S-Bahn refers to an often combined city center and suburban railway system metro in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark. The Copenhagen S-tog (English: S-trains) refers to trains rather than tracks, but is otherwise the same.
The name is an abbreviation for the German "Stadtschnellbahn" (meaning "city rapid railway") and was introduced in December 1930 in Berlin. The label was introduced along with the reconstruction of the suburban commuter train tracks - the main line Berlin Stadtbahn (English: City rail of Berlin) was electrified with a 750 Volt third rail in 1928 (some steam trains ran until 1929) and the circle line Berliner Ringbahn was electrified in 1929. The electrification continued on the radial suburban railway tracks along with changing the timetable of the train system into a rapid transit model with no more than 20 minutes per line where a number of lines did overlap on the main line. The system did peak during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin to a train schedule below 2 minutes.
The idea of heavy rail rapid transit was not unique to Berlin. Hamburg had electrical railway between the central station ("Hauptbahnhof") and Altona was opened already 1908 (however it was using overhead lines changing to third rail later) and in 1934 the system was adopting the S-Bahn label from Berlin. The same year Copenhagen S-tog opened its first line. Vienna had its "Stadtbahn" main line electrifed in 1908 as well using the term "Schnellbahn" (rapid railway") since 1954 - the label S-Bahn was sometimes used as well but the official name switched to S-Bahn Wien not until 2005. During the 1930s a number of S-Bahns were opened in Germany, but often this was just a change of name from already electrical local train lines.
The symbol for the S-Bahn in Germany is a white "S" on a green circle. In Hamburg the logo was red for some years, but has now adapted the green logo again. In Copenhagen, Denmark, the equivalent symbol is a red hexagram with a white "S". (However in Copenhagen the "S" originally just stands for "Station").
In Austria, S-Bahn lines and stations are displayed by a blue circle with a white "S" in it. There are proper S-Bahn systems in Vienna, Graz, and Salzburg. The Viennese system is very large, old and well-known. In Switzerland, S-Linien (S-lines) is displayed in black letters on a white background. The term S-Bahn has spawned many similar notations, like the name R-Bahn for regional trains, which do not meet S-Bahn criteria.
The S-Bahn is a railway that serves city centre traffic as well as suburbs and nearby towns. Its standard is different for every city, but a common characteristic is high efficiency and a synchronised timetable (usually not less than 20 minutes for each S-Bahn line) that allows for denser rail traffic on the railway lines. This is achieved by electric locomotives and train doors at platform level and in the largest cities by the complete use of separate tracks. In the city centres tracks are almost either underground or elevated. Depending primary by the size of the city the standard of the S-Bahn system is better "by city size".
Criteria for heavy rail is dual tracks, electrified trains, complete separation from other trains and common traffic (except for temporary maintenance vehicles), city centre service, suburban service (optional), grips for standing passengers, walking distance between stations (in city centre), minimum 20 minutes between trains of the same line (in city centre), same timetable from opening until closing time, ticket machines (or manual ticket sale). Absence of level crossings (specially in city centres), tunnels and elevations are optional but very hard to avoid. While almost all metro systems are up to this standard, only a few S-Bahn systems fulfil all criteria.
In the largest cities the S-Bahn standard is quite similar to the metro system (In Germany known as U-Bahn). Fully separated traffic (also from other kinds of trains), lack of level road crossings, high density timetables, long trains which adapted for standing passengers, tunnels or elevated tracks in city centres and rather short distances between stations (in city centres around half a mile or 800 metres). In slightly smaller cities standards tend to be lower. Part of the S-Bahn system may also be used by commuter trains or regional trains. Fewer stations and lines etc. In "mid-size" cities there may be no special tracks for the S-Bahn and trains becomes more like commuter trains, with timetables that only runs with high density at rush hours and so on. The smallest cities which may have a S-Bahn "of their own" ( that is not a part of a nearby larger city) have a population of about 250,000 inhabitants, but not all such cities have any kind of S-Bahn.
