Berlin light rail
| Berlin light rail | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Route number (DB) : | 6024 (S-Bahn) 6109 (long-distance train) |
| Course book section (DB) : | 200 |
| Route length: | 11.2 km |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
| Power system : | S-Bahn: 750 V = |
| Power system : | Long-distance railway: 15 kV, 16.7 Hz ~ |
The Berlin Stadtbahn is a railway line that runs - largely on masonry viaduct arches , the so-called Stadtbahnbögen - in an east-west direction through the historical center and the western center of Berlin . With a length of 11.2 kilometers, it leads from the Ostbahnhof via Alexanderplatz , Friedrichstrasse , Hauptbahnhof and Zoologischer Garten to Charlottenburg station and is only used for passenger transport. Two of the four tracks are used by regional and long-distance trains , the other two by the Berlin S-Bahn .
The tram route between Berlin Ostbahnhof and Holtzendorffstrasse west of the Charlottenburg station is a listed building .
Framework
Since 1871 ended eight main railway lines in Berlin (Potsdamer Bahn, Anhalt line, Szczecin railway, Silesian railway, Hamburg railway, Görlitz line, Eastern Railway and Lehrter train), which each have their own railway terminal ( terminal station owned) at the edge or outside of the city area. To continue from another train station, a cumbersome cab ride through the city was necessary.
Also from 1871, the major Berlin long-distance train stations were successively connected by the Berlin Ringbahn , initially in the form of an eastern semicircle, which was only closed to form a ring around the entire city during the construction of the Stadtbahn.
With this in mind, a railway line through the city was planned for a faster connection between the terminal stations.
Building history
In 1872, the Deutsche Eisenbahnbaugesellschaft applied for the construction of a "Stadtbahn" from the then Frankfurt train station (today Ostbahnhof ) via Charlottenburg to Potsdam . In December 1873, the Kingdom of Prussia as well as the private Berlin-Potsdamer , Magdeburg-Halberstädter and Berlin-Hamburg railway companies participated and founded the Berlin City Railway Company with the Deutsche Eisenbahnbaugesellschaft .
The construction of the light rail began in 1875. Three years later, the Deutsche Eisenbahnbaugesellschaft became insolvent. Thereupon, in 1878, the Kingdom of Prussia took over the costs for the construction and operation of the Berlin Stadtbahn with the financial participation of the four resigned shareholders and the railways connected to the new line. The commitment of the Prussian state followed the request of the General Staff to facilitate a deployment against France.
On July 15, 1878, construction management was transferred to the newly founded Royal Directorate of the Berlin City Railway under the direction of Ernst Dircksen . This in turn was initially subordinate to the Prussian Ministry of Commerce , later to the Ministry of Public Works , which was spun off from it .
On February 6, 1882, one day before the official opening, Kaiser Wilhelm I traveled the route in a special train, inspecting all intermediate stations. On February 7, 1882, the light rail was then opened for city traffic, and on May 15 of the same year for long-distance traffic . The construction costs totaled (including the land purchase) five million marks per kilometer (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 37 million euros per kilometer).
- Wood engravings from the publication “Auf der Berliner Stadtbahn” from 1882
Viaduct of the light rail at Bellevue
At the stock exchange station (today: Hackescher Markt )
Routing
course
While the Ringbahn was primarily designed for freight traffic, the Stadtbahn was supposed to create a short connection between the passenger stations. Several connecting lines offered connections to other railways leading from Berlin.
Two tracks each of the four-track light rail should serve long-distance and local passenger traffic. This also made the tram the central strand in the network of suburban lines.
In the densely built-up capital, it was not easy to find space for the route. An originally planned route of the Stadtbahn along Leipziger Strasse was discarded because the land prices were too high.
Thus, the Berlin moat (part of the city fortifications from the 17th century) between today's Hackescher Markt and Jannowitzbrücke stations was filled in and used as publicly owned building land for the route. This explains the winding route, especially between the Alexanderplatz and Jannowitzbrücke stations.
