offenbacher Eisenbahn). The line opened in 1848 and was one of the oldest railways in Germany. It was the first railway line between the Frankfurt and the nearby city of Offenbach and operated until 1955.

While the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hesse-Darmstadt) was developing plans for the construction of the Main-Neckar Railway (connecting Frankfurt and Heidelberg), a local company proposed in the late 1830s to build a line along the south bank of the Main, connecting the line with Offenbach, one of the most important commercial cities of the Grand Duchy. The project failed in 1841 for lack of funds.

The Free City of Frankfurt had misgivings about a connection between Darmstadt and Offenbach, but it supported a rail connection between Frankfurt and Offenbach. The Grand Duchy and the Free City of Frankfurt signed an agreement on 12 December 1842 to establish a joint state railway company, known as a condominium railway (Kondominalbahn) and to construct the line. This would connect with the Main-Neckar Railway, construction of which was about to start.

The terminus of the line was in Offenbach on a plot of land northwest of the centre of the city at that time. This area was west of Kaiserstraße between Domstraße and Bahnhofstraße (streets). The station—later called Lokalbahnhof—was built on the eastern edge of Sachsenhausen between Darmstädter Landstraße, Heisterstraße and Dreieichstraße and was originally called Sachsenhausen station, later Old Sachsenhausen station. Stations were also built north of Oberrad and at the current street of Wasserhofstraße.

Difficulties in acquiring land north of Oberrad and the opposition of carters in Frankfurt delayed the start of operations. The originally planned commencement of services on 1 August 1846, simultaneously with the opening of the Main-Neckar railway, was not achieved. Services also did not start on 1 August 1847, despite the completion of railway facilities. Instead, freight trains ran only three times a week at night from 23 August, operating in what had been declared publicly as a trial.

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