RegioStadtBahn Braunschweig

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Combined bus and tram station in front of Braunschweig main station with a third rail, May 2006

The RegioStadtBahn Braunschweig was a planned tram-train system for the Braunschweig region . The project has been planned by the Braunschweig area association since 1998 . Examples were systems in Karlsruhe , Kassel , Chemnitz and Saarbrücken . In October 2010 it was announced that according to a new profitability calculation, the project was unprofitable and could therefore no longer be funded by the federal government.

Planning, plan approval, costs

The first proposals for this major regional transport project go back to 1996. In 1998 the association meeting of the special purpose association for the greater Braunschweig area decided to start the project. This was followed by feasibility studies from 1998 to 2000, the preliminary planning from 2001 to 2005, the draft planning from 2006 to 2007 and finally the approval planning . In September 2008, the letter of intent was signed between Deutsche Bahn , the Lower Saxony regional transport company and the Braunschweig metropolitan area association.

The first expansion stage of the RegioStadtBahn was to connect the cities of Uelzen , Wittingen , Gifhorn , Braunschweig , Salzgitter , Schöppenstedt , Wolfenbüttel , Vienenburg , Goslar and Bad Harzburg as well as places in between with a regional light rail. The planning area contained a relatively long stretch of around 125 kilometers in the north-south axis, and it is much narrower in width. A three-rail track in the Braunschweig urban area was intended to enable the route to be used jointly by the standard-gauge RegioStadtBahn and the Braunschweig tram , which operates on a gauge of 1100 millimeters, on the approximately four-kilometer-long passage . The planned wider RegioStadtbahn trains also required a structural adaptation of the Braunschweig tram stops on the transit route. Between 1999 and 2000, three-rail tracks were laid at Berliner Platz and Mühlenpfordtstrasse , followed in 2006 by more on Bohlweg. The other sections of the passage, which is divided into nine lots, were completed in July 2009 in terms of planning law or were still in the planning phase .

The budget for the planning and construction of the RegioStadtBahn was initially put at 164 million euros on the basis of the draft planning. In 2007 it was around 232 million due to the increasing accuracy of planning and calculations as well as binding statements from third parties.

Failure of the project

The implementation of the project was repeatedly postponed over time. The plans made and their approved plan approval should be implemented by 2017 so that the commitments and contracts do not expire.

The 29 required Duo vehicle units should no longer cost 106 million euros, but instead, according to new calculations and additional safety requirements, now 206 million euros. For comparison: The 28 railcars of the RegioTram Kassel purchased in 2004 had cost a total of 80 million euros.

On October 1, 2010 the result of a new cost-benefit analysis was announced. After that, due to the increase in vehicle costs, the value for the profitability of the project fell from 1.4 to 0.8. A value below 1.0 excludes federal funding. Since the state of Lower Saxony did not want to pay for the missing millions, the original project could no longer be financed.

After this decision, cheaper alternative models should now be sought. A guided tour of the route through the Braunschweig city center, as originally planned, is no longer intended.

Planned route network

Network plan

In the first expansion stage, existing Deutsche Bahn routes between Uelzen, Wittingen, Gifhorn, Braunschweig, Salzgitter, Schöppenstedt, Wolfenbüttel, Vienenburg, Goslar and Bad Harzburg as well as the tram routes of the Braunschweiger Verkehrs-GmbH were to be linked. New tracks would only be required in the city center of Braunschweig and in Salzgitter- Lebenstedt . The existing lines of the Deutsche Bahn would have been modernized and supplemented by double-track meeting sections. Also Wolfsburg had shown interest in following the Regio light rail.

The planned line network in the first expansion stage:

line Line course
S 1 Uelzen - Wittingen - Wahrenholz - Sassenburg-Triangel - Gifhorn (city center) - Meine - Braunschweig Nordbahnhof - Braunschweig ( city ​​center ) - Braunschweig Hbf - Braunschweig- Leiferde - Wolfenbüttel - Vienenburg - Bad Harzburg
S 2 (Meine -) Braunschweig Nordbahnhof - Braunschweig (city center) - Braunschweig Hbf - Braunschweig-Leiferde - Wolfenbüttel - Schöppenstedt
S 3 Braunschweig Nordbahnhof - Braunschweig (city center) - Braunschweig Hbf - Braunschweig-Leiferde - Salzgitter- Thiede - Salzgitter City Gate - Salzgitter-Fredenberg
S 10 Sassenburg-Triangel - Gifhorn (city center) - Meine - Braunschweig Nordbahnhof - Braunschweig (city center) - Braunschweig Hbf - Braunschweig-Leiferde - Wolfenbüttel - Vienenburg - Goslar

vehicles

So that the RegioStadtBahn could also run on the non-electrified routes outside of Braunschweig, 29 vehicles were to be purchased, which can be supplied with traction current either from the overhead line (only in Braunschweig) or on the routes that are mostly free of overhead lines via the on-board diesel generator. The Alstom RegioCitadis from the manufacturer Alstom is used for this purpose on the RegioTram Kassel . The vehicles to be used at the RegioStadtBahn would have had to meet both the railway operating license ( EBO ) and the different tram operating license ( BOStrab ) with their different requirements.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Heribert Menzel: The Regio CITADIS from ALSTOM LHB for the RegioTram Nordhessen ( Memento from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ "No regional city railway for Braunschweig" ( Memento from October 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), NDR from October 1, 2010

Web links