Kanonenbahn

The initials "BCE" are found on benches and chairs in railway stations and various buildings on the line.

For example, as early as 1855 the private sector lobbied the Prussian Minister of Commerce, Trade and Public Works for a railway through the Moselle valley from Koblenz to Trier.

The president of Rhine Province wrote in response two weeks later on 31 August 1855 that the War Ministry has repeatedly stressed the military importance of a railway from Koblenz to Trier and supported the immediate building of such a line, which would form a natural extension a railway line from Berlin via Halle, Kassel, Gießen, Wetzlar to Koblenz, running to the south western periphery of the kingdom of Prussia.

It would at the same time provide a direct connection between the central Rhine, the most remote part of Prussia, the old Prussian provinces and the centre of the state (Berlin).

Private plans for the railway’s construction were rejected with state funding available from the French reparations.

On 12 June 1872, the Verein für die Gründung einer directen Eisenbahn von Berlin nach Frankfurt am Main ("Association for the establishment of a direct railway from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main") applied to the Prussian Minister of Trade, Commerce and Public Works for a concession for a railway line.

Similarly, the building of the line far from urban areas for strategic reasons proved to be an obstacle to the development of traffic.

This meant that the Cannons Railway was no longer a continuous line and it decreased the importance of the Hessian sections.