Katzenberg Tunnel
The southern portal of the two tubes of the Katzenberg Tunnel
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Line | Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway |
| Location | Bad Bellingen and Efringen-Kirchen, Germany |
| Coordinates | North portal: 47°44′32″N 7°33′37″E / 47.74222°N 7.56028°E South portal: 47°39′30″N 7°34′32″E / 47.65833°N 7.57556°E |
| Start | Bad Bellingen |
| End | Efringen-Kirchen |
| Operation | |
| Work begun | 2003 |
| Opened | December 4, 2012 |
| Owner | Deutsche Bahn |
| Traffic | about 57 passenger trains(status: 2012) and about 160 goods trains (traffic on the existing route in 2007) |
| Character | 2 bores |
| Technical | |
| Design engineer |
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| Length | 9,385 m (30,791 ft) |
| No. of tracks | 2 |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge |
| Electrified | 15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary |
| Operating speed | 250 km/h (160 mph) (max) |
The Katzenberg Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway that opened in December 2012. The tunnel was built to increase the capacity and speed of the Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway (Rhine Valley Railway, or Rheintalbahn in German) and was built to remove the freight traffic from the towns on the old line. The two parallel, single-track tunnels, which can be passed at up to 250 km/h, extend from Bad Bellingen to Efringen-Kirchen With a length of 9,385 m, it is the third longest tunnel after the Landrücken Tunnel and the Münden Tunnel and the longest twin-bore tunnel in Germany.
The reduction in journey times for long distance passenger trains between Freiburg and Basel initially amounts to two minutes. After the completion of the entire section of line, the journey time will be around15 minutes shorter. At night a few freight trains and during the daytime many freight trains are routed through the Katzenberg Tunnel.
The tunnel and its connection to the existing network cost a total of approximately €610 million. The line was cleared for operations by the Federal Railway Authority (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt) on 4 December 2012. The opening ceremony took place on the same day. Regular operations began on 9 December 2012.
The tunnel is part of a 17.6 km-long section of new line and is situated between kilometres 245.410 and 254.829 of the old line (DB network route number 4280).
The tunnel is named after the Katzenberg (a mountain with a height of 397 metres (1,302 ft)), which lies about 1.2 km east-northeast of Wintersweiler and a few hundred metres east of the tunnel. It passes through the periphery of the Markgräfler Hügelland (Markgräflerland high lands) The north portal is at Bad Bellingen and the south portal is at Efringen-Kirchen. In its course, the tunnel passes through the localities of Hertingen and Bamlach (line km 248), Rheinweiler (km 249), Blansingen and Welmlingen (km 251), Mappach (km 252), Wintersweiler (km 253) and Efringen and Efringen-Kirchen (km 254).
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