page_title: Elsenz Valley Railway
section_title: S-Bahn period
hierarchical_section_title: Elsenz Valley Railway / Operations / Passengers / S-Bahn period
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der RE 12303 macht am 9. November 2017 Halt in Bad Rappenau. Dieser Zug fährt durchgebunden von Mainz nach Heilbronn, zwischen Mannheim und Heilbronn als RE 2.
context_page_description: The Elsenz Valley Railway or Neckargemünd–Bad Friedrichshall railway is an electrified, partly double-tracked main line in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, running from Heidelberg via Sinsheim to Bad Friedrichshall, that, for part of its course, follows the Elsenz river that gives it its name. The crossing stations on the single-tracked sections were controlled by mechanical signal boxes until 2008, but are now controlled by electronic interlockings.
  The section from Heidelberg to Meckesheim was opened on 23 October 1862 by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway as part of the Odenwald Railway and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. The section from Meckesheim to Bad Rappenau was opened by the Baden State Railway on 25 June 1868 and it was extended to Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld on 5 August 1869.
  The line has been electrified to allow the extension of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn on the Heidelberg–Steinsfurt section of the line and the operation of Heilbronn Stadtbahn on the section between Sinsheim and Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld.
context_section_description: Since December 2009, S5 services of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn have run hourly between Neckargemünd and Steinsfurt in normal times and every half hour in the peak to Sinsheim. Some trains continue as RB44 services to/from Mainz.
  The line S51 service, which runs from Meckesheim to Aglasterhausen, also run hourly on the Heidelberg – Meckesheim section on weekdays. The superimposition of lines S5 and S51 services results in a half-hourly service on the Heidelberg – Meckesheim section. In the peak hour both S-Bahn services on the Meckesheim – Aglasterhausen and the Heidelberg – Sinsheim sections operate every half-hour, but are worked as portions on the Heidelberg – Meckesheim section, so they still only run every half-hour on that section.
  The Regional-Express 2 service from Mannheim to Heilbronn also run every two hours over the track, stopping in Meckesheim, Sinsheim, Bad Rappenau and Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld. Together with the RE 3 service (RE 1 until 2014) through the Neckar valley, it forms an hourly clock-face service between the two end points. Both the S-Bahn and the Regional-Express services consist of class 425 electric multiple units. Until September 2016, individual RE 2 services continued during the peak hour and at the weekend as the RB 10 service to/from Stuttgart. Until 10 December 2017, some Regional-Expresses services consisted of a class 111 locomotive and five Silberling coaches.
  Furthermore, the S 42 service of the Heilbronn Stadtbahn runs on the line with two-system Stadtbahn sets of the ET 2010 class. This leaves every two hours from the Heilbronn inner city via Neckarsulm, Bad Friedrichshall Hbf and Bad Rappenau to Sinsheim Hbf and, once an hour, from Heilbronn to Bad Rappenau.
caption: Some RE services were operated in 2017 with sets formed of class 111 locomotives and Silberling coaches, here RE 12303 in Bad Rappenau
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-HX300", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "DSC-HX300 v1.00", "Image DateTime": "2017:11:09 09:42:26", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail ImageDescription": "", "Thumbnail Make": "SONY", "Thumbnail Model": "DSC-HX300", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail Software": "DSC-HX300 v1.00", "Thumbnail DateTime": "2017:11:09 09:42:26", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "38984", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8072", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:11:09 09:42:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:11:09 09:42:26", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "3981/640", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "43/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5184", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "38692", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[43/10, 215, 14/5, 63/10]"}