The Landau–Rohrbach railway (sometimes called the Südpfalzbahn—"South Palatinate Railway"—or the Queichtalbahn—"Queich Valley Railway") is a major line running from Landau in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate to Rohrbach in the Saarland. The main section between Landau and Zweibrücken was opened on 25 November 1875 after the first sections had already been opened between 1857 and 1867.
Although the Landau–Rohrbach railway was once a major east–west route for freight and was used for long-distance transport, the line is now used exclusively for regional passenger services.
Marketing names The alternate name of Queichtalbahn takes its name from the Queich river, which the line follows from Landau to Hauenstein. The line between Landau and Zweibrücken was built as a single line for the purposes of rail operations and was initially called the Südpfalzbahn or Südpfalz-strecke (Southern Palatinate railway or line), or occasionally the Queichtalbahn. Both terms are geographically somewhat misleading, as the line only runs through the Queich valley from Landau until shortly before Hauenstein and only the section from Landau to Hinterweidenthal is located within the Southern Palatinate.
Since 1994 the line has been split in the Deutsche Bahn timetable into two sections, east and west of Pirmasens Nord, the term Queichtalbahn is now mainly used for the eastern section from Landau to Pirmasens Nord,Heilmann/Schreiner 2005, p 153 while the western part is often called the Schwarzbachtalbahn (Schwarzbach Valley Railway) as the line runs from Pirmasens Nord to Zweibrücken through the valley of the Schwarzbach.
Route The Landau–Rohrbach railway begins in Landau Central Station (Landau (Pfalz) Hauptbahnhof). After leaving the station, it branches off the Palatine Maximilian Railway to the left and runs around the city of Landau in a wide arc. In the latter, it stops at Landau (Pfalz) West station and Godramstein station. It then runs along the Queich valley through the Südliche Weinstraße district. Between Godramstein and Albersweiler, it runs through the Palatinate wine region and crosses the German Wine Route at a level crossing next to Siebeldingen-Birkweiler station.
After Albersweiler, it runs through the Palatinate Forest (Pfälzerwald) to Hinterweidenthal on the northern edge of the Wasgau, which lies between the southern Palatinate Forest and the northern Vosges. It runs through the Annweiler and a landscape called the Dahner Felsenland, which has bizarre sandstone cliffs, castles on rocks, notably the “trinity castles” (Burgdreifaltigkeit) of Trifels, Anebos and Münz near Annweiler and rock formations between Rinnthal and Wilgartswiesen. In Wilgartswiesen, the Landau–Rohrbach railway leaves the Queich valley and runs through the Hinterweidenthal, a narrow depression that separates the Wasgau and the Middle Palatinate Forest, and it now passes through the Südwestpfalz district. After Hinterweidenthal Ost station, the Wieslauter Railway branches off to Bundenthal-Rumbach; it only operates from May to October on Sundays and public holidays. The Landau–Rohrbach railway leaves the Wasgau here and passes through the Gräfensteiner Land, the southwestern part of the Middle Palatinate Forest, running under the main watershed of the Palatinate through the Münchweiler tunnel. The railway then runs along the Rodalb river through Münchweiler an der Rodalb and after passing through the Neuhof tunnel to the town of Rodalben. Arriving at the western edge of the Palatinate forest, the line reaches the railway junction of Pirmasens Nord (formerly Biebermühle).
From Thaleischweiler-Fröschen to Zweibrücken, the line crosses the predominantly agriculturally dominated Westricher plateau. It runs through many curves through the Schwarzbach valley, which is located between rolling hills; the valley floor is mostly used as grazing land and its slopes are reserved for forests. Shortly before the confluence of the Schwarzbach with the Blies, it passed through Zweibrücken Central Station. It then crosses the state border with Saarland at Einöd and now runs through the Saar-Palatinate district.
Between Einöd and Blieskastel-Lautzkirchen it passes through the broad lowlands of the Blies, which is mainly covered by meadows and pastures. From Lautzkirchen it follows the wooded Würzbach valley, which separates the Kirkeler forest from the plateau of Bliesgau, which has a more open landscape character. It passes the Würzbach pond (Niederwürzbacher Weiher), a major regional centre for tourism and finally runs through Hassel to Rohrbach, where it meets the Palatine Ludwig Railway from Homburg. After a few kilometres St. Ingbert is reached.
History
Planning and construction (1844–1875)
Zweibrücken–Einöd and Bierbach–Saarbrücken sections Historically, the Landau–Rohrbach railway is an amalgamation of several lines. The oldest part is the Einöd–Zweibrücken section, which was created as part of the Blies Valley Railway (), a branch line from Homburg to Zweibrucken. In 1844, a committee was formed in Zweibrücken to promote a branch line from Homburg. Initially this project, however, met with resistance in both cities. Fears were raised that it would seriously damage trade and commerce in Homburg. In Zweibrücken the reservations were based on the fear that the town would now be exposed to considerable smoke pollution.
Once the Palatine Ludwig Railway was completed from Ludwigshafen to Bexbach, the railway engineer Paul Camille von Denis considered the plans and concluded that a line from Homburg to Zweibrücken would be profitable. Construction work began the line to Zweibrücken via Schwarzenacker on 1 June 1856 and the line was opened on 7 May 1857. The Ludwig Railway was extended during 1866 and 1867 from Schwarzenacker to St. Ingbert via Bierbach.
