Ludwig Western Railway

In the 1840s it was already clear that improvements to the navigation of inland waterways provided by the building of the canal between the rivers Main and Danube, fostered by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, had not triumphed over the railways.

The route runs from Bamberg, the junction with the Ludwig South-North Railway, to Schweinfurt, from Würzburg to Lohr and from Aschaffenburg to Kahl in the Main valley.

The route was planned and laid for two tracks, but only entered service as a single-track line as far as the incline on the Spessart ramp from Heigenbrücken to Laufach.

The Rottendorf-Bamberg section, (today KBS 810, Würzburg–Bamberg, in the timetable) lost its importance for passenger traffic between Würzburg and Nuremberg when the direct line from Rottendorf via Kitzingen to Fürth was opened.

The Schweinfurt–Würzburg section, which had become part of the Berlin-Stuttgart(-Rome) link via Erfurt with the opening of the Brandleite tunnel in 1884, lost its importance for long-distance services after the division of Germany in 1945.

The three Bavarian main lines with Ludwig's Western Railway in blue
Gemünden Station from the street side
Royal wing of Veitshöchheim station, on the right a section of the covered walkway to the station building