Duisburg tram

Duisburg tram
GT 10 NC-DU car in Duisburg-Marxloh
Basic information
Country	Germany
city	Duisburg , Dinslaken , Mülheim an der Ruhr
opening	December 24, 1881
electrification	August 3, 1897
operator	Duisburg transport company
Transport network	VRR
Infrastructure
Route length	43.7 km
Gauge	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system	750 volts = ( overhead line )
Operating mode	Bidirectional operation
Stops	76
Tunnel stations	7th
Depots	1
business
Lines	2
Clock in the peak hours	7.5 / 15 min
Clock in the SVZ	30 min
vehicles	46 GT 10 NC-DU
statistics
Residents in the catchment area	480 thousand
Network plan (blue: tunnel sections)

The Duisburg tram has been the backbone of local public transport in the Ruhr area city ​​of Duisburg since 1881 . After the trams in Duisburg operated on a meter-gauge network north of the Ruhr and a standard-gauge network south of the Ruhr until the mid-1960s , all routes are now standard-gauge. The network has been shrinking steadily since the end of World War II. In the mid-1970s, tunnel construction for the Rhein-Ruhr Stadtbahn began in Duisburg . Today the two remaining tram lines and a light rail line in the city center use the tunnel routes .

Today, the rail network on which the Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft (DVG) operates the tram lines and the light rail line covers a total of 53 kilometers . All tram cars have been expanded with a low-floor center section since 1996/1997 . The tariff of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr applies .

history

Horse and steam trams

The forerunner of tram traffic in Duisburg was a horse-drawn bus line that ran from Duisburg to Ruhrort since 1873. The history of the Duisburg tram begins with the negotiation of a concession agreement for the construction and operation of a horse-drawn tram between the Berlin banker Louis Lübke and the city of Duisburg. In September 1881, the construction of the normal gauge line between Duisburg and Ruhrort began . Scheduled traffic began on December 24, 1881. One of the hallmarks of this horse-drawn tram company was that there were no fixed stops, but instead the tram stopped at any time when called.

The next line to be opened was a steam tram , which opened on July 22, 1882 between Duisburg and the Monning at the Speldorfer city ​​limits. The steam drive was chosen because of the gradients to be overcome. This line was extended to Broich station on September 20, 1888 .

The third line was opened on July 1, 1892, the horse-drawn tram from the Waage in Ruhrort to Meiderich to the local train station, which, in contrast to the first two lines, had a gauge of 750 millimeters. Horse tram traffic in Duisburg ended on July 31, 1898, when the last line was switched to electrical operation.

electrification

In 1895, the operators of the tram routes in Duisburg and Ruhrort, the Kreis Ruhrorter Straßenbahn AG and the Allgemeine Lokal- und Straßenbahn AG (ALSAG) made inquiries to the cities to electrify their existing network and to build new routes as electric.

On August 3, 1897, the routes from Ruhrort to Beeck and Ruhrort via Laar to Meiderich were put into operation in meter gauge. These were the first two electric tram routes in what is now the city of Duisburg. The entire tram network was electrified within two years, with the direct route from Ruhrort to Meiderich being changed from 750 millimeters to meter gauge.

The following table shows the opening dates of electrical operation on the individual routes:

opening	route	Gauge
08/03/1897	Ruhrort - Beeck	1000 mm
08/03/1897	Ruhrort - Laar - Meiderich (Provinzialstrasse)	1000 mm
10/09/1897	Beeck - Bruckhausen (Union of German Emperors)	1000 mm
11/01/1897	Kuhtor  - Königstrasse - Mülheimer Strasse - Monning	1435 mm
12/01/1897	Kuhtor - Sonnenwall - Musfeldstrasse - Marientor  - Charlottenstrasse - Werthauser Strasse	1435 mm
12/24/1897	Monning - Broich	1435 mm
02/24/1898	Meiderich Bf  - Ruhrort - Rhine dike	1000 mm
03/01/1898	Knüppelmarkt - Beekstraße - Marientor - Heerstraße - Hochfeld Bf	1435 mm
04/27/1898	Kuhtor - Knüppelmarkt - Haniel'sche Ruhrbrücke	1435 mm
07/31/1898	Haniel'sche Ruhrbrücke - Ruhrort (Friedrichsplatz)	1435 mm