In the larger cities like Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Copenhagen the S-Bahn track system is separated from other traffic, both concerning other kinds of trains but also from cars, trucks and buses etc. In these cities the S-Bahn is classified as heavy rail and do not differ much from the metrosystem in these cities. The S-Bahn also often competes with the metros. Such as common ticket machines and fare zones, interchange stations often as junctions and new lines are located to areas where the other system is absent. Station distances are usually of similar lengths. S-Bahns do also use tunnels, specially in city centers. The Berlin "Ringbahn" is a part of the Berlin S-Bahn system and runs mostly elevated from other traffic, this line is otherwise rather similar to the Circle Line of London Underground. Also in Copenhagen a kind of circle line exists, but to complete a full run a passenger needs to make two changes due to the layout of the lines. A certain rail can be used by more than one line - and a line can use several tracks, just as long as the traffic is separated from non-S-Bahn trains. Every line usually runs no less often then every 10th minute (only in the most distant suburbs less often).
But a major difference between metro systems and S-Bahn lines is that several different S-Bahn lines share a single route through the city center. On networks such as Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt, individual S-Bahn lines may only receive one train every half an hour in each direction, but the central tunnel has a service so frequent that it acts as a metro line, along with the city's U-Bahn network. In contrast, U-Bahn tunnels rarely have more than two routes using them, and the lines will always have a very frequent service across its whole length.
Other differences compared with metro systems are for instance that S-Bahn do not only serve the city center but also suburbs and nearby towns (like Potsdam in the case of Berlin). Further, S-Bahn trains often run along the same railway routes as mainline trains, though they rarely share tracks and platforms - in such cases at least four tracks are needed, two for the S-Bahn and two for other types of trains. On the other hand, U-Bahn trains run mostly in tunnels, and although they sometimes have overground track, this will be isolated from the mainline rail network.
In German "mid-size" cities including Frankfurt and within the Ruhr area S-Bahn usually do not have fully separated tracks. Here it is more a train network than a railway network. In even smaller towns also the timetables for each line may exceed 10 minutes. For instance one of the two S-Bahn lines in Rostock runs only every 30th minute. And level crossings with roads can also appear. In other words the term "S-Bahn" is not standardizated, but may vary from city to city. However, in at least Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Copenhagen the S-Bahn are very "metro like".
The term "RER" (Réseau express régional), used in France and western Switzerland, Servizio Ferroviario Suburbano (linee S) in Italy, SKM (Szybka Kolej Miejska) in Warsaw and Tricity in Poland are very similar to the S-Bahn. In the United Kingdom, Merseyrail (Liverpool) and the Tyne and Wear Metro are roughly equivalent to S-Bahns (see below for more details on suburban rail networks in the UK).
By contrast, U-Bahn trains are mainly underground and serve primary urban city centers (although some closer suburbs is covered, for instance Spandau in Berlin, and count legally as a kind of tramway in Germany, while the S-Bahn legally are a type of railway.
In 1882, the growing number of steam-powered trains around Berlin prompted the Prussian State Railway to construct separate railtracks for suburban traffic. The Berliner Stadtbahn connected Berlin's eight intercity rail stations which were spread throughout the city. A lower rate for the newly founded Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn (Berlin City, Circular and Suburban Rail) was introduced on 1 October 1891. This rate and the growing succession of trains made the short-distance service stand out from other railways.
The second suburban railway was the Hamburg-Altonaer Stadt- und Vorortbahn connecting Hamburg with Altona and Blankenese. The Altona office of the Prussian State Railway established the electric powered railway in 1906.
The beginning of the 20th century saw the first electric trains, which operated at 15.000 V on overhead lines. As the steam powered trains came to be nuisances to more and more people, the Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn switched to direct current multiple units running on 750 V from a third rail. In 1924, the first electrified route went into service. The third rail was chosen because it made both the modifications of the railtracks (especially in tunnels and under bridges) and the side-by-side use of electric and steam trains easier.
To set it apart from its competitor, the subterranean U-Bahn, the term S-Bahn replaced Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn in 1930.
The Hamburg service had established an alternating current line in 1907 with the use of multiple units with slam doors. In 1940 a new system with 1200 V DC third rail and modern electric multiple units with sliding doors was integrated on this line (on the same tracks). The old system with overhead wire remains up to 1955. The other lines of the network still used steam and later Diesel power. In 1934, the Hamburg-Altonaer Stadt- und Vorortbahn was renamed as S-Bahn.
