Flat railway (Berlin)
The Flachbahn was a Berlin tram that was built and later operated by the Hochbahngesellschaft ("Society for Electric Elevated and Underground Railways in Berlin "). The company chose the designation flat railway to clarify the ground level continuation in contrast to the elevated railway . There was a transitional tariff between the two modes of transport. On March 1, 1928, the Berliner Straßenbahn-Betriebs-GmbH took over the management of the flat line, which until then was the last private tram in Berlin.
The first flat line between the Warschauer Brücke station and the Centralviehhof went into operation on October 1, 1901, six months before the main line (today's U1 line ) of the elevated railway was opened. On January 1, 1910, the trams of the city of Berlin took over this route, at the same time the second flat line between Warschauer Brücke and Lichtenberg went into operation.
history
The first flat track
In order to enlarge the catchment area of the elevated railway line between Warschauer Brücke and Zoologischer Garten , trams to Wilhelmplatz in Charlottenburg and to the central cattle yard and slaughterhouse were planned at the west and east ends . In 1897, the city of Charlottenburg decided to run the underground line of today's underground line in its area, so that it could later be led to Wilhelmplatz and the construction of a separate tram line was unnecessary. The eastern connecting line, however, was built.
The commissioning should take place at about the same time as the elevated railway and was scheduled for mid-1901. On June 16, 1900, the state police approval was issued, according to which the operation was limited to December 31, 1949. The agreement of approval concluded with the city of Berlin contained the clause that the railway should fall to the city on December 31, 1919 free of charge. Siemens & Halske were responsible for the construction work under the conditions of the elevated railway construction. On October 1, 1901, the 2.2-kilometer route was opened. The elevated railway was about four months later on 15./18. Opened in February 1902 and reached the Warsaw Bridge on August 17, 1902. Until January 1, 1903, the management was with Siemens & Halske and then passed to the Hochbahngesellschaft. The trains initially ran every ten minutes. After the opening of the elevated railway, the frequency in the rush hour between 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. and between 10:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. was reduced to five minutes; outside these times, the trains ran every seven and a half minutes. From October 26, 1903, there was a continuous five-minute cycle between 6:00 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., during the rest of the time the trains ran every ten minutes. Sidecars were only attached to the traffic peaks.
| from date | course | Length (in km) |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 1, 1901 | Warschauer Brücke - Warschauer Strasse - Petersburger Strasse - Baltenplatz - Thaerstrasse - Centralviehhof (Eldenaer Strasse) | 2.2 |
| Jan. 1, 1910 | Warschauer Brücke (Rudolfstrasse) - Warschauer Strasse - Revaler Strasse - Libauer Strasse - Kopernikusstrasse - Wühlischstrasse - Holteistrasse - Weichselstrasse - Scharnweberstrasse at the corner of Gürtelstrasse | |
| Oct. 22, 1910 | Warschauer Brücke (Rudolfstrasse) … Scharnweberstrasse - Gürtelstrasse at the corner of Frankfurter Chaussee | 2.8 |
| Jul 1, 1913 | Warschauer Brücke (Rudolfstraße) … Gürtelstraße - Möllendorffstraße - Normannenstraße - Lichtenberg, Wagnerplatz | 3.8 |
The route began in Warschauer Strasse at the Warschauer Brücke high station. After crossing it, she continued on Warschauer Strasse and then Petersburger Strasse . At Baltenplatz (from 1947 Bersarinplatz ) the route turned into Thaerstraße and followed it to Eldenaer Straße. The final stop was at the intersection of Eldenaer Strasse and Liebigstrasse in front of Forckenbeckplatz . At Frankfurter Allee and Baltenplatz, the train crossed the tracks of the Great Berlin Tram , which were still being laid out by the New Berlin Horse Railroad . From 1907 there was another intersection on Boxhagener Straße .
During the new construction of the Rudolfhalle in 1907, the elevated trains ended at Stralauer Thor, at that time the flat railway was extended by a few hundred meters along Warschauer Strasse. After the hall was released, the flat-rail cars were able to turn around in Rudolfstrasse.
