Hamburg light rail connection

Berlin-Charlottenburg-Berlin-Spandau
Hamburg light rail connection at the level of the Olympiastadion underground station
Route goes from Spandau in the northwest on West over by Charlottenburg in the southeast (map of 1907)
Route number (DB) :	6109
Route length:	7.1 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Top speed:	160 km / h
Legend Berlin light rail from Berlin Ostbf 11.2 Berlin-Charlottenburg to Westend (until 1944), to Halensee Lehrter light rail connection (until 1945) Route until 1925 Berlin Westkreuz Ringbahn Freight tracks of the ring railway Connection Ringbahn - Berlin-Grunewald to Berlin-Wannsee to Potsdam Berlin Messe Süd Route until 1925 14.8 Berlin Heerstraße (former train station) Spandau suburban railway to Spandau to the Olympic Stadium (until around 1945) Lehrter Bahn (former route) Hamburg train from Berlin Hbf 18.3 Berlin-Spandau East ( Abzw ) Connection to IGB Ruhleben Berlin-Ruhleben (today Bft ) Spandau suburban railway from Heerstrasse 19.7 Berlin-Stresow (formerly Spandau Hbf) Havel Berlin-Spandau Lehrter Bahn Hamburg Railway

The Hamburg light rail connection is a railway line in Berlin . The two-track main line , a good seven kilometers long , was opened in 1882. It was created together with the Berlin Stadtbahn as their connection to the Berlin-Hamburg Railway . Today it is mainly used for passenger transport, both for long-distance and regional trains.

history

The first years

By the early 1870s, Berlin was served by a number of private rail lines that began and ended in various terminal stations in the city. After the state-run Berlin Ringbahn went into operation between 1867 and 1877 , the central areas of the city were connected by the Berlin Stadtbahn , which opened in 1882 . Since the bankruptcy of the Berliner Stadteisenbahngesellschaft in 1878, this railway has also been state-owned. In a contract with the Prussian state government dated November 2, 1877, the Hamburger Bahn had undertaken to build a 7.5-kilometer connection to the Stadtbahn. The line separated between the Charlottenburg station and the intersection with the Ringbahn from the Wetzlarer Bahn and led through then undeveloped wooded areas on the eastern edge of the Grunewald to reach the Hamburger Bahn east of the former Spandau station . The line went into operation on June 1, 1882, at the same time as long-distance traffic began on the light rail.

The Lehrter Bahn, which at the time ran between Berlin and Spandau directly parallel to the Hamburger Bahn, also built a corresponding connecting line. This connecting line also began at the Charlottenburg train station, led in a short curve north to the Ringbahn, crossed it in the area of ​​the Charlottenburg-Westend freight station and then reached the Lehrter Bahn after another short curve.

After a contract dated March 29, 1884, the Hamburger Bahn was acquired by the Prussian state. The Berlin – Hamburg line came to the Royal Altona Railway Directorate , and the associated light rail connection to the Berlin Railway Directorate . After the nationalization of the Lehrter Bahn, rail traffic on both lines was reorganized. The tracks of the former Hamburger Bahn accommodated all passenger traffic in both directions, the former Lehrter Bahn accommodated freight traffic. Accordingly, the Lehrter tram connection was used for freight and the Hamburg tram connection for passenger traffic. Since 1889, not only the long-distance traffic of the Hamburg Railway, but also that of the Lehrter Bahn led from the Stadtbahn via the Hamburg Stadtbahn connection. However, already at the beginning of the 1890s there were major capacity bottlenecks on the light rail. Long-distance traffic in the direction of Hamburg had been running again from the Lehrter Bahnhof on June 1, 1891 directly on the Hamburg Railway. The Hamburg light rail connection then served suburban traffic and most of the long-distance trains to the Lehrter Bahn.

20th century

Transfer of the route over the S-Bahn tracks in the direction of Grunewald

Transit train to Hamburg (1986) at the level of the then closed Eichkamp S-Bahn station

In 1905, the suburban trains on the Spandau - Stadtbahn (long-distance track) - Strausberg route were run via the Hamburg light rail connection. Other suburban trains in this area, such as those on the Nauen  - Spandau - Berlin route, reached the Lehrter station via the Hamburger Bahn.

Until 1909 there were no stops on the way between Spandau and Charlottenburg. On November 1, 1909, the Heerstrasse station was opened. A few months earlier, a branch to the Rennbahn train station (today: Olympiastadion train station ) had already gone into operation, which was initially only used for special events. In 1911 this line was extended via Pichelsberg to Spandau. This route, known as the Spandauer Vorortbahn or Grunewaldbahn , took up all of the suburban traffic north of the Heerstraße station, while the long-distance trains remained on the old route.

