page_title: Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt–Aalen railway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt–Aalen railway / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Bahnhof von Schwäbisch Gmünd
context_page_description: The Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt–Aalen railway, also known as the Remsbahn or the Remstalbahn, was historically the main line route from Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt via Aalen to Nördlingen. Today the designation Rems Railway only refers to the section from Stuttgart to Aalen, the Aalen–Nördlingen line becoming part of the Ries Railway. Between Waiblingen and Essingen the Rems line runs parallel to the River Rems from which it gets its name. The Deutsche Bahn timetable incorporates the Stuttgart–Aalen section as part of route no. 786 Stuttgart–Aalen–Crailsheim–Nuremberg and the Stuttgart–Schorndorf section as part of route no. 790.2-3.
  The line is fully electrified and the western section from Stuttgart to Schorndorf is part of the Stuttgart S-Bahn.
context_section_description: A railway between Stuttgart and Ulm was one of the first railways proposed in Württemberg in the middle of the 19th century. Alternative alignments via Aalen or directly via Göppingen were discussed. At first it seemed the first route, even though it was indirect, had a greater chance of being built, as it required no major climbs, in contrast to the second route. After several years of discussion it was decided to build the route via Göppingen, despite the challenge of building the line over the Swabian Alb up the Geislinger Steige. The Fils Railway was opened in 1850.
  But after the first phase of the network of the Royal Württemberg State Railways was completed, the construction of a railway line to the east of the country was soon back on the agenda. The main objectives put forward for the project, originally called the Nordostbahn (“Northeast Railway") were:
  to open up the industrial sites at Gmünd (now Schwäbisch Gmünd), Aalen, its current district of Wasseralfingen and Heidenheim an der Brenz
  to create a connection with the Bavarian railways at Nördlingen
  The architect responsible for planning the line, Georg Morlok examined four major variants for the route with different locations for the transition from the Neckar and Fils valley to the Rems valley. These were from west to east:
  via Cannstatt and Waiblingen
  via Plochingen and Schorndorf
  via Uhingen and Lorch
  via Eislingen and Gmünd
  Although the cost of crossing the mountain range was found to be least for the western variant, the total cost of the eastern variant was the lowest, because the length of track that would have to be built in the Rems valley would be considerably lower as it would share part of the Stuttgart–Ulm route. In the subsequent discussions, the requests of the cities of Waiblingen and Schorndorf for a rail connection, the smaller climbs, which would allow easier operations and the shorter route between Stuttgart and Aalen contributed to the decision to select the first variant.
caption: Schwäbisch Gmünd station around 1868
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