The second flat track
From 1905 the city of Berlin started negotiations with the elevated railway company to share the flat railway line. The background was the planned extension of the urban tram lines , which from 1908 also ended at the Zentralviehhof, in the direction of Hermannplatz . Both sides agreed to sell the route to the city of Berlin for 700,000 marks. At the same time, the elevated railway company received approval for the construction of a new line in the direction of Lichtenberg . As early as 1907, this municipality had expressed the wish to extend the elevated railway to its center. According to newspaper reports from October 1907, all that was needed was the approval of the municipality of Boxhagen-Rummelsburg , whose area the railway would also have passed. For reasons unknown, these first plans failed. On January 1, 1910, the first flat line became the property of the municipal trams and at the same time the second flat line went into operation up to the intersection of Gürtelstrasse and Scharnweberstrasse in Lichtenberg. On October 22, 1910, the line was extended a short distance to Frankfurter Chaussee (from 1920: Frankfurter Allee). The travel time on the new route was twelve minutes.
The second flat railway line threaded out at the northern end of the bridge and initially turned into Revaler Straße. From there it went on along Libauer Strasse, Kopernikusstrasse, Wühlischstrasse, Holteistrasse, Weichselstrasse and Scharnweberstrasse to Gürtelstrasse. Immediately after the confluence with the Gürtelstrasse, the line passed under the Berlin Ringbahn and ended at Frankfurter Chaussee.
In 1911, Lichtenberg suggested the further extension of the route via Möllendorffstrasse and Normannenstrasse to Wagnerplatz (since 1935: Roedeliusplatz ). The tracks of the large Berlin tram could be used on a 350-meter-long section in Möllendorffstrasse . On March 22, 1912, the city of Lichtenberg and the elevated railway company agreed to extend the line, for which state approval was granted on December 7, 1912. The extension went into operation on July 1, 1913. Since the number of passengers was not very high, usually only every second train drove from Frankfurter Chaussee to Wagnerplatz. The route to the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery was later to be extended, but it was no longer implemented.
After the outbreak of the First World War , the flat railway had to cease operations between August 3 and August 13, 1914 due to a lack of personnel. However, the increasing demand for wagons, cars and buses soon caused the number of trams to rise dramatically. Personnel requirements rose from 60 in 1914 to 65 at the end of the war in 1918.
In the course of the formation of the unified community of Greater Berlin , the Association of Greater Berlin acquired most of the tram companies and combined them in the Berlin tram (BSt). The flat railway owned by the Hochbahngesellschaft was not affected by these measures , as was the Schmöckwitz – Grünauer Uferbahn . During the inflationary period , as with the other companies, there were restrictions; the section between Gürtelstrasse and Wagnerplatz was not served between September 13, 1923 and April 30, 1924. When the Berlin tram completely ceased operations on September 9, 1923, only the trains of the flat tram and the Uferbahn were still on the move, but the date went down in the city's history as a “tram-free day”.
Takeover by the Berlin tram
At the end of the 1920s there was a merger of trams, elevated and underground trains and buses to form Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG), today's Berlin transport company . In the first step, the uniform tariff for the three modes of transport was decided on March 9, 1927 and introduced on March 15 of the same year. The flat railway was given line number 90. In the next step, the elevated railway company transferred the operating rights of the flat railway to the Berlin tram operating company on April 1, 1928. In April, they converted the overhead line from hoop to roller pantograph operation. The vehicles remained in the possession of the Hochbahngesellschaft until the BVG was founded on January 1, 1929.
The management of line 90 was initially retained. From August 28, 1930, the cars drove from Warschauer Strasse directly into Kopernikusstrasse, so that the winding route over Revaler and Libauer Strasse was no longer necessary. In the course of the new construction of the Warschauer Brücke in 1938, the terminus in Rudolfstrasse was given up. The line was extended from November 11, 1937 over the Oberbaumbrücke to the Schlesisches Tor underground station . On February 29, 1944, line 90 was discontinued due to the war. Line 8 served as a replacement and ran parallel to large parts of the route. Only the section in Normannenstrasse was no longer served from that day.
Both routes are still largely in operation. The section between Warschauer Brücke and Bersarinplatz is served by the M10 line. The rest of the route across Thaerstraße to Eldenaer Straße was closed on March 15, 1922. The second flat railway line will be used as planned by the M13 line, with the exception of the section in Normannenstrasse.
business
vehicles
The flat railway had three types of motor coaches and three types of trailer. The first generation of vehicles consisted of eight multiple units and six sidecars with the numbers 1–8 and 21–26. The cars corresponded to the Siemens standard type, which was also used by BESTAG . The railcars had electric brakes, railcar 7, in contrast to this, had a compressed air brake . The body of sidecar 23 had six instead of the usual four windows in the small-large-large-small arrangement. In 1905, two motor cars and one sidecar were also purchased. The cars were similar to the vehicles from 1901, with the newer railcars having longer entry platforms. The Berlin tram had some of the sidecars converted into salt cars, the remaining cars were decommissioned.