Expansion until 1910

This article or section needs to be revised: The Dusseldorf-Duisburg little train runs according to the relevant articles until 26 instead of August 16, 1900 in Duisburg city. What is true
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Tram line 1 on Königstrasse, at the beginning of the 20th century

Route network 1910 (blue: meter gauge, red: standard gauge)

Königstrasse at the train station at the turn of the century

Although there had been a railway line between Duisburg and Düsseldorf since 1846, there was a need for a further connection between the two cities, which ran further west and could connect the towns from Kaiserswerth to Wanheimerort . In 1898, Wilhelm August von Tippelskirch , who was then the leaseholder of the Düsseldorf tram, was given permission to build a standard-gauge electric small train for passenger and general cargo traffic between Düsseldorf and Duisburg .

On October 31, 1899, the first section from Nordstrasse / the corner of Kaiserswerther Strasse in Düsseldorf to Kaiserswerth was put into operation. The entire route to Duisburg to the confluence of Düsseldorfer Strasse and Königstrasse followed on August 16, 1900. The single-track route ran on the side of Provinzialstrasse and was traveled every 20 minutes, with a journey time of 78 minutes.

The standard-gauge network south of the Ruhr was also extended by a shorter route: On October 31, 1900, the branch route from Mülheimer Strasse via Neudorf to the New Cemetery (today: Old Cemetery ) was opened.

In April 1904 the line to Broich could be extended to the Chain Bridge in Mülheim, after an underpass had been built under the Kettwig - Styrum railway line . It was now just a bearable walk to the center of Mülheim on the other side of the Ruhr.

At the same time, the expansion of the meter-gauge route network north of the Ruhr continued: the Ruhrort - Bruckhausen route was extended to Marxloh (Pollmann) on May 24, 1900 . In the same year, the Continentale Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebs-Gesellschaft opened the line from Neumühl station via Hamborn , Marxloh and Aldenrade to Walsumer Tor in Dinslaken on June 1, 1900 and the branch line from Aldenrade to Walsum on December 17, 1900 . On these two tram routes, freight was also carried out using two electric locomotives. On November 11, 1902, the Dinslaken line was extended on the southern side to Meiderich station and a branch line from Schlossstrasse to the Tiggler machine factory was put into operation in Meiderich.

The towns on the left bank of the Rhine also sought a connection to the tram network. A railway ferry operated between Ruhrort and Homberg , which connected the stations on both sides of the Rhine and also served the passenger traffic between Ruhrort and Homberg. When planning the Rhine bridge, a (meter-gauge) tram route from Ruhrort in the direction of Moers was planned from the start. On May 1, 1907, the Ruhrort - Rheinbrücke - Homberg train station was put into operation.

Separately, on October 1, 1908, the 6.3 kilometer long section Homberg station - Provinzialstraße - Moers (Steintor) was opened. This tram line took over the route of a standard-gauge railway line, which is why construction could only take place with the approval of the state railway. Between Ruhrort and Moers had to be changed in Homberg, the change was not discontinued until 1913 and the railways ran continuously.

The other communities on the left bank of the Rhine along the river also sought a tram connection. But it was not until 1907 that the communities of Homberg, Hochemmerich , Baerl and Friemersheim signed an agreement on the cost allocation for a Moers – Homberg tram . Construction work began in July 1908 and on April 1, 1909, the northern section from the Feldstrasse depot in Homberg could only go into operation as far as the Stermann restaurant in Gerdt , as an objection from a local resident delayed commissioning as far as Baerl until May 5, 1910.

The southern section of this line, officially known as "Line 2", popularly known as the "crooked line", from Homberg to Rheinhausen Ost station in Atrop went into operation on July 3, 1909. This section was extended twice, on July 12, 1913 to the Rheinhausen train station in Friemersheim and in 1914 to the Dahlingstrasse cemetery. An extension to the railway settlement was no longer possible. The meter-gauge route had a total length of 16.4 kilometers and was served every half hour.

Until the First World War

After the population of the community of Hamborn had risen from 8,000 (1890) to 100,000 (1911) within twenty years, Hamborn received city rights in 1911. The municipal council decided to expand the tram network, especially in the east-west direction, and founded the Hamborn municipal tram company .

