Berlin Ringbahn
The Berliner Ringbahn is a 37-kilometer-long railway line that surrounds the inner city of Berlin as a closed ring . It has two tracks for the S-Bahn and others, which are used in sections for long-distance, regional and freight traffic, and is connected to the light rail , which runs east-west within the ring, and several lines running radially towards the city center.
Around 1,100 train journeys take place on the S-Bahn tracks every day , transporting over half a million passengers. In 2018, the section between Treptower Park and Ostkreuz, with around 170,000 passengers daily, was one of the busiest sections of the Berlin S-Bahn.
The distinctive shape of the circular line is also known as the dog's head or the big dog's head . This term has even found its way into the parlance of Berlin politics. The area enclosed by the Ringbahn (with an area of approx. 88 km²) is also of administrative importance:
- The area within the Ringbahn and including it forms the Berlin tariff zone A of the Berlin-Brandenburg transport association .
- The Berlin environmental zone corresponds - apart from slight adjustments in the peripheral area - to the area within the Ringbahn.
history
Starting position
In 1851, as a forerunner of the Ringbahn, the royal train station connecting line, which was not closed as a ring, was completed between the terminal stations of the railway lines ending in Berlin. This railway, which was built directly on the streets of the urban area, was soon no longer able to fulfill its tasks and came increasingly into conflict with the rest of the road traffic.
Therefore, the construction of a new, more efficient connecting line, primarily for freight traffic, was soon planned, which was to run on its own track body outside the city limits at that time. However, the funds for the construction could only be approved after the victorious war against Austria in 1866. Construction began in 1867 and the Ringbahn was completed in 1877. The Lower Silesian-Märkische Eisenbahn was commissioned with the construction and management .
The first section of the Ringbahn
The registered as thick points terminal stations of remote tracks are north of the river Spree in direction of the Lehrter , Hamburg , Stettin , the East and the Silesian Station ; south of the Spree the Görlitzer and the Anhalter Bahnhof , the Dresdener Bahnhof and the Potsdamer Bahnhof
The first section of the Ringbahn went into operation on July 17, 1871. The route began in the north at Moabit station at the transition to the Lehrter Bahn and ran clockwise around Berlin via Gesundbrunnen , Rixdorf (now: Neukölln ) and Tempelhof to Schöneberg in the south. The former terminus at Schöneberg was located south of today's S-Bahn station of the same name on the Potsdamer Bahn (main line) and received tracks east of the main line. The radial lines of the Hamburg Railway , Stettiner Bahn , Ostbahn , Lower Silesian-Märkische Bahn , Görlitzer Bahn and Berlin-Anhaltische Eisenbahn were crossed on bridges. In the area of most of these crossings, connecting curves to the terminal stations of the radial routes ( inner connection ) located in the city center were built. On the Potsdamer Bahn there was a direct route out of town without changing direction (external connection) . As with the earlier connecting line, the operator was the Lower Silesian-Märkische Eisenbahn.
Passenger traffic on this first section began on January 1, 1872. Initially there were two pairs of passenger trains per day, from April onwards three. Already in 1873 there were eight pairs of trains a day, in 1875 nine. The trains ran from Lehrter Bahnhof with stops in Moabit, Gesundbrunnen, Stralau (south of today's Ostkreuz station , called the Lower Silesian-Märkischer connection in the first few months of operation ), Rixdorf, Tempelhof and Schöneberg to Potsdam station. In Moabit and in what was then the Schöneberg train station, the trains had to change direction. Individual trains also stopped at the Görlitz connection at the intersection with the Görlitz railway . Shuttle trains ran between Stralau and Frankfurt station . There were also connections in Gesundbrunnen to and from Stettiner station . Stops in Wedding and Friedrichsberg were added as early as 1872, followed by the Weißensee stop in 1875 (later moved to the other side of Greifswalder Strasse and expanded to a train station) and the Treptow stop in 1876 .