Alignment
From a structural point of view, the urban railway line is largely designed as an elevated railway with eight kilometers of brick viaducts (originally with 731 brick viaduct arches), two kilometers of iron bridges and the rest of a total length of twelve kilometers as embankment with and without lining walls. There are 64 bridges on the route, including the 240-meter-long Humboldthafen Bridge . Most of the wider iron bridges had Hartung columns as pendulum supports , which were the style for the Berlin railway architecture from 1880 to 1910.
The light rail line thus differed significantly from the previous royal train station connecting line from 1851, which was laid out at the same height on the streets and which caused considerable damage. The initially used superstructure made of iron long sleepers ( Haarmann system ) was replaced by wooden cross sleepers at the beginning of the 20th century.
Train stations
The originally laid out train stations from east to west were
- Schlesischer Bahnhof , 1987–1998: Berlin Hauptbahnhof , 1950–1987 and since 1998: Ostbahnhof
- Jannowitz Bridge
- Alexanderplatz
- Börse , 1951–1992: Marx-Engels-Platz , since 1992: Hackescher Markt
- Friedrichstrasse
- Lehrter Stadtbahnhof , today: Berlin Hauptbahnhof
- Bellevue
- Zoological Garden
- Charlottenburg
The train stations were added later between Bellevue and the Zoological Garden and between the Zoological Garden and Charlottenburg
- Tiergarten (on January 5, 1885) and
- Savignyplatz (on August 1, 1896)
Further routes
In the Silesian Railway Station, the light rail goes into the Silesian Railway . From it there are connections to the Ostbahn as well as for the S-Bahn traffic to the Berlin Ringbahn in the south. In 1882 platforms were built on these curves and the Stralau-Rummelsburg station, which later became Ostkreuz station, opened. The connection to the ring line to the north was closed in 2006.
The western extension of the long-distance tracks in Charlottenburg is formed by the Wetzlarer Bahn in the direction of Wannsee and the Hamburg light rail connection in the direction of Spandau . The Lehrter Stadtbahn connection in the direction of Spandau went out of service between Charlottenburg and the Ringbahn in 1945. For the S-Bahn traffic, there is now a connection route in the direction of Halensee that is only used on the edge of the day and for overpasses . A northern connecting curve to Westend went out of service in 1945.
Kilometrage
The kilometering of the line begins in Berlin Ostbahnhof for both the S-Bahn and long-distance lines. The kilometers on the S-Bahn continue west of the Charlottenburg train station in the direction of both Potsdam and Berlin-Spandau (via the Spandauer Vorortbahn ). In the case of the long-distance railway, the kilometering will be continued via the Hamburg light rail connection to the eastern part of the Spandau station. The routes Berlin Ostbahnhof - Berlin-Charlottenburg - Berlin-Spandau (long-distance train) will be operational under the route number system in Germany # STREDA route number (VzG route number) 6109 and Berlin Ostbahnhof - Berlin-Charlottenburg - Potsdam Hbf (S-Bahn) under the number 6024 summarized.
Operation and expansion
Already in 1905 a train head time of two and a half minutes was realized on the line .
Suburban traffic
The suburban trains and half-ring trains (as Nordring or Südring), which only run on the city tracks, were hauled by steam locomotives in the first decades , for example the Prussian T 12 . Coke was used for firing in order to limit the soot and odor nuisance. The doors of the compartment cars (without a side or center aisle) had to be opened by the travelers themselves. A calling of stations did not take place. At the time, operations went from four in the morning to one at night. The trains typically had nine wagons and ran every two, three and five minutes, depending on the time of day. At the beginning of the 20th century, the fares were 10 pfennigs in the III. Class and 15 pfennigs in the second class.
Freight transport
Freight traffic to the central market hall on Alexanderplatz was served by seven special feeder trains, four of which ran at night, two during the day and one in the evening. In addition, there was no regular freight traffic on the light rail. The rest of the freight traffic was handled by the Ringbahn with its freight stations Moabit , Wedding , Weißensee , Zentralviehhof , Frankfurter Allee , Rixdorf , Tempelhof , Wilmersdorf-Friedenau , Halensee and Berlin-Charlottenburg freight yard .
