Donauwörth–Treuchtlingen
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	DB Netz
Line number	5310
Locale	Bavaria, Germany
Termini	Donauwörth Treuchtlingen
Stations	3
Service
Type	Heavy rail, Passenger/freight rail Regional rail, Intercity rail
Route number	910
Operator(s)	Go-Ahead
History
Opened	Stages between 1844 and 1906
Technical
Line length	34.546 km (21.466 mi)
Number of tracks	Double track
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	15 kV/16.7 Hz AC overhead catenary
Operating speed	160 km/h (99 mph)
Route map km elev from Augsburg from Ingolstadt 0.000 Donauwörth 403 m to Neuoffingen to Nördlingen Wörnitz (150 m) Augsburg–Nördlingen (route until 1877) Federal highway 25 5.000 Berg crossover 11.344 Mündling 471 m 16.460 Fünfstetten 502 m to Monheim (Schwab) 18.400 high point 511 m 22.283 Otting-Weilheim 487 m 26.000 Gundelsheim (Schwab) 28.870 Möhren 29.289 Upper Möhrenbach bridge (183 m) 31.400 Treuchtlingen marble works siding 32.000 Lower Möhrenbach bridge from Munich 34.546 Treuchtlingen 420 m to Würzburg to Nuremberg Source: German railway atlas[1]

The Donauwörth–Treuchtlingen railway is a is a double-track, electrified main line in the German state of Bavaria. It branches off the Augsburg–Nördlingen railway in Donauwörth and runs across the Franconian Jura to Treuchtlingen.

The line is part of the core network of the Trans-European Networks.^[2] It is also part of the national long-distance connection between Munich, Augsburg and Nuremberg. Even after the opening of the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt high-speed railway, it is still used for long-distance services. It is also used as a detour during closures of the high-speed line for maintenance.

History

The first Bavarian railway, the state-owned Ludwig South-North Railway built from 1843 to 1853, bypassed the Franconian Jura, since it was uneconomical to climb it with the technology of the time. Instead, the line took a long detour via Nördlingen through the Nordlinger Ries depression, where only slight gradients had to be overcome. An intended side effect of this route was the possibility of a direct connection to the Württemberg railway network, which was realised in 1863 with the opening of the Stuttgart–Nördlingen line.

Treuchtlingen received its first railway connection on 2 October 1869 with the opening of a line from Gunzenhausen. At the same time, work was also being done on the extension of the Ingolstadt–Treuchtlingen railway to Treuchtlingen and the continuation from Treuchtlingen to Pleinfeld, which went into operation immediately afterwards. Treuchtlingen had thus become a small railway junction.

Planning, construction and commissioning

Working on a cutting in the Möhrenbachtal (around 1902)

As a result, planning began again for a direct route between Donauwörth and Treuchtlingen over the Alb. A committee made up of municipalities and companies initially unsuccessfully campaigned for the Bavarian state government to build the connection. It was only when the Munich-Treuchtlingen and Augsburg-Nördlingen-Nürnberg lines reached the limits of their capacity that the Bavarian state government took up the old plans to cross the Alb again. In contrast to the projects from the 1830s, it was now possible to dispense with the costly steep ramps with rope haulage that were designed at the time.

On 11 October 1901, the Bavarian parliament decided to build the Donauwörth–Treuchtlingen line, after land acquisition had begun ten years previously. The construction of the line, which began on 3 November 1903, proved difficult because of the many rock cuttings. Flooding and landslides delayed the work several times. On 1 October 1906, the main line, which was double track from the start, went into operation together with the Fünfstetten–Monheim branch line.

