Tram food

Tram food
Tram car of the type M8D-NF2 on the tram level of the Berliner Platz underground station
Basic information
Country	Germany
city	eat
opening	August 23, 1893
electrification	since opening
operator	Ruhrbahn
Transport network	Rhein-Ruhr transport association
Infrastructure
Route length	52.5 km
Gauge	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system	750 volts = overhead line
business
Lines	7th
Line length	83 km
vehicles	27 M8D-NF2 , 34 M8D-NF , 27 M8
statistics
Residents in the catchment area	591 thousand
Network plan (2015) [dark blue: Stadtbahn]

The Essen tram has been running in Essen since 1893 . After the tram network in Essen was expanded as the main mode of transport until 1955, it came in the following period initially under competition from private automobile traffic and later through the construction of tunnels for the Rhein-Ruhr urban railway as well as the establishment of track buses - and duo -Bus routes on important traffic axes lead to a significant reduction in the route network. Today seven lines run on meter-gauge tracks on a network of 52.5 kilometers . A little more than a third of the vehicles are low-floor . The Essen tram is operated by Ruhrbahn GmbH.

history

Beginnings

In the second half of the 19th century, public transport in Essen began with horse-drawn buses that connected Essen with the neighboring communities. However, since they were unable to cope with the increasing traffic, considerations were made to set up a horse-drawn tram . In the years 1878 and 1879 an investigation was carried out on this. In the following twelve years, various companies applied to the city of Essen to build a horse-drawn or steam train. The company Siemens came for an electric tram into play. These entrepreneurs failed either because of a lack of capital or because influential personalities said this was not for the small town of Essen.

On September 4 and 30, 1889, the consortium consisting of the Bank for Trade and Industry and Herrmann Bachstein received the concession to build and operate a steam tram from Essen to Altenessen , Borbeck and Rüttenscheid . Construction took another two years to come because the consortium wanted to use the emerging technology of electric trams. On August 23, 1893, the first lines from today's main station to Essen-Altenessen station and via Altendorf to Borbeck were put into operation. On January 25, 1894, the route from Altenessen to the Nordstern colliery was added, and on April 27, the route from the main train station to Rüttenscheid was added. Until July 18 of that year, those passengers who wanted to go beyond the main station had to change there. The Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft had forbidden to cross its tracks. With the intervention of the mayor at the time, Erich Zweigert , it was possible to persuade the railway to allow the crossing. Up to this point in time, the Essen tram network had a total route length of 18.3 kilometers.

Expansion until the First World War

In 1895 the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft AG (SEG) was founded, into which Herrmann Bachstein also brought the Essen tram. In addition to the tram routes in Essen, the SEG, based in Darmstadt , also operated narrow-gauge trams and suburban railways in Darmstadt , Mainz , Wiesbaden and Karlsruhe as well as a total of eleven normal-gauge and two narrow-gauge branch lines in Rhineland-Palatinate , Hesse , Thuringia and Baden , some of them from the SEG itself was built or expanded.

In the following years the tram network was expanded:

Opening date	route
January 31, 1897	from Karnap to the municipal boundary of Gelsenkirchen-Horst ( Westphalen provincial border )
May 8, 1897	from Alfredusbad to Bredeney (Ruhrstein)
April 5, 1898	to Stoppenberg
June 18, 1898	from Segeroth via Limbeckerplatz and Viehofer Platz to Steeler Straße
August 5, 1898	the extension of the route in Gelsenkirchen-Horst
September 2, 1898	from Stoppenberg via Schonnebeck to Rotthausen and from Limbecker Platz to Frohnhausen
November 1, 1898	from Steeler Strasse to Steele
December 20, 1898	from Schonnebeck to Katernberg
December 21, 1898	from Borbeck via Dellwig to Oberhausen
February 21, 1899	from Borbeck to Bottrop
July 19, 1909	from Nordstern to Karnap

This means that nine tram lines operated on the network in Essen and the surrounding communities in 1899. In the years that followed, several sections of the route were gradually expanded to two tracks.