Long-distance transport
In the early years, many trains that had previously ended at Lehrter Bahnhof , Görlitzer Bahnhof or Potsdamer Bahnhof were put on the Stadtbahn. This measure made it possible to expand the other terminal stations because of the lower levels of operation that this resulted in. By the end of the 19th century, however, most trains had to be relocated back to the old terminal stations due to the increased volume of traffic, but in some cases to build separate long-distance and suburban tracks on the access routes.
The express trains to Hanover and Cologne via the Lehrter Bahn , the Kanonenbahn trains to Dessau , the Ostbahn trains to Gdansk and Königsberg and the trains to Frankfurt (Oder) - Poznan and Wroclaw - Katowice remained on the Stadtbahn . In addition, there was suburban traffic in the direction of Spandau and in the direction of Strausberg , which until 1928 was also handled on the long-distance tracks of the Stadtbahn.
The trains to the west began their run in the Schlesisches Bahnhof, those to the east in Charlottenburg. In Rummelsburg , at that time trading as locomotive "Bw Karlshorst", and in Grunewald there were large locomotive and wagon treatment systems.
Station extensions and viaduct reinforcement
As early as 1914, the Friedrichstrasse station was rebuilt, the long-distance railway section was expanded to four tracks and the hall was rebuilt in the shape it still exists today.
From 1922 to 1932, extensive renovation work was carried out on the arches of the tram viaduct. For this purpose, the brick arches were reinforced with additional concrete arches, the steel bridges were also reinforced or replaced. The aim was to modernize the now 50-year-old urban railway line and to be able to use the heavy express train locomotives of the 01 series with 20 tons axle load on the Berlin urban railway.
In this context, the hall of Alexanderplatz station and the north hall of Silesian station were replaced . On the suburban line, the platforms were raised to a height of 96 centimeters above the upper edge of the rails in preparation for S-Bahn operations with the electric multiple units of the ET 165 type, which was purchased in large numbers .
The Zoo station was rebuilt from 1934 to 1940 and received a second long-distance platform and two new halls, which were not glazed until the 1950s. The well-known porch was also built.
Electrical operation on the pair of tracks for urban and suburban traffic
On June 11, 1928, the suburban line Potsdam – Stadtbahn – Erkner was provided with power rails and supplied with direct current . A total of five pairs of trains of the new electrical design ( DR series ET 165 - type of light rail) started the traffic between steam trains according to plan. By November 1928, all feeder lines from Kaulsdorf , Spandau and Grünau and from the Ring were electrified. The Spandau suburban traffic has now also been shifted to the city tracks. The last steam trains did not disappear until 1929, when the Ring was also fully electric. The half-ring trains were only used in rush hour traffic. In December 1930, the name S-Bahn and the symbol of a white "S" on a green background were introduced for the city, ring and suburban railways.
post war period
The light rail was damaged in several places by bombs in World War II , but it was rebuilt very quickly. In order for the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to travel to the Potsdam Conference by train , a long-distance track of the light rail was re-gauged in 1945 to the Russian gauge of 1,524 millimeters.
Its importance in long-distance traffic had declined with the loss of the German eastern territories . There were only a few trains going into the western zones, some trains from the eastern zone ended up on the light rail.
Long-distance traffic had almost completely come to a standstill during the Berlin blockade . In the meantime, however, the S-Bahn had established itself again. New destinations were Königs Wusterhausen , Strausberg- Nord, Staaken and Falkensee .
When all Berlin head stations and all other West Berlin long-distance stations were closed on May 18, 1952 , the Zoo station remained as the only long-distance station on the light rail in West Berlin (later Berlin-Spandau and -Wannsee were reopened). The last long-distance train of the GDR internal traffic ran in 1953 on the Stadtbahn.