Closed ring
With the connection from Schöneberg via Charlottenburg (now: Westend station ) to Moabit, the ring was closed on November 15, 1877. From 1881 passenger traffic to the Potsdamer Ringbahnhof , a wing station of the Potsdamer Bahnhof, was possible via the Südringspitzkehre . The old Schöneberg station was replaced by a station of the same name on the Kolonnenbrücke (later Kolonnenstrasse , now: Julius-Leber-Brücke ).
At the beginning of the 1880s, the ring line section between Landsberger Allee and Stralau was expanded to include four tracks. The reason was the large central cattle and slaughterhouse , which was equipped with appropriate goods connections. In addition, there were a total of six merging sidings on this 4.5 km long section. At the Zentralviehhof there was also a personal stop of the same name from 1881 , the costs of which were initially taken over by the Berlin magistrate and which only came into the ownership of the railway company in the 1890s.
In the 1880s and 1890s, the Ringbahn was expanded to consist of four tracks except for short gaps. A number of connections to intersecting routes were also newly created or expanded. Passenger traffic at Moabit station was discontinued in 1894, since then the station has only been used for goods traffic and operational tasks. As a replacement, the Beusselstrasse stop was opened on May 1, 1894, and the Jungfernheide station went into operation on the same day . The stops in Landsberger Allee and Prenzlauer Allee followed in 1894 and 1895, respectively.
After the completion of the Berlin Stadtbahn in 1882 and the Stralau-Rummelsburg station (now: Ostkreuz), the number of passengers on the Ringbahn was significantly larger than before. Two continuous "half rings" were operated for passenger traffic. Nordring trains drove from West on the northern ring road to Stralau-Rummelsburg and from here on the light rail to Charlottenburg and Westend back, or vice versa. Southern ring trains ran from the Potsdam Ringbahnhof via Schöneberg on the southern Ringbahn to Stralau-Rummelsburg and from here on the Stadtbahn to Charlottenburg and via the southwest ring to Schöneberg and back to the Potsdam Ringbahnhof, or vice versa. In addition, there were the so-called “Grunewald trains”, which mainly operated for excursion traffic from Westend and Halensee via connecting routes to Grunewald station .
In the summer of 1895, the offer consisted of 53 north ring trains per day, which began and ended in Westend station, as well as 49 trains starting and ending in Stralau-Rummelsburg. On Sundays there were 37 trains each. There were also around 20 additional trains on sections. On the Südring there were 73 trains that covered the entire loop from the Potsdam Ringbahnhof, as well as around 50 on partial sections. In the direction of Grunewald, there were 26 trains per day from the Nordring and 20 trains per day from the Südring, with up to 62 extra trains on Sundays if required. In the area of today's Ostkreuz (then Stralau-Rummelsburg), Westkreuz and Schöneberg railway stations, the continuous ring railway tracks were only used by freight trains until the end of the 19th century, the passenger trains always drove there in and out of the city center (Stadtbahn or Potsdamer Bahnhof).
The renovation of the Stralau-Rummelsburg station in the first few years of the 20th century resulted in a platform on the suburban tracks of the Ringbahn. Since then, a large number of the Ringbahn trains no longer went in the direction of the Stadtbahn (north and south ring trains) , but instead ran continuously on the Ringbahn.
Development until 1961
On June 27, 1922, numerous travelers - traveling on the running boards of an overcrowded compartment train - crashed onto the tracks when they encountered a counter train near the Schönhauser Allee station . Over 40 deaths were the result.
During the Allied air raids in World War II , the railroad facilities at Potsdamer and Anhalter Bahnhof were severely hit several times, so that the Südringpitzkehre could no longer be used from 1944 onwards.
From 1944 until the Wall was built in 1961, the S-Bahn trains ran as full-ring trains over the already existing direct track connection between the Papestrasse and Schöneberg stations (opened in 1933 on the Ringbahn).
Divided
The construction of the wall interrupted the circular railway in two places:
- In the western part of Berlin , a separate route was created on a three-quarter ring between Gesundbrunnen and Sonnenallee or Köllnische Heide.