Between July 1, 1912 and August 1, 1932, a total of 31 new route sections were built. From July 1916 this included a connection to the neighboring town of Mülheim an der Ruhr , and soon afterwards to Gelsenkirchen .

Between the world wars

The occupation of the Ruhr by the French between 1923 and 1925 interrupted the brisk construction activity. With one exception: On December 8, 1924, a joint line was put into operation with STOAG on the newly built route between Essener Strasse in Oberhausen and Knappenstrasse in Essen. Otherwise the expansion of the line came to a complete standstill during this time.

In 1925, the first bus lines were set up to supplement the tram network in Essen.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the SEG operated a total of 18 lines in and around Essen. Between April 15, 1924 and February 15, 1928 there was also a line of the Bergische Kleinbahn from Elberfeld (today to Wuppertal ) via its own line end point in Steele to the Steeler Tor .

Essen route network around 1932

Second World War

In the first months of the Second World War there was an interruption in community traffic. After this was resumed in 1940, the war timetable came into effect on April 1, 1940. A total of 26 tram lines now operated. Towards the end of the war, the tram also took over freight transport in its route network. At times, up to 200 tons of rubble were transported out of the city area every day. When a heavy bombing attack hit the city of Essen on March 5, 1943 and large parts of the route network were affected, numerous routes were temporarily switched to bus operation. Between November 28, 1943 and March 27, 1944, the service was almost back to normal, but then again had to accept considerable restrictions in maintaining traffic. On April 8, 1945, the last line finally ceased operations.

After the Second World War

The Essen tram lost 92 percent of its vehicles, 90 percent of the overhead lines, 81 percent of the track systems and 45 percent of the operational buildings during the war.

Track plan of the expanded city center in 1965

From April 25, 1945, the route network was gradually operated again under the British occupation. By the end of the year, 15 lines were able to start operating again. In the following years there were repeated restrictions. In 1946, as many people were carried on 60 percent of the route network and 30 percent of the cars as in 1938. At the end of 1950 the reconstruction could be considered complete; 20 lines were used again. During this time, a trolleybus operated in Essen for the first time . Its operation was stopped on November 23, 1957.

First shutdowns from 1955

After the SEG had waived the renewal of the licenses that expired between 1952 and 1954 on all of its branch lines in Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Baden, the general meeting of the SEG decided to change the name to Essener Verkehrs-AG ( EVAG ) on September 29, 1954.

From 1955 there were more and more closures, mostly on the lines of the network that were not oriented towards the inner city .

EVAG ticket machine

When in the 1950s work began to expand the former B1 and today's A40 into the Ruhrschnellweg, the tram had to be integrated into the planning or shut down. Since the tram proved to be the more sensible solution, a separate route from Mülheim - Heißen to Essen's Bismarckplatz and from the water tower on Steeler Straße to Kray was laid out for it on the median reservation .

By the end of the 1960s, numerous lines in the outskirts of the city were shut down due to their low utilization and the closure of the connecting lines in the neighboring cities. At the end of the 1960s, for example, there was a network with a length of 87.66 kilometers, of which almost 19 percent, at around 16 kilometers, had their own railway structure. 24 lines were operated on this route network.

EVAG tram lines (partly joint traffic) in 1967:

