Lauter Valley Railway (Palatinate)

Lauter Valley Railway
Overview
Native name	Lautertalbahn
Locale	Rhineland-Palatinate
Termini	Kaiserslautern Lauterecken-Grumbach
Line number	3302
Technical
Line length	34.5 km (21.4 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Minimum radius	185 m (607 ft)
Maximum incline	1.4%
Route number	673
Route map from Mannheim 0.0 Kaiserslautern Hbf to Saarbrücken 1.4 Kaiserslautern-Pfaffwerk 3.3 Kaiserslautern West 0.5 Kaiserslautern West 0.0 3.3 Lauter viaduct (Bundesautobahn 6) 4.6 Kaisersmühle until 1912 to Otterberg 7.7 Lampertsmühle-Otterbach to Reichenbach 9.0 Sambach until 1912 10.6 Katzweiler 13.0 Hirschhorn/Pfalz 15.0 Untersulzbach 17.0 Olsbrücken 19.3 Kaulbach until 2000 19.8 Kreimbach-Kaulbach 20.4 Kreimbach until 2000 22.0 Stahlhausen-Rutsweiler until 1914 22.6 Roßbach (Pfalz) 24.5 Wolfstein Eisenknopf Tunnel (91 m) 26.5 Oberweiler-Tiefenbach until 1912 27.6 Reckweilerhof 30.7 Heinzenhausen 32.2 Lohnweiler 33.2 Lauterecken until 1912 Glan from Homburg 34.3 Lauterecken Halt 1896–1904 34.5 Lauterecken-Grumbach to Staudernheim Source: German railway atlas

The Lauter Valley Railway (German: Lautertalbahn) is a branch line in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It runs from Kaiserslautern along the Lauter river to Lauterecken. The railway, which was opened in 1883, has only regional importance. Deutsche Bundesbahn planned in the 1980s to close the line. Its existence has now been secured since the establishment of Deutsche Bahn. While freight traffic was discontinued in the 1990s, there has been growth in passenger demand.

In about 1860, a committee was formed called the Notabeln des Glan- und Lautertales (Notables of the Glan and Lauter valleys), which was based in Wolfstein. It campaigned for a railway line that would branch off from the Palatine Ludwig Railway in Kaiserslautern and continue along the Lauter and the lower Glan valleys, connecting in Staudernheim with the Rhine-Nahe Railway, which was completed in 1860. A concession for the line was granted in the mid-1860s. The committee sent a proposal to the Ludwigshafen-based headquarters of the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company (Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn-Gesellschaft). The project was in competition with the line along the Alsenz. After the opening, in 1870, of the Alsenz Valley Railway (Alsenztalbahn), which at the beginning was seen as a route for long-distance traffic, the probability of a rail link via the Lauter dropped significantly.

A plan for a main line railway was prepared in 1874. The estimated cost of a line along the Lauter including a branch to Otterberg totalled 3.58 million guilders. At first, there was a dispute over the route. For example, the town of Otterberg, which is located outside the Lauter valley, advocated a route through Otterberg. A new petition of the communities on the Lauter in 1877 supported a route along the Lauter. It was decided to build the Lauter Railway as a secondary line and the plan for a branch to Otterberg was postponed.

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