Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn

Map of the complete Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn systems network.

Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn (German: Rhein-Ruhr Stadtbahn) is an umbrella system of all of the Stadtbahn (light rail) lines included in the integrated public transport network of Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) which covers the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan area in western Germany. It does not include the independent Cologne Stadtbahn and Bonn Stadtbahn systems.

History

At the beginning of the 1960s, road traffic in the Rhine-Ruhr area increased like in other German metropolitan areas. Existing trams were regarded as obstacles for car-oriented cities. Therefore, these trams should be relocated to underground sections below city centers (as Stadtbahn lines) if they were not replaced by bus lines.

The cities of Bochum, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Oberhausen, Recklinghausen and Wattenscheid founded the Stadtbahngesellschaft Ruhr in 1969 for coordinating the plans to transform tram routes into Stadtbahn routes. Düsseldorf and Hattingen joined in 1972; since then, the cooperation has been called Stadtbahngesellschaft Rhein-Ruhr. Witten joined in 1981, Recklinghausen left in 1982.

Original Stadtbahn plans proposed upgrading up to 300 kilometers of tram lines step by step. Most of these proposed lines were planned in north-south direction and would have branched off of a main line that would have run more or less east-west. Due to financial constraints and the downturn of the economy in the region, many sections or the originally planned system have not been built. As a result, there are isolated standard gauge Stadtbahn lines inside of metre gauge tram systems – one example would be the U35 line in Bochum.

Component systems

There are five Stadtbahn systems that make up the Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn (their operating companies are shown in parentheses):

• Bochum Stadtbahn (BOGESTRA) – 1 line
• Dortmund Stadtbahn (Dortmunder Stadtwerke (DSW21)) – 8 lines
• Duisburg Stadtbahn (Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft (DVG)) – 1 line
• Düsseldorf Stadtbahn (Rheinbahn) – 7 lines
• Essen Stadtbahn (Essener Verkehrs-AG (EVAG)) – 3 lines

Lines

As of 2016, there are 23 lines altogether in the Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn:

Infrastructure

All plans included the following standards:

• intersection-free alignment, in city centres preferred to be underground, in the outskirts also above surface
• high-level platforms for easy access (in contrast to former low-floor platforms or even access from street level)
• European standard gauge (1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in))

Cross-platform interchanges were planned wherever useful and possible. All Stadtbahn lines have been electrified with overhead catenary and are powered with direct current like former trams.

However, most of Rhine-Ruhr tram lines still use metre gauge (1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in)). Combined Stadtbahn and tram tracks use three-rail tracks (Essen) or even four-rail tracks (Krefeld). Some sections in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Bochum und Essen were constructed with metre gauge and temporary integrated into the network, being able to be converted easily to standard gauge at a later point of time.

Since the start of Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn, existing tram routes were integrated and partly developed as pilot routes. Among others, the former tram lines 8/18 Essen–Mülheim were chosen to become the most important pilot route with tracks in between the Ruhrschnellweg express highway lanes; the new pilot Stadtbahn line U18 was opened in 1977.

Most of today's Stadtbahn lines were developed out of former tram lines. Their line numbers were simply converted into two-digit numbers prepended by U for distinguishing between both standards; the U refers to both unabhängig (engl.: independent) and U-Bahn (metro) standards being the later target, although complete U-Bahn (metro) lines have in fact never existed in the Rhine-Ruhr area. By 2011, the only full independent lines in the Rhine-Ruhr area are the Dortmund H-Bahn, Düsseldorf SkyTrain and Wuppertal Schwebebahn (also referred as line 60 in the Stadtbahn numbering scheme) hanging and suspended monorails.

Developments

The very ambitious original plans have not paid enough attention to financial restrictions and increased tunneling costs in the mining areas. So, the schedule for opening the planned sections has been severely delayed with some routes even cancelled. The next step to transform Stadtbahn routes to metro standards is not anymore foreseen.

To use of constructed sections, existing tram lines have been operated further on the new alignments including temporary use of tram gauges and low-floor platforms. Some stations even contain both low-floor and high-floor platforms in case of mixed tram and Stadtbahn operation.

Rolling stock

For the Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn, new standardised Stadtbahn trains named Stadtbahnwagen B were developed. However, Stadtbahn companies ordered them with different lengths, layout of doors etc..

