Ulm–Friedrichshafen railway


The Ulm–Friedrichshafen railway, also known as the Württembergische Südbahn, is a non-electrified main line in the state of Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany. It was built from 1846 to 1850 and doubled from 1905 to 1913. During that time many of the station buildings were rebuilt. Its kilometre numbering begins as the Fils Valley Railway in Stuttgart Hbf.
The Southern Railway begins in Ulm and runs via Biberach an der Riß, Aulendorf and Ravensburg to Friedrichshafen. Several trains continue on the single-tracked line of the Lake Constance Belt Railway to Lindau.
The line has been undergoing upgrading and electrification since the spring of 2018, which requires line closures and replacement bus services. The work should be completed in 2021.

History

Under the technical direction of the civil engineer Ludwig Friedrich Gaab, commissioners Ludwig August von Autenrieth and Georg von Buhler examined an economic link between Ulm and Friedrichshafen from 1836. As an alternative, a canal connection was considered using the Riss and Schussen, which compared to a two-track railway connection promised slightly higher construction costs but much cheaper operations. With the act entitled Über den Bau von Eisenbahnen of 18 April 1843, the Kingdom of Württemberg finally decided to build several railway lines that could be considered as the Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Railway and would cover the most urgent transport needs of the kingdom.
The Southern Railway was part of a continuous railway line from the navigable Neckar in Heilbronn via Stuttgart and Ulm to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance. The examination of different route alternatives selected a direct connection from Ulm to Friedrichshafen.
The first isolated section of the line opened on 8 November 1847 between Friedrichshafen and Ravensburg. On 26 May 1849 this was followed by the section to Biberach an der Riss and on 1 June 1850 by the remaining section to Ulm. Initially, with a locomotive transported by horse-drawn wagons and nine wagons, a freight train carrying passengers ran as an island operation. As a result, Friedrichshafen had its own workshop from the beginning, since there was no connection to the railway’s Eßlinger workshop.
With the closing the gap of the Ulm–Geislingen section of the Fils Valley Railway from Stuttgart on 29 June 1850, the Royal Württemberg State Railways won the race to Lake Constance, three years before the Royal Bavarian State Railways and thirteen years before the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway.
Between 1905 and 1913 the Ulm–Friedrichshafen line was duplicated for military reasons.

1945–2011

After the Second World War, several stations that were located far away from the villages were closed down over the years. Similarly, with the exception of the Aulendorf–Herbertingen and Aulendorf–Kißlegg lines, all the branches with passenger services off the Southern Railway were closed.
Beginning in the 1990s, InterRegio trains operated between Saarbrücken and Lindau on the line. Since 1 July 1993, class NE81 diesel railbuses have been operated on the line popularly known as the Geißbockbahn between Friedrichshafen and Ravensburg by the Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn, founded on 15 October 1991, with services extended on 1 July 1997 to Aulendorf. As early as 1994, high demand led BOB to procure additional vehicles, including wagons borrowed from Hohenzollerischen Landesbahn. Some of the disused railway stations on the "billy goat railway" have now been reactivated. Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 diesel railcars have operated on the Southern Railway since autumn 1998 to cater for the increased traffic.
DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee has taken over the operation of local passenger services on the northern section of the Southern Railway. In 1999, the Laupheim West–Laupheim Stadt branch line, the last remaining section of the Laupheim West–Schwendi line, was reactivated, with services connecting to Langenau.

Since 2001

In 2001, InterRegio services were abandoned except for a pair of trains cut back to operate between Karlsruhe and Ulm. With the abolition of this type of train in late 2002, the remaining InterRegio train pair was replaced by an InterCity service on the Münster/Dortmund–Lindau–Innsbruck route.
As a replacement for the Interregio services, the Interregio-Express train class was introduced on 15 December 2002.
In July 2008, Biberach district and Deutsche Bahn decided to build an about 400 metre-long connecting curve from the Southern Railway to the existing line from Laupheim West to Laupheim Stadt station. This would let direct services run from Biberach via Laupheim Stadt to Ulm. Construction work on this started in June 2009 and was completed in 2011. As part of this upgrade, the entire signal system in Laupheim West station was modernised.
The Regionalverband Donau-Iller has proposed the upgrade of the Ulm – Biberach – Aulendorf section as part of the Regio-S-Bahn Donau-Iller. This would require the electrification of the line.
In addition, the construction of a new connection to the Ulm–Sigmaringen railway from Erbach to Ehingen was investigated in the course of planning for the Regio-S-Bahn Donau-Iller but was discarded.
To compensate for the impact on the timetable of building Merklingen station on the Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed railway, €3 million have been earmarked for upgrades on the Southern Railway. Due to the additional stop, the travel time for regional trains between Stuttgart, Ulm and Friedrichshafen would be extended by two minutes.