- In the eastern part of Berlin , the remaining section of the Ringbahn between Schönhauser Allee and Treptower Park was linked with the subsequent suburban lines to Bernau and Königs Wusterhausen and Schönefeld Airport .
After the Reichsbahn strike in 1980 , S-Bahn operations on the western Dreiviertelring were suspended for around 13 years.
On January 9, 1984, the operating rights for the S-Bahn in the western part of Berlin were transferred to the BVG . In this context, it was initially planned to rebuild the ring section between Westend and Sonnenallee (because of the better development effect of this station instead of Köllnischer Heide ) and to put it into operation.
Union
After German reunification in 1990, these plans were changed in order to establish a connection to the Görlitzer Bahn from the Südring in 1993 with the branch via Köllnische Heide . The reconstruction of the connection from Sonnenallee to Treptower Park required extensive renovation work that could not be implemented at short notice. In the following years, the western part of the Ringbahn was put back into operation in several stages. In 2002 the S-Bahn-Ring was closed again.
Expansion planning
In the 1930s, a depot on Oderstrasse in Neukölln was planned, followed by an Oderstrasse train station .
Since 2010 there have been plans to build an additional train station south of Tempelhofer Feld . Under the working title Bahnhof Tempelhofer Feld , the measure was included in the urban development plan for traffic in Berlin drawn up by the Senate resolution of March 29, 2011 as still in the "potential assessment", with an open time classification, unknown exact location and unknown cost and financing planning.
Business organization
Train
Initially, only freight traffic was offered, and it was not until January 1, 1872, that separate train stations for passenger traffic were also available. The passenger tracks of the Ringbahn were electrified from 1926 onwards , in 1930 the Ringbahn operation was combined with the Berlin city and suburban railways to form the Berlin S-Bahn.
The construction of the Wall in 1961 interrupted continuous operation, whereupon the number of passengers between Gesundbrunnen and Sonnenallee continued to decline on the West Berlin side . The reason was also politically motivated calls for boycotts, since the GDR would be supported financially with the income from the West Berlin S-Bahn lines operated under the GDR. The East Berlin route from Schönhauser Allee to Treptower Park , however, developed into an important north-south tangent.
The S-Bahn service on the western part of the ring was stopped in 1980 due to the Reichsbahn strike and only resumed on December 17, 1993 on the section ( Baumschulenweg -) Neukölln - Westend . The ring was reopened in sections on the sections Westend - Jungfernheide (April 15, 1997), Neukölln - Treptower Park (December 18, 1997) and Jungfernheide - Westhafen (December 19, 1999). Since September 17, 2001, S-Bahn trains have been running again across the former border between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen.
On June 15, 2002, the last section of the Ringbahn, between Westhafen and Gesundbrunnen, was ceremoniously reopened by Federal Transport Minister Bodewig and Railway Chief Mehdorn . On the following day, the section with the intermediate stop in Wedding went back into operation. In advertising, this day was also referred to as wedding day , alluding to the English word wedding ('wedding'). Since then, the S-Bahn has been running continuously again, but for the time being it was not a full ring , but according to the snail concept : The trains came from the south in Neukölln on the ring and circled it one and a half times until they ended at a ring station. This was mainly due to the fact that the journey took exactly 63 minutes at the time, which did not result in a favorable cycle.
Since May 28, 2006, the S-Bahn has been running on the Ringbahn again according to the full ring concept. The trains on lines S41 / S42 need 60 minutes for one lap with a frequency of five minutes during rush hour and ten minutes during normal and late hours . This is achieved through the continuous use of high- speed trains from the 481/482 series . Some sections of the ring are used by other lines. End on the southern ring, coming from the Görlitzer Bahn from the southeast, the S45 in Südkreuz , the S46 in Westend and the S47 in Hermannstraße . Lines S8 and S85 run on the eastern ring between Treptower Park and Schönhauser Allee.
