Saxon-Franconian trunk line

Saxon-Franconian trunk line (German: Sachsen-Franken-Magistrale) is a modern term for a double-track railway between the German cities of Dresden and Nuremberg. The line is 390 kilometres long and is currently electrified from Dresden to Hof. The concept of the Saxon-Franconian trunk line was developed in the transport policy debate in the 1990s during consideration of direct rail services connecting Dresden and Görlitz with Karlsruhe and Oberstdorf. The term is not traditionally used in relation to the railway lines now described by it.

The route runs from Dresden to the southwest through the Ore Mountain Foreland (Erzgebirgsvorland), running from Dresden to Zwickau parallel with the Ore Mountains. Between Plauen and Hof it passes through the Vogtland. The route then cuts through the Fichtelgebirge range, the Franconian Jura and Franconian Switzerland.

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The modern Saxon-Franconian trunk line is formed from several sections. The first section was opened on 6 September 1845 as part of a branch line connecting the Saxon-Bavarian Railway at Werdau rail triangle junction to Zwickau. On 31 May 1846, the route opened from Werdau rail triangle junction to Reichenbach. While the section between Plauen and the Bavarian border was opened on 20 November 1848, the intermediate section from Reichenbach to Plauen was not completed until the completion of the Göltzsch Viaduct on 15 July 1851. On the Bavarian side, the Neuenmarkt–Hof section was opened on 1 November 1848 as part of the Ludwig South-North Railway and it was extended to the border to meet the Saxon-Bavarian railway from Plauen also on 20 November 1848. The line from Neuenmarkt to Bayreuth was opened by the Royal Bavarian State Railways on 28 November 1853. It was the first Bavarian railway line to be built and leased to the state. The section from Bayreuth via Hersbruck to Nuremberg, the Pegnitz Valley Railway, was not opened throughout until 15 July 1877.

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