S-Bahn lines are different from U-Bahn lines in that they have developed from conventional railways long time ago. Some German S-Bahn systems are separate systems of their own, whereas others (such as in Munich and Frankfurt) share some trackage with mainline trains. In the major German cities S-Bahn often is a complement to U-Bahn (or U-S-Bahn which now exist in the Rhein-Ruhr conglomerate). While a U-Bahn (usually) keeps its dual and electrified tracks inside the official city limits. Exceptions do however exists, for instance in the Ruhr area where Gelsenkirchen and Essen has a common U-Bahn. And the rather small metro in Copenhagen reaches the Kastrup Airport about a mile beyond its city limit.
But S-Bahn does generally lack a specific geographical limit. In Hamburg, Berlin and other large cities new S-Bahn tracks have been built, which never have had any common rail traffic. In the city centre S-Bahn very often runs as underground — and there is a strong symbiosis when using the S-Bahn and U-Bahn, with common ticket system, fare zones and interchange junction stations. To this day the German and Austrian S-Bahn lines are operated by subsidiaries of Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB respectively — the national railway organisations. Copenhagen S-Train is run by DSB, also in Denmark the national railway owner.
S-Bahn networks are typified by many or all of the following characteristics:
The trains of Berlin and Hamburg S-Bahn systems run on separate tracks from the beginning. When other cities started implementing their systems in the 1960s, they mostly had to use the existing intercity railtracks.
The central intercity stations of Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart are terminal stations, so all three cities have monocentric S-Bahn networks. The S-Bahn trains use a tunnel under the central station and the city centre.
The high number of large cities in the Ruhr Area promotes a polycentric network connecting all cities and suburbs. The S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr, as it is called, features few tunnels, and its routes are longer than those of other networks. The Ruhr S-Bahn is the only S-Bahn network to be run by more than one corporation in Germany, and the Salzburg S-Bahn holds a similar distinction in Austria. Most Swiss S-Bahn systems are multi-corporation networks, however.
Most German S-Bahn networks have a unique ticket system, separated from the Deutsche Bahn rates, instead connected to the city ticket system. The S-Bahn of Hanover, however, operates under five different rates due to its large expanse.
The Augsburg S-Bahn is planned to go into service in 2011.
The Stadtbahn Karlsruhe (a tram-train network) uses the green "S" logo, but does not refer to itself as S-Bahn. The blue U-Bahn logo is not used either, due to the lack of subterranean lines.
Despite their names, the Breisgau S-Bahn (Freiburg) and the Ortenau S-Bahn (Offenburg) are both RegionalBahn services.
The oldest S-Bahn system in Austria is the Vienna S-Bahn, which uses intercity rails predominantly. It was established in the 1960s, although it was usually referred to as Schnellbahn until 2005. The angular white "S" on a blue circle used as logo reflects the layout of the central railway lines. However, since it is also similar to the SS runes, a curved S (shown above) is becoming more common. The rolling stock was blue for a long time, reflecting the logo colour, but red is used uniformly for nearly all local traffic today.
In 2004, the Salzburg S-Bahn went into service as the first Euroregion S-Bahn, crossing the border to the neighbouring towns of Freilassing and Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. The network is serviced by three corporations: the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), the Salzburger Lokalbahn (SLB) and the Berchtesgadener Land Bahn (BLB). The Salzburg S-Bahn logo is a white S on a light blue circle.
The S-Bahn networks in Graz is in its first phase. (The network) Currently the following lines are active: S1, S11, S5, S51, S6, S7 while S3, S31 and S32 are still under construction. Extension works shall be finished by 2012.
On 9 December 2007 the Innsbruck S-Bahn opened, running from Telfs in the west to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof and Hall in Tirol in the east and from Innsbruck to Steinach am Brenner.
The rolling stock are Desiro and Talent trains. It shall be finally upgraded till 2012.
The regional train line in the Vorarlberg Rhine Valley is a nominal S-Bahn. The S-Bahn networks in Linz are under discussion.
S-Bahn is also used in German-speaking Switzerland. While French publications of those networks translate it as RER, the line numbers are still prefixed with an S (e.g. S2).
The oldest network in Switzerland is the Berne S-Bahn, established in 1987 It also is the only one in Switzerland to use a coloured "S" logo. In 1990, the Zürich S-Bahn, which covers the largest area, went into service. S-Bahn services were set up in the course of the initiative Bahn 2000 in Central Switzerland (a collaborative network of S-Bahn Luzern and Stadtbahn Zug), St. Gallen (S-Bahn St. Gallen) and Ticino (Rete celere).