The first line was the Buschhausen station  - Norbertuskirche - Hamborn town hall - Bruckhausen (Kaiserstraße) connection, which was opened in March 1911 and extended to the Rheinwerft in Alsum in March 1911 . From October 23, 1913, this line in Buschhausen had a track connection to the Oberhausen tram network . In addition, the city of Hamborn built a second track on its section of the Meiderich - Dinslaken line.

In 1911, the line Schacht IV - Hamborn station was opened, in 1912 the routes from Marxloh to the stadium, from Marxloh to Holten (Markt) and from Hamborn station to Schwabenstrasse followed. The Hamborner Netz had grown by 24.6 kilometers up to and including October 1912.

At the northern end of the tram network, the line from Dinslaken train station to Lohberg was put into operation on May 1, 1914 - but as an island operation until 1920 because of the level crossing .

On February 24, 1911, the standard gauge network got another point of contact with meter-gauge trams when the Mülheim route was extended over the newly built castle bridge to the center of Mülheim. There was now an option to change to the Mülheim tram . In addition, on May 25, 1912, the Rhine ferry in Neuenkamp was connected to the Schwanentor in the center.

On December 24, 1912, a branch from the Düsseldorf line to Wanheim was opened at Grunewald , which was extended in 1914 to the Angerbach in Hüttenheim . In the same year, the route on Koloniestraße in Neudorf was extended to the Steinbruchstraße intersection at the Wedau sports park .

With the outbreak of the First World War , the route construction came to a standstill. Instead, there were serious changes in the company. First of all, the drafting of drivers for military service should be mentioned. As a result, the discriminatory professional access for women at the time had to be broken. In 1914 female conductors and in 1916 female drivers had to be admitted. At the end of 1917, more than three quarters of the driving service was in women hands, in the workshops and when building the route, the proportion of women was one third.

Since copper and iron were in short supply, the vehicle fleet and routes were in a desperate state, as necessary renovation work could not be carried out without material. At the same time, the tasks of the tram increased, as it also had to transport goods until 1923. So-called war kitchen transports were carried out first. Stew was cooked in four large kitchens and brought to 17 distribution points by tram. From the last months of the war coal was also transported by tram.

Interwar period

Preserved in Duisburg until 2016: so-called Harkortwagen , the first German articulated multiple unit from 1926 (sold to Valdres )

Even after the end of the war, the situation did not improve significantly, as Duisburg was occupied by Belgian and French troops from March 1921 . Due to the catastrophic economic situation with passive resistance, unemployment and inflation , emergency money was printed by the municipalities and all important companies in Duisburg from October 1922 . In this situation, the lowest fare of the Allgemeine Lokal- und Straßenbahn-Gesellschaft rose from 15  Pfennig in 1918 to 320 million paper marks in November 1923.

The occupation authorities also decreed the closure of all tram lines from July 1 to August 15, 1923. In addition, the number of passengers had halved by December 1923. After the end of the war in the Ruhr, inflation could be ended with a currency reform, so that in February 1924 the fare was 0.15 Rentenmark again  .

A provision of the concession agreement of 1896 also had an impact in Duisburg. In 1923 the city had the right to take over the tram network from ALSAG for twenty times the net profit of the past five years. The mayor at the time, Karl Jarres, wanted to take advantage of this option . On January 1, 1925, the Duisburger Straßenbahnen GmbH took over the management as a mixed-economy company from the city and ALSAG.

Bus traffic as a supplement to the tram began on the left bank of the Rhine in 1920 and on the right bank on April 1, 1925.

After the economic normalization, the tram network could also be expanded. In 1929, the gap between the (new) cemetery and Düsseldorfer Strasse was closed in the standard gauge network. In the Duisburg city center, numerous track corrections were carried out and new routes were built up to 1940.

In the meter-gauge network, the line from Walsum via Wehofen (1921) and Holten Markt (1923) to Holten train station (February 3, 1925) was put into operation in three stages . There, through the expansion of the Oberhausen tram network in 1927, there was a connection from both Walsum and Marxloh to Oberhausen. On June 22, 1927, a line was opened between Baustraße in Meiderich and Shaft IV in Hamborn. On May 7, 1928, Beeckerwerth received a tram connection with Beeck and in 1930 a branch from Dinslaken train station to Hiesfeld was put into operation at the northern end of the network .

