Westbahn (Bonn)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Location of the line in Bonn, planning status from the early 2000s

The Westbahn is a local transport project in Bonn to connect the western parts of the city and the Hardtberg district to the city center, which has been in planning since the 1970s. The section through the Weststadt is controversial and has been completely rescheduled at least three times.

Until autumn 2019, the project was called Hardtbergbahn after the location of the planned final stop .

prehistory

The towns of Poppelsdorf and Endenich , which had been incorporated into Bonn in 1904, were connected to the city center by two tram lines in the course of 1907 : Line 4, opened on March 1, 1907, ran from Quantiusstraße to the rear of the main station via the Meckenheimer Allee to Poppelsdorf and ended at Clemens-August-Platz. Line 5 began on October 4, 1907, also on Quantiusstrasse and led over Endenicher Allee, Frongasse and Endenicher Strasse to Pastoratsgasse in Endenich. With the opening of the south underpass at the main station on May 1, 1936, the line to Endenich became part of line 3.

After Bonn became the federal capital in 1949 , passenger numbers rose enormously. The vehicle fleet was outdated at this point and the transport company lacked the funds for new vehicles. In order to counteract the resulting lack of vehicles, the route to Poppelsdorf was switched to buses in November 1953 and the one to Endenich in April 1955.

In the years that followed, several federal ministries emerged to the west of Endenich and Poppelsdorf as workplaces and later several large estates. These areas were incorporated into Bonn in 1969 and combined as the Hardtberg district.

Planning history

Tram destination network 1972

With tax changes in 1966 and later the Municipal Transport Financing Act , the city of Bonn was given the opportunity to modernize its rail network. After construction began on the first section of the tunnel , an overall concept for “City Transport Federal Capital Bonn” was developed, which the city council passed on June 15, 1972. In addition to the north-south axis A, an east-west axis B was planned for the city railway, which included the Siegburger Bahn (B1) and the section of the Siebengebirgsbahn to Ramersdorf (B2) in the east . In the west, a light rail line was planned to the western edge of Endenich. There the axis split into a line to Duisdorf (B3), which was intended as a replacement for the Voreifelbahn , which was threatened with closure , and a line to Hardtberg (B4), which should open up the Brüser Berg and the Federal Ministry of Defense on the Hardthöhe . The construction of the western lines of the B-axis should begin shortly after the completion of the A-lines. During the construction of the Hauptbahnhof underground station , the target concept was already taken into account and a tunnel connection was created. The tunnel connection is located under today's bus station and points to the pedestrian underpass between Kaiserplatz and Poppelsdorfer Allee. This tunnel connector formed the starting point for almost all plans for the Hardtbergbahn and is currently used as a storage location for the last eight-axle vehicle in Bonn , which is therefore not open to the public.

First urban railway planning (1972)

Route through the Weststadt after initial planning

The original plan was to let the tunnel of the Hardtbergbahn follow Poppelsdorfer Allee and at the end of it to pivot under Meckenheimer Allee. A stop was planned at Poppelsdorfer Schloss , to the west the route was to swivel in a wide arc to Reuterstraße / A 565 . On the west side of the Poppelsdorf cafeteria there should be another stop before the route would have crossed the autobahn - following the Wiesenweg. Endeich would have been crossed in a straight line.

Since the tunnels were built exclusively using the cut-and- cover method at that time, it would have been inevitable to cut down the boulevard almost completely for the Hardtbergbahn, which provoked bitter protests. Finally in 1980 the city council abandoned the plans.

Second urban railway planning (1986)

Route through the Weststadt after a second planning

In 1986 the city council commissioned the administration to work out a new plan for the Hardtbergbahn, which was presented two years later. According to the new plan, the tunnel from Kaiserplatz was to lead in an arch under Quantiusstrasse and then through Colmantstrasse and Endenicher Allee. A stop was planned at Kaufmannstrasse. In front of the Poppelsdorfer canteen, the route should turn north onto the A 565 to be covered and meet the B 56 at the " Endeicher Ei " . Along the B 56, which has meanwhile been developed as a bypass road, the route between Endeich and Neu-Endenich was to be led through.

For the tram route to Dottendorf, it was planned to connect the existing turning system parallel to Kaiserstrasse to the above-ground route in Königstrasse.

This route was also controversial. Nevertheless, a planning approval decision was issued in 1993 .

Tram planning (1995)

Route through the Weststadt after third planning

The local elections in 1994 brought a change in the majority in Bonn. The new red-green majority on the council had the plan approval decision revoked immediately and commissioned new planning the following year. The new Hardtbergbahn essentially followed the previously planned route, but dispensed with tunnels entirely. Instead, a purely above-ground route was to be built, which was designed for the new low-floor trams . The vehicles can negotiate tighter curves than the previously planned light rail vehicles and do not require elevated platforms to enable barrier-free entry. This made it possible to plan a new route over the Schieffelingsweg in Hardtberg, which would have opened up the local development much better than the previous plan.