The Regio S-Bahn Basel services the whole Euroregion "Regio TriRhena", thus providing cross-border transportation into both France and Germany. A tunnel connecting two of the large intercity railway stations of Basel (Badischer Bahnhof and Basel SBB) is planned as Herzstück Regio-S-Bahn Basel (lit. heart-piece Regio-S-Bahn Basel).
The Réseau Express Vaudois of Lausanne will be incorporated in the planned S-Bahn Léman (called RER Léman in French-speaking areas) around Lake Geneva (fr. Lac Léman). Geneva will be the second centre of this network. Transborder networks for the Lake Constance-adjacent German states Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, the Austrian state Vorarlberg and the Swiss cantons St. Gallen and Thurgau are under discussion. Possible names are Bodensee-S-Bahn and Alpenrhein-Bahn.
SKM Warsaw
Szybka Kolej Miejska (English: Urban Rapid Railway) is a rail operator providing services in the Warsaw metropolitan area. It owns its rolling stock (nine 14WE, four 19WE and two out of 13 27WE EMUs ordered as of September 2011), but uses tracks belonging to Polish State Railways, sharing them with other rail operators.
Masovian Railways operate all regional traffic in Warsaw and suburban area. The company owns its rolling stock (200+ EMUs of various classes and several DMUs, double-decker carriages with driving vans (to allow push-pull operation) and electric locomotives). It is possible to travel between specified stations on the trains operated by the Masovian Railways using many types of tickets for Warsaw public transport (Warsaw Integrated Ticket Area).
Warszawska Kolej Dojazdowa (Warsaw Suburban Railway, WKD) Another s-bahn type line in Warsaw is WKD (Warsaw Suburban Rarilway), with operations on the Warsaw–Grodzisk Maz./Milanówek line. From Warsaw Śródmieście (Downtown) to Opacz station you can go by Warsaw City Card.
Some features of S-Bahn system has Fast Regional Train (SKR) in Silesian Vivodership. It has only one line: Tychy–Katowice.
Szybka Kolej Miejska (Tricity)
It connects Gdansk with Sopot, Gdynia and other smaller towns north and south of Gdansk (Pruszcz Gdanski, Rumia, Reda, Wejherowo and others). It serves area of ca. 1 million people. The system consist of one line from Gdansk to Rumia, but SKM trains operate out of this section using Polish National Railway (PKP) lines. The second SKM line is planned to be built in years 2010-2014. It will connect centre of Gdansk with centre of Gdynia via Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport and several Gdansk and Gdynia districts currently serviced by bus lines.
Suburban railways are known all over the world. However, most of them differ from the German S-Bahn in structure and name.
Similarly to a European S-Bahn, Sydney's CityRail combines an extensive suburban rail system with frequent-service underground sections in the central urban core (City Circle and Eastern Suburbs Line). Melbourne's metropolitan trains similarly include an underground section in the city centre (the City Loop), with a major planned new 17 km rail tunnel (the Melbourne Metro) in the planning stage. At present, Melbourne's system is predominately a suburban rail system not useful for travel within the inner city due to the operation of the city loop and falls short of S-Bahn standards by sharing tracks within regional trains.
CPTM (Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos), São Paulo commuter rail, is a rail system integrated with metro system, to convert into surface metro system.
The Esko - Spojení pro město (literally "S—Connection for City) system in Prague region was established in December 2007.
The S-tog system in Greater Copenhagen has its beginnings in 1934. Today it has developed into what essentially could be referred to as a metro system with 4 major line branches and 84 stations along 170 km of track separated from all other trains. In the city centre (zones 1 and 2) exists 30 S-stations, of which 6 are interchange junctions between the lines or to the metro. Only about 2 km is underground, it runs mostly as elevated rail. It has 5 and 10 minute traffic at end stations and in the city centre 2-3 minute intervals. By administration it is now classified as part of the Danish railway network. The S-tog system has plenty of interchange stations with both regional trains (of which some crosses the bridge to Skåne county, Sweden) and the new Copenhagen Metro, which is under fast development. In the Copenhagen area there is also a fourth kind of train system in the suburban parts, known as "Lokalbaner" or "local trains". The Danish S-train is very alike the S-bahn in Hamburg and Berlin, although electrified from above.
