Campus train

Campus train
Logo of the campus railway
Legend First expansion stage (entry concept) Connection to the second expansion stage University Hospital Pauwelsstrasse Melaten middle Melaten North Paris ring Kastanienweg Aachen-Mönchengladbach Campus West-North (Süsterau) Lindt Aachen West train station Republic Square University main building Rope trench Crossing with the route of the second expansion stage Bus station Kaiserplatz Disk road East cemetery Elsassplatz (Elsassstrasse) Aachen-Rothe Erde train station Zeppelinstrasse Madrid ring Schönforst Trier Square Debyestrasse Ring road Brand (Brand Marketplace)
Legend Second expansion stage (target concept) Vaals Branch towards the university clinic Branch towards the university clinic Montzen route Aachen-Mönchengladbach Aachen Schanz train station Elisenbrunnen Crossing with the route of the first expansion stage Bus station Kaninsberg (Würselen)

In Aachen, the plans for the reintroduction of a tram in the form of a modern light rail from around 2018 onwards, which were pursued from 2009 to 2013, are referred to as campus tram . The last stretch of the Aachen tram, which opened as a horse-drawn tram in 1880 and was electrically operated from 1895 , was shut down in 1974. Despite broad support from most parliamentary groups in the city council, a council decision on March 10, 2013 resulted in a two-thirds majority against the project. The planning was therefore immediately discontinued in this form.

Earlier planning

Since the abolition of the tram, there have been repeated initiatives in Aachen to re-establish this mode of transport in a modern form. In the 1990s, private initiatives made the first attempt to introduce a light rail system in Aachen. The project promoted by the red-green coalition was stopped by the new coalition of CDU and FDP after the local elections in 1999, despite advanced planning and existing funding.

In the course of the expansion of the Euregiobahn , which mainly opens up the Aachen area, plans were also made to extend one of the branches coming from Würselen from the former Aachen Nord train station in the street area to the Aachen bus station. The railcars of the Euregiobahn were designed accordingly for the requirements of the BOStrab . So far there is no concrete time horizon for implementation; after the failure of the Campusbahn project, however, it is to be expected that the plans for an extension of the Euregiobahn into Aachen's city center will again play an increasingly important role when considering possible alternatives.

Planned light rail

Entry concept

With the plans for the expansion of the RWTH Aachen campus , the plans for a light rail were resumed in a modified form, with a campus tram going from around 2018 from the university hospital in Melaten, including the university expansion area under development there, via the city center to the Brand district. Building on this, the citizens' initiative AC = Bahn presented a concept for a new tram network in June 2009 and was supported by the Pro Bahn passenger association.

The Aachen city council ultimately voted in favor of the campus train in the form of a tram. In terms of conception, a monorail concept on the same route performed better, but should be about twice as expensive, while a cable car with slightly lower costs would have two or three fewer stops, would be significantly slower and therefore travel less.

On January 11, 2012, Aachen's Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp presented a new concept for the campus railway . This is to become a city-wide light rail system. The concept consisted of an entry concept and the so-called target concept, which would have been realized later. The entry-level concept was a single diameter line in front of which the west of Aachen at the University Hospital begins on the campus Melaten and Campus West to Westbahnhof leads, and then from there to the central area of the RWTH and on about Bushof, Kaiserplatz , Adalbertsteinweg, railway station Rothe Erde and Trier Street to the Brand district . This route would have been around twelve kilometers long and in the inner city area should have no overhead lines. It was also planned that main traffic axes such as Trierer Straße and Adalbertsteinweg would remain two-lane.

Target concept

The target concept envisaged a second diameter line beginning at the border with the neighboring Dutch town of Vaals or at the university clinic, which leads over Vaalser Strasse past Aachen Schanz train station into the city center, there passes the Elisenbrunnen and the bus station and over Hansemannplatz and Jülicher Strasse should lead to Würselen . Both routes together would have been around 24 kilometers long and would have formed an axis cross with an intersection at the central bus station. A catenary-free section was also planned in the center of the second route.

financing

The entry-level concept had an estimated investment requirement for the track, the depot including planning and ancillary construction costs as well as for the vehicles of € 224 to 237.5 million. With the ongoing operating costs and less federal and state subsidies, the savings in the bus network and the additional income from increased passenger numbers, this would have resulted in an additional annual financial requirement of € 4.04 to 6.36 million. ASEAG estimates that an alternative bus operation would include 425,000 additional bus kilometers, which would result in a financing requirement of € 1.83 million. Investments in infrastructure, such as B. in new vehicles, additional bus lanes and electrification would have had a volume of around € 115 million. A pure bus system, which, due to the quality differences, cannot fully utilize the passenger potential of a light rail system, would cost around € 4.3 million a year.

