The Spessart Ramp is a 5.4 km long incline on the Main-Spessart Railway in southern Germany between Laufach at one end and the Schwarzkopf tunnel and Heigenbrücken at the other, with an average incline of 20 ‰. The ramp is part of Ludwig's Western Railway and the section from Würzburg via Aschaffenburg to the state border at Kahl am Main was opened on 1 October 1854 by the Royal Bavarian State Railways. The ramp enabled the difference in height between the Laufach valley and the Lohr valley to be overcome as it crossed the Spessart between Kahl am Main and Aschaffenburg on the one side and Würzburg/Bamberg on the other.

The Würzburg–Aschaffenburg railway is an 89 kilometre-long railway line in the Bavarian province of Lower Franconia. It runs from Würzburg via Gemünden (Main) to Aschaffenburg. It is particularly important for long-distance and goods traffic because it links the Rhine-Main conurbation immediately northwest of Aschaffenburg with the Lower Franconian city of Würzburg and beyond it to the metropoles of Nuremberg and Munich. The German name derives from the fact that it initially runs parallel to the River Main and then cuts through the Spessart hills. It was opened on 22 June 1854 by the Frankfurt-Hanau Railway Company and is one of the oldest railways in Germany.