On the site of the former S-Bw Papestrasse (located between the Tempelhof and Südkreuz stations), whose tracks and halls had been completely cleared in preparation for construction, construction work began in 2010 to build the Tempelhof train formation facility . Four waiting, five train formation and two bypass tracks, a new substation and an EOW area ( electrically localized points ) were built. A new noise barrier was built south of the Tempelhof - Südkreuz track. The western approach group went into operation on November 19, 2012. The full commissioning will take place in stages from December 2016 to the end of the first half of 2017.
Long-distance and freight tracks
Long-distance and freight tracks also run parallel to the S-Bahn tracks, but with a partially lower level of expansion and a break in the Treptow area:
Northern ring
As part of the so-called mushroom concept , the long-distance tracks of the Ringbahn between Halensee (branch towards Wannsee) and Treptower Park (branch towards Görlitzer Bahn) have been expanded and electrified for regional and long-distance traffic. The long-distance railway line is double-track throughout this area.
The Ringbahn runs parallel to the Lehrter Bahn between Jungfernheide and the junction to Berlin Central Station. Both routes are linked in the Berlin-Moabit freight yard. A few regional and long-distance trains run from there to Berlin Gesundbrunnen station. In addition, there are trains in the immediate area of Gesundbrunnen station from the north-south long-distance railway to the north and vice versa, as well as regional trains from the direction of Lichtenberg around Ostkreuz station , sometimes further to the Görlitzer Bahn. On the remaining sections, the ring-rail mainline tracks are only used to transfer empty trains, individual diversions and freight traffic. The Berlin Gesundbrunnen train station for regional and long-distance traffic and Ostkreuz for regional traffic are located on the Ringbahn itself. The Jungfernheide regional train station is only located on the tracks of the Lehrter Bahn, there is no operating point on the long-distance tracks of the circular railway.
Southern ring
The southern ring has been fully operational again since September 2016 between Halensee and the junction to Schöneweide. This section is not electrified and only has a single track east of Tempelhof station. The Halensee - Tempelhof section had been interrupted since 2001 due to the construction of the Südkreuz long-distance train station.In the course of the closure, the bridges over Gotenstrasse and the Wannsee railway at Schöneberg S-Bahn station were rebuilt, and an electronic signal box was built in Tempelhof , which controls the area from Tempelhof to (exclusively) Halensee.
Passenger traffic with regional or long-distance trains is not planned on the southern part of the Ringbahn. In the mid-1990s, the option for the later construction of a regional platform was considered in the planning at Hermannstrasse station.
The freight tracks on the Südring and the connecting curves to the Anhalter Bahn and the Görlitzer Bahn have not yet been electrified. A plan approval procedure would be necessary to electrify the route and increase the speed to 80 km / h as well as because of the prescribed noise protection . An application was made to initiate it in March 2015, and the construction work was planned to be completed by 2020, but Deutsche Bahn has since waived the expansion measures due to the considerable costs of noise protection.
In the Treptow area, the long-distance tracks of the Ringbahn are interrupted, so that both Treptower Park and Neukölln can only travel in the direction of Schöneweide. The reason for this are the changes in the tracks at the Treptower Kreuz in the 1970s, which make it more difficult to close the freight tracks.
The majority of the former ring freight yards have been closed or dismantled. The Neukölln freight yard (with a connection to the Neukölln-Mittenwalder Railway ) and the Treptow freight yard (with a connection to the Berlin industrial railway ) are still in operation .
At the freight station Moabit is Westhafenplatz connected via a siding.
Side branches and connecting curves
Train
From the ring tracks of the S-Bahn go and went side branches in the following directions:
- From Gesundbrunnen and Schönhauser Allee via Bornholmer Straße in the direction of Pankow and Schönholz
- from Treptower Park and Neukölln to Baumschulenweg
- from Jungfernheide via Wernerwerk to Gartenfeld ( Siemensbahn , out of service and partially dismantled)
- from Jungfernheide via Siemensstadt-Fürstenbrunn to Spandau (S-Bahn tracks out of service and dismantled)
- from Schöneberg and Südkreuz to Potsdamer Bahnhof (so-called Südringspitzkehre , interrupted in 1944 after war damage and not rebuilt; however, a reconstruction is being discussed in the planning options of the S21 )
There are connecting curves between the Ringbahn and the Stadtbahn at the Ostkreuz and Westkreuz stations :
- The Südringkurve in Ostkreuz is regularly used by the S-Bahn line 9. It was demolished and completely rebuilt in the course of the renovation of the Ostkreuz station and was closed from August 2009 to December 2017. The stopping point at Ostkreuz station, which had previously only been used towards the city center, was not rebuilt.