After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Zoo station became West Berlin's most important long-distance station . The Ostbahnhof was the only station on the Stadtbahn that was left for long-distance traffic within the GDR. The Friedrichstrasse station was the terminus of the separate S-Bahn lines going west and east as well as the departure station of the interzonal trains from Berlin through the GDR to the Federal Republic . In addition, at Friedrichstrasse station, which was divided into east and west areas and separated by steel walls, it was possible to transfer to the West Berlin S-Bahn of the North-South Railway and to the U6 line of the Berlin U-Bahn . The station itself was a border crossing point for entry into East Berlin. There were through trains between Bahnhof Zoo and Ostbahnhof only in international traffic, for example from Paris to Warsaw . From 1962 there were feeder trains in Scandinavia (to Copenhagen , Stockholm ) and to the Vindobona express railcar to Vienna , later also through coaches .
| Fare and price level in West Berlin | ||
|---|---|---|
| from July 1, 1966 | PS 2 | 0.30 DM |
| from Sep 1 1972 | PS 3 | 0.50 DM |
| from July 1, 1976 | PS 4A | 0.80 DM |
| from Nov. 1, 1977 | PS 5 | 1.00 DM |
| from Nov. 1, 1979 | PS 8 | 1.30 DM |
| from Aug. 1, 1981 | PS S | 1.50 DM |
| from Aug. 1, 1982 | PS S | 1.80 DM |
| from Oct. 1, 1983 | PS S | 2.00 DM |
The S-Bahn boycott initiated by West Berlin politics had an impact on local transport . There were appeals against its use, references to the S-Bahn were removed, competing BVG bus lines were reinforced or newly introduced, and even underground lines were planned and built parallel to the S-Bahn. However, the light rail also remained important for the West because it connected the Zoo station with the border crossing at Friedrichstrasse station. The fares of the S-Bahn in West Berlin were well below the BVG tariffs until the 1970s, then a rapid tariff adjustment followed in order to reduce the sharply increased deficit. In East Berlin, price level 1 (20 pfennigs) was valid for light rail vehicles until 1991.
Renovation work before 1989
Nevertheless, the operators improved the route network and renewed the Westkreuz station on marshland at great expense. After the Reichsbahn strike in September 1980, only three lines were operated in West Berlin.
After the takeover of the S-Bahn in West Berlin by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe BVG on January 9, 1984, negotiations with the GDR began in the fall of the renovation of the light rail in West Berlin and the comprehensive modernization of the Zoo station. In East Berlin, the same work began on the light rail, and the Ostbahnhof was converted into the new central station. The background was the 750th anniversary of Berlin in 1987.
After the fall of the wall: new long-distance connections and electrification
With the fall of the Berlin Wall , a new heyday of the light rail began. In 1990 the first interregional train ran to Cologne . From 1991 intercity trains (IC) went to Karlsruhe and Cologne via the Stadtbahn and to Hamburg . In 1992 the Hamburg line was extended to Dresden and Prague . The Munich express trains, which originated from the times of transit traffic , were also converted into IC trains and ran on the Stadtbahn. On June 16, 1993, the Wannsee electronic signal box to control the S-Bahn was put into operation, and on June 24 for the long-distance railway. From July 1993, the light rail line to the Zoo station from the west was under the contact wire that had already reached the Ostbahnhof from the east in 1987. From July 3, 1993, the Zoo station was served by ICE trains as scheduled. This means that the previously established shuttle traffic from the temporary ICE station in Michendorf to the temporary terminus in Berlin-Lichtenberg has been eliminated .
Refurbishment from 1994 to 1998
In September 1994, extensive renovation work began again on the entire urban railway line: an 18 m wide and 25 cm thick reinforced concrete slab was installed on the 530 viaduct arches, which now evenly distributes the load on the four tracks. A slab track was installed over a length of 7.6 kilometers . 27 bridges were repaired, 25 new ones built. In addition, 78 points, 410 catenary masts and 800 kilometers of cable were installed. Long-distance traffic between the zoo and Ostbahnhof was interrupted; the S-Bahn temporarily drove over the long-distance tracks. A total of 779 million euros was invested.
In 1996 the S-Bahn was moved back to the original route. In 1998 the renovation of the main light rail line was completed.
