The Soden Railway is a line in the western suburbs of

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and was one of the oldest railways in Germany, opened in 1847.

Route

The Soden Railway runs from Frankfurt-Höchst to

Bad Soden am Taunus Bad Soden am Taunus (, ), commonly known as Bad Soden, is a town and spa in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, Hessen, Germany. It had a population of 22,563 , up from 21,412 in 2005. Information Bad Soden is a residential town for commuters working in Fr ...

and is 6.6 km long. It was also called the Höchst–Soden Railway. The line has timetable route number 643 and is operated as line RB 11 of the

Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) is a List of German transport associations, transport association that covers the Public transport, public transport network of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area in Germany. Its head offi ...

History

The line was opened on 22 May 1847 and is might be described as the first German branch line. In Höchst it connects with the

Taunus Railway The Taunus Railway (German: ''Taunus-Eisenbahn'') is a double-track rail electrification, electrified railway line, which connects Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof, Frankfurt and Wiesbaden Hauptbahnhof, Wiesbaden, Germany. It is 41.2 km long ...

opened in 1839 from Frankfurt to

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

. It was built to connect the emerging

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, Ba ...

of Soden to the new rail network. The builder and owner of the line was the ''Soden Company'' (). The line was managed from the beginning by the Taunus Railway Company. Since 1972, there has been a connection in Bad Soden to the Limes Railway to Niederhöchstadt, which connects Bad Soden with the

Rhine-Main S-Bahn The Rhine-Main S-Bahn system is an integrated rapid transit and commuter rail, commuter train system for the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, which includes the cities Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz, Offenbach am Main, Hanau and Darmstadt. The ...

network.

Operations

The railway was originally only operated in the summer months. In 1860 the operating company stopped operations and demanded subsidies from the Nassau Government, which refused. Operations only resumed on 1 October 1863 after the track had been sold to the ''Taunus Railway Company'' for 100,000

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

s. On 1 January 1872 the ''Soden Railway'' was sold to the

Prussian state railways The term Prussian state railways (German: ''Preußische Staatseisenbahnen'') encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the state of Prussia. The words "state railways" are not capitalized because Prussia did not have a ...

and subsequently ran all year. From 1979 to 1997 Soden Railway formed part of S-Bahn line S3. In addition, the line was electrified. Train patronage was very poor, so S-Bahn services were abandoned. From 1997, the ''Frankfurt-Königsteiner Eisenbahn'' operated the line. These operations have since been rebranded as

Hessische Landesbahn Hessische Landesbahn (Hessian State Railway, HLB) is a regional transport company owned by the German state of Hesse, based in Frankfurt am Main. It provides bus and rail passenger transport services and, to a lesser extent, rail freight services ...

(Hessian State Railways). Despite the fact that the line is electrified, it had been operated, along with the Hessische Landesbahn's other routes through the Taunus, by a

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

for many years (usually a LHB VT 2E, sometimes a LINT). Since 2019, the line has been operated by

electrical multiple units An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

(

Alstom Coradia Continental The Alstom Coradia is a family of diesel multiple units, electric multiple units, and unpowered rail cars for intercity and regional service manufactured by Alstom, with variants operating in Europe, North America, and Africa. Design The Cor ...

)

Future

The section south of the A 66 autobahn would from part of the proposed Regionalstadtbahn ''Regionaltangente West'' line through the western fringes of Frankfurt. If built, this would have a new station called ''Zuckschwerdtstraße''.

Notes

References

*Track data from {{coord missing, Hesse Railway lines in Hesse Railway lines opened in 1847 1847 establishments in the German Confederation Transport in Frankfurt Buildings and structures in Main-Taunus-Kreis