- The connecting curve from Charlottenburg to Halensee (Südringkurve) was only rebuilt in the early 1990s on a single track for transfer and special trips. Currently used regularly on weekdays in passenger traffic by some on-and-off trains on lines S41 / S42 and S46.
- Until May 2006 there was a north ring curve in Ostkreuz, which was removed as part of the renovation of the Ostkreuz station. Before that, only the track from the Ringbahn in the direction of the Stadtbahn could be used; the track towards the Ringbahn was already closed.
- Until 1944 there was a connection from Charlottenburg to Westend (Nordringkurve), it was not rebuilt after being destroyed in the Second World War .
Long-distance and freight tracks
From the long-distance and freight tracks of the Ringbahn there are and were the following connections to other routes:
- In Berlin-Moabit station, formerly to the Hamburger and Lehrter station , today to the Lehrter Bahn in both directions and on to the Hamburger Bahn or the north-south long-distance line and to the Hamburger and Lehrter station .
- in the Wedding area since 2006 to the north-south long-distance railway
- in the Gesundbrunnen / Schönhauser Allee area from both directions to the Stettiner Bahn or Berliner Nordbahn in the northeast. The connection from Gesundbrunnen station to the old north station (later Berlin Eberswalder Strasse station ) existed for freight traffic until 1985.
- Frankfurter Allee in the area / Ostkreuz from both directions of the Berlin Frankfurter Allee-Berlin-Rummelsburg railway to the station Berlin-Lichtenberg and operating station Berlin-Rummelsburg
- in the Treptower Park area from the north to the Görlitzer Bahn south-east. The connection from Görlitzer Bahnhof to the Ringbahn to the southwest existed for freight traffic until 1985.
- in the Neukölln area from the west to Baumschulenweg to the Görlitzer Bahn
- in the Hermannstraße station from the east to the Neukölln-Mittenwald Railway
- In the Tempelhof area, a freight track from the east to the Dresden Railway Berlin-Marienfelde . In the past there was also a connection from the Ringbahn from the east to Anhalter Bahnhof
- in the Südkreuz area a freight track south to the shunting yard. Tempelhof - now Südgelände Nature Park - demolished during the reconstruction of the Südkreuz
- in the Südkreuz / Schöneberg area a freight track towards Zehlendorf (dismantled in September 2010)
- at Westkreuz / Halensee from both directions to the Wetzlarer Bahn heading west
- in the Westend area from the south to Spandau
literature
- Leo Favier, Aisha Ronniger, Andrea Schulz, Alexander Schug (eds.): Ring free! Exploration tour Ringbahn Berlin , Past Publishing, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-940621-04-7 .
- Berlin S-Bahn Museum: Line without End - The Berlin Ringbahn , Verlag GVE, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-892-18074-1 .
- Michael Bienert, Ralph Hoppe: One Hour City , Berlin Edition, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-814-80096-6 .
- Peter Bley: 50 Years of the Berlin S-Bahn , In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter , 21st year 1974.
- Peter Bley: The Berlin S-Bahn: Social history of an industrial means of transport , 7th edition, Alba, Düsseldorf 1997.
- Peter Bley: Berlin S-Bahn: from steam trains to electric city trains , Alba, Düsseldorf 1980.
- Waldemar Suadicani : Berlin Ringbahn. In: Viktor von Röll (ed.): Encyclopedia of the Railway System . 2nd Edition. Volume 2: Building Design - Brazil . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1912, p. 243 ff.