The city of Duisburg-Hamborn was formed by the municipal reform on August 1, 1929, and Huckingen , Serm , Mündelheim , Rahm , Großenbaum and Buchholz were also incorporated. The Lord Mayor Karl Jarres sought to unite all transport companies in the Duisburg area. At the beginning of 1930, all shareholders came to an agreement in principle. Since the RWE demanded the provision of power supply in Meiderich in return for the incorporation of the Hamborner tram, the merger plans initially failed. However, a city ticket for 60 pfennigs was introduced, which allowed all companies to travel throughout the city with up to three changes.

When a new main train station went into operation in 1934 , tram line D from Düsseldorf received a new low-level stop in front of the train station on March 23. 21 years later, however, the tram had to give way to an expressway built at the same location ( north-south road , today: A 59 ).

After the National Socialists seized power , the municipal operations were brought under the control of the NSDAP . In addition, the director of Duisburger Strassenbahnen GmbH Julius Schrimpff was dismissed on the basis of fabricated allegations. The Lord Mayor Karl Jarres was forced to resign. Employees who were Jewish, communist, social democratic, or simply disapproved of the new leadership were fired.

On January 1, 1940, all transport companies were combined in the Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft AG . At the time the DVG was founded, the tram network comprised the following lines:

line	Line route
Standard gauge lines of the Duisburger Straßenbahnen GmbH
1	Central station - Kaßlerfeld - Ruhrort Friedrichsplatz
2	Hochfeld train station - Marientor - main train station - Kaiserberg - Speldorf - Broich - Mülheim town hall
3	Grunewald - Neudorfer Markt - Central Station - Marientor - Werthauser Strasse - Hochfeld Wörthstrasse
3 E.	Steinbruchstrasse - Neudorfer Markt - Central Station - Marientor
5	Kasslerfeld Schifferstrasse - Neuenkamp Rheindeich
6th	Kaiserberg - Central Station - Kaßlerfeld - Ruhrort Friedrichsplatz
8th	Central station (deep) - Grunewald - Kulturstraße - Wanheim - Hüttenheim
9	Meiderich train station - Aaker ferry bridge  - main train station - Grunewald - Wanheimerort - Sittardsberg - Huckingen
D.	Central station (deep) - Grunewald - Wanheimerort - Sittardsberg - Huckingen - Düsseldorf, Adolf-Hitler-Platz
Meter-gauge lines of the Ruhrorter Straßenbahn AG
ring	Ruhrort, Friedrichsplatz - Meiderich train station - Laar church - Ruhrort, Friedrichsplatz
D.	Dinslaken train station - Walsum - Marxloh Pollmann - Hamborn town hall - Meiderich train station
G	Ruhrort - Marxloh Pollmann
K (23)	Marxloh Pollmann - Holten train station
L.	Beeck Monument - Beeckerwerth
M (24)	Meiderich Baustraße - Marxloh Pollmann
N	Dinslaken train station - Hiesfeld bathing establishment
R.	Walsum-Aldenrade - Wehoven - Holten market
V	Dinslaken train station - Lohberg shaft
W.	Walsum Schwan - Walsum ferry route
Meter-gauge lines of the Hamborner tram
21st	Alsum - Hamborn Town Hall - Oberhausen-Buschhausen
22nd	Marxloh Pollmann - Hamborn Norbertus Church
23 (K)	Marxloh Pollmann - Holten train station
24 (M)	Marxloh Pollmann - Meiderich Baustraße
H	Hamborn shaft 2/5 - Holtener Straße (closed)

In addition, the following lines ran to the places on the left bank of the Rhine, which were not yet part of Duisburg:

Meter-gauge lines of the Moers-Homberg GmbH tram
line	Line route	Travel time	Tact
1	Hülsdonk - Moers - Homberg Gleisdreieck	30 min	15 minutes
2	Ruhrort - Homberg Gleisdreieck - Rheinhausen - Friemersheim	44 min	30 min
3	Baerl - Homberg Gleisdreieck	20 min	60 min
12	Ruhrort - Homberg - Moers - Krefeld	72 min	60 min

Second World War

During the Second World War , the situation for the tram in Duisburg was in many respects similar to that in the First World War. There was again a shortage of material and (male) labor. That is why women were used again in the driving service since 1940.

The transport of coal by tram was also resumed. Since a continuous meter gauge network had been created in the meantime, coal could be transported by tram from the Walsum mine via Hamborn - Ruhrort - Homberg - Moers - Krefeld - Munich-Gladbach to Rheydt, for example.

