Cross Eifel Railway
railway line in Germany, only partially in use
The Cross Eifel Railway (German: Eifelquerbahn) is a non-electrified railway line between Andernach and Gerolstein in the Eifel in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. From Andernach to Mayen Ost (East), it is classified as main line and it has two tracks as far as Mendig.
Services on the Cross Eifel Railway currently operate about every 30 minutes between Andernach and Mayen Ost and continue to Kaisersesch hourly as part of the Lahn-Eifel-Bahn service.
The rail service between Andernach and Kaisersesch operated for a long time under the name of Pellenz-Eifel-Bahn (the Pellenz is a hilly area between Andernach and Mayen) and the section between Kaisersesch and Gerolstein was for a time operated as the Vulkan Eifel-Bahn. This service was discontinued in 2013.
History
The Cross Eifel Railway was opened in several stages, with the first section opening from Andernach to Niedermendig on 1 April 1878. The second section opened from Niedermendig to Mayen Ost on 29 May 1880 and the third section opened from Mayen Ost to Gerolstein on 15 May 1895. The building of a connection to Karden between Mayen West and Monreal was considered. From about 1880 the Cross Eifel Railway was administered by the Eisenbahndirektion (railway division of) Cologne of the Prussian state railways.
At the end of the Second World War, the line from Andernach to Mayen Ost was reopened by 8 April 1945.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cross Eifel Railway” is railway line in Germany, only partially in use. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cross, Eifel and Railway, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “railway line in Germany, only partially in use” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1302895. VIAF identifies the subject as 240522416. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013, 1878, 1880 and 1895.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cross Eifel Railway”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cross Eifel Railway primary sources, Cross Eifel Railway archive and Cross research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cross Eifel Railway”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cross Eifel Railway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.