Neumünster–Bad Oldesloe railway

Neumünster–Heide

Overview

Locale

Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Line number

1042

Technical

Line length

63 km (39 mi)

Track gauge

1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) standard gauge

Route number

132

Route map

From Kiel and Flensburg

From Heide (Holst)

From Ascheberg (Holst)

74.7

Neumünster

To Hamburg

76.7

Neumünster Süd

To Hamburg

B 205

83.2

Kleinkummerfeld

86.1

Rickling-Ölweiche

90.9

Rickling

96.8

Wahlstedtsince 2002

From Wahlstedt industrial area

99.4

103.1

108.2

112.0

115.3

117.2

119.6

Source: German railway atlas

The Neumünster–Bad Oldesloe railway is an approximately 45-kilometer-long single-track, non-electrified main line in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It connects the central Holstein town of Neumünster with Bad Oldesloe, the seat of the district of Stormarn. Since December 2002, passenger services on the line have been operated by Nordbahn Eisenbahngesellschaft.

The line was opened on 10 December 1875 by the then Altona-Kiel Railway Company (Altona-Kieler Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, AKE). In 1884, the railway company was nationalised. Until 1945, the line was considered as an extension of the Hagenow Land–Bad Oldesloe railway in Mecklenburg. The kilometre stones of this route still stand on the track (the zero stone is in Neumünster). The track is currently given the route number 1043 beginning in Neumünster (at km 74.376) and ending in Bad Oldesloe (km 119.886).

The line had strategic importance as it was possible for trains to run on the route from Neumünster to Hamburg via Bad Segeberg. This was used mostly for freight transport. From the late 1950s to the 1970s an express service ran on the Flensburg–Neumünster–Bad Oldesloe–Hamburg ran route in the morning.

Passenger traffic on the Neumünster–Bad Segeberg section was closed on 29 September 1984. Part of the line continued to be used for freight and the whole line was kept operational. Freight operations were abandoned between Kleinkummerfeld and Rickling on 25 September 1988 and between Neumünster and Kleinkummerfeld on 30 May 1990. As the Federal Transport Ministry had not approved the abandonment of passenger traffic on the rest of the route as requested by Deutsche Bundesbahn, passenger services on the remaining section from Bad Segeberg to Bad Oldesloe were operated hourly from the summer 1989 timetable. Deutsche Bundesbahn operated class 628 diesel multiple units. In December 2002, the disused section was reactivated for passengers after numerous delays. The existing Kleinkummerfeld station was not put back into operation until 1984. Rickling-Ölweiche station had been abandoned at the time of cessation of services between Neumünster and Bad Segeberg in 1984 and had not been maintained for several years before that. Neumünster Süd AKN station and Wahlstedt station have only been served since the reactivation of the line.

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Wikipedia