The first bombs fell on Duisburg in May 1940, and in 1943 and 1944 the city was severely destroyed by area bombing . The tram was also badly affected. Tracks and overhead lines were damaged, depots and rolling stock were destroyed. Only the Speldorf depot had only slight damage to show.

In May 1945, of the 212 railcars and 162 sidecars in existence in 1938, 52 railcars and 61 sidecars had already been destroyed, and 133 railcars and 78 sidecars were badly damaged. So only 27 railcars and 23 sidecars were still operational. On March 23, 1945, by order of the NSDAP Gauleitung, the meter gauge network and on March 26 the standard gauge network were shut down.

post war period

Route network in 1950 (blue: meter gauge, red: standard gauge)

The reconstruction and repair work began immediately after the occupation troops had moved in on April 12, 1945. On May 2, 1945, line 14 from Dinslaken to Meiderich was able to resume operations in the meter-gauge network.

On May 24th, the first normal-gauge line, Line 8, from the main train station to Hüttenheim went back into operation. At the end of the year ten lines were in operation again. After the bridges over the Ruhr, the Rhine-Herne Canal and the harbor basins had been rebuilt, continuous tram traffic from Duisburg to Ruhrort and Meiderich was possible again until the end of 1950 and the tram network was largely restored to its original extent.

Nevertheless, only a thin range of transport services with long cycle times could be offered because there were too few cars. The Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft also had badly damaged cars repaired, bought used vehicles and ordered new ones. In September 1948, the first six railcars that had been manufactured in Germany after the war were delivered to Duisburg.

However, the long period of cuts in the tram network began now: When the Homberg Rhine Bridge was blown up by the German Wehrmacht on March 4, 1945, the tram network on the left bank of the Rhine was separated from Ruhrort. During the reconstruction at the end of the 1940s, tracks were still laid on the bridge ramp on the Homberg side, but the deck of the bridge was already carried out without tracks.

When the new bridge was opened on December 18, 1954, all tram lines on the left bank of the Rhine had already been closed. The Homberg - Baerl line was never reopened after it was closed on September 29, 1943. On May 16, 1953, the line from Homberg to Moers was closed, the Homberg - Friemersheim line was closed in three steps (from south to north) by September 25, 1954. Trolleybuses then ran across the bridge until 1967 .

Re-gauging and shutdown of the meter gauge network

Marxloh: In the middle of the track from Ruhrort that was re -tracked in 1952, from the left a GT 10 NC-DU to Dinslaken

After the reconstruction, DVG strove to convert its tram network to a uniform gauge. The actually obvious idea was to re-track the southern power supply to meter gauge in order to be able to create a uniform tram network from Bochum via Gelsenkirchen , Essen , Mülheim / Oberhausen , Duisburg, Moers to Krefeld .

For reasons of cost, however, the decision was made in December 1951 to switch the most important routes north of the Ruhr to standard gauge and to shut down the rest. To this end, an investment program of 10 million D-Marks was launched.

The first routes were the sections Ruhrort - Marxloh Pollmann and Meiderich - Marxloh Pollmann - Norbertuskirche from April 22 to December 6, 1952, which corresponded to a route length of 29 kilometers.

The Marxloh Pollmann - Walsum Vierlinden line was completed on October 19, 1955 as the second reconstruction phase. This was followed on May 23, 1958 by the Walsum Vierlinden - Dinslaken train station. As the last normal-gauge line north of the Ruhr, the Norbertuskirche - Obermarxloh section went into operation on November 29. This means that a total of 45 kilometers north of the Ruhr has been converted from meter gauge to standard gauge.

At the same time, the remaining meter-gauge tram network north of the Ruhr was gradually shut down:

• In Dinslaken, the line to Lohberg was first eliminated (August 1, 1951), and the line to Hiesfeld was also closed on March 17, 1958.
• Beeckerwerth lost its tram connection on November 7, 1954. On May 2, 1959, both routes between Ruhrort and Meiderich were canceled.
• The connection between Walsums and Holten was discontinued on July 14, 1961 and the Alsum - Hamborn line was canceled in two stages by June 15, 1965.
• As the last meter-gauge tram lines, line 10 from Hamborn Altmarkt to Oberhausen Buschhausen and line 11 from Marxloh Pollmann to Oberhausen-Holten station ceased operations on April 30, 1966.