Route

The Donauwörth–Treuchtlingen railway begins at kilometre 0.0 in Donauwörth station. It branches off to the right of the Augsburg–Nördlingen railway, leaves Donauwörth in a northerly direction, crosses the Wörnitz valley, the former route of the line to Nördlingen and federal highway 25 that runs through the valley, and then climbs several kilometres to the slope above the Ellerbach on the Monheimer Alb range of the Franconian Alb. The watershed between the Wörnitz and the Altmühl is crossed at the high point of the line near Otting. From there, the line largely follows the Möhrenbach, which it crosses several times while running through its valley. At the level where the Möhrenbach flows into the Altmühl, the line reaches the Altmühl valley and Treuchtlingen station, where it meets the line from Munich and connects to the lines to Würzburg and to Nuremberg.

Engineering structures

On the southern section, the 150 metre-long Wörnitz Bridge is the longest bridge structure. It is a 3-span fishbelly girder bridge with each track having a separate superstructure.^[7][8]

Upper Möhrenbach bridge (2020)

Larger bridges on the northern section are the 183 metre-long Obere Möhrenbachbrücke near Möhren and the Untere Möhrenbachbrücke at Dickmühle. The Obere Möhrenbach Bridge has four spans and, like the Wörnitz Bridge, consists of fish-belly girders and a separate superstructure for each track.^[8]

Rolling stock

Alstom Coradia Continental (Treuchtlingen, 2012)

In regional traffic, electric locomotives of the 110, 111 and 143 classes with double-deck coaches were used until 2009. From December 2006, Modus carriages (converted from older rolling stock) were also used. Alstom Coradia Continental multiple units (class 440) ran from the end of 2009 to 2022.

Since the timetable change in December 2022, Siemens Mireo and Siemens Desiro HC multiple units have been used for the services operated by Go-Ahead Bayern. The RE 16 is usually operated with Twindexx Vario railcars. Class 612 diesel railcars are used for the Allgäu-Franken-Express.

Operations

Class 111 hauling double deck carriages of the Nuremberg-Augsburg Regional Express near Möhren (2007)

Intercity-Express near Möhren (2014)

The summer timetable of 1939 listed only four local passenger train pairs between Donauwörth and Treuchtlingen, which needed a little less than 40 minutes for the line. In contrast, the line was used by a large number of express trains, some of which did not stop in Donauwörth or Treuchtlingen. Long-distance connections existed in particular between Rome and Berlin or Zurich and Berlin with through coaches to Dresden and Breslau and between Merano and Kiel.^[9]

The commissioning of the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt high-speed railway in 2006 led to a significant shift in long-distance traffic to the new Munich–Nuremberg route. In long-distance rail passenger transport, Intercity Express and Intercity trains run on the line. Long-distance trains stopping in Donauwörth and Treuchtlingen only serve the route irregularly. However, the line capacities that were freed up could be used to increase the number of trains in regional traffic.

From 2006 to 2020 there were also direct connections between Nuremberg and Lindau and Nuremberg and Oberstdorf with Class 612 diesel multiple units under the Allgäu-Franken-Express name, since the section between Augsburg and Lindau or Oberstdorf is not electrified. The three pairs of trains occasionally stopped in Treuchtlingen and Donauwörth and, after the departure of many Intercity Express and Intercity trains from this route, created a fast connection between Augsburg and the long-distance hub of Nuremberg. The Allgäu-Franken-Express was eventually replaced by the Regional-Express lines RE 7 and RE 17.

Since the timetable change in December 2009, the Fugger-Express has been running between Treuchtlingen and Munich every two hours as a Regional-Express (RE). Since the timetable change in December 2022, these two-hourly trains have been extended to the Würzburg–Treuchtlingen–Donauwörth–Augsburg–Munich route and operated RE 80 by Go Ahead Bayern. Other regional express trains on line RE 16 on the Nuremberg–Treuchtlingen–Donauwörth–Augsburg route increase the number of trains to approximately hourly intervals.^[10] Treuchtlingen is today (as of 2023) with a slightly different symmetry minute every hour every half hour in regional traffic, where there are transfer options from the north (Nuremberg and Würzburg) to the south (Augsburg, Ingolstadt and Munich) and in the opposite direction.

Sources