Compromise Planning (2000)

Route through the Weststadt according to the fourth plan

After the local elections in 1999 , the CDU initially had an absolute majority in the city council. During the election campaign she advocated abandoning the Hardtbergbahn and instead strengthening car traffic along the B 56 by building an underpass instead of the Viktoriabrücke . In the spring of 2000, representatives of the CDU and SPD finally agreed to move away from these plans and start a new plan, which was to be pursued regardless of changing council majorities.

The Hardtbergbahn was still planned for low-floor trams, but it was to be connected to the existing tunnel connection at the main train station and from there to the motorway underground. The tunnel was to be led below Poppelsdorfer Allee to Baumschulallee, where the route to Dottendorf and the Hardtbergbahn would have branched out. The route to Dottendorf would have reached the surface on a ramp in front of the Petrus Hospital and would have merged with the previous route at the intersection of Bonner Talweg / Königstrasse. The Hardtbergbahn should run under the Baumschulallee and the Endeicher Allee with two intermediate stops to the Poppelsdorfer canteen. The further course of the route corresponded to the tram planning, with an alternative route along the autobahn instead of via the Schieffelingsweg being examined from the Provinzialstraße, which would have made the area less accessible, but would have been faster.

Final planning before closing the case

In October 2006, the Cologne district government held a discussion meeting on the current planning, during which extensive conditions were imposed on the city of Bonn. Procedural documents and reports were classified as worthy of revision. In addition, it was determined that no subsidies are expected to cover the motorway.

Development since 2015

On March 26, 2015, the Bonn City Council decided to discontinue the previous planning. The administration was commissioned to examine and propose possible routes for an above-ground rail connection. The results of the subsequently submitted feasibility study (with five variants) were presented in November 2019.

In May 2020, the responsible planning committee agreed on a route along the Endeicher Straße. In this variant, the new line would cross the left Rhine route between Herwarthstrasse and Rabinstrasse and be threaded into the existing route directly south of the Thomas-Mann-Strasse stop. The city administration was commissioned to present a detailed plan for the first construction phase up to the "Endeicher Ei" and to examine possible route variants for the second construction phase to Hardthöhe Südwache by the city council's summer break .

Goals and benefits

Local public transport in the west of Bonn has not kept pace with growth. The city district is served by eight bus lines every 20 minutes and several supplementary lines, most of which run via the congestion-prone B 56 . In addition, the Bonn-Duisdorf train stop is located in Duisdorf on the Voreifelbahn , which is, however, on the outskirts and, for example, over two kilometers and 80 meters in altitude from the residential area Brüser Berg . Accordingly, the traffic forecasts do not see any decrease in passengers for the Voreifelbahn through the Westbahn. As part of the expansion of the Voreifelbahn in the Bonn – Alfter-Witterschlick section from 2013 to 2015, the new stops at Bonn Helmholtzstraße (commissioning at the end of 2013) and Bonn-Endenich Nord (at the end of 2014) were built, but at best they affect the area to be served by the Westbahn .

Sources / individual references

  1. ^ Rolf Kleinfeld: Planning with a new name. The Hardtbergbahn project will be called Westbahn in the future. In: General-Anzeiger, September 19, 2019, accessed on November 13, 2019.
  2. ^ Karl-Heinz Nauroth: Trams in Bonn. Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1989, ISBN 3-9800952-8-2
  3. ^ Hans Schmitt: Stadtbahn Rhein-Sieg in the Bonn area. In: City traffic. Issue 1/1973
  4. ↑ a b City council puts Hardtbergbahn on the rails . In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). February 1, 2002
  5. ↑ Council printed matter 9901055
  6. ↑ Council printed matter 0013027
  7. ↑ Planning approval procedure for the tram line to Hardtberg “Hardtbergbahn” PFA 1 from Bonn main station to Rochusstraße-Provinzialstraße in Bonn-Duisdorf as well as the lower level of lines 61 and 62 with continuation to Bonner Talweg. District government of Cologne, 2014, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Bernhard Strowitzki: Written statements of the BUND district group Bonn in the context of the discussion meeting for plan approval procedure No. 50 - "Hardtbergbahn", 17. – 19. October 2006. BUND district group Bonn, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Planned overground tram / light rail to the west of Bonn. (No longer available online.) City of Bonn, March 30, 2015, archived from the original on July 12, 2018 ; accessed on November 13, 2019 (press release).
  10. ↑ Philipp Königs: These are the plans for the new western railway. In: General-Anzeiger Bonn. November 12, 2019, accessed November 13, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Western Railway. City of Bonn, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  12. ↑ 190686 - Communication template: Westbahn - feasibility study for an above-ground route. City of Bonn, accessed on November 23, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Maximilian Mühlens: Bonn politicians decide on a new route for the planned Westbahn. In: General-Anzeiger Bonn, May 30, 2020, accessed on June 1, 2020.
  14. ↑ Project dossier for integrated overall transport planning in NRW. (PDF; 704 kB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; accessed on March 2, 2018 .

Web links