But the standard gauge network has also been reduced:

• On December 1, 1952, the route to Neuenkamp ceased to exist.
• The route to the Wedau Sports Park was shortened on March 28, 1962 to the intersection of Koloniestrasse and Wildstrasse.

This reduced the tram network to a total of 65.1 kilometers by the end of the 1960s.

Tunnel construction for the car-friendly city

Above-ground station Hauptbahnhof in 1991

In 1970, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia presented a general transport plan for the Ruhr area. In addition to the systematic expansion of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn , a city-wide urban railway network was to be created. In Duisburg, the lines from Dinslaken via Hamborn, Meiderich, the city center and Huckingen to Düsseldorf and from Marxloh and Moers via Ruhrort and the city center to Mülheim were to be built. Tunnels should be built in the city centers, otherwise intersection-free routes should be created, if necessary at a high altitude. The Duisburg Stadtbahn is an example of how only a small amount of benefit for public transport was achieved with an enormous investment of capital.

From July 15, 1969 to 1977, two four-kilometer-long intersection-free sections were built on Line D between Kesselsberg and Neuer Friedhof, some at a high altitude. In this context, the Angerbogen high station was built, which never went into operation. The route north of the Neuer Friedhof train station was also to be elevated above Düsseldorfer Straße. Due to the resistance of the local residents, this construction measure was not implemented.

The tunnel construction in the city center began in 1975. The opening of the first tunnel section did not take place until July 11, 1992.

The following cuts occurred in the tram network during this period:

• On March 25, 1972, the line from Marientor to Kupferhütte was shut down, and line 3 was thus closed.
• On March 31, 1975, the last stop on line 4 on Koloniestrasse was abandoned. While the switches at the Sternbuschweg intersection were being expanded, the tracks up to Wildstrasse could still be seen in the street for a long time.
• On September 30, 1979, the line from Kuhtor to Hochfeld Süd station was taken out of service and line 2 was discontinued. The tracks were expanded up to Marientor, the remaining tracks were unused for 13 years in Heerstrasse and Wanheimer Strasse.

In connection with the commissioning of the inner city tunnel, several routes were shut down on July 1, 1992 or no longer operated on regular services:

• Line 901: from Schwanentor via Kuhtor, König-Heinrich-Platz and Hauptbahnhof to Lutherplatz - replacement with the same tunnel section.
• Line 904: from the main train station via Neudorfer Straße, Koloniestraße, Sternbuschweg to Grunewald - the line has been completely shut down, some of the tracks could still be seen for some time on Neudorfer Straße, but they were removed from the street scene during routine road construction work.
• Line 904: from Kulturstraße to Hochfeld Süd station (south side) - only operating line for vehicles that are deployed.
• Line 909: from Schnabelhuck via Duissernplatz and Hansastraße to the main station - replacement by a similar tunnel route (line 903).
• Line 79 or 909: from the main train station / Mercatorstraße via Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße or from König-Heinrich-Platz via Düsseldorfer Straße to Kremerstraße - replacement by a tunnel with an alternative route via Steinsche Gasse, further via Hochfeld to Hüttenheim (line 903) or . via the "Boxbarttrasse" to Düsseldorfer Straße (line U 79).

Together with the inner city tunnel, the line through Hochfeld, which had been closed 13 years earlier, was renovated and put back into operation.

The tunnel construction increased the travel time for passengers not only because of the longer distances to the underground train stations, but in Duisburg there was also the unusual effect that the pure travel time between Duisburg main station and Grunewald with the U 79 light rail line was offset by the detour in the tunnel the above-ground routing of tram line 79 was extended by one minute.

After the turn of the millennium

On September 23, 2000, the second and probably last tunnel section was opened in Duisburg. The 3.7 kilometer long Duissern - Meiderich Bahnhof line has since replaced the above-ground line over the new Aaker ferry bridge, which opened in 1997 for trams and car traffic. This section of the tunnel resulted in a significant reduction in travel time for line 903.

On June 1, 2006, the city of Duisburg had a major thinning of its public transport system. Since then, the tram lines have been running every 15 minutes instead of 10 minutes. Line 902 was canceled. However, the line number is still used for emergency vehicles for soccer games and for recruits. But the bus network has also been reduced and since then only two of three trains from Düsseldorf to Duisburg have been running on the U 79 tram line, one of which stops for 5 minutes at the city limits. This was implemented earlier on Saturdays and led to a drop in passengers of 12 percent between Düsseldorf and Duisburg.

