Schwandorf–Furth im Wald railway

History

The Bavarian Eastern Railway Company (German: Königlich privilegirte Actiengesellschaft der bayerischen Ostbahnen) received a license from King Maximilian II to build the line on 12 April 1856. The first section from Schwandorf to Cham was opened five years later, on 7 January 1861. The section between Cham and Furth im Wald was opened on 20 September 1861. A month later, on 15 October 1861, the Plzeň–Furth im Wald line reached Furth station, completing a continuous link between Nuremberg and Prague. 15 years after the opening of the line, the Bavarian Eastern Railway was nationalised and the line became part of the Royal Bavarian State Railways. Four branch lines were built, connecting to the line. The first two lines branched off from Cham station, one to Lam (opened in 1891) and the other to Waldmünchen (opened on 1 August 1895). In Bodenwöhr Nord the branch to Rötz was opened on 3 August 1896 and on 5 November 1907 the branch to Nittenau followed. Since 2001, services have been operated by Regentalbahn AG (RAG) under the name of Oberpfalzbahn.

Route

The line leaves Schwandorf station and passes under the A 93 autobahn to the east. In the Wackersdorf area, the Upper Palatinate lakeland lies to the right of the line; these lakes have been developed since 1982 from the excavations created by the mining of brown coal. From Altenschwand the line runs through the Upper Bavarian Forest Nature Park (Naturpark Oberer Bayerischer Wald), passes through the Taxölderner forest and reached the former Bodenwöhr railway junction, where the now disused railway line to Rötz branched off.

The line to Nittenau, which is now used only for freight, also branches off in Bodenwöhr.

The line then runs through Neubäuer forest and meets the Regen river near Roding and follows it to Cham. Near Chammünster the line branches off the line to Lam to the north east and follows the Chamb through the Cham-Further depression to Furth im Wald and continues to Plzeň.

Development stage

The line is entirely single track and non-electrified. In the short term it is planned to carry out small improvements to straighten the line to Plzeň. There are also proposals to rebuild the line between Roding and Furth im Wald as part of a line known as the Danube–Vltava railway, a high-speed line between Munich and Prague.

Operations

Until the 1970s, most of the traffic on this line was steam-hauled. Several classes of locomotives that were originally built for Bavarian State Railways and Deutsche Reichsbahn were used on the line. Various Czech steam locomotives ran to Furth im Wald. In the 1950s the first diesel locomotive was used on this route.

Regionalbahn services on this line are operated with Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 diesel railcars. Two Regional-Express services, stopping at Schwandorf, Roding (some services), Cham and Furth im Wald are operated by Deutsche Bahn between Nuremberg and Furth im Wald with class 612 or class 610 tilting diesel multiple units. Four pairs of expresses run to Prague. Two of them start in Nuremberg and two in Munich. These services were originally operated by Deutsche Bahn. Since December 2007 the services from Munich have been operated as the Arriva-Länderbahn-Express (brand named ALEX) by Vogtlandbahn. The services from Nuremberg have been operated as ALEX since December 2009.

Rail services on the line are part of the Regionalzügenetz Ostbayern ("regional rail network of Eastern Bavaria"), which is managed by the Bayerische Eisenbahngesellschaft ("Bavarian Railway Company"), with operations run under contract.