Just Trains 11 Biblis and Mannheim- The Riedbahn
Biblis lies north of Mannheim on the Riedbahn the main railway between Frankfurt, Karlsruhe and Basel. It’s a junction station – the original Riedbahn ran into Mannheim through Worms and Ludwigshafen – the Worms line enjoying a regular shuttle provided by DB Regio using new LINT units.
Frankfurt is the hub of the German high-speed train network and the Riedbahn is it’s busiest spoke. International trains in the form of TGV services from Paris to Frankfurt use this route, as do classic DB ICs. Amazingly with all this passenger train activity the Riedbahn sees as much freight as the two alternative routes south (Maiz to Worms and the Rhein-Neckarbahn via Darmstadt) together! (In part due to upgrading work near Weinheim on the Rhein-Neckarbahn).
We move on to approaches to Mannheim: Mannheim-Waldhof, where traffic divides for the Rbf and the Hbf (over a 1980’s NBS through the port area) and to the Rheine crossing between Worm / Ludwigshafen and Mannheim Hbf and onward to the Rbf.
We also discuss plans for a NEW Riedbahn being planned from the outskirts of Frankfurt to Mannheim-Waldhof that will extend 300kph running from Frankfurt to Stuttgart and facilitate more freight of the critical north-south axis.
RT60mins Filmed in HD PAL DVD +R ©FHP 2017