Current line network

line	Line route	Travel time	Hold	Cycle ( HVZ )
901	Obermarxloh Loop - Marxloh Pollmann - Beeck Monument - Laar Church - Scholtenhofstraße - Ruhrort Friedrichsplatz - Kaßlerfeld - König-Heinrich-Platz - Duisburg Hbf - Zoo / Uni - Mülheim Speldorf - Mülheim city center - Mülheim Hbf	64 min	46	7.5 / 15 min
903	Dinslaken Bf - Walsum Watereck - Marxloh Pollmann - Hamborn Town Hall - Meiderich Bf - Duissern - Duisburg Hbf - König-Heinrich-Platz - Platanenhof - Hochfeld Süd Bf - Wanheim Rheintörchenstraße - Hüttenheim Mannesmann Gate 2	69 min	45	7.5 / 15 min
Line sections with a lower cycle in italics
Line 902 only runs at events in the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena and is used as a line signal for trains arriving and departing to the Grunewald depot.
( 902 )	Walsum Watereck - Marxloh Pollmann - Hamborn Town Hall - Meiderich Bf - Duissern - Duisburg Hbf - König-Heinrich-Platz - Platanenhof - Grunewald depot

Expansion plans for the 3rd local transport plan

The local transport plan approved by the City Council of Duisburg in 2017 provides for extensive expansion of the existing tram network in Duisburg. Around 8.3 km of tram routes are to be built by 2030. In this context, it is planned to set up 3 new tram lines, all of which will run through the inner city tunnel.

Line 90X (Inner Harbor University)

This new line is primarily intended to relieve the heavily frequented bus lines 934 and 933, which are often overloaded by university students despite a frequent 7.5-minute cycle. The core of the new line will therefore be a branch line from Mülheimer Straße to today's "Universität" bus stop. This route will branch off from the existing route 901 at the intersection of Mülheimer Strasse / Lotharstrasse, follow Lotharstrasse for around 600 m and then end at the bus stop in the form of a double-track sweeping system . This route should cost around 9 million euros. A realization period is not yet known.

To the north of the new lines, the line is to travel the existing line of the lower level of the inner city tunnel and turn into Schifferstrasse behind the Schwanentorbrücke . This is followed by a new line that will open up the inner harbor on the side of Schifferstrasse. For this 1.7 km long route, costs of around 25.5 million euros are estimated.

The 90X line (it is just a project name) also speeds up the cycle in the city center-Neudorf area, which is intended to relieve the 901 tram line, which is often overcrowded, especially in school traffic.

"Jump over the Rhine"

Since the communal territorial reform in 1975 , in which the former cities of Rheinhausen and Homberg were incorporated into Duisburg, urban transport and, above all, the connection to the right bank of the Rhine has been expandable. When planning the Rhein-Ruhr urban railway, it was planned to connect Homberg and Moers to the right bank of the Rhine by means of a tunnel. Due to the enormous costs and the reduced funding from the federal and state governments, which at the time supported these construction projects with up to 90%, this project was ultimately not implemented, although the plans were concrete until the 1990s.

The network structure of the local transport plan that has been adopted provides for the first time a connection to the left bank of the Rhine, which is to be implemented with two new lines:

Rhine 1 line

This line will include a new line that will be led over the Bridge of Solidarity and will end at Rheinhausen Market. In the other direction, the line is to merge into the route of line 903 at the Pauluskirche stop and then end at the Watereck stop in Duisburg Walsum.

Rhine 2 line

The Rhein 2 line is to begin at the new "Universität" stop and follow the 901 to Ruhrort. At the Friedrichsplatz stop, there will be a new line that will cross the Rhine over the Friedrich-Ebert-Brücke . The route then leads over Ruhrorter Straße to Bismarckplatz. An extension to the Lauer Strasse / Moerser Strasse intersection is also being considered. The cost of the new line is estimated at around 30 million euros, with this cost estimate providing for a joint route with car traffic on the Rhine bridge.

Fleet

Car 1003 in 1992 in the Grunewald depot, at that time still without a low-floor middle section

The fleet consists of 18 type B80C cars for the U 79 line , four of which had a dining car compartment until the mid-1990s, and 46 GT 10 NC-DU trams for lines 901 to 903 GT 10 NC-DU were originally eight-axle cars. In 1996, the DVG decided to extend it to ten-axle vehicles using a low-floor center section in order to increase capacity and enable barrier-free entry.