line	Line route
1	Alfredusbad - Essen Hbf - Altenessen - E-Karnap - GE-Horst - Buer - Erle - Gelsenkirchen Hbf
2	Bredeney - Rüttenscheid - Essen main station - Porscheplatz - Altenessen Karlsplatz
3	Kray Nord Bf - Frillendorf - Essen Hbf - Limbecker Platz - Helenenstr. - Fly Bush - Borbeck Germaniaplatz
5	Rellinghausen - Essen Süd Bf - Essen Hbf - Limbecker Platz - Helenenstr. - Fly Busch - E-Frintrop - Oberhausen Hbf
6th	Rolandstrasse (Saalbau) - Rüttenscheid - Holsterhauser Platz - Essen West Bf - Helenenstr.
7th	Margarethenhöhe - Essen Hbf - Stoppenberg - E-Katernberg - GE-Rotthausen - Gelsenkirchen Hbf
8th	Steele - Knappschaftskrankenhaus - Essen Hbf - MH-Heißen - Mülheim city center - Uhlenhorst
9	Frohnhausen - Limbecker Platz - Porscheplatz - Knappschaftskrankenhaus - Steele
10	Stadtwaldplatz - Rüttenscheid - Essen main station - Porscheplatz - Altenessen Karlsplatz
11	Rellinghausen - Rüttenscheid - Essen Hbf - Limbecker Platz - Helenenstr. - Fly Bush - E-Junction Aktienstrasse - Mülheim city center - MH-Saarn
12	Haarzopf - Limbecker Platz - Porscheplatz - Frillendorf - Kray Nord Bf
15th	Bredeney - Rüttenscheid - Essen Hbf - Limbecker Platz - Helenenstr. - Fly Bush - Borbeck Germaniaplatz
16	Essen Hbf - Rüttenscheid - Holsterhauser Platz - Essen West Bf - Helenenstr. - Bergeborbeck station
17th	Margarethenhöhe - Essen Hbf - Stoppenberg - E-Katernberg - GE-Feldmark - Gelsenkirchen Hbf
18th	Steele - Knappschaftskrankenhaus - Essen Hbf - MH-Heißen - Mülheim city center - Uhlenhorst
20th	Rellinghausen - Essen Süd Bf - Essen Hbf - Porscheplatz - Altenessen - Karnap Alte Landstr.
22nd	Hair pigtail - Limbecker Platz - Viehofer Platz - Altenessen Karlsplatz
25th	Essen Hbf - Limbecker Platz - Helenenstr. - Fly Bush - Frintroper Height
26th	Essen Hbf - Limbecker Platz - Helenenstr. - Bergeborbeck Bf - Borbeck - Dellwig - Frintrop Unterstr.
27	Borbeck Germaniaplatz - Fly Busch - Helenenstr. - Viehofer Platz - Stoppenberg - Katernberg Hanielstr.
28	Hamburger Str. - Essen Hbf - Porscheplatz - Altenessen Karlsplatz
32	Essen main station - Rüttenscheid - Gruga
33	Borbeck Germaniaplatz - Fly Busch - Helenenstr. - Limbecker Platz - Essen Hbf - Frillendorf
35	Frintroper Höhe - Fly Busch - Helenenstr. - Limbecker Platz - Essen Hbf - Essen Süd Bf - Ludwig colliery
36	Essen Hbf - Rüttenscheid - Holsterhauser Platz - Essen West Bf - Helenenstr. - Bergeborbeck Bf - Borbeck - Dellwig Wertstr.
37	Margarethenhöhe - Essen main station - Stoppenberg - branch Katernberg
38	Hair pigtail - Essen Hbf - Knappschaftskrankenhaus

Tunnel construction from the 1970s

Light rail at Hobeisenbrücke station

In the 1970s, as part of the Rhein-Ruhr Stadtbahn, the construction of underground lines and the conversion to standard gauge began. So the tram service was stopped on other routes. The plan was for 30 kilometers of tunnels , a total conversion of the usable railway lines to standard gauge and the final end of the tram. Due to financial difficulties, however, there were repeated cuts in the planned expansion, so that although a number of tram routes were discontinued and dismantled, they were not replaced by the light rail, but by the omnibus. By 1993, three lines had been converted to standard gauge and nine meter gauge lines were still in operation (101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 115, 127). Further expansion of the originally planned routes then made slow progress. Until further notice, the company adjusted to the operation of both gauges. The last section of the urban railway expansion for the time being was the second part of the northern route from Altenessen to Fischerstraße, which opened in 2002, the first station in Gelsenkirchen's urban area. In 2004 the last section of the U17 (from the second shift road running above ground) to Gelsenkirchen-Horst , Buerer Strasse was completed.

1980s: Closures for the track bus and duo bus

1991: Duo bus in Kray

In the 1980s, the so-called track bus or duo bus operation began in Essen. First of all, a first 1.3 kilometer test route was set up on Humboldtstrasse in Fulerum , for which the tram route leading to Haarzopf with its own track structure was closed. The track bus went into operation on September 28, 1980. In May 1983, a one-kilometer-long electrified track bus route between Stadtwaldplatz and Wittenbergstrasse followed, which ran on a joint route with the Rüttenscheid – Rellinghausen tram route.