The existing cars were badly worn out after more than 20 years of operation, so that the elevated railway company soon had to replace them. However, the economic situation at the beginning of the 1920s did not allow a new order for the time being, so that the company had to fall back on used vehicles. In 1923 (according to other sources, 1924 and 1925 respectively) it acquired two used railcars and two trailer cars, which were given the numbers 11 and 12 as well as 28 and 29. Presumably the cars came from Breslau and were only rented from 1923 to 1925. In 1927 they were taken out of service, and sidecar 29 eventually served as the S53 salt car.
After the economic situation had improved again, the Hochbahngesellschaft ordered five railcars and nine trailer cars from Orenstein & Koppel in Drewitz in 1924 . The cars delivered in 1926 were based on the 1925 type of the Berlin tram; the railcars had a separate chassis . In addition, the wagons were equipped with sliding doors on the platforms. Although the flat railway was still running without a line number at that time, the corresponding line number boxes had been installed as a precaution. In 1928 the vehicles were taken over by the Berlin tram, from 1934 their type designation was TF 26 (railcar) or B 26. In 1939, the BVG prepared four sidecars for operation on line 120 to Hennigsdorf , one of which was lost in the war. Six sidecars and all railcars of this series remained with BVG-Ost after 1949, the remaining sidecars with BVG-West. The latter retired their two cars in 1955 and 1966. The sidecars of BVG-Ost were included in the recoprogram in 1965 and served as donor vehicles for the sidecars 2067 to 2072. With the exception of 4362 (previously flat track 14), the railcars were decommissioned in 1960/1961 (according to another source 1956), the remaining vehicle came 1956 to the Woltersdorf tram and was in use there until 1970. In 1979 the vehicle came back to Berlin and it is planned to recondition it.
| Construction year | Manufacturer | Numbers | from 1928 | Whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Falkenried / Siemens | 1-8 | Retired in 1928 | |
| 1905 | Falkenried / Siemens | 9 + 10 | Retired in 1928 | |
| 1899 | 11 + 12 | 1923/1925 ex Breslau ; retired around 1927 | ||
| 1926 | OK | 13-17 | 4361-4365 | 4362 in 1956 to Woltersdorf No. 6 II , 1966 in Tw 10 II , withdrawn from service in 1970, to Berlin in 1979, reconditioning planned, the rest of the 1960/1961 (or 1956?) Withdrawn |
| 1901 | Falkenried | 21-27 | Retired in 1928, partly used as a salt car | |
| 28 + 29 | 1923/1925 ex Breslau; retired around 1927 | |||
| 1926 | OK | 30-38 | 1231 II -1239 II | 1236–1239 converted for use on line 120 ; 1236 KV; 1238 +1239 after 1949 to BVG-West, retired in 1965 and 1955; 1231–1235 + 1237 after 1949 to BVG-Ost; 1965 converted into Rekowagen 2067-2072 |
Car hall
Two car halls at the Warschauer Brücke high station were used to store and maintain the vehicles. The first wagon hall from 1901 comprised two tracks and stood between the Hochbahnhof and Warschauer Platz. Access was via Rudolfstrasse, at the other end of the hall there were transfer tracks to the elevated railway.
In 1907, the elevated railway company had a new car hall built along Rudolfstrasse for both modes of transport. The two-storey building, called Rudolfhalle, based on plans by Alfred Grenander , provided for the accommodation of the elevated trains on the upper floor and the flat rail cars in the basement. Access was via Rudolfstrasse and Ehrenbergstrasse. The transfer tracks on the old wagon hall, which was demolished, remained. The hall was used by the flat railway from 1909. The access tracks in Rudolfstraße were used for sweeping from 1910 at the latest .
On April 1, 1928 the farm was closed; the trains on line 90 were provided by the Lichtenberg depot in Siegfriedstrasse. The hall was used in different ways in the following years, among other things, the BVG-Ost set up the central tram workshop there after 1949. In the 1980s, Narva took over the halls as storage space and used them until 1994. Since a renovation in 2001, the rooms have been used in different ways. The hall is part of the entire Hochbahnhof Warschauer Brücke complex with viaduct, stair tower and car repair hall and is a listed building.