On February 24, 2003, the renovation of the 2.4-kilometer-long S-Bahn section between the Zoo and Charlottenburg stations began. In addition to a comprehensive structural renovation, the minimum headway time in this section was to be reduced from two and a half to one and a half minutes with new signaling technology . The long-distance railway tracks were initially unaffected by the work, which was scheduled for around a year. On April 19, 2004, continuous operation was resumed. As a result of a three-month dispute between DB and the Berlin Senate, there were delays.
The new S-Bahn Berlin (ZBS) train control system went into operation on the western light rail in the section Hauptbahnhof - Westkreuz at the end of October 2016 . In order to be able to continue diverting trains not equipped with ZBS from the Ringbahn, the train locks also remain in operation in the Charlottenburg S-Bahn station on the southern platform track and in the western sweeping tracks.
Development since the reopening of the long-distance tracks in 1998
Since May 24, 1998, the long-distance tracks of the light rail system have been continuously available for train traffic again. The start of operations with 360 trains per day was characterized by numerous problems after the control computers of the electronic interlocking crashed and the commissioning took place under time pressure. Long-distance trains mostly suffered delays of two to three hours, and some trains were stuck on the tram for up to 90 minutes with no passengers to get off.
In addition to the two, later three ICE and IC lines, five Regional Express lines were set up via the Stadtbahn. After the opening, it became clear that the long-distance railway tracks had reached the limit of their capacity. Slight delays on individual trains led to subsequent delays in the entire network. The RE lines also serve inner-city traffic between Ostbahnhof and Wannsee or Spandau.
Between 1998 and 2006, the Stadtbahn was the only through route for long-distance trains through Berlin. These stopped at the train stations Zoologischer Garten and Ostbahnhof (which has been called that again since 1998). With the main train station opened on May 28, 2006 and the north-south long-distance railway , the national importance of the route decreased. The remaining long-distance trains in east-west direction only stop at the main station and at the east station. With the construction of the main train station, the only route to be relocated so far for the light rail took place, it runs there a little more south than originally built. Today around 600 S-Bahn and 300 regional and long-distance trains run daily on the Stadtbahn. According to information from Deutsche Bahn, around 600,000 people used the S-Bahn between Ostbahnhof and Charlottenburg every day at the beginning of 2007. This corresponds to an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous year.
Due to the high volume of traffic, the long-distance tracks of the light rail are now officially congested. In the medium term, ICE connections are to be withdrawn from the tram and run through the underground part of the main station. From December 2015 the ICE line 10 Cologne – Berlin was withdrawn from the Stadtbahn, since then it has been running on the Lehrter Bahn and serves the lower part of the main station.
In 2018, the section between Friedrichstrasse and Hackescher Markt, with around 230,000 passengers daily, was the busiest section of the Berlin S-Bahn.
Further information on S-Bahn traffic on the Stadtbahn can be found in the article S-Bahn Berlin .
Tariff designation
Until May 2006 there was the tariff designation Berlin Stadtbahn , since then only Berlin . Train tickets to or from Stadtbahn stations are issued for distances over 100 kilometers with this destination designation. These tickets then allow you to travel by S-Bahn from or to the desired station of the Stadtbahn as well as within the S-Bahn ring (eastwards even to Berlin-Lichtenberg station ). In such cases, the tariff distance was always calculated based on the Berlin-Friedrichstrasse station. This process is known as collective bargaining equality .
Connection between the Berlin Stadtbahn and the term S-Bahn
The term " S-Bahn ", which is widely used today for local rail transport in German-speaking cities and metropolitan areas, is not an abbreviation for the Berlin Stadtbahn. The term “S-Bahn” arose when, in December 1930, the Berlin city, ring and suburban railways were combined under a common “brand” and the well-known logo. It is not clear what the letter "S" should stand for. Presumably it has its origin in the abbreviation “SS”, which can be traced back to 1930 for the term Stadtschnellbahn .
literature
-
The Berlin City Railway . In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen ,
- Volume 34, 1884, col. 1–24, 113–140, 225–240, 349–376, plates 1–21
- 35th year 1885, col. 1–16, 297–332, 441–506, plate 1–18. ( Digitized version )
- Berlin S-Bahn Museum (ed.): The light rail. A building history from 1875 until today. 2nd edition, GVE, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89218-046-6 .