The pilot project was later expanded into a large-scale test; for this purpose, the tram route to Kray had to be shut down in 1985 and replaced with lanes for bus operation. In 1991 the tram tunnel from the adult education center via Porscheplatz to Berliner Platz was integrated into the track bus operation. In the area of ​​the tunnel, the duo bus used overhead lines that were laid next to the tram's overhead contact line and operated electrically there. The high-floor vehicles had doors on both sides to enable exit at the stations. On the former tram routes on Humboldtstrasse, between Walpurgisstrasse and Stadtwaldplatz (which had since been closed in connection with the opening of the Rüttenscheider tram tunnel) and from the water tower on Steeler Berg to Kray-Nord, the tracks were made of precast concrete parts for the track guiding rollers of the Replaced buses.

The duo bus is now a thing of the past in Essen. Due to the technically not fully developed vehicles, there were frequent breakdowns on the underground track (which consisted of oak planks laid next to one another) and when switching from diesel to electric drive (or the electric drive did not work continuously, so that the buses sometimes had to drive in the tunnel with diesel drive) blocking the entire east-west tunnel . The Duo-Bus experiment has ended. In the tunnels (outside the train stations) and on the Hollestraße ramp , the wooden parts on which the track bus operated are still partially present.

Cuts in the transport offer since 2000

Since 2000 there have been some restrictions in operation:

• 2000 early morning traffic on all days : Monday to Friday, the range of early morning trips before 5:30 am was thinned out; On Saturdays, the 20-minute cycle before 8 a.m. was abolished on all lines and replaced by a general 30-minute cycle, the start of operations was postponed to 5 a.m. On Sundays, all traffic was canceled before 8 a.m. and replaced by the night express.
• 2000 Break in schedule on weekdays : Monday – Friday, the evening cycle change from 10 to 15 minutes (or 20 to 30 minutes) was brought forward from 7.45pm to 7pm.
• 2003 Late- night traffic every day : Introduction of the daily night network from 11:30 p.m., normal scheduled services after 11 p.m. were canceled and replaced by the night express.
• 2006 Morning traffic on Saturdays : trips in the daytime network up to 7 a.m. have been canceled and replaced by the night express; Change of the cycle pattern on Saturdays during the day from 10/20 to 15/30.
• 2010 Morning traffic on weekdays : the daytime network is thinned out until 6 a.m., the dense daily intervals (10/20 minutes) do not start until around 6 a.m.

Current line network

Places in the route in brackets mean that the section in question is only approached temporarily (e.g. only during rush hour ) or at an extended cycle.

The clock sequences are given in minutes behind the route - for rush hour Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and for off-peak hours on Saturdays and Sundays. In the off-peak hours (daily from around 9 p.m.), a uniform 30-minute cycle applies on all lines.

Valid from June 14, 2015:

line	Line route	Clock Mon. – Fri.	Cycle Sa.	Clock So.
101	Borbeck Germaniaplatz - Bergeborbeck Bf - Helenenstr. - Essen Town Hall - Essen Hbf - Rüttenscheid - Holsterhausen - Helenenstr. ( Way back as 106! )	10	15th	30/15
103	Dellwig Wertstr. - Borbeck - Altendorf - City Hall Essen - Essen Hbf / Hollestr. (- Huttrop - Steele (S)) 1	10	15th	30/15
104	MH main cemetery - city center - MH border Borbeck - E-Schönebeck Abzw. Aktienstr. 2	15th	15/30	30th
105	Frintrop substr. - Altendorf - Essen Hbf - Bergerhausen - Rellinghausen Finefraustr. ( Natural line 105 )	10	15th	30/15
106	Helenenstrasse - Holsterhausen - Rüttenscheid - Essen Main Station - Essen City Hall - Helenenstr. - Bergeborbeck Bf - Borbeck Germaniaplatz ( return route as 101! )	10	15th	15th
107	Gelsenkirchen Hbf - Feldmark - E-Katernberg - junction Katernberg - Zollverein - Stoppenberg - City Hall Essen - Hollestr./Essen Hbf (- Rüttenscheid - Bredeney) ( culture line 107 ) 3/4	20/10/5	30/15	30/15
108	Bredeney - Rüttenscheid - Essen Hbf - Essen Town Hall - Altenessen Bf	10	15th	15th
109	Frohnhausen Breilsort - Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard - Essen Town Hall - Huttrop - Steele (S)	10	15th	15th

