Ring line

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ring line 90 at the trolleybus in Milan . The destination signage “circolare destra” translates as “clockwise”, that is, clockwise
Line 5R of the Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH, the R stands for round trip
Line designation Ring at the Hamburger Hochbahn

A ring line or circular line , also ring traffic , broadcast traffic , Ring course , round course or less frequently circular line called is a special annular lines in the public transport system , wherein start and end points are identical. she can

A special feature are ring line guides following radial or diameter lines (continuation at the end point of a straight line in a ring shape).

When ring lines circumnavigate a city center in a large arc, cross connections arise between city districts. The passengers save travel time (or travel time ) and have to change trains less often. Tangential lines and half-rings fulfill very similar tasks (for example, in Cologne the tram line 13 "Belt Line" or the express bus line 39 in Hamburg).

Rail passenger transport

The only rings in German U- and S-Bahn systems are the Berlin S-Bahn-Ring (since 1877) and the Hamburg U-Bahn-Ring (since 1912) as well as the S1 of the Hanover S-Bahn . The Berliner Ring was interrupted from 1961 to 2002 as a result of the division of the city. From 1967 onwards, the Hamburger Ring was operationally divided between the U2 and U3 lines and was restored on June 29, 2009 as a closed ring line ( U3 ) (with the integration of the branch line to Wandsbek-Gartenstadt ). The S1 in Hanover runs the Minden  - Haste  - Hanover main station  - Barsinghausen  - Bad Nenndorf  - Haste route. The destination from Minden is not Haste, but “Hannover Hbf”. Due to this circular route, there are additional possibilities of use by changing trains in Haste (there also connection to RE trains in the direction of Hanover).

The Naumburg tram had a circular route from 1907 to 1991.

In Switzerland, the Südostbahn has been operating the S 4 line of the St. Gallen S-Bahn since 2013 as the Sargans  - St. Margrethen  - Rorschach  - St. Gallen  - Uznach  - Ziegelbrücke  - Sargans ring line .

A straight line can - for example in a suburb - end with a loop (ring) instead of a terminus. Corresponding routes are available on the Los Angeles Metro (Blue Line), among others .

Line 5 of the Oslo T-bane offers a combination of an inner-city ring and two radial lines . This begins on one of the two outer branches, goes through the ring one and a half times (some stations are served twice) and then ends on the other outer branch.

An example of a ring line that runs through a city center is line C7 of the " Cercanías Madrid ". The east side of the ring line runs between the Chamartín and Atocha long-distance stations through the east tube of the Túnel de la risa , over a narrow arch through again close to the center to the Principe Pío station. Between Principe Pío and Chamartín, the ring, which is used in sections by trains from other lines, extends around ten kilometers from the city center to the northwest at Las Rosas.

Worldwide there are over 30 ring lines in underground and S-Bahn-like systems. Prominent examples are the underground ring lines in London ( Circle Line ), Glasgow , Copenhagen , Madrid and Moscow, as well as the Yamanote and Ōedo lines in Tokyo.

Road passenger transport

With the world's first public transport system, the Carrosses à cinq sols , introduced in Paris in 1662 , one of a total of five routes was designed as a ring line.

Ring lines in passenger road transport are often used today with star-shaped night networks (mostly night buses, but sometimes also with trams ). The means of transport only travel in one direction, whereby several daily routes can be covered by the ring operation with one line. In medium-sized cities, ring bus routes are also used in regular day-to-day operations by modern city ​​bus systems. One example of this is the Gütersloh city bus . Rings with a longer travel distance are mostly driven in both directions during the day, in the off- peak times there is no need to operate one direction.

Trams can also use ring lines. In Hamburg there was a large Alsterring until 1954 , which was served by line 18. The Dresden tram operated from 1909 to 2000 - with interruptions - line 26 on the city ring, which today still bears the colloquial name " 26er Ring " thanks to this line .

District line
with rapid train connection

In order to be able to serve individual parts of the city over a large area and with many stops , ring traffic is often used. These " neighborhood buses " start at a central transfer station with connections to direct rapid transit , tram or bus routes to the city center. Line operation is only possible in one direction. In a manner of speaking, two bus lines are combined to form a ring; one line is served on the outward journey, the other on the return journey.

A direct line from the center (for example a Metrobus ) can also serve a loop (ring) in a suburb instead of a terminal stop, it then becomes a district line in this area with a connection-free city connection. Disadvantage: buses that are too large ( articulated buses ) on the direct line use the ring route through parts of the city with often only a small number of passengers.

In smaller cities, bus lines are often merged into a ring line in late-night traffic. The operation is then similar to a district line, whereby three or more lines can be combined. One problem here is to make the display timetables as clear as possible . In most cases, the advantages of additional direct connections are difficult to see, and the route network becomes confusing.

Sparsely populated regions or areas with a high density of motorization are particularly suitable for round trips . In the local and regional bus area , for example, they connect individual or multiple communities or districts with the next main town or a rapid transit station ( traffic junction ). The use of minibuses on ring lines makes cost-effective regular bus services possible again where large buses on direct lines were unprofitable and have been replaced by call lines .