The DVG is traditionally known for its numerous conversions to trams that it carried out in-house. A current, exemplary example of this is the car 1000: At the beginning of the 1980s, the car served as a prototype of the GT 8 NC-DU to be purchased (including installation of a chopper control). At the beginning of the 1990s, this eight-axle articulated railcar of the type GT 8 from 1966 was converted into a bidirectional car with an optical alignment of the front design to the GT 8 NC-DU ; in 1996 it was expanded to a ten -axle vehicle with a low-floor self-made middle section. Car 1000 was once again used as a prototype, this time for the upcoming extension of the eight-axle GT 8 NC-DU.

In 1996, a single Variobahn vehicle was delivered by Adtranz as a test vehicle. The six-axle, two-way articulated railcar in low-floor technology with the number 2000 was only rarely in use in regular service. In December 2015 it was sold to Norway, where it will be used for training purposes.

The current fleet of Duisburg trams:

• GT 10 NC-DU :
  • Year of construction 1996: 1000 (conversion from eight-axle articulated multiple units from 1966)
  • Year of construction 1986: 1001 - 1014
  • Year of construction 1988: 1015 - 1025
  • Year of construction 1991: 1026 - 1035
  • Year of construction 1992: 1036 - 1040
  • Year of construction 1993: 1041 - 1045

All vehicles are stationed in the Grunewald depot.

Due to the acute shortage of vehicles, which can be attributed to the corrosion damage to the current trams, as well as the outdated equipment (low-floor share of only 20%, no air conditioning), new vehicles were put out to tender in 2017. The order, which was awarded to Bombardier Transportation , includes the delivery of 47 Bombardier Flexity Classic trams and their maintenance over a period of 24 years with the option of an extension to 32 years. The order is worth 140 million euros.

The new tracks, named NF 4, will be around 34 meters long and 2.30 meters wide. With the introduction of this vehicle type, an air conditioning system will also be installed in DVG rail vehicles for the first time. The low-floor share is 70% and the capacity of the vehicles will be increased from 175 to 200 passengers. The top speed of the 44-tonne vehicles will be 80 km / h.

Crossed line signals

A 901 car with the line signal painted in May 1987

Duisburg was one of the few German tram operators that used previously deleted line numbers for short trips or electric cars . The line signal was also marked in the upper half with a red crossbar.

See also

• Duisburg light rail

literature

• Dieter Höltge: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany, Volume 4 Ruhr area. EK-Verlag, Freiburg i.Br. 1994, ISBN 3-88255-334-0 .
• Axel Reuther: Tram in the Ruhr area. GeraMond Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7654-7143-8 .
• Vera Schmidt: 125 years of movement for Duisburg, 1881–2006. BASIS-DRUCK GmbH Duisburg 2006, online (PDF; 6.0 MiB)
• Contemporary witness exchange Duisburg eV: The Duisburg tram , Erfurt 2014, ISBN 978-3-95400-361-7

Web links

Commons : Straßenbahn Duisburg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft AG
• Gleisplanweb.de
• strassenbahn-duisburg.de - Private website
• Decommissioning data for the individual route sections
• Track remnants, Rhine-Ruhr-Wupper area
• Photo of the last trip on line 3 on March 25, 1972 (digit.wdr.de)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 3. Local transport plan of the city of Duisburg. P. 128 , accessed January 31, 2019 . 
2. ↑ 3. Local transport plan. P. 129ff. , accessed on January 31, 2019 . 
3. ↑ 3. Local transport plan. P. 129ff. , accessed on January 31, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Blickpunkt Tram 1/2016, p. 81
5. ^ DVG-Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft AG: Everything about the renovation program for our trams. Retrieved February 3, 2019 . 
6. ^ Willi Mohrs: Duisburg DVG is to get 47 new trams. September 14, 2016, accessed on February 3, 2019 (German). 
7. ^ DVG-Duisburger Verkehrsgesellschaft AG: detail page. Retrieved February 3, 2019 . 
8. ↑ DVG - Digital Annual Report 2017. Accessed on February 3, 2019 . 
9. ↑ "city traffic" . tape 4/2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 44.8 "  N , 6 ° 45 ′ 17.8"  E