¹ in the peak hours via Hollestr. to Steele, in the NVZ only to Hollestr. and in the SVZ from Essen main station to Essen main station.
² joint EVAG / MVG line
³ joint line (low-floor operation) Gelsenkirchen / Katernberg - Essen main station of EVAG / BoGeStra (vehicles only Sa early morning GE main station trotting track through BoGeStra)
⁴ HVZ amplifiers (High-floor operation) junction Katernberg - Bredeney, individual cars from Essen town hall to Hollestr.
Line sections with increasing frequency in bold , line sections with lower clock in italics

Tram at the Hobeisenbrücke

The final stop at the Philippusstift in Borbeck , the tram has the old EVAG paint scheme

A modernized M-car at the Katernberg junction

An NF2 tram in Frohnhausen, Breilsort

In most cases, the tram routes run flush with the carriageway along the road. At some stops there are no side platforms available and you can get off on the carriageway. The new central platforms, which were built for the low-floor trams that have been purchased since 1998 , are still few. The new ThyssenKrupp and Zollverein stops from 2009, Zollverein Süd (now Kapitelwiese again ) from 2005 and the newly built Moltkestrasse stop in the southern district from November 2006 are examples of this. On October 20, 2014 the new central platform stops at Frohnhauser Straße , Schederhofstraße and Alfred-Krupp-Schule (only ring line 101/106) were added. In addition, the following have already been rebuilt: Bocholder Straße , Germaniaplatz (partly), Dellwig Bf (partly), Hollestr. (partly), Abzw. Aktienstraße and water tower .

In the city center, all tram lines run underground in the tunnels and stations actually intended for later subway operations. The east-west stretch between the ThyssenKrupp ramp (formerly Krupp headquarters) and Essen Town Hall (formerly Porscheplatz), which opened in 1991, was the last construction project that laid the trams underground in downtown Essen. However, this tunnel section with four lines, each in 10-minute operation, regularly reaches its capacity limits, especially in the main traffic (due to the necessary emergency vehicles). This section also offers one of the curiosities in the Essen network: the tram tunnel runs at the Berliner Platz underground station below the underground line at a depth of around 25 meters. To the south of Essen Hauptbahnhof underground station there is a tunnel section that is equipped with three-rail tracks for joint operation with the U11 light rail line. Since there are only elevated platforms at the Philharmonie , Rüttenscheider Stern and Martinstraße stations , all cars on lines 107 (HVZ amplifier) ​​and 108 (previously 101 and 107) must be equipped with folding steps. The Essen trams are generally used as solo cars and not in double traction (which would be technically possible with many trains), since the stops for this are in most cases not (yet) structurally designed. So on the heavily used routes to Bredeney, Steele and Katernberg Mon. – Fri. In the mornings and afternoons, a staff-intensive and vehicle-intensive 5-minute cycle with individual cars is necessary.

The southern route to Bredeney was to be converted to light rail vehicles with significantly greater capacity in the medium term, but this was ultimately discarded. The route to Gelsenkirchen via Katernberg has not yet been able to be converted to double traction. For the 2010 Capital of Culture year , the Zollverein Coal Mine World Heritage Site in Katernberg can still be reached barrier-free from Essen main station thanks to amplifier trips on line 107 with low-floor wagons, which are taken off other lines. The frequency of line 107 was doubled in 2010 (Mon-Sat from 9 am, Sun from 10 am) between the Katernberg branch and Essen Hbf with low-floor cars.