Helsinki region has a regional commuter rail system run by the national railway company VR (Finnish / Swedish name: Lähijuna / Närtåg). Compared to systems in German cities, the Helsinki system is a combination of S-Bahn and "Regionalverkehr" systems — which means it's not up to S-Bahn standard. Physically the network forks into four directions from Helsinki central station, and 15 services run on these four lines. These differ by their stopping behavior and are indicated by letters. The shorter-distance services run on their exclusive tracks with short, fixed intervals and are comparable to S-bahn. R, H, Z and Y-trains are regional services in the similar manner as German Regional Bahn or Regional Express. They use intercity tracks, stop only at major stations and reach as far as Lahti (Z-train, distance 104 km).
The French Réseau Express Régional (lit. Regional Express Network) originally meant the Paris system, but is now used for other French and Swiss networks as well. However, only the Paris RER has S-Bahn-like tunnel stations.
Because it is serviced with SNCF trains, the C line of the Métro de Toulouse is sometimes called RER toulousain. The planned Lyon network will consist in tram-train and train system.
HÉV is the system of four suburban railway lines in and around Budapest. The HÉV lines were originally constructed as branch lines of the Hungarian State Railways. Today, the four HÉV lines are operated by the public transport company of Budapest, yet are not part of the Budapest Metro.
The suburban lines of Milan were renamed Linee S in 2004. They are operated by Trenord, the regional railway company of Lombardy.
A system like in Milan is being built for Bologna and Turin.
Rome's Ferrovie Regionali (regional railways) is more like a Regionalbahn, apart from the FR1 route from Orte to Fiumicino and the FR3 route from Roma Ostiense to Viterbo.
The suburban railway lines of Naples are all integrated into the subterran metro network. Genoa has two urban railways, that partly run underground.
Two regional train service from northern of Selangor border to Seremban, Negeri Sembilan and westcoast of Selangor to heart of Kuala Lumpur. Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM Komuter) operate the regional service since 1995.
Serbian capital Belgrade has had commuter suburban system Beovoz with some stations within the city for many years. Since 2010 the BG:Voz operates a line built underground with underground stations.
see Cercanías
There are systems other than the Cercanías in Asturias, the Basque country and Cantabria. Their operating companies are EuskoTren and FEVE. Two subsystems of the Barcelona commuter rail network are run by FGC.
The Stockholm pendeltåg went into service in the 1960s. The pendeltåg is not comparable to S-Bahn systems in Germany. Pendeltåg is the technical term for a system, which mostly shares railways with inter-city trains, but largely on its own tracks and which has only three stations in the inner city. These trains are commuter rail or suburban rail with its only purpose to transport passengers from nearby towns and other suburban areas into the city, they are not in use for transport between stations inside the city centre, they are not up to standard as S-Bahn. There is a large difference between the German S-Bahns. The Stockholm T-bana (Underground) is used for transport inside the city centre. The Gothenburg commuter rail system is similar to the Stockholm system, but does fully share tracks with long-distance trains. This system has two stations in the inner city.
None of the Swedish local train types are up to standard in comparison with German, Austrian and Danish systems. The trains mostly run on tracks shared with other kinds of trains. They have just one or very few stops in each inner city and have a time table with most departueras at peak hours. (Stockholm metro is though up to full underground standard, though only 30 of 100 stations are in the city centre. No other Swedish train type can be called for some kind of "urban standard".)
The stations are marked with a J symbol, which just stands for the generic term "järnvägsstation" (i.e. railway station).
Many of the larger cities in the UK have suburban rail networks, which resemble S-Bahns to varying degrees. The distinctions between different kinds of rail are far more blurred in the UK, so it's often hard to categorise them.
Comparable lines in the US include:
Other rapid transit lines such as the New York City Subway or Chicago 'L' are more akin to U-Bahn lines. Commuter rail systems such as Virginia Railway Express or New Mexico Rail Runner are more akin to RegionalBahn systems. Partially underground light rail lines such as Boston's Green Line and Philadelphia's Subway-Surface Lines are analogous to Stadtbahn lines.
Systems comparable to an S-Bahn also include Dublin Area Rapid Transit, Tallinn's Elektriraudtee, the Russian Elektrichka, the Hong Kong MTR's suburban network, the Slovakian Rýchlodráha, Szybka Kolej Miejska in the Polish Tricity area and Korail in the Greater Seoul area. It is somehow like EMU in Taiwan, but only on rails that is already exists.
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