Rodgau railway

The Rodgaubahn was a single-track railway line running from Offenbach (Main) main station via Rodgau to Rödermark-Ober-Roden. The name Rodgaubahn is derived from the medieval term Rodgau, a part of the former Maingau, which it crosses in its entirety.

History

From around 1870, there were serious efforts and attempts at local level to open up Rodgau by railway, but these were not initially taken up by the state. After the first, unsuccessful initiative, a "railway committee" was formed in 1877. But even this committee only received an answer from the state capital Darmstadt four years later, allowing it to begin preliminary work on the Offenbach-Reinheim railway project at its own expense. It was not until 1888 that the government finally gave its approval and, after further discussions about connecting the railway in Offenbach to the Prussian state railway, planning permission was granted in 1895.

In Offenbach, it was initially decided to build a separate station south of the Prussian State Railway station. The line was built by the Grand Ducal Hessian State Railways. It was not until 30 October 1896 that the new line from Offenbach via Dieburg to Reinheim (today: route number 3661) with a length of 42.2 kilometres was opened.

In the following years, the Rodgaubahn was connected to two other railway lines:

  • On 1 December 1898, the Offenbach-Bieber-Dietzenbach line was opened as a branch of the Offenbach-Bieber line.
  • On 1 April 1905, the newly opened Dreieichbahn from Buchschlag was connected to the Rodgaubahn, as it was known from around this time.

In 1923, the railway facilities in Offenbach's urban area were raised in an embankment position in order to achieve freedom of crossing with road traffic. To this end, a new main railway station was built in Offenbach, into which the Rodgaubahn, whose own station was abandoned, now also ran.

Impressions

Operation

Initially, four pairs of trains ran daily. After the Dreieichbahn was connected, there were only two continuous pairs of trains between Offenbach and Dieburg. The trains were initially steam-powered, but after the Second World War they were increasingly diesel-powered. The importance of the connection lay in the growing commuter traffic from the northern Odenwald and the eastern district of Offenbach to the jobs in the leather goods industry in the city of Offenbach.

  • On 28 May 1965, passenger services between Dieburg and Reinheim were discontinued, partly because of the parallel bus line.
  • In 1967, this line - initially only between Dieburg and Groß-Zimmern - was dismantled. Goods trains still travelled to and from the Odenwaldbahn via the line to Darmstadt Ost until this was also closed in 1970.
  • In 1989, the remaining section of the line to Reinheim was also dismantled.

S-Bahn

Conversion of the line to S-Bahn operation was already being discussed at the end of the 1950s. However, it was not until 23 March 2001 that the conversion of the Rodgaubahn to a double-track, electrified line as part of the Frankfurt S-Bahn network began.

In the course of the extension work

  • 13 stops and stations modernised and 2 new ones built
  • 15 bridges built
  • 18 level crossings secured with new barrier systems

At the timetable change on 14 December 2003, S-Bahn operations commenced and the Rodgaubahn was integrated into the S-Bahn Rhein-Main network operated by DB Regio AG. It is served by the S1 (Wiesbaden-Ober-Roden) - and in its northern section also by the S2 (Niedernhausen-Dietzenbach). Initially, an extension of the S1 to Dieburg was considered, but this failed due to a lack of economic viability. As a result, the section from Ober-Roden to Dieburg was not electrified.