The Westfrankenbahn (WFB for short) is a
RegioNetz of the
Deutsche Bahn AG
(, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG).
DB was fou ...
based in
Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg (; Hessian: ''Aschebersch'', ) is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg, despite being its administrative seat, is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg.
Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric ...
.
History
The Westfrankenbahn was founded on January 1, 2006.
[Magazin " der schienenbus", Heft 6/2006, Seite 77 – Streckenmeldung Kursbuchstrecke 709] The company leased the
Aschaffenburg–Miltenberg line between Aschaffenburg Süd and Miltenberg, the
Miltenberg West–Wertheim line, the
Lauda–Wertheim line, the
Crailsheim–Königshofen line and the
Seckach–Miltenberg line. In addition, the Westfrankenbahn operates passenger trains on the routes
Crailsheim–Heilbronn and
Lauda–Königshofen. Since December 13, 2015, the
Kahl–Schöllkrippen line has also been part of it. While no services have been provided on the Würzburg–Lauda section since December 2018, individual trains have been running between Lauda and Osterburken since then and continue to Heilbronn until December 2019. The total length of travel traveled by Westfrankenbahn is , of which are on the company's own infrastructure.
Annually, the line provides a total of 3.6 million kilometers of rail transport.
In 2016, however, freight traffic only took place on the northern routes. The port in Wertheim is served regularly. Freight trains also run to Obernburg-Elsenfeld, Miltenberg, Kleinheubach and Gamburg.
Lines
Trains
The West Franconia Railway originally had 32
diesel railcars of the
series 628, 10 diesel railcars of the
series 642 and the
diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...
218
Year 218 ( CCXVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Adventus (or, less frequently, year 971 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 218 for th ...
105 available. Since 2016, 218460 has replaced the 218105-5, which has since been sold to
NeSA. In December 2018, the company took over additional series 642 railcars from DB Regio, which were modernized and replaced the last units of the 628 series by December 2019. Today the WFB uses 44 class 642 railcars. On December 1, 2019, the farewell trip for the class 628 took place at the Westfrankenbahn,
[{{cite web, title=Westfrankenbahn stellt veraltete Schienenfahrzeuge außer Dienst, periodical=main-echo.de, publisher=, url=https://www.main-echo.de/regional/kreis-miltenberg/westfrankenbahn-stellt-veraltete-schienenfahrzeuge-ausser-dienst-art-6867720, url-status=, format=, access-date=2022-08-08, archive-url=, archive-date=, last=, date=2019-11-18, year=, language=de, pages=, quote=] the remaining vehicles continued to be used in regular traffic until December 13. Some of the class 628.2 multiple units were handed over to
Arriva
Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.
The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...
in the Czech Republic in mid-2019, while those of class 628.4 were largely transferred to the
Südostbayernbahn
Südostbayernbahn (Southeast Bavaria Railway) is one of several regional railway networks in Germany owned by Germany's national railway, Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG). Since 2001, the network has included the railway hub of Mühldorf am Inn, Mühldorf ...
to Mühldorf and to the
RAB were delivered to Ulm. In April 2022, the two
mint turquoise/pastel turquoise/light grey painted VT 628 (Anna and Maria) returned to the Westfrankenbahn's inventory, having previously been used by the RAB.
Abschiedsfahrt der Baureihe 628 am 01.12.2019.jpg, Last use of the 628 series on 1 December 2019
Abschiedsfahrt der Baureihe 628 am 01.12.2019 (Anna und Maria).jpg, Anna and Maria
Abschiedsfahrt der Baureihe 628 am 01.12.2019 (30 Jahre VT628).jpg, 30 years of VT 628
References
External links
Website der Westfrankenbahn
2006 establishments in Germany
Deutsche Bahn
Railway companies of Germany