Line designation

A tram with the line designation Rundbahn in Stuttgart (1898)
Sign of the former line 26 in Dresden
Rome: the line designation ES for Esterna Sinistra referred to the ring line that ran counter-clockwise on the so-called outer ring
A car on ring line 0 in Breslau, the small additional letter P in red letters indicates the direction of travel - clockwise
A train on the historic ring line 0 in Poznan
Line scheme of the opposing Berlin S-Bahn lines S41 and S42

In Breslau (since 1948), Innsbruck (1923–1924) and Miskolc (1970–2015) the ring lines - based on the shape of the number - are each marked with the otherwise unusual number "0". With the Poznan tram and the Szczecin tram , this applies today to the tourist ring lines operated by historic vehicles. The same applied to the special line 0 of the Frankfurt am Main tram , which operated from 1938 to 1942 as a special city ​​tour line with music and apple wine serving at a special rate and is considered the forerunner of today's Ebbelwei-Express . In Hamburg and Hanover, on the other hand, the line letter R was previously assigned to the only ring line.

Some ring lines have or had separate line numbers according to the direction of travel. To differentiate between the right-turning and the left-turning route, additional letters, crossed line signals , red line numbers or line colors are sometimes used :

  • on the S-Bahn Berlin : line S41 clockwise, line S42 counterclockwise
  • on the Mainz tram : line 3 clockwise, line 4 counterclockwise
  • on the Naumburg tram : line 1 counterclockwise, line 2 clockwise
  • on the Nordhausen tram : green line signal clockwise, red line signal counterclockwise
  • at Aachener Straßenbahn und Energieversorgungs-AG : Lines 3B and 13B clockwise, lines 3A and 13A counterclockwise
  • at Stadtwerke Münster : line 34 clockwise, line 33 counterclockwise
  • on the Wiener Elektrische Stadtbahn : Line GD clockwise, line DG counterclockwise
  • on the Vienna tram : lines 1 and 14 clockwise, lines 2 and 12 counterclockwise
  • on the Salzburg trolleybus : Line 1 (formerly Line M) clockwise, Line 2 (formerly Line L) counterclockwise
  • on the Geneva tram : line 1A clockwise, line 1B counterclockwise
  • on the Breslau tram : line 0P clockwise (prawo = right), line 0L (lewo = left) counterclockwise
  • on the Budapest tram : line 63 clockwise, line 61 counterclockwise
  • on the Rome tram : lines CD and ED clockwise, lines CS and ES counterclockwise
  • on the Florence tram : line 19 clockwise, line 19 counterclockwise
  • on the Milan tram : lines 26 and 30 clockwise, lines 25 and 29 counterclockwise
  • for trolleybus Milan : line 90 clockwise, line 91 counterclockwise
  • for the Bologna trolleybus : line 32 clockwise, line 33 counterclockwise
  • from the Lecce trolleybus : line 31 clockwise, line 30 counterclockwise
  • for the Catania trolleybus: line 5 clockwise, line 5 counterclockwise
  • from Naples trolleybus: CD line clockwise, CS line counterclockwise
  • on the Oradea tram : lines 1N and 3N clockwise, lines 1R and 3R counterclockwise (N stands for negru = black and R for roșu = red)
  • on the Timișoara tram : lines 6 and 7 clockwise, lines 6 and 7 counterclockwise
  • for the Timișoara trolleybus : line 18 clockwise, line 18 counterclockwise
  • at the Slatina trolleybus : line 12 clockwise, line 12 counterclockwise
  • at the Blagoveshchensk trolleybus : line 2V clockwise, line 2K counterclockwise
  • on the Helsinki tram : line 7A clockwise, line 7B counterclockwise
  • on the Lisbon tram : line pairs 4/5, 10/11, 14 / 14A, 22/23, 25/26 and 29/30
  • on the Glasgow Subway : journeys on the outer ring track (outer circle) with the identification color orange are clockwise, those on the inner ring track (inner circle) with the identification color gray counterclockwise

Before the introduction of line numbers, people often spoke of a circular route ; In the English-speaking area, this designation has also been used on modern subways as the Circle Line , and in the Spanish- speaking area as the Circular on line 6 of the Madrid Metro .

See also

literature

  • Matthias Hintzen: Ring lines international. All around - an essay on the subject of ring lines . In: Monument Preservation Association Berlin (Ed.): Tram history (s). From 3 to 23 . GVE-Verlag, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89218-033-4 , p. 32-39 .

Web links

  • Metro Bits ring lines on underground and S-Bahn trains worldwide (in English)

Individual evidence

  1. Timetable line 0 , on tramfan-ffm.de
  2. ^ Jürgen Lehmann: Overview of the trolleybus operations in Austria, status: 2/06
  3. Blickpunkt Straßenbahn, issue 6/1992, page 235.