- Bernd Kuhlmann: Railway node Berlin . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-099-7 .
- Falko Krause: The light rail in Berlin. Planning, construction, impact. Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-95850-546-9 .
- Waldemar Suadicani : Berlin light rail. In: Röll (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia of the Railway System. Berlin / Vienna 1915. ( digitized version )
- Larissa Sabottka: The iron bridges of the Berlin S-Bahn. As-built documentation and analysis. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-7861-2463-9 .
- Kurt Pierson: S-Bahn. When the "S-Bahn" was still steaming. Memories for her 100th birthday . Association for the history of Berlin . From: The Bear of Berlin. 1971 yearbook . Scanned in by J. Kluge, 9/2011.
Web links
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List with further information
- Berliner-Bahnen.de
- Search for Berliner Stadtbahn in the catalog of the German National Library
- Search for Berlin light rail in the German Digital Library
- Search for Berliner Stadtbahn in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Bock, Alfred B. Gottwaldt : Government trains. Salon cars, imperial train stations and state trips in Germany. Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7654-7070-8 , p. 38 ff.
- ^ H. Rudolf: On the Berlin Stadtbahn in Westermann's illustrated German monthly books , issue 309
- ^ DB Projekt Verkehrsbau GmbH (publisher): Berlin hub. Mushroom concept . 24-page brochure dated November 2001, p. 10 f.
- ^ P. Bley: On Russian broad gauge to Berlin. In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter. No. 3/1986.
- ^ Gerhard Keiderling: The Big Three in Berlin . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 12, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 19–26 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ^ Stalin on the light rail . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 13, 2000; Book review on Bernd Kuhlmann: Bahnknoten Berlin
- ↑ a b Message ICE drives to the zoo in Berlin. In: Railway technical review . 42, No. 7/8, 1993, p. 429
- ↑ a b DB Projekt Verkehrsbau GmbH (Ed.): Berlin hub. Mushroom concept. , 24-page brochure dated November 2001, p. 10.
- ↑ Information from the S-Bahn Berlin ( memento of October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on June 9, 2008
- ^ Deutsche Bahn (Ed.): Bahnstadt Berlin: Expansion of the infrastructure from 1990 to 2015 . Berlin 2006, p. 47.
- ↑ Problems with light rail renovation. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 4/2003, p. 147.
- ↑ S-Bahn blockade ended. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 6/2004, p. 246.
- ↑ News in brief - S-Bahn . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 12 , 2016, p. 242 .
- ^ Christian Tietze: Difficult start on the renovated Berlin light rail. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International ( ISSN 1421-2811 ), year 1998, issue 7/8, pp. 291–295.
- ↑ Christian Tietze: Shrinking concept for the Berlin long-distance railway junction? In: Eisenbahn-Revue International. Issue 11/2000, ISSN 1421-2811 , pp. 524-527.
- ↑ Information from the S-Bahn Berlin (PDF; 4.1 MiB), In: Punkt 3 , 11/2007.
- ↑ The light rail in Berlin is overloaded. In: Der Tagesspiegel . December 19, 2013, accessed February 3, 2014 .
- ^ Peter Neumann: ICE train traffic in Berlin. Fewer long-distance trains will stop at the Ostbahnhof in future. Berliner Zeitung , January 25, 2015, accessed on August 4, 2017 .
- ↑ Berlin S-Bahn transports half a billion passengers. Der Tagesspiegel, April 3, 2018, accessed on April 4, 2018 .
- ^ Peter Bley: Berlin S-Bahn. 5th edition, Alba, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-87094-343-2 , p. 19.
- ↑ History and stories about the Berlin S-Bahn : The word “S-Bahn” and the S-Bahn logo
- ^ Hans D. Reichardt: Berlin S-Bahn. 1st edition, Alba, Düsseldorf 1974, ISBN 3-87094-307-6 , p. 22.