Network changeover on June 14, 2015

In order to be able to use low-floor trams on more routes, a new concept was implemented on June 14, 2015. The amplifier services to Bredeney and Katernberg were combined into one line (107E, high floor), as well as the north branch of line 101 with the ring section of 106 (ring line 101/106); a shorter all-day line 107 (low floor) and a line 108 (high floor) between Bredeney and Altenessen were created. With the exception of the southern route and the short section to Altenessen station, the entire EVAG tram network has been served with at least one low-floor line since then.

Day and night network

The Essener Verkehrs-AG differentiates between the day and night network, whereby the tram lines only run in the day network.

The operating times of the tram lines are as follows:

• Monday-Friday: 4:30 am-11: 00 pm
• Saturday: 7:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
• Sunday: 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.

At other times only buses and taxi buses operate on the night network .

• Monday to Friday: 11:30 pm to 1:30 pm
• Saturday: 11:30 pm - 6:30 am
• Sunday: 11:30 pm - 7:30 am

Christening and names of the M8D-NF2 trams

For the official opening of the new route over the Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard and the maiden voyage of the new tram, EVAG decided to name the trams after Essen's districts . The first tram was named Stadt Essen on October 19, 2014 . On February 16, 2017, the last of the NF2 railways was christened Essen-Südostviertel .

Vehicle number	Name of the tram
1601	Food karnap
1602	Essen-Südostviertel
1603	Essen-Margarethenhöhe
1604	Food Steele
1605	Food kray
1606	Essen-Huttrop
1607	City of Essen
1608	Essen-Altendorf
1609	Essen-Rüttenscheid
1610	Essen-Kettwig
1611	Essen Bredeney
1612	Eating old people
1613	Essen-Borbeck
1614	Essen-Schonnebeck
1615	Essen-Frohnhausen
1616	Essen Holsterhausen
1617	Essen-Bergerhausen
1618	Essen-Rellinghausen
1619	Essen-Katernberg
1920	Essen-Stoppenberg
1621	Food Frintrop
1622	Essen-Dellwig
1623	Essen-Schönebeck
1624	Food overthrow
1625	Essen-Burgaltendorf
1626	Essen-Heisingen
1627	Essen-Kupferdreh

Expansion plans

Hst. Frohnhauser Strasse of the new line over the Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard

The construction of a new route through the Krupp belt west of the city center with the relocation of line 109 to Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard has been completed. Since October 2014, line 109 has been running from the Alfred-Krupp-Schule in Frohnhausen via Frohnhauser Straße with the stops Schederhofstraße and Frohnhauser Straße . Finally, at the intersection of Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard / Altendorfer Straße, it comes back to the old route. It will bypass the heavily used Helenenstrasse junction .

For a planned new tram route with the planning name Bahnhofstangente , 700,000 euros in planning costs were approved by the City Council's construction and transport committee in May 2018. The name comes from the fact that the new route connects the Essen main train station to the north above ground. The current plan provides for the route to begin on Steeler Strasse in a westerly direction on its own track structure via Hollestrasse and thus to pass the north entrance of the main station. Further to the west, it is to be guided over Hachestrasse, also on its own track, and run in a tunnel under Hans-Böckler-Strasse ( Bundesstrasse 224 ). After crossing Hans-Böckler-Strasse, the route should meet in a westerly direction north of the main railway line, and thus south of Westendhof, in an arc to the north at the intersection of Frohnhauser Strasse / Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard. This arch between Hans-Böckler- and Frohnhauser Strasse will be rebuilt from 2020 to the southeastern extension of Berthold-Beitz-Boulevard, in the middle of which the tram line will then run. The entire route from Steeler Strasse to Frohnhauser Strasse, for which investments of around 90 million euros are planned, is scheduled to go into operation in 2025. In the council meeting of May 2018 it was decided that the Office for Roads and Transport will tender the planning work with a possible value of eight million euros across Europe. It is based on financial support from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. With the new tram route, it is hoped that the underground tram routes will be relieved, so that the remaining lines can be clocked more closely.

Another idea that came up at the end of the 1990s was to extend line 105 from the Finefraustraße stop in Rellinghausen by a few hundred meters to the Annental district junction , where significantly better transfers to the bus network would have been possible. However, this variant was never seriously pursued and no longer appears in any current planning.

