Gotha–Leinefelde railway

Gotha–Leinefelde
Exterior of Mühlhausen station
Overview
Locale	Thuringia
Line number	6296
Technical
Line length	67.1 km (41.7 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Route number	604
Route map  Operating points and lines  from Eisenach from Gräfenroda 0.0 Gotha from and to Erfurt 3.2 Gotha Ost from Großenbehringen 7.3 Bufleben 12.1 Ballstädt (b. Gotha) to Straußfurt 16.2 Eckardtsleben from Kühnhausen from Haussömmern 21.3 Bad Langensalza 26.0 Schönstedt 29.3 Großengottern 33.3 Seebach (Kr. Mühlhausen) from Ebeleben from Treffurt 39.9 Mühlhausen (Thür) 43.0 Ammern 48.4 Dachrieden 53.2 Breitenbach (Eichsfeld) 57.8 Silberhausen to Hüpstedt from Treysa 58.9 Silberhausen Trennung station 63.7 Birkungen from Nordhausen 67.1 Leinefelde to Kassel

The Gotha–Leinefelde railway connects Gotha and Leinefelde in the German state of Thuringia. It was opened in 1870 by the Thuringian Railway Company (German: Thüringische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft). The line is about 67.1 km long. Regional-Express line 612 services operate every two hours on the line between Göttingen and Chemnitz and Zwickau. Erfurter Bahn operates services every two hours using Regio-Shuttle diesel multiple units. The running time is 40 minutes (Regional-Express) and 65 minutes (Erfurter Bahn) each way. It is thus part of the fastest connection from Jena, Weimar and Erfurt to Hanover.

Already in the 1840s proposals for a railway from Frankfurt to Bavaria via Thuringia was under discussion. When construction of the Hanoverian Southern Railway (Hannöverschen Südbahn, Hanover–Göttingen–Kassel, opened in 1854) and the Werra Railway (Werrabahn, Eisenach–Meiningen–Coburg, opened in 1859) started, a connection was planned from these lines to Mühlhausen. From Göttingen to Leinefelde the line was shared with the temporary western end of the Halle–Kassel line (Nordhausen–Leinefelde–Arenshausen–Friedland–Göttingen, opened in 1867). However, the countries involved (Hanover, Prussia, Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) for a long time could not agree on an alignment, in particular the southern terminus (Eisenach, Gotha or Erfurt) was controversial. In the end, they agreed on Gotha, allowing construction to begin in 1868. In 1870, it was opened to traffic. The line connected with the existing line from the east (the Thuringian Railway, opened in 1847) in Gotha station in order to connect with the Werra Railway. This means that passengers still usually have to change trains in Gotha to reach Erfurt. The originally planned extension from Gotha to the south was never built.