Bonn–Cologne Railway Company
The Bonn–Cologne Railway Company (BCE) was a German railway company founded in Bonn in July 1837. It was granted permission on 6 July 1840 to build and operate a railway between Bonn and Cologne. Two route ideas were considered: a direct line along the Rhine would have been cheaper but would pass through sparsely populated areas with few passengers. The BCE instead built a longer 29-kilometre line that curved through Roisdorf, Sechtem, Brühl and Kalscheuren to St. Pantaleon station in Cologne; this route formed part of what later became the West Rhine line. A direct Rhine route was not used by BCE, but half a century later that route was utilised by the Rhine Bank Railway (Rheinuferbahn) built by another Cologne–Bonn railway company, now line 16 of the Cologne and Bonn Stadtbahns.
The Bonn station location was debated, but the site at Poppelsdorfer Allee was chosen because it would be easier to extend the line southward. The first earthworks began in March 1842, and the line opened on 15 February 1844, after a grand inauguration on 13 February. From summer 1844, six daily pairs of trains operated. The first four locomotives came from Manchester. In 1844 the BCE increased its capital to fund an extension to Koblenz, and the shares were oversubscribed fourfold. Construction of the new route faced delays partly because Bonn University protested against cutting up Poppelsdorfer Allee on its land. The Prussian king Frederick William IV finally appointed landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné to design the railway’s intersection with the avenue.
The BCE was authorized on 4 August 1854 to extend the line at least to Rolandseck, which made it easier for travellers to transfer to steamships. On 18 October 1855 the line was completed to Rolandswerth via Bad Godesberg and Mehlem, and on 21 January 1856 the 14-kilometre extension to Rolandseck was opened. On 1 January 1857, the Bonn–Cologne Railway Company was acquired by the Rhenish Railway Company for 1.05 million Prussian thalers.
About 40 years later, Köln-Bonner Eisenbahnen (KBE) was established with a similar name, but it was not related to the BCE.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 11:06 (CET).