Web links
- The Berlin Ringbahn Chronik on epilog.de
- The Ringbahn on stadtschnellbahn-berlin.de
- Ringbahn on berliner-bahnen.de
- Ringbahn project of the master's degree in historical urbanism at the TU Berlin
Individual evidence
- ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
- ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
- ↑ The closure of the ring 15 years ago shortened travel times . In: point 3 . No. 12 , 2017, p. 10 ( online [accessed June 28, 2017]).
- ↑ Berlin S-Bahn transports half a billion passengers. Der Tagesspiegel, April 3, 2018, accessed on April 4, 2018 .
- ↑ Environmental zone area. Retrieved October 22, 2017 . "Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection"
- ↑ Clean Air and Action Plan Berlin 2005–2010. (PDF; 736 kB) Accessed August 1, 2013 . "Berlin city center within the S-Bahn ring ('Großer Hundekopf')"
- ↑ a b c Berlin and its railways 1846–1896. Published by the Ministry of Public Works, Julius Springer Verlag, Berlin 1896, reprint Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin 1982, Volume I, pp. 307–308.
- ↑ Timetable of the Berlin connecting railway from May 6, 1873, in the official gazette of the government of Frankfurt ad Oder 1873 .
- ^ Berlin and its railways 1846-1896. Published by the Ministry of Public Works, Julius Springer Verlag, Berlin 1896, reprint Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin 1982, Volume I, p. 311
- ↑ a b Berlin and its railways 1846–1896. Published by the Ministry of Public Works, Julius Springer Verlag, Berlin 1896, reprint Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin 1982, Volume I, pp. 334–335.
- ^ Berlin and its railways 1846-1896. Published by the Ministry of Public Works, Julius Springer Verlag, Berlin 1896, reprint Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin 1982, Volume I, p. 331
- ^ Berlin and its railways 1846-1896. Published by the Ministry for Public Works, Julius Springer Verlag, Berlin 1896, reprint Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin 1982, Volume II, plate 27.
- ^ Berlin and its railways 1846-1896. Published by the Ministry for Public Works, Julius Springer Verlag, Berlin 1896, reprint Verlag Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Berlin 1982, Volume II, pp. 430–432
- ↑ Mike Straschewski, Michael Dittrich: History and stories about the Berlin S-Bahn. Retrieved February 18, 2018 .
- ↑ Tempelhofer Feld gets a new S-Bahn station . In: Berliner Morgenpost , October 25, 2010, accessed on February 18, 2018.
- ↑ Urban development plan for traffic. Measures until 2025 (Appendix) . Senate Department for Urban Development, June 2011, p. 128, accessed on February 18, 2018 (PDF; 2.6 MB).
- ↑ a b c d e f Deutsche Bahn AG (Ed.): Projects between Berlin and the Baltic Sea . Brochure as of February 1, 2006, Berlin, p. 5.
- ^ Christian Tietze: "Keystone" on the Berlin S-Bahn-Ring . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 8–9 / 2002, ISSN 1421-2811 , p. 363 f.
- ↑ New train formation system helps to stabilize Ring . In: point 3 . No. 24 , 2012, p. 16 ( online [accessed March 31, 2017]).
- ↑ News in brief - S-Bahn . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 3 , 2017, p. 50 .
- ↑ Berliner Verkehrsblätter 9/2016, p. 182
- ↑ Freight trains - Now it's getting really loud in the south of Berlin. In: Berliner Morgenpost . Retrieved October 6, 2016 .
- ↑ Südring becomes a diversion route. In: Signal (Verkehrszeitschrift) 6/2010. P. 12 , accessed on August 24, 2014 .
- ↑ News in brief: U-Bahn . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 5 , 2016, p. 95 .
- ↑ Printed matter 17/15853. (PDF) Berlin House of Representatives, April 7, 2015, accessed on July 11, 2015 .
- ↑ rbb exclusive: Deutsche Bahn confirms: From 2016, freight traffic through Wilmersdorf and Schöneberg will return. news aktuell GmbH, August 19, 2015, accessed on August 20, 2015 .
- ↑ For cost reasons, Deutsche Bahn is not electrifying the inner ring of goods. In: Berlin Week . Retrieved April 11, 2018 .