Operations

diesel multiple units run as InterRegio-Express services every two hours from Ulm via Friedrichshafen to Erzingen. Push–pull trains composed of locomotives of classes 218 or 245 and double-deck carriages are operated as a Regional-Express service every hour from Stuttgart via Ulm to Lindau, with the exception of one path, which is occupied by an IC train pair running between Münster and Bludenz. Regionalbahn services run hourly between Ulm and Biberach Süd and between Aulendorf and Friedrichshafen and Friedrichshafen Hafen. Between the peaks, Bad Schussenried is only served by the hourly RE service. The RB services are operated with class 650 diesel railcars belonging to DB Regio Alb-Bodensee, Bodensee-Oberschwaben-Bahn and HzL. The single InterCity pair of trains is also hauled by a class 218 locomotive.
On Sundays and holidays trains run between Ulm, Friedrichshafen and Lindau at two-hour intervals, partly as special bicycle trains. They mainly consist of three to four Silberling cars or double-decker cars with a bicycle or baggage car and a class 218 diesel locomotive. In summer, on some weekends, a bicycle train runs from Ulm Hbf to Friedrichshafen Stadt as the RadExpress Bodensee. Bicycles can be taken for free on this train.
The regional services ran on the line on the basis of an underlying transport contract between the state and DB Regio, which ended in 2016. Bids for a successor contract were called at the end December 2014 and it was awarded to DB Regio again in March 2016. Although the contract, which runs until 2023, entered into force in December 2016, it was only signed on 16 January 2017. The part of the contract covering the so-called Netz 2, the Stuttgart–Ulm–Friedrichshafen–Lindau route, accounts for 2.6 million train-kilometers per year, of which about 94,000 train-kilometers per year are located in Bavaria. The Geislingen –Ulm–Lindau RE service now operates every hour. Renovated double-decker cars with air conditioning, new seats, sockets on the square and Wi-Fi are used. In the winter 2017/2018, DB Regio came under criticism for crowded trains and delays.

Transport associations

From Ulm to Aulendorf the line is within the Donau–Iller Local Transport Network. From Aulendorf to Friedrichshafen it is within the Lake Constance–Upper Swabia Transport Association.

Upgrading and electrification

Today, the Württemberg Southern Railway is one of the few non-electrified double-track mainline railways in southern Germany. Electrification including the continuation to Lindau has been agreed. An upgrade to tap the potential for freight and possibly attract more long-distance trains to the line, which is currently only used by one Intercity train pair. The Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030 specifies a benefit/cost ratio of 2.7 for this measure. It is listed as an urgent need.

