The Orla Railway () is a 14.9 kilometre long branch line in

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

, that runs from

Orlamünde Orlamünde () is a small town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is part of the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' ("collective municipality") Südliches Saaletal. Geography The town centre stretches along the steep banks of th ...

on the Saal Railway to Pößneck's "lower station" (''unterer Bahnhof''). Until 1946 there was a continuation of the line to Oppurg on the Leipzig–Gera–Saalfeld railway. The 11.7 km long line, that branches off in Orlamünde from the Saal Railway south of

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and is only operated today as far as the lower station in Pößneck, was inaugurated on 1 October 1889 to this station. A second section of line followed, from Pößneck lower station to Oppurg, which was opened in 1892 and closed again in 1946, because that section went after the war to the then

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

as a

war reparation War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...

. The section remaining today underwent a full renovation (''Grundsanierung'') in 1999/2000. In the years that followed an hourly service was introduced on this line and, since the 2001 timetable change, the services connect to Jena Saal station (''Jena Saalbahnhof'').

External links

The Orla Railway1944 timetable
{{Authority control Orlamunde–Oppurg Saale-Orla-Kreis Saale-Holzland-Kreis