The West Rhine railway (German: Linke Rheinstrecke, or literally the 'left Rhine route') is a famously picturesque and worldwide known, double-track electrified railway line with a length of 185 kilometres running from Cologne in the north via Bonn, Koblenz and Bingen to Mainz, the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is situated close to the left bank of the river Rhine and mostly aligned to allow 160 km/h operation speed between Cologne and Koblenz and between Bingen and Mainz. Line speed between Koblenz and Bingen is restricted by the meandering nature of the Rhine and the amount of curves and tunnels.
The line crosses many picturesque and medieval towns such as Remagen and Andernach, and it offers many beautiful sights on the vineyards and the famous medieval ruins and castles. The northern part in North Rhine-Westphalia, between Cologne and Bonn, runs through a mostly suburban and flat landscape, with industrial zones and smaller cities. South of Bonn, the Rhine Valley narrows and the line runs closely to the a-road B9 at the banks of the Rhine. More than a dozen of castles and ruins can be seen from the train during the trip to Koblenz. This area is very famous for its great Riesling wines, although the bigger and more important wine areas are situated south of Koblenz around Boppard and south of the Loreley in the Rheinhessen area.
Until the construction of the high speed line between Cologne and Frankfurt/Main via Limburg, this route was one of the most important railway lines for passenger traffic in the western part of Germany. Famous trains like the Rheingold or even the Orient Express ran over this line and it still serves an important role as a European north – south freight connection, together with the route on the eastern bank of the Rhine.
The first section of the Rhine Valley line opened on 15 February 1844, by the Bonn–Cologne Railway Company (Bonn-Cölner Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) between the former station of Cologne St. Pantaleon and Bonn. The route was then extended further south on 21 January 1856, to Rolandseck (from where travellers to the south could board passenger ships of the famous Köln –Düsseldorfer river cruise operator), and in 1859 further north to the Cologne central station. St. Pantaleon station does not exist anymore.
After the takeover by the Rhenish Railway Company (Rheinische Eisenbahn Gesellschaft, RhE) on 1 January 1857 the line was extended in 1858 through Remagen and Andernach and crossed the Moselle to Koblenz via the Moselle railway bridge, opened on 11 November 1858. The Moselle railway bridge is a successor of other bridges, the first of these originally built by Romanians 2000 years ago, when Koblenz was founded.
The Renish Station in Koblenz, which was only provisional, was the southern end of this route, but in 1959, the Rhine Valley Line was extended to Bingen in the south. The building of this important mainline was one of the reasons why Koblenz lost parts of his city walls in the north, and, with the construction of Koblenz main station, which opened in 1890, Koblenz had lost bigger parts of his former Prussian city walls in the south, too. For the first time, it was possible to extend the city limits and build around next to the main station. Koblenz serves also as an important railway connection down the river Moselle into the Saarland, Luxembourg and to France. The Mosel Bahnhof in Koblenz-Moselweiß was the main freight hub in this area into and from the west, and, together with the railyard in Koblenz-Lützel, which is still present today, it was destroyed by allied bomber forces in late 1944, when almost 90% of Koblenz was burned to the ground. Today the railyard in Lützel is part of the DB Museum and holds a varierty of heritage locomotives and coaches, as well as some model railroads. The Moselbahnhof served as an important railyard for freight and passenger trains until the late 1960s. Today it is not present anymore and a new, but smaller rail depot was built by the Trans Regio railway company in the 2010s to give their fleet of modern Desiro ML EMUs a home.
In Koblenz, the Pfaffendorf Bridge over the Rhine was completed in 1864 to connect to the West Rhine Railway to Oberlahnstein via Niederlahnstein and further south to Rudesheim and Wiesbaden.
The bridge itself was integrated into the Prussian City walls of Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein and was fully integrated into the cities protection network of fortresses and fortified walls. It had towers at each and end heavy iron gates, which could be closed in case of emergency. With the construction of the Horchheim Bridge south of Koblenz, opened in 1879, and the Urmitz Bridge in the north, this bridge was progressively given over to pedestrian, vehicular and, eventually, tram traffic and the last train used it at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. The bridge was rebuilt to serve as a road bridge in 1934 and was destroyed at the end of WWII, like all other bridges, by the retreating Wehrmacht forces. A new, but only provisional bridge was built in 1946 and in 1953, the connection between Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein was re-established via the new built Pfaffendorf Bridge. The bridge has a four lane street and pedestrian sidings at each side. The bridge also made the pontoon bridge, which existed from 1819 until 1945 a little further north of the Pfaffendorf Bridge, obsolete. The Pfaffendorf Bridge is now one of the main entries into the city of Koblenz.
During the First World War three strategic Rhine crossings were built at the request of the German generals in order to bring troops and war materials to the Western Front. The Bingen–Rüdesheim ferry was replaced by the Hindenburg Bridge, built between 1913 and 1915 and connecting the East Rhine line with the West Rhine railway and the Nahe Valley Railway. From 1916 to 1918, the Neuwied–Koblenz line, including the Crown Prince Wilhelm Bridge, was built between Urmitz and Neuwied-Engers. The Ludendorff Bridge between Erpel and Remagen was built from 1916 to 1919. It connected the East and West Rhine railway lines and the strategically important Ahr Valley Railway. The Hindenburg, Ludendorff and Kronprinz-Wilhelm Bridges were destroyed in World War II. Only the Crown Prince Wilhelm Bridge was rebuilt, as the Urmitz Bridge, in 1954.
Until the opening of the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line, the line was one of the busiest in Germany. The fastest trains connecting the Rhineland and southern Germany ran on the line. The importance of the line for long distance travel has diminished since the opening of the high-speed line. The line is now generally used by one InterCity or Intercity-Express service (stopping at Bonn, Koblenz and Mainz) each hour, one Regional-Express train each hour (the Rhein-Express) and one RegionalBahn (stopping) train each hour in each direction, as well as by freight trains. Commuter services are provided by private railway companies as the „trans regio - Deutsche Regionalbahn GmbH” which operates the Mittelrheinbahn with the main hub being Koblenz. Before the opening of the high-speed line, freight trains were largely restricted to the Right Rhine line, but with the increased availability of train paths on the Left Rhine line many of them are now routed over it. This is big problem in the narrow parts of the Rhine Valley, because with a train every 3 or 4 minutes on each side of the valley, there is a lot of noise, especially at night.
A saying in this area states that: "Luckily the last train of the day passes at 23:58h … But the first train of the next day at runs at 00:02h."
TRAIN SIMULATOR 2016
Köln to Koblenz features as a key route in TS2016 and has been updated to take into account your feedback since its initial release. Also as part of the TS2016 update, all of the featured, included locomotives have also been updated to incorporate a brand new PZB system that will become the standard benchmark of future German content alongside new rolling stock sounds among the many fixes and updates.
Köln to Koblenz features all new challenging scenarios for the DB BR 155 which is included with the TS2016 package.
