Last August the vital Rheintalbahn between Karlsruhe and Basel was closed for two weeks in order to connect a long delayed segment of a new bypass around the city of Rastatt. In 2017 during the construction of said bypass, a tunnel under the existing mainline caved in closing the line for several weeks as railway undertakings scrambled to reroute their trains on poorly suited bypass routes, often with diesel power. For this planned closure, many lessons from the 2017 incident were taken into account and alternative routes were set up for freight. The most interesting diversion was via the French left Rhine railway via the border station in Lauterbourg. The line, while double track on the French side, is only used for relatively sparse commuter services and sees only a small amount of local freight. During the Rastatt closure, months of planning and preparation allowed for approximately approximately 10 trains a day to use the corridor. The trains were organized by a group of Swiss rail undertakings, with locomotives largely from SNCF Fret. Each train operated with both a German and French speaking driver, allowing for operation without crew changes at the borders.
For photographers the most interesting location was by far the station at Lauterbourg which is still controlled by mechanical semaphore signals. After a quick stop, BB 75000 475124 departs Lauterbourg with a SBB 482 in tow.
Loading contexts...