Tram line 105 at the terminus Unterstraße in Essen-Frintrop.

At the other end of line 105 in Frintrop, a further construction over the city limits to Oberhausen via the CentrO and on to Oberhausen Hbf and Sterkrade station has for the time being failed. The lead for this project lay with the city of Oberhausen, which had scheduled a council decision for March 8, 2015 about the expansion . Despite high levels of funding from the federal and state governments, a majority (57% no, 43% yes) spoke out against this investment; therefore the realization of this extension has failed for the time being. The turnout for this vote was 23%; Essen citizens were not entitled to vote. There, too, there is only a minimal extension of the line in the Essen city area, as the 105 ends only a few meters before the Oberhausen city limits. According to a survey by Radio Essen, 59% of Essen residents want line 105 to be extended to Oberhausen. However, at the end of November 2015, the extension of tram line 105 from Essen-Frintrop to the Centro from the cities of Essen and Oberhausen was again registered in the public transport requirement plan of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which is valid from 2017 to 2030, and included in this. This means that from 2017 it will be possible to establish the tram connection between Essen and Oberhausen in the period up to 2030. The extension of tram line 105 from Essen to Oberhausen is also planned in the current local transport plan for the city of Oberhausen.

See also : ÖPNV-Trasse Oberhausen # Tram line 105  and tram route Essen – Oberhausen

More recent plans are also planning a conversion of the existing southern route to Bredeney. By 2012, light rail operations should begin there and the above-ground section of the route converted to standard gauge . The new line U12 would then have replaced the tram from Bredeney to Hauptbahnhof. However, several variants were conceivable, all of which had their weaknesses and were examined. The first variant envisaged a complete re-gauging of the route to Bredeney, but only the use of single traction, which would not have resulted in an improvement, but rather a reduction in the range of services. The second variant provided for the abandonment of the line from the Alfredusbad stop and operation with double traction. A busy tram route would have had to be dismantled and switched to bus operation. It would also have been possible to use a new line 108 (Altenessen Bf – Bredeney) with existing folding step vehicles, which would initially have left the elevated platforms at the underground stations on the southern route untouched - but it would have remained only a temporary solution. Another option was to partially lower the platforms. The previous lines would then continue to operate as usual. However, this would mean that neither a double traction on lines 101 and 107 nor a triple traction on the U 11 would be possible. Another variant envisaged the complete lowering of the platforms of the southern route so that low-floor trams (also in double traction) could have run on the Bredeneyer and the exhibition route. The northern subway line, which is in high demand, would then (after the elimination of the U11) have been supplied by one of the remaining light rail lines.

After EVAG announced that it wanted to push ahead with the expansion of the U 12, the Essen town hall announced that the partial lowering would be preferred. A few days later, the EVAG turned around and, according to the current status, now wants to limit the elevated platform section to 60 meters and build a new low-floor section of 30 meters in length. Triple traction on the U 11 in trade fair traffic would then only be possible as an express line without stopping at the Philharmonie , Rüttenscheider Stern and Martinstrasse . However, after the line changeover in January 2010, regular triple traction no longer runs on any of the subway lines in Essen, as each line sometimes uses platforms that are only 60 meters long.

On November 26, 2008, the city council finally decided to convert the southern route to Bredeney to low-floor technology. This is the first time that facts have been created for maintaining the meter gauge on this section. Shortly after the decision, the first track construction work was carried out on the above-ground line. Originally, the platforms in the tunnel on the southern route were to be adapted for the low-floor cars by 2013.

Due to tight budgets, the conversion of the southern route to low-floor technology to Bredeney was postponed until after 2020. Due to this fact, there was a line change on the route from June 2015. A new line 108 was set up, which took over the main load of the route. This line runs between Bredeney and Altenessen Bf. And replaces the previous 106 on the section from the main station to Altenessen. Line 107 ends at the main station, the amplifier line 107 (only during rush hour) continues to Bredeney and takes over the tasks of the previous line 101. The remaining north branch of the 101 was linked with the 106 towards Rüttenscheid. This results in the ring line 101 (Borbeck> Bergeborbeck> Helenenstrasse> Innenstadt> Rüttenscheid> Helenenstrasse) and 106 (opposite direction). The changes were decided by the city council at the end of 2010 together with the procurement of 27 new low-floor wagons and implemented when the timetable changed in June 2015. From summer 2015 ^[obsolete] only 27 high-floor wagons are to be in use at EVAG, which are required for line 108 or amplifier lines. Eight more vehicles are to be used for other purposes on the basis of “cross-border leasing”. A deployment at the neighboring MVG in Mülheim would be conceivable.

