Royal Hanoverian State Railways

The Royal Hanoverian State Railways (German: Königlich Hannöversche Staatseisenbahnen) existed from 1843 until the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866. At that time its railway network, which comprised 800 kilometres of track, went over to the Prussian state.

The concept of the Kreuzbahn arose from the desire of King Ernest Augustus I to avoid having a central railway station in Hanover. The routes therefore ran into the district of Lehrte in the form of a cross (hence Kreuzbahn = cross railway) and, as a result, Lehrte developed into an important railway hub.

The government of the Kingdom of Hanover had initially taken over the construction of state railways, because no private sponsors could be found for the first railway lines that were planned. These were the routes:

The first line, a 16 kilometre stretch from Hanover via Misburg to Lehrte, was opened on 22 October 1843. Its extension towards Brunswick followed on 1 December 1843 as far as the state border at Peine; there on 19 May 1844 it was joined to the Duchy of Brunswick State Railway that owned almost a third of the now 60 kilometre long connexion between the two residenz cities. On 15 October 1845 the Lehrte–Celle line followed and on 12 June 1846 the Lehrte–Hildesheim line was finally completed.

From the Kreuzbahn the following additional lines were built under the direction of the Royal Hanoverian Railway which was founded on 13 March 1843:

The Celle–Harburg line via Uelzen and Lüneburg was opened on 1 May 1847 and on 15 October 1847 the Hannover–Minden line followed with its connexion to the main line operated by the Cologne–Minden Railway Company.

...
Wikipedia