The Hardt Railway () is a railway line in the Karlsruhe region of Germany. Originally built as part of the Rhine Railway, a through main line, it now forms a branch line from Karlsruhe to Hochstetten. The line runs along the western edge of the forest of Hardtwald, from which it takes its name.
Today the line is owned and operated, as part of the Stadtbahn Karlsruhe, by the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG).
Route
Hardt Railway (since 1979) The safe-working system on the line changes from the German tram operating procedures (BOStrab) to rail operating procedures (EBO) north of Haus Bethlehem station. Once the track has returned to street level, it passes across a "bridge to nowhere” over the unfinished Karlsruhe Nordtangente (north tangent) highway. It then runs through an S-curve on to the route of the old Hardt line and follows it to Eggenstein. Shortly after it crosses the Pfinz flood relief canal (Pfinz-Entlastungskanal) it leaves the route of the Hardt line to run further west through the centre of Leopoldshafen. Between Leopolshafen and Linkenheim it comes within a few metres of the old route, but it then runs to the west of the Hardt line through the centre of Linkenheim to terminate in the housing estate of Langer Berg in Hochstetten.
Historic Hardt Railway (to 1967/1979)
Following the opening of the new Karlsruhe Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) in 1913, the old Hardt Railway followed the tracks of the Palatine Maximilian Railway to Mühlburg. One kilometre after Mühlburg station, the old Hardt Railway separates from the two tracks of the Palatine Maximilian Railway and turns to the right. It then runs directly through the industrial area of Knielingen and then crosses highway B 36. Just prior to Neureut it connects with the new Stadtbahn line and the old and new lines run on the same tracks to Eggenstein. The old Hardt Railway is damantled from Leopoldshafen, but the railway tracks can still easily be recognised on the outskirts of Leopoldshafen. In Linkenheim the route is now built over north of Bahnhofstraße. After that, the line ran on the far eastern edge of Hochstetten to pass through the Hardt forest, where the route can be made out again for a few kilometres to Graben-Neudorf station.
Until 1913, the old Hardt Railway ran from the old Karlsruhe station (in the city centre at Ettlinger Tor) together with the Maxau Railway (Maxaubahn) as far as Mühlburger Tor station in a long, semi-circular curve and then separated from the Maxau Railway to continue to run north along the current Erzbergerstraße to Karlsruher Nordstadt, which was then in the middle of the Hardt forest. It then ran to the north for a few kilometres through an area that was undeveloped at the time, but which is now the location of the Neureut districts of Heide and Kirchfeldsiedlung, which were developed after the Second World War, to reach Neureut where it reached the route of the line opened in 1913.
History
Opening and first years (1870–1890) Construction of the Baden Mainline (Badische Hauptbahn) started in 1840 from Mannheim, running via Heidelberg to Karlsruhe, and it was extended to Basel by 1855. However, the indirect route via Heidelberg bypassed part of the natural catchment area of Mannheim which was located close to the Rhine, including towns such as Schwetzingen and Hockenheim.
This led to a vigorous debate about the southern part of a proposed line from Mannheim to Karlsruhe close to the Rhine: under the plan, the railway would run via Linkenheim, Eggenstein and Neureut to Mühlburger Tor and from there run together with the Maxau Railway to Karlsruhe station. The Grand Duke of Baden, Frederick I approved the building of this route despite efforts to have the line run to the east of Karlsruhe. It was accepted that through traffic in the north–south direction might not run on the line and that it would instead continue to run on the Heidelberg–Karlsruhe line.
The Mannheim–Schwetzingen–Graben Neudorf–Eggenstein–Karlsruhe line via the Hardt forest was opened on 4 August 1870. It was called the Rhine Railway from the beginning.