The conversion of the southern route for the use of low-floor trams began on December 10, 2018 with the Philharmonie station. A third of the platform is lowered to a height of 24 centimeters. The expected duration of the renovation is 18 months. The Rüttenscheider Stern and Martinstrasse train stations are also to be rebuilt in the same way by 2021. In the Florastraße station, the tracks are to be graveled by 58 centimeters. From 2022, low-floor trams will then be used in the entire tram network.

According to a survey by Radio Essen, 47% of Essen's residents would like to extend the southern route via Bredeney to Essen-Werden , where Baldeneysee , Essen-Werden train station ( S6 to Düsseldorf ) and Folkwang University of the Arts can be reached.

Further information

• In the color scheme of the railways, the colors yellow and blue (city colors) can be found in different versions since the mid-1970s. From 1998 to 2011, the appearance called for a gorse yellow base coat with blue “power strips” on the roof edge and also blue lettering, also on buses. From 2011 onwards, the power strips were not used for new purchases, the yellow tone was changed to rapeseed yellow ( RAL 1021) and the blue tone to ultramarine (RAL 5002).

• Since 2009, Lumino displays have been installed at some stops (e.g. Martinstrasse, Borbeck Bahnhof) .

See also

• Essen light rail
• Culture line 107

literature

• Walter Borchmeyer: 40 years of the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , Essen 1935 (reprint Darmstadt 1995)
• Dirk Endisch: The Bachstein Transport Company , Leonberg 2004
• Dieter Höltge: Trams and light rail vehicles in Germany, Volume 4 Ruhrgebiet EK-Verlag, Freiburg i.Br. 1994, ISBN 3-88255-334-0 .

Web links

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

• ruhrbahn.de - official website of the Ruhrbahn
• Kulturlinie107.de - KulturLinie107 in Essen - cultural diversity and contrasts, awarded the 2nd place explorer title
• tramtracks.de - Disused railway tracks, Rhine-Ruhr-Wupper area
• VHAG EVAG e. V. - official website of the Transport History Working Group EVAG e. V.
• Essen, GE-Horst ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) - Tram pictures from Essen and GE-Horst 1968, 1982
• Current pictures from Essen
• Gleisplanweb.de - Track plan of the tram & light rail in Essen
• Local transport plan of the city of Essen for the period 2017 to 2025.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Essener Verkehrs-AG: Eight decades of local public transport in Essen. From the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn Gesellschaft to Essener Verkehrs Aktien Gesellschaft . Pp. 1-10
2. ↑ Article on Omnibusarchiv.de
3. ↑ Essener Verkehrs-AG starts with the natural route 105
4. ↑ Official website of Naturlinie 105
5. ↑ Evag makes the "105" a natural line on Derwesten.de
6. ↑ Evag.de: Niederflurbahnen on all trams , accessed on January 6, 215
7. ↑ Marcus Schymiczek: Launch of new tram; In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of May 5, 2018
8. ↑ City of Oberhausen decides to build new tram line 105 by 2018.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Radio Essen Large Radio Survey ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung: STOAG continues to rely on line 105
11. ^ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung: Line 105: Second attempt for the expansion
12. ↑ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung: I believe that 105 will come in Oberhausen
13. ↑ Local transport plan Oberhausen 2017
14. ↑ Council information system of the city of Essen  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 2, 2014  
15. ↑ Ruhrbahn begins to convert the "southern route" in Essen. Retrieved November 22, 2019 .  
16. ↑ EVAG Corporate Design Manual. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 8, 2013 ; accessed on September 29, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 13.7 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 3.9 ″  E