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The Halberstadt–Vienenburg railway is a 34 kilometre long main line

Main line (railway)

The Mainline or Main line of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings and spurs are connected....

 north of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. The line was opened in 1869, but only the section between Halberstadt

Halberstadt

Halberstadt is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and the capital of the district of Harz. It is located on the German Half-Timbered House Road and the Magdeburg–Thale railway....

 and Heudeber

Heudeber

Heudeber is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Nordharz. The largest company in the town is Agroservice Landhandel GmbH....

-Danstedt

Danstedt

Danstedt is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Nordharz....

 and a 3 kilometre long section of the line near Vienenburg

Vienenburg

Vienenburg is a town in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the north of the Harz mountain range on the river Oker, approx. northeast of Goslar...

 are still worked. Both sections are single-tracked and unelectrified. Since 1996, traffic between Heudeber-Danstedt and Vienenburg has used the railway via Wernigerode

Wernigerode

Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,500 in 1999....

 running further to the south.

History

As early as 1841 and 1843 respectively, Vienenburg and Halberstadt, which later became the two stations at either end of this route, were connected to the railway network. Likewise, in 1843 the line from Oschersleben via Jerxheim to Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel

Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, located on the Oker river about 13 kilometres south of Brunswick. It is the seat of the District of Wolfenbüttel and of the bishop of the Protestant Lutheran State Church of Brunswick...

 was taken into service, as a result of which one could travel by rail between Vienenburg and Halberstadt, albeit on a route running a long way to the north. Nevertheless there were further plans for a railway close to the Harz Mountains, that would run westwards from Halberstadt.

In 1864 a state treaty between Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 and the Brunswick

Duchy of Brunswick

Brunswick was a historical state in Germany. Originally the territory of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in the Holy Roman Empire, it was established as an independent duchy by the Congress of Vienna in 1815...

 was agreed that envisaged a railway line from Halberstadt to Vienenburg. A reasonably level route was chosen, at some distance from the Harz, running via Heudeber-Danstedt and Wasserleben

Wasserleben

Wasserleben is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Nordharz....

. The Kingdom of Hanover, on whose territory Vienenburg was located, initially rejected this scheme however. Not until Prussia's victory in the Austro-Prussian War

Austro-Prussian War

The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...

 and the resulting annexation

Annexation

Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...

 of Hanover could the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company

Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company

The Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company was a railway in Prussia. It was nationalized in 1879.-History :The Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway Company received a concession on 14 January 1842 from the Prussian government to build the 58 km long railway line from Magdeburg–Oschersleben–Halberstadt...

 (MHE) begin work on its construction in 1867. On 1st March 1869 the line was taken into service. Two years beforehand the MHE had opened the eastern extension of the railway towards Halle (Saale). In 1875 the line from Vienenburg to Hildesheim

Hildesheim

Hildesheim is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the district of Hildesheim, about 30 km southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste river, which is a small tributary of the Leine river...

, in the shape of the Vienenburg–Langelsheim railway, also opened and, with that, the direct line from Halle to Hanover was complete.

The line suffered almost no damage during the Second World War but, as a result of the division of Germany, it was cut in 1945 between Vienenburg on the West German side and Wasserleben

Wasserleben

Wasserleben is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Nordharz....

 on the East German side, and later dismantled.

After the Wende there were attempts to reactivate the link between Halberstadt and Vienenburg. But because the line missed out larger towns like Wernigerode

Wernigerode

Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,500 in 1999....

 and Ilsenburg

Ilsenburg

Ilsenburg is a town in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. It is situated under the north foot of the Harz Mountains, at the entrance to the Ilsetal valley of the small Ilse river, a tributary of the Oker, about six north-west of the town of Wernigerode. It received town privileges...

, the decision went in favour of the southern route, the Heudeber-Danstedt–Ilsenburg railway. Until 1945 this had also crossed the state border, to Bad Harzburg

Bad Harzburg

Bad Harzburg is a town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa and climatic health resort.- Location :...

.

Because the trackbed of the old line was no longer usable in the area of Bad Harzburg, the Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

 decided to build the new line, which branches off the old one at Stapelburg

Stapelburg

Stapelburg is a village and a former municipality in the district of Harz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the municipality Nordharz....

 and runs northwards to the Halberstadt–Vienenburg route. Just before the state border it rejoins the old route and follows it to Vienenburg. Because the line uses the old trackbed on Lower Saxon soil, the project could be viewed locally as a renovation of an existing line, which enabled the installation of level crossing

Level crossing

A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...

s. On 2 June 1996 the new section, approximately 10 kilometres long, was opened. Since then passenger trains between Halberstadt and Vienenburg have used the Halberstadt–Heudeber-Danstedt section of the old line and the three kilometre long section on Lower Saxony territory, but otherwise they run along the southern route via Ilsenburg and Wernigerode.

Passenger trains were still using the section of line between Heudeber-Danstedt and Wasserleben until 28 September 2002, continuing along the track of the former Osterwieck-Wasserleben Railway to Osterwieck

Osterwieck

Osterwieck is a historic town in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated on the river Ilse, north of Wernigerode and the Harz mountain range. On 1 January 2010 the municipalities of the former Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Osterwieck-Fallstein merged in Osterwieck.The...

. Thereafter services were withdrawn and, by 30 June 2003, the line was closed by the Federal Railway Office

Federal Railway Office

The German Federal Railway Authority has been the independent federal authority for the regulation of the railways in Germany since 1 January 1994...

.

The line from Halberstadt via Wernigerode to Vienenburg was converted in 2007 to take trains using tilting technology. In the new 2008 timetable, journey times shortened again due to the completion of renovation work. The Deutsche Bahn's Regional Express trains (HarzExpress) work the line every two hours between Halle, Halberstadt and Hanover, stopping at all stations, as do local services on the North Harz Network (Nordharznetz) operated by Veolia Verkehr Sachsen-Anhalt

Veolia Verkehr

Veolia Verkehr GmbH is a private operator of passenger buses and trains in Germany. On April 3, 2006, Connex Verkehr GmbH was renamed Veolia Verkehr GmbH, but the sister companies kept their current names....

. At weekends Veolia runs an excursion service between Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

and Wernigerode that uses the Halberstadt–Heudeber-Danstedt section.