Final stop for the museum railway: closure of the line in Stemmen!

Final stop for the museum railway: closure of the line in Stemmen!

The railway line between Neddenaverbergen and Stemmen in Lower Saxony is finally coming to an end. As kreiszeitung.de reports, the section will be permanently closed. This is a bitter setback for the Kirchlinteln community, which is disappointed but shows no resistance to the decision. The Verden-Walsroder Eisenbahn (VWE), the owner of the line, sees the closure proposal as having no alternative. The line had already been closed for 18 months due to track erosion.

For the members of the Verden Railway Friends Museum Railway Association, the closure means the end of their journeys at Neddenaverbergen station. With repairs to the route costing more than three million euros, the municipality argued that this would not be financially viable. Mayor Arne Jacobs sees the need to contribute to the economic stability of the community and at the same time to look for solutions for the association.

History of the railway line

A look into history reveals that the Verden–Walsrode Nord railway line, opened on March 2, 1911, was once an important transport route. In 1912 over 150,000 passengers and almost 60,000 tons of goods were carried. But times have changed: Wikipedia documents that rail passenger traffic between Verden and Stemmen was stopped in 1969. There have been repeated changes to the route in the last few decades, including the gauge change in 2020 to 2021, but the last hopes of economic operation have now been dashed.

The various political voices in the community show a clear stance: Richard Eckermann (SPD) expresses his regret about the closure and thanks the VWE for using the route. Torsten Blanke (CDU), on the other hand, considers renovation to be uneconomical and calls for alternatives to be found. At the same time, considerations are aimed at developing an attractive cycle path along the disused route, which the administration is now examining for eligibility.

Outlook and challenge

Another critical point is the criticized cost-benefit analysis, which Councilor Frank-Peter Seemann from the Free Parliamentary Group points out. He calls for more intensive support for rail renovation in order to find future solutions. The question of how the region will deal with the decommissioning remains open. While rail enthusiasts and the community face a new challenge, the planned bike path could be a bright spot in the future. Whether this will be enough to calm disappointed hearts remains to be seen.