Planning and financing history

According to the Standardisierte Bewertung, a cost-benefit ratio of between 1.8 and 2.4 depending on the option was first calculated mainly as a result of travel time savings and reduced air pollution. The project costs were estimated early on as well over €100 million.
The state of Baden-Württemberg and Deutsche Bahn concluded a planning agreement on 30 June 2009. The results of the planning would be available at the end of 2012. Following a 2008 policy decision, the pre-planning cost of €1.24 million was financed by the Interessenverband Südbahn, bringing together 24 cities and towns along the line. In December 2010, Deutsche Bahn commissioned the project's environmental planning, which was to be completed between the end of 2010 and the end of 2013.
The planning approval documents for the first of five sections were submitted to the Federal Railway Authority on 18 August 2011. The documents were due to be submitted for all five sections by the spring of 2012. In autumn 2011, construction was expected to start in 2013. The line speed would be increased to 160 km/h in sections. The estimated cost of the construction of the electrification infrastructure over a total of 253 track-kilometres in September 2011 amounted to around €140 million. The government of Baden-Württemberg provided funding of €8 million for the design and planning approval process. In addition, Baden-Württemberg was willing to fund half of the construction costs. Commissioning was scheduled for 2015.
The cost was estimated at €140 million in the spring of 2012. As a precaution, a cost of €180 million was assumed. The federal and state governments agreed to share the financing of the estimated cost of €180 million. Baden-Württemberg provided its share of financing of €90 million in 2013/14. In autumn 2012, the cost estimate was raised from €180 to 226 million. The increase was due to the identification of water-logged ground, the need to upgrade cable ducts and the need for additional retaining walls. The increase in construction costs was accompanied by an increase in planning costs of €8.28 million, which became known in March 2013. The estimated cost of the overall project now amounted to €234.3 million. It was planned to complete the electrification by the end of 2017.
The financing of the additional costs has not been clarified. A financing agreement had not been reached in April 2013. At the end of May 2013, the documents for the planning approval procedure were submitted for the last two of the five sections. In mid-2014, Deutsche Bahn expected that all permits for all sections would be issued by the end of March 2015. Another delay became known in the same month. According to the Federal Ministry of Transport, the financing agreement would now be signed at the earliest in 2014. The need for additional geophysical investigations was mentioned as a reason for the delay.
According to the Federal Government in December 2013, the project would be completed in 2018. Negotiations on the conclusion of a financing agreement were carried out between the federal and state governments in early 2014. The state pushed for an agreement to be signed in 2014. At the beginning of February 2014, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Transport internally anticipated costs to increase to €206 million. The release of the planning documents for the two outstanding sections was planned for April and May 2014. The Federal Ministry of Transport announced mid-2014 that the "budgetary requirements for the start of construction on the Southern Railway currently do not exist". Incidentally, the project would become part of the newly modified Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2030.
At the end of 2014, Deutsche Bahn was expecting the planning approval decision in the spring of 2015, with the financing agreement signed in the late summer of 2015 and the start of construction in 2016. Three years of construction were planned. In November 2014, the state and the federal government agreed to complete the negotiations over the financing of the project in spring 2015 in Berlin. Baden-Württemberg stated in April 2015 that it would like preparatory work to start in 2015. The state was expecting the planning approval decisions within two to three months.
The Federal Ministry of Transport announced in January 2015 that no financing agreement could be concluded in 2015 due to a lack of funds. The government of Baden-Württemberg assumed in April 2015 that the planning approval decisions would have been made by the middle of 2015. The federal government refused to negotiate a financing agreement prior to the issue of the construction permit, which would be issued with the planning approval. Funding was provided in the state budget. The federal budget, however, provided no specific funding. The economic evaluation for the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2015, was nearing completion at the end of September 2015, showing a positive result. The state of Baden-Württemberg agreed in November 2015 to provide up to €112.5 million for the electrification of the line. In early December 2015, the federal government released funds from the 2015 budget for the electrification of the Southern Railway.
In 2016, the first ground-breaking ceremony for the upgrade was held in spring 2017 at the site of the new substation to be built in Niederbiegen.

Planning status and financing

The financing agreement between Baden-Württemberg and Deutsche Bahn was signed shortly before Christmas 2015. The state agreed to take over half of the eligible costs – up to €112.5 million of €225 million. The electrification would be completed by the end of 2021. A corresponding agreement would be concluded between the state and the federal government.
It was agreed that after electrification of the line, an hourly Oberschwaben-Express would run between Stuttgart and Lindau, along with an hourly express between Ulm and Friedrichshafen. Regio-S-Bahn services would run every half hour between Ulm and Biberachshould.
The project is divided into five planning approval sections, following district boundaries. It ends in Lindau at the junction with the line from Munich, which is also being electrified. In November 2016 all planning decisions were completed. The sections and planning stands are in detail:
The laying of a second track between Friedrichshafen and Lindau was planned around 2006 but was later abandoned.
In the summer of 2016, the construction of sections one and two was planned to be carried out in 2018.

Construction

The groundbreaking ceremony for the electrification took place on 23 March 2018. It took place at Niederbiegen, where an electrical substation is being built. The track between Ulm and Laupheim West was closed from 10 September to 8 December 2018 for the construction of the foundations of the catenary pylons. The commissioning of the entire electrification from Ulm to Lake Constance is planned for autumn 2021.
The planned track closures are shown in the table below:
StartEndSection
10 September 20188 December 2018Ulm–Laupheim West
11 March 201915 July 2019Laupheim West–Biberach
Biberach–Aulendorf
16 September 20193 November 2019Ulm–Laupheim West
4 November 201914 December 2019Biberach–Aulendorf
2 March 202012 July 2020Aulendorf–Ravensburg
24 September 202017 December 2020Ravensburg–Friedrichshafen
22 February 20214 April 2021Aulendorf–Ravensburg
5 April 202111 Juli 2021Ravensburg–Friedrichshafen

Operations

After completion of the project, the line will be operable on certain sections at 160 km/h instead of 140 km/h. Depending on stops made, travel time between Ulm and Friedrichshafen is to be reduced from 72 minutes in 2017 to 62 minutes. Freight traffic is expected to more than double between 2016 and 2030.

Footnotes