Landau–Zweibrücken section Early efforts were made to promote the building of a line from Zweibrücken to Landau; there was support for this especially in the towns in the Queich valley. The Palatinate Railway (Pfalzbahn) at first rejected this proposal because it opposed competition with the Palatine Ludwig Railway and it considered the construction of the section through the Palatinate Forest would be very costly. However, the Queich valley communities did not give up and continued to campaign for the construction of such a link. It would especially benefit Annweiler, which had growing industries, but the towns and villages between Landau and Annweiler would also benefit from a rail link.
Against this background, the planning committee initially considered, as an alternative solution, the establishment of a branch line from Landau to Annweiler. Then, however, the committee acceded to pressure from the city of Landau and also strongly supported the construction of a line from Landau to Zweibrücken. This time its efforts were successful: the committee was authorised to prepare a suitable design, but it had to finance this work itself. The necessary concession was issued on 1 April 1865.
There were disagreements over the route between Pirmasens and Zweibrucken, which were eventually reflected in two different designs. The first draft favoured a new line directly via Hengsberg, while the second option was an alignment through Walshausen and along the Trualbe through Hornbach and Ixheim. More detailed studies, however, led to the conclusion that it would be difficult to build a direct southern Palatinate line via Pirmasens on either route due to the difficult topography. Therefore, a new approach was developed, with the line running a few kilometres north of the city. It would, coming from the east, initially run through the valley of the Rodalb and then follow the Schwarzbach. This route had the advantage of only having a slight slope to overcome and only requiring one tunnel, the Neuhof Tunnel near Rodalben.
First, the Landau–Annweiler section was built, partly over sections of the Albersweiler Canal, which had been built in the late 17th century, and operations started on 12 September 1874. As early as 25 November 1875, the line was extended to Zweibrücken and connected to the link to the Palatine Ludwig Railway.Räntzsch 1997, p. 18 Conceptually, it was a direct continuation of the Germersheim–Landau railway and the official chainage (distance markings) run in sequence over both routes. At the same time, a branch line was opened from Biebermühle station, which is located at the confluence of the Rodalb with the Schwarzenbach, to Pirmasens. In addition, the original Zweibrücken station was not in an appropriate location for a through station and it had to be so moved to its present location. Although the line was initially built as a single track, its track base, engineering structures and crossings were designed to be duplicated.
Development for the main east-west link (1875–1945)
After the Bruhrain Railway (Bruhrainbahn) between Bruchsal and Rheinsheim had been extended to Germersheim in May 1877, the now continuous connection became one of the major freight routes in Germany,Räntzsch 1997, p. 6 carrying mainly coal and iron from the Saar region to the industrial centres of the upper Rhine and southern Germany.Daniel Häberle, 1913, p. 76 In contrast, passenger traffic played a minor role in the first few years. But this changed in the late 1880s, because now in addition to local trains, national and even international long-distance trains used the line.Daniel Häberle, 1913, p. 75 From 1890, the Queichtalbahn included long-distance trains on the Munich–Stuttgart–Bruchsal–Germersheim–Landau–Biebermühle (now Pirmasens Nord)–Zweibrücken–Rohrbach–St. Ingbert–Saarbrücken route. This high traffic density made it necessary to increase the capacity of the line, so that was the line from Landau to Bierbach was continuously duplicated from 1887.
The existing Hasseler Tunnel, which was opened in 1867 between Hassel and St. Ingbert, had over the years developed more and more structural defects, so that it could be operated at low speed for safety reasons. It was also quite small, with a width of 3.08 metres and a clear height of 4.44 metres. Above all, the military criticised the condition of the tunnel, since it was a bottleneck and thus was not sufficient to ensure, if necessary, the rapid transport of troops and ordnance to France. For this reason, an approximately 2.5 kilometre-long deviation was built between Hassel and St. Ingbert and taken into operation in September 1895, which also made to relocation of Hassel station necessary. The direct connection from Hassel to St. Ingbert was closed and dismantled, and all trains ran from that date ran on the new link between Hassel and Rohrbach. Also in 1904 a further shortening of Palatine Ludwig Railway was put into operation, running via Kirkel and Limbach. These changes had the effect of making the Rohrbach–Einöd–Zweibrücken line part of the South Palatine Railway from Landau to Saarbrücken.
On 1 December 1911, a branch of the Landau–Rohrbach railway, the Wieslauter Railway (Wieslauterbahn) was opened on the Hinterweidenthal–Dahn–Bundenthal-Rumbach route. From that time, the Bundenthaler service operated on this line on Sundays, starting in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, then running on the Palatine Ludwig Railway (Ludwigshafen–Neustadt), and the Palatine Maximilian Railway (Neustadt–Landau) and from Landau to Hinterweidenthal over the Landau–Rohrbach railway. A new junction station called Hinterweidenthal was opened specifically for this new line, while the existing Hinterweidenthal-Kaltenbach station was renamed Kaltenbach. In another name change carried out in 1936, the former station of Biebermühle was renamed Pirmasens Nord, although it is several kilometres away from Pirmasens, and is not even within the municipality’s boundaries. In addition, the performance of the line was improved with technical innovations, including at Zweibrücken station, which acquired two electro-mechanical signal boxes in 1940.