In the mid-1920s, the Berlin exhibition grounds were expanded. The route of the Hamburg light rail connection was moved to the south, the new route went into operation on August 15, 1927. In the following year, long-distance and suburban tracks were separated from each other in the direction of Heerstraße as well as on the Wetzlarer Bahn. The suburban tracks were provided with power rails for S-Bahn operations. On August 23, 1928, electrical operation began on the separate suburban line. The new Eichkamp station was built on the suburban railway .

After the Second World War with the division of Germany and Berlin, the Berlin terminus stations were closed until 1952. Since then, all transit traffic from Berlin in the direction of Hamburg and via the Lehrter Bahn has been via the Hamburg light rail connection again. There was no longer any suburban traffic on the long-distance tracks to the surrounding area from West Berlin . One track of the light rail connection north of Heerstrasse was dismantled.

After the Berlin Wall was built and the border was breached in December 1961, the border crossings in Berlin-Staaken and Albrechtshof were closed, which meant that scheduled passenger traffic on the Hamburg city connection ended and the route became completely insignificant. On a map from 1973, both tracks are marked as "dismantled". It was not until 1976 that traffic came back to life with the reopening of the border crossing in Staaken, but was limited to a few pairs of trains a day from the Stadtbahn to Hamburg.

Development after 1990

Messedamm bridge over the suburban tracks (left) and the long-distance track (right) in 1993

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the volume of traffic increased significantly. Since 1991 regional trains in the direction of Nauen have been running again via the light rail connection, and there have been a growing number of long-distance trains to the Hamburg and Lehrter Bahn. In 1994/1995 the route was completely closed for construction work. The long-distance trains used the tracks of the Spandau suburban railway at this time. In 1997, the electrical contact line between Spandau and Charlottenburg was put into operation.

In the 1990s, the light rail, the light rail connection and the subsequent routes were expanded extensively. The light rail was again double-tracked and electrified. After the reopening of the Stadtbahn for long-distance traffic in June 1998, there was a very dense supply of trains over the route, as this was the only passenger transport connection from the Hamburg and Lehrter Bahn to downtown Berlin. At times, until the north-south long-distance line went into operation in May 2006, trains to the Berlin Northern Railway also used the route, which then ran between the Hamburg Railway and the Northern Railway via the Berlin outer ring .

course

Bridge over the Charlottenburger Chaussee

The original route branched off from the Wetzlarer Bahn east of the junction with the Ringbahn, crossed the Ringbahn and ran in a straight line parallel to today's Wandalenallee to the Heerstraße station. Most of the route is now covered by the exhibition grounds and the Westkreuz S-Bahn station, which opened in 1928 . The line, which has existed since 1928, runs from Charlottenburg until after crossing the Ringbahn, parallel to the Wetzlar line and then threads out; the middle tracks belong to the Hamburg light rail connection, the outer tracks to the Wetzlarer Bahn. The route leads in an arc to Heerstraße. The S-Bahn to Spandau runs to behind the Berlin Messe Süd station (formerly: Eichkamp) north of the long-distance tracks and crosses them. The long-distance railway turns north-northwest at the S-Bahn station Heerstraße, crosses the underground line at the Olympia-Stadion underground station, then crosses the Charlottenburger Chaussee and the old Lehrter Bahn line and threads into the area of ​​the Ruhleben freight station Hamburger Bahn one.

Operationally, the line is run jointly with the long-distance tracks of the city railroad under the route number 6109, the kilometering of the line begins in Berlin Ostbahnhof . Today's end of line 6109 is at 18.3 km at the junction of the Hamburg Railway from Berlin. This area already belongs to the Berlin-Spandau train station, a good kilometer from the passenger station. On older maps, the kilometering continues to the old Berlin-Spandau train station (today: Berlin-Stresow train station , previously: Spandau Hbf).

Web links

Commons : Hamburg light rail connection  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hamburg light rail connection on berliner-bahnen.de
• Heerstraße station on eisenbahn-berlin.de, with sketches for the reconstruction of the Hamburg light rail connection

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{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, p. 223.
2. ^ 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, p. 269.
3. ^ 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, p. 326.
4. ↑ Spandau suburban railway. In: stadtschnellbahn-berlin.de. Retrieved July 31, 2017 . 
5. ^ Deutsche Reichsbahn, map of the Reichsbahndirektion Berlin, 1973.
6. ^ Maps of the Reichsbahndirektion Berlin from 1927 to 1946.