Tariff
The fare for the line, which was opened in 1901, was a standard 10 pfennigs. In addition, the elevated railway company issued monthly tickets for five marks, student monthly tickets for three marks and weekly workers tickets for 60 pfennigs. Children under the age of six were allowed to travel for free when accompanied by an adult, provided they were seated inside the car. An additional fare of ten pfennigs had to be paid for dogs, and hunting dogs were only allowed to ride on the front platform when accompanied by hunters. With the extension of the elevated railway from Stralauer Thor to the Warschauer Brücke on August 17, 1902, a transitional tariff between flat and elevated railway was also offered. This was five pfennigs above the elevated railway tariff and applied to both modes of transport. For a trip between Zentralviehhof and Prinzenstraße , 15 pfennigs had to be paid, 20 pfennigs to Potsdamer Platz or Bülowstraße and 25 pfennigs to the zoological garden . Passengers from the flat railway to the elevated railway received Edmondsonsche tickets from the conductor , which had to be validated when entering the Warschauer Brücke high station. When driving in the opposite direction, the conductors withheld the elevated train tickets and handed the passengers a brown ticket with no price imprint. The transitional tariff only applied to the III. Class of the elevated railway, for the use of the second class, additional tickets had to be purchased. The transition tickets made up the largest proportion of tickets sold on the flat railway.
This tariff was also used for the second flat runway. In the contract between the municipal tram and the elevated railway company, the retention of the transitional tariff was stipulated on the route of the first flat railway. To what extent the elevated railway company contributed to the income from the transition tariff to the first flat railway after 1910 is not known.
At the end of the First World War, the elevated railway tariff and with it the transitional tariff were increased for the first time; on January 23, 1919, the flat railway was directly affected by the price increase. With the rising inflation , the fare also rose at ever shorter intervals. The last tariff change took place on November 22, 1923.
On March 9, 1927, the Berliner Straßenbahn-Betriebs-Gesellschaft, the Hochbahngesellschaft and the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus AG signed the so-called community of interests contract with which the 20-Pfennig standard tariff between the three modes of transport came into force on March 15, 1927. The tariff allowed a one-time change within a means of transport or to the tram or subway, and from January 1, 1928 also to the bus. In the course of the standardization of tariffs, the flat railway was given line number 90.
literature
- Annual reports of the Hochbahngesellschaft, 1900–1928.
- Uwe Kerl: 100 years of Flachbahn . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 10, 2001.
- Siegfried Münzinger: The flat railways of the Berlin elevated and underground railway . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issues 4, 6 and 7, 1956.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Uwe Kerl: 100 years of the Flachbahn . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 10, 2001, pp. 179-189 .
- ^ A b Hans-Joachim Pohl: The urban trams in Berlin. History of a municipal transport company . In: Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter . Volume 5, 1983, pp. 98-106 .
- ^ Heinz Jung, Wolfgang Kramer: Line chronicle of the Berlin tram 1902–1945. 4th episode . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Volume 4, 1964, pp. 50-51 .
- ^ Heinz Jung, Wolfgang Kramer: Line chronicle of the Berlin tram 1902–1945. 7th episode . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 7, 1964, pp. 89-90 .
- ↑ a b c Siegfried Münzinger: The flat railways of the Berlin elevated and underground railway . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 7, 1956, pp. 29 .
- ^ A b Author collective: Tram Archive 5. Berlin and the surrounding area . transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-344-00172-8 , p. 139 .
- ^ A b Author collective: Tram Archive 5. Berlin and the surrounding area . transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-344-00172-8 , p. 299-307 .
- ↑ Railcar 14 (type TF26) flat line of the Berlin elevated and underground railway company. Monument Preservation Association Berlin, January 30, 2010, accessed on March 23, 2013 .
- ^ Siegfried Münzinger: Tram profile. Episode 6 . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 8, 1975, pp. 157 .
- ↑ The work car of the Berlin tram from 1920 . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Volume 6, 1967, pp. 78-113 .
- ^ Karl-Heinz Gewandt: Tram profile. Episode 39 . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Volume 3, 1981, pp. 55 .
- ^ Siegfried Münzinger: The depots of the Berlin trams . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 7, 1969, p. 114-121 .
- ↑ Rudolf Hall Berlin-Friedrichshain. Immoaccent, accessed March 24, 2013 .
- ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