Benefit-cost analysis

In a first rough cost-benefit calculation, the campus railway was rated with a cost-benefit indicator of 1.5. To implement this, the city had applied for funding under the Municipal Transport Financing Act (GVFG) for the route. The federal and state governments have recognized the project's eligibility in principle.

On September 28, 2012, the City of Aachen commissioned a standardized assessment to determine the exact cost-benefit ratio .

Political framework

Critics of the Campusbahn organized themselves in the citizens' initiative Campusbahn = megalomania . Above all, the high costs, feared years of large construction sites in the urban area and the multiple changes between bus and train were criticized by the citizens' initiative. She feared that the city might end up in the emergency budget , in which the district government then dictates to the city of Aachen how it should budget. The development of Campus Melaten is anything but positive and demand is low. As an alternative, the Euregiobahn should be further expanded and more electric buses should be used when new purchases are necessary.

On December 19, 2012, the Aachen city council voted with a large majority of the CDU, SPD, Greens and Left Party in favor of building the campus railway. The decision was justified with five main arguments:

1. Due to the changed mobility behavior, there is a high increase in the number of public transport users. This trend will continue in the future. Some of the bus system is already at the limits of its performance. The campus train could improve the performance and quality of public transport as a whole, because it covers precisely the highly frequented routes.
2. Many residential areas and workplaces as well as shopping and supply facilities would be better connected and networked through the route.
3. The university areas of the University Clinic, Campus Melaten, Campus West and Campus Mitte would be connected to each other and to the Westbahnhof (as a supraregional connection point) and Aachen city center by the Campusbahn.
4. The improvement and strengthening of local public transport is necessary in order to improve the ecological situation in the city, this applies in particular to the goals of air pollution control and noise protection.
5. The infrastructure of the campus railway will create an infrastructure for electromobility that can also be used by other e-vehicles.

At the same time, the city council decided that the population of Aachen should make a final decision on the transport project on March 10, 2013, with a calculated investment sum of 243 million euros. In this council decision, in which 43.03% of the 192,636 eligible voters (Aacheners over 16 years of age) voted, the campus railway project was rejected by 66.34% of the electorate, which resulted in its suspension

Overall electromobility concept

The overall concept of the campus railway stipulated that the infrastructure of the light rail system should also be used as a complementary infrastructure for further electromobility. For example, it was planned to create charging stations for car sharing stations, electric taxis, private electric cars and electric bicycles at the light rail substations . Electric cars and electric bicycles, so-called pedelecs , which can be borrowed and are kept ready at suitable stops, should also be integrated into the public transport offer .

In addition, some ASEAG bus lines should be converted to battery-powered electric buses . These should be recharged with electricity on the sections served jointly with the campus train using an additional two-pole catenary known from the trolleybus . The entire system with the substations, electricity consumers and electricity storage should be integrated into intelligent electricity networks . The electricity should come mainly from renewable energy sources.

Web links

• Website of the city of Aachen on the campus railway

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Campusbahn map from www.campusbahn-aachen.de (PDF; 3.5 MB)
2. ^ Result of the council citizens' decision of March 10, 2013 ( memento of July 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), March 10, 2013
3. ^ Aachener Zeitung : Crystal clear no to the Aachen campus train , March 10, 2013
4. ↑ Presentation of the feasibility study Examination of the technical, traffic-related, urban planning and financial feasibility of an innovative connection between the RWTH expansion Campus Melaten and Campus Westbahnhof with the university clinic, the Aachen West train station and the campus core area ( Memento from January 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF ; 4.9 MB)
5. ^ Aachener Nachrichten on June 10, 2009
6. ↑ New ideas for bike paths, buses, sidewalks - and a light rail
7. ↑ Sample cross-sections from February 2013 (PDF; 4.8 MB)
8. ↑ project page campusbahn.de [1] (PDF; 120 kB)
9. ↑ Mobility Committee May 24, 2012 - Questions and answers from the city administration [2] (PDF; 2.2 MB)
10. ^ Aachener Zeitung, October 2, 2012
11. ^ Table template for the 13th meeting of the regional council on December 14, 2012 - Item 11: Inclusion of the campus railway in the NRW transport infrastructure requirement plan - application by the city of Aachen . District government Cologne, November 26, 2012 (PDF; 3.7 MB)
12. ↑ Campusbahn megalomania ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Administrative draft for the council meeting on December 19, 2012, resolution on the Campus Railway project
14. ↑ Article from the Aachener Nachrichten of December 19, 2012: "Council puts the campus railway on the rails"
15. ↑ Article from the Aachener Zeitung from December 19, 2012: "City council wants campus train"