The ücke–Edingen–Mannheim Kurpfalzbrücke–Heidelberg railway is a metre-gauge railway between central Mannheim and Heidelberg-Bergheim. It was built by the former Oberrheinischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG (Upper Rhine Railway Company, OEG), later MVV OEG AG and is now operated by MVV Verkehr GmbH (infrastructure owner) and RNV (operations manager and train operator) according to Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebsordnung für Schmalspurbahnen (narrow-gauge railway regulations; ESBO). The route connects the Mannheim tram network with the Heidelberg tram network. However, the line is still owned by MVV Verkehr AG (the City of Mannheim's transport utility) as the successor to the OEG. It is operated as a branch line using electronic direct traffic control.
History
The first years of operations
Although Mannheim and Heidelberg were already connected by the Rhine Valley Railway since 1840, there were efforts in the 1880s to build a narrow-gauge railway between these cities in order to connect the smaller towns along the Neckar.
The Centralverwaltung für Secundärbahnen Herrmann Bachstein (Hermann Bachstein Branch Line Central Organisation), which had opened the Weinheim–Heidelberg railway along the Bergstraße ("Mountain Road") in 1890, opened the line from Heidelberg to Edingen on 6 June 1891 and opened the remaining section via Neckarhausen and Seckenheim to Mannheim on 13 July.
In 1892, the existing gap between the two OEG stations in Mannheim (the Weinheimer Bahnhof on the Mannheim–Weinheim railway north of the Neckar and Heidelberger Bahnhof south of the Neckar) was closed. However, this connection via the Friedrich bridge (now the Kurpfalz—"Palatinate"—bridge) was not used for public traffic.
Takeover by the SEG
The Bachstein company was absorbed into the South German Railway Company (Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG, SEG), founded by Bachstein in 1895, which took over the operations of the Mannheim-Weinheim-Heidelberg-Mannheimer Eisenbahn (MWHME) in 1897.
The construction of a freight only railway line from the Heidelberg SEG freight yard over its own bridge over the Neckar and through the Neuenheimer Feld to Dossenheim and continuing to Schriesheim was opened on 16 July 1906 to provide a direct connection to the Schriesheimer and Dossenheimer quarries, meaning that freight trains no longer had to run through downtown Heidelberg. This line was dual gauge so it could be used by metre-gauge and standard-gauge traffic, with some stations and company sidings being built for standard gauge only.
The first changes to the route in Heidelberg occurred in 1913. Until then, the line had run from the OEG station through Bergheimer Straße and then turned into Karl-Metz-Straße. At the end of the street there were the tracks of the state railway, which ran west to Ochsenkopf. The line had to be relocated later for the relocation of Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof. After that it ran along Blücherstraße to Ochsenkopf. At the same time, the Heidelberg OEG freight yard was opened at the southern end of Karl-Metz-Straße and at the end of the goods line through the Neuenheimer Feld. The new works were opened on 10 August 1913.
The First World War delayed the first planned extension of the electrification. Eventually, in 1928, the Mannheim–Seckenheim–Neckarhausen–Edingen line was electrified and the line between Mannheim and Seckenheim was duplicated. A new station at the Kurpfalz bridge in Mannheim called Bahnhof Mannheim-Kurpfalzbrücke or Heidelberger Bahnhof (meaning the station for the line to Heidelberg) connected the tracks to the Mannheim tram network. Some of the OEG trains now ran on the Paradeplatz–Schloss–Bismarckstraße route to the forecourt of Mannheim Hauptbahnhof (with a link through Tattersallstrasse to Bismarckstraße), but this link was closed in 1943 after devastating Allied air raids.
A direct, double-track, electrified line was also built in 1928 between Seckenheim and Wieblingen south of Edingen; this was opened on 6 October 1929 and was about six kilometres shorter than the single-track line through Neckarhausen. The original Edingen–Wieblingen section along the country road was replaced by a two-track and electrified line on a new alignment on 28 October 1928; the Wieblingen–Heidelberg section was simultaneously double-tracked and electrified. At the same time, Edingen (Baden) station was relocated to its present location and a new wagon hall was built.
Joint operations with the Heidelberg Tramway (HSB) started in 1929.