page_title: Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway / Operations
context_page_description: The Mannheim–Karlsruhe–Basel railway is a double-track electrified mainline railway in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It runs from Mannheim via Heidelberg, Bruchsal, Karlsruhe, Rastatt, Baden-Baden, Offenburg and Freiburg to Basel, Switzerland. It is also known as the Rhine Valley Railway or the Upper Rhine Railway.
  The line was built as part of the Baden Mainline. Between Mannheim and Rastatt it runs parallel to the Baden Rhine Railway. The Karlsruhe–Basel high-speed railway, called the Ausbau- und Neubaustrecke Karlsruhe–Basel in German, has been under construction since April 1987. This includes upgrading the current line to four-tracks in places and the construction of new line elsewhere. It was originally envisaged as being completed in 2008, but no final date for completion is now envisaged.
  The Mannheim–Basel railway is one of the most important routes in the Deutsche Bahn network.
context_section_description: The Rhine Valley Railway is now one of the most important lines of Germany both for passenger and goods traffic, including international traffic to and from Switzerland and France. An investigation by the Hochschule Kehl (a school of public administration) estimated the traffic to be up to 286 trains a day.
  The line is  overloaded and was considered to have an occupancy rate of 126 percent in 2011. Trains have to run at especially close intervals. All long-distance services stop at Mannheim, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Freiburg and Basel Bad Bf, some stop at Wiesloch-Walldorf, Bruchsal, Karlsruhe-Durlach, Rastatt, Baden-Baden and Offenburg.
  Since December 2003, line S3 of the Rhein-Neckar S-Bahn has operated on the Mannheim–Karlsruhe section of line and S4 (Speyer–Bruchsal) on the (Speyer–Karlsruhe) section. Lines S31, S32, S4 and S41 of the Stadtbahn Karlsruhe operate between Bruchsal and Achern. Lines S32 and S4 continue from Rastatt to Achern. Regional-Express (RE) services of the Black Forest Railway have run hourly between Karlsruhe and Offenburg since December 2009; at times they run every half-hour; RE and Regionalbahn services together provide a half-hourly service between Offenburg and Basel.
  At each end of the line are two of the largest marshalling yards in Europe: Mannheim marshalling yard and Basel SBB marshalling yard in Muttenz. One marshalling yard of this line—in Heidelberg—has been closed and the new district of Bahnstadt has been built on its site. There are still DB freight yards in Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Freiburg and Basel. Karlsruhe freight yard is equipped with electronic interlocking and is controlled from the control centre in Karlsruhe. The other are still operated locally, some using electromechanical interlocking.
  The double-track high-speed line through the Katzenberg Tunnel between Schliengen and Haltingen has been in operation since 9 December 2012. This will be complemented in the future by the segregation of fast long-distance passenger traffic and freight traffic in the Basel area. This will be made possible by the construction of another bridge over the Rhine on the so-called Connecting Line (Verbindungsbahn) between Basel Badischer Bahnhof (north of the Rhine) and Gellert junction (south of the Rhine).
  The section between Schliengen and Haltingen via Bad Bellingen was completely renovated while it was completely closed in the summer of 2014. Its tracks, sleepers and the tunnels were renewed.
  As part of the expansion of the operations of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn, a three-track section is planned between Mannheim Hauptbahnhof and Mannheim-Friedrichsfeld Süd. Any further quadruplication towards Heidelberg is at the design phase (as of 2012). In March 2014, the EU provided grants amounting to 30 to 40% of the cost.
  Operations between Rastatt and Baden-Baden were blocked from 12 August 2017 as a result of subsidence caused by the boring of the Rastatt Tunnel under the line.
caption: Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn train between Mannheim and Heidelberg
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