The Ringbahn (German for: Circular railway) is a 37.5 km (23.3 mi) long railway line of the Berlin S-Bahn around the city centre of Berlin in Germany. The line is made up of the S-Bahn ring and the freight ring. S-Bahn service on the line is carried out by the S 41 (clockwise) and S 42 (counter-clockwise) circle lines, with 400,000 passengers a day.[1] Due to its distinctive shape, the line is colloquially called "Hundekopf" (dog's head).[2]
The Ringbahn also constitutes the outer border of the "A" zone for the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg transport association's fare structure, and is the outer border of the road traffic control zone for particulate matter control established by January 1 2008.
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In 1851 the Berliner Verbindungsbahn, also known as the Königliche Bahnhofs-Verbindungsbahn or Royal Station Connection Railway, was completed between the terminal stations of the railways terminating in Berlin. This railway was laid directly in the streets of the urban area, disrupting traffic and also disturbing residents. In order to minimise the disruption of traffic, trains ran at night, with the train bell being constantly rung.
Therefore, plans were soon developed to build a new connecting line primarily for freight, which would run outside the then city limits. Funding for the construction was possible only after the victory in the war with Austria of 1866. Construction began in 1867 and the ring line was completed in 1877. The Lower Silesia-Mark Railway Company was commissioned to construct and manage the line.
The first section of the railway was opened on 17 July 1871 from the station of Moabit, through Gesundbrunnen, Central-Viehhof (now Storkower Straße), Stralau-Rummelsburg (now Ostkreuz), Rixdorf (now Neukölln) and Schöneberg (later Kolonnenstraße, now Julius-Leber-Brücke) to Potsdamer ring station, an annex to Potsdamer station. From there, trains returned in the opposite direction. This section into Potsdamer ring station became known as the Südringspitzkehre (Southern ring zigzag; this name reflected the need for trains to reverse there, eventually to continue their trip around the ring). The line crossed the Anhalt Railway (and later the Royal Prussian Military Railway) on bridges.
With the opening of the section from Schöneberg through the newly independent city of Charlottenburg (now Westend station) to Moabit on 15 November 1877 the ring was complete, with Potsdamer station still connected to the ring via the Südringspitzkehre for passenger trains.
In World War II the Potsdamer and Anhalter stations were heavily bombed, so since 1944 the Südringspitzkehre has been closed.
From 1944 until the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, S-Bahn trains ran over the direct line between the stations of Papestraße (now Südkreuz) and Schöneberg opened in 1933, making a complete circle. With the building of the Wall the line was broken in two places:
After the 1980 S-Bahn strike, services on the western part of the ring was suspended for about 13 years.
On January 9, 1984, a treaty between East Germany and the West Berlin Senate entered into force and turned over the responsibility for operation of the S-Bahn in West Berlin to the West Berlin transport authority BVG. It was initially planned to restore the section between Westend and Sonnenallee.
After German reunification in 1990 plans were changed so that in 1993 the south ring was reopened to the junction with the line towards Baumschulenweg along with that line to allow a connection with the Goerlitz line. The reconstruction of the connection between Sonnenallee and Treptow Park required large-scale renovation that was not feasible in the short term. In the following years, the western part of the ring line has been put back into operation in stages. In 2002, the S-Bahn ring line was fully restored. Since May 2006, a full circular service has been operated as lines S41 (clockwise) and S42 (anticlockwise).
Starting from 1 January 1872 freight was carried out on the line to freight yards separate from the passenger stations. The operation of the ring line was electrified in 1926. In 1930, ring line operation were combined with the Stadtbahn and suburban services as the Berlin S-Bahn.
The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 prevented continuous operation, after which passenger numbers on the West Berlin side, between Gesundbrunnen and Sonnenallee, continuously declined. This was caused partly by a politically-motivated call for a boycott, because revenue from the West Berlin S-Bahn, which were operated by East German railways, supported the East German government. In contrast, the East Berlin section of the ring from Schönhauser Allee to Treptow Park remained in operation as it formed part of a major north-south tangent.
The S-Bahn ring line operations on the western part of the line closed in 1980 resumed on 17 December 1993 on the section between Baumschulenweg, Neukölln and Westend. Further sections were subsequently reopened: Westend–Jungfernheide on 15 April 1997; Neukölln–Treptow Park on 19 December 1997 and Jungfernheide–Westhafen on 19 December 1999. On 17 September 2001 the S-Bahn returned to the route over the old border between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen.
It was not until more than twelve years after the fall of the Wall, that the last gap of the S-Bahn between Westhafen, Wedding and Gesundbrunnen was restored on 16 June 2002. Promotional material for the reopening referred to this as "Wedding Day", in allusion to the English word wedding. Services at that time did not immediately return to a continuous circle operation. For the time being, operated under the "screw concept”: trains entered the ring from the south at Neukölln and circled around it one and a half times until they ended at a station on the ring line. At the time the trip around the ring could not be achieved in less than 63 minutes.
Since 28 May 2006, the S-Bahn train have run on the ring line continuously. The trains take around 60 minutes with trains operating every five minutes in peak hour, and every ten minutes between the peaks and in the evenings. This is achieved through consistent use of the greatly accelerated 481/482 series trains. Some sections of the ring are used by other lines. On the southern ring coming from the Görlitz line in the southeast, S45 trains terminate at Hermannstraße, S46 trains terminate at Westend and S47 trains terminate at Südkreuz, with some terminating at Bundesplatz. On the eastern section of the ring line S8, S85 and S9 trains operate between Schönhauser Allee and Treptower Park.
Under the so-called "mushroom concept" the long-distance lines on the northern part of the ring line for regional or long-distance services were rebuilt and electrified. On the ring line regional and mainline services now stop at Gesundbrunnen station and regional services stop at Jungfernheide.
The majority of the former ring line freight yards have been closed down or dismantled. Part of the former freight inner ring between Neukölln and Tempelhof is still used for freight transport and a freight depot still exists at Berlin-Moabit. The freight line is currently closed in the vicinities of Südkreuz and Ostkreuz.
Branches from the ring line have been built as follows:
Connecting curves between the ring line and the Stadtbahn are at the Ostkreuz and Westkreuz stations.
The Südringspitzkehre spur to Potsdamer Bahnhof was closed in 1944 due to war damage and never rebuilt. Its reconstruction is being considered in the planning options for line S21.
The following long-distance and freight curves have been built connecting to the ring line:
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