The üd–Gera Süd–Weischlitz railway (also known as the Elstertalbahn—"Elster Valley Railway") is a main railway line in the German federal states of Thuringia and Saxony, which was originally built and operated by the Saxon-Thuringian Railway Company (Sächsisch-Thüringische Eisenbahngesellschaft). It runs in the valley of the White Elster (Weiße Elster) from Gera via Greiz and Plauen to Weischlitz.
History
The original starting point of the line was at Wolfsgefärth station on the existing Prussian Leipzig–Probstzella railway. The section from Wolfsgefärth to Greiz went into operation on 17 July 1875. The second section from Greiz to Plauen lower station (Plauen unterer Bahnhof) was opened on 8 September and the last section was opened to Weischlitz on 20 September of the same year, where it connected with the Plauen–Cheb railway. However, the construction of the many bridges and the eight tunnels put the Saxon-Thuringian Railway Company into financial difficulties in 1876, so the line had to be sold to the Royal Saxon State Railways (Königlich Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen).
The Royal Saxon State Railways opened a separate route from Gera (Reuß) Sächs Stsb station (now Gera Süd) via Gera Ost and Gera-Liebschwitz to Wünschendorf on 1 December 1892. The original connection to the Prussian Wolfsgefärth station was abandoned at the same time. The new line required an elaborate new bridge over the White Elster and its floodplains at Liebschwitz.
The so-called "lower railway" (untere Bahn) was designed for the implementation of two-track operation throughout (tunnels, bridge abutments). In fact, the second track was installed only on the Gera–Wünschendorf and Plauen (Vogtl) Chrieschwitz–Plauen lower station sections. After the end of the Second World War it was dismantled.
The Elster Viaduct (Elstertalbrücke) on the heavily used line from Gößnitz to Plauen was blown up by the German army on 16 April 1945. In the autumn of 1945, it was possible to resume continuous train operations after the removal of the rubble. After the Second World War the line was of great importance for freight transport, since the towns on the White Elster were important industrial locations. There were also some long-distance rail passenger services to Czechoslovakia, since until the 1970s, the more easterly "upper railway" via Werdau and Reichenbach was partly only single-track due to the dismantling in the post war period and was therefore overloaded. Analogous to this was the use of the parallel Werdau–Mehltheuer railway as a relief route, but for connections to southern Germany. After the Reichenbach–Plauen line was restored to two tracks throughout, the utilisation of the lower railway also decreased. At the beginning of the 1980s, the operation of the Ex 68 Karola once again provided a high-quality long-distance connection in the form of diesel multiple units. This was made possible by the conversion from 1979 of the locomotive-hauled Vindobona trains from class VT 18.16 diesel multiple units. From 1981/82 only freight and local passenger traffic was operated. Typically class 112 (later class 202) locomotives were used in passenger traffic and class 120 (later class 220) locomotives were used in freight traffic.
After German Reunification in 1990, the importance of the route decreased. In the 1992/93 timetable, only one pair of Eilzug (semi-fast) trains were scheduled on the Greiz–Erfurt(–Fulda) and on the Gera–Adorf (Vogtl) routes. The freight traffic shrank to a few trains on the Greiz–Dölau route and some through trains to the Czech Republic. The branching Greiz–Neumark line was closed and dismantled in 1999.
Passenger services have been operated jointly by Vogtlandbahn and Deutsche Bahn since 9 December 2012. Vogtlandbahn operates services between Weischlitz and Gera, while Deutsche Bahn operates on the Elsterberg–Gera section.
There is a two-hourly cycle along the entire route with trains crossing in Elsterberg on the hour, while between Greiz and Gera trains run hourly, with trains crossing in Berga just before the half hour. Special excursions with steam locomotives run between Gera and Cheb, usually on weekends and holidays in the autumn.
Freight transport is normally restricted to trains between Gera and Greiz-Dölau, as well as transfers between Weischlitz and Plauen-Chrieschwitz. The wagons are hauled between Gera and Greiz-Dölau by locomotives of classes 203 , 261 or 294. The deliveries to the sidings in the Plauen municipal area (Zellwolle, Plauen lower station, Chrieschwitz) are hauled by class 261 locomotives (as of May 2013). These wagons are detached in Plauen ob Bf and transferred to the line to Cheb ("upper railway") and reverse in Weischlitz.