Tram lines still use former rolling stock and new low-floor trams where Stadtbahn projects were stopped or severely delayed.

The B-Wagen are undergoing retirement. In Bochum the B80D-wagen are currently being replaced by the new high-floor Variotram on the U35.

Routes of Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn

See also

• Bochum Stadtbahn (BOGESTRA)
• Dortmund Stadtbahn
• Düsseldorf Stadtbahn (see also: Rheinbahn)
• Essen: Public Transport (incl. Essen Stadtbahn)
• Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR)

External links

• Urbanrail.net – Rhein-Ruhr Stadtbahn systems
• Jochen Schönfisch – Rhein-Ruhr Stadtbahn (in German)
• Metro Bits – Picture gallery about neighbouring Rhein-Ruhr-Sieg Stadtbahn
• Christian Stade – Track maps of German public transport systems

Stadtbahn and town tramway systems in Germany by Land and city
Baden-Württemberg	Freiburg im Breisgau Heilbronn Karlsruhe Stadtbahn Trams Heidelberg Mannheim Stuttgart Ulm
Bavaria	Augsburg Munich Nuremberg Würzburg
Berlin	Berlin
Brandenburg	Brandenburg an der Havel Cottbus Frankfurt (Oder) Potsdam Schöneiche and Rüdersdorf1 Strausberg Woltersdorf1
Bremen	Bremen
Hesse	Darmstadt Frankfurt am Main Stadtbahn Trams Kassel Stadtbahn Trams
Lower Saxony	Braunschweig Hanover
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	Rostock Schwerin
North Rhine-Westphalia	Bielefeld Bochum Stadtbahn Trams Bonn Cologne Dortmund Duisburg Stadtbahn Trams Düsseldorf Stadtbahn Trams Essen Stadtbahn Trams Gelsenkirchen Krefeld Mülheim/Oberhausen Rhine-Ruhr
Rhineland-Palatinate	Ludwigshafen am Rhein Mainz
Saarland	Saarbrücken
Saxony	Bad Schandau-Kirnitzschtal Chemnitz Dresden Görlitz Leipzig Plauen Zwickau
Saxony-Anhalt	Dessau Halberstadt Halle (Saale) Magdeburg Naumburg (Saale)
Thuringia	Erfurt Gera Gotha Jena Nordhausen
1 Tramway lines departing from Berlin

Urban public transport networks and systems in Germany
S-Bahn	Berlin Bremen Cologne Dresden Erfurt1 Freiburg Hamburg Hanover Karlsruhe Magdeburg Mitteldeutschland Munich Nuremberg Offenburg Rhine-Main Rhine-Neckar Rhine-Ruhr Rostock Stuttgart
U-Bahn	Berlin Hamburg Munich Nuremberg
Stadtbahn	Bielefeld Bochum Bonn Chemnitz Cologne Dortmund Duisburg Düsseldorf Erfurt Essen Frankfurt Gelsenkirchen Hanover Karlsruhe Kassel Saarbrücken Mülheim Stuttgart
Trams	Aachen2 Augsburg Bad Schandau-Kirnitzschtal Berlin (Suburban: Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf · Woltersdorf) Bochum Bonn Brandenburg an der Havel Braunschweig Bremen Chemnitz Cologne Cottbus Darmstadt Dessau Döbeln Dresden Duisburg Düsseldorf Erfurt Essen Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt (Oder) Freiburg Gelsenkirchen Gera Görlitz Gotha Halberstadt Halle Hamburg2 Hanover Heidelberg Heilbronn Jena Karlsruhe Kassel Kiel2 Krefeld Leipzig (History) Lößnitz Ludwigshafen Magdeburg Mannheim Merseburg Mülheim Munich Mainz Münster2 Naumburg Nuremberg Nordhausen Oberhausen Plauen Potsdam Regensburg2 Rostock Saarbrücken Schwerin Strausberg Stuttgart Ulm Weil am Rhein Wuppertal2 Würzburg Zwickau
Trolleybuses	Eberswalde Esslingen am Neckar Solingen
Suspension monorails	Dortmund H-Bahn Schwebebahn Dresden Düsseldorf SkyTrain Wuppertal Schwebebahn
Other	Bad Schandau Elevator
1 Former S-Bahn network 2 Former tramway network