Reactivating an abandoned goods railway line
(Hesse)
Source: Stadt Viernheim
In 1994, Viernheim committed to considerably reducing the CO2 emissions. In order to achieve this goal, the town pursues an ecologically oriented urban development and a transport policy supporting ecomobility and trying to organise the motorised private transport in a city-friendly way.
Abandoning the goods railway line Weinheim-Viernheim in 2002 posed a large challenge to the town. The goods transport previously operated on this line was shifted to the road. In this context, opportunities to reactivte the line were verified with the goal to shift the goods transport from the road back to the railway.
Source: Stadt Viernheim
In 2003, the abandoned railway line Weinheim-Viernheim was offered for being taken over by third parties. In the context of its funding programme promoting the rail freight transport, the Federal State of Hesse tried to reactivate the line. A local non-governmental railway company was interested in continuing the operation of the line.
After having developed an innovative operational concept reducing the operational and maintenance costs, the rail freight transport was restarted in 2004. The line between Weinheim and Viernheim has since then been operated by the private Con-Train company. The long-distance goods transport is operated by Railion (successor enterprise of DB Cargo). By using road-rail vehicles, the redevelopment and maintenance costs for the railway line could be considerably reduced. These vehicles are used on roads and railways so that the track switches necessary for changing the locomotive did not need to be redeveloped. In this way, a sufficient efficiency could be guaranteed, the goods transport could be relocated to the railway and the lorry transport withint the town could be reduced.
The project was executed based on cooperation between the public sector (federal state, county and town governments), the German national railway company Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AB) and the private sector. Financing was ensured by the public (in terms of redevelopment costs) and the private sector (in terms of operating costs). DB Netz, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn AG responsible for the railway network, indirectly participated by granting favourable takeover conditions. 75% of the redevelopment costs were financed by the Federal State funding programme to promote the rail freight transport. The town council of Viernheim participated with about 95,000 euros. The operating costs (lease/maintenance) were for five years borne by private enterprises, the Deutsche Bahn AG and the county. A five-year transport contract ensured a minimum quantity of transport. The private operator Con-Train participated in the operating costs and bore the costs for developing and coordinating the operational concept, for calculating the redevelopment costs, for planning, for collateralising the funding amount and the train operation (train acquisition/approvals). As the railway operator, Con-Train also bears the risk of cost increases caused by redevelopment and maintenance activities.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2002 | goods transport railway line Weinheim-Viernheim abandoned |
| 2003 | line offered to third parties for takeover |
| 2004 | rail freight transport reactivated |
The project shows that it is possible by cooperations and new concepts to maintain railway lines and thus to avoid lorry transport in cities. By using a road-rail vehicle, the efficiency of the project could be increased thus making railway transport possible.
An essential factor of success is the cooperation among the various stakeholders. After the benefits had been pointed out to all parties involved, the financing was ensured on a cooperative basis. By involving private enterprises for maintaining the tracks, minimum transport quantities could be defined and participation in financing the measure could be made sure.
For the public stakeholders involved, the project offered the chance to ensure jobs in the region as well as rail freight transport and to keep the possibility of local public railway transport open.
The project location can be directly translated into Google-maps. Project in Google-Maps
The projekt site ist to be found at postal code: 68519 - town: Viernheim - street: Lilienthalstrasse 12.
Record inserted on 05.02.2010 by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR).
Last update: 18.05.2011
