Thuringian Railway
The Thuringian Railway starts in Halle (Saale) Hauptbahnhof, which it leaves in a southerly direction. It is the most important railway line in southern Saxony-Anhalt. Immediately south of the station the line to Leipzig branches to the east. Further south in the city of Halle, the Halle–Kassel line leaves the Thuringian Railway running to the west. Shortly before Amendorf station, a 3.614 km-long line branches off the Thuringian Railway to connect it with the Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway. The Thuringian Railway runs through Halle-Amendorf station and then crosses the White Elster. This is followed by the crossing of the Saale and Schkopau station. Here the Buna-Werke plastics factory is connected via the Thuringian railway to the railway network of the Middle German Chemical Triangle. South of Schkopau the line runs through Merseburg, the first middle-sized city on the line. Here a line branches to the west through the Geisel valley to Querfurt and the largely decommissioned Merseburg–Leipzig line branches off to the east. Immediately south of Merseburg the line runs through the Leuna-Werke (where IG Farben produced synthetic oil during World War II and which is now a location of a Total oil refinery and numerous chemical factories) to Großkorbetha, where it meets the main line from Leipzig. The section to Weißenfels was electrified in 1959. During the existence of the German Democratic Republic, this section of the line had great importance, especially for commuting from Halle-Neustadt to the chemical works in Leuna and Buna. From 1967 to 1990 passenger trains operated on this route with up to twelve double-deck carriages. These trains had the largest seating capacity in Germany.