Karlsruhe Stadtbahn

The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is a German tram-train system combining tram lines in the city of Karlsruhe with railway lines in the surrounding countryside, serving the entire region of the middle upper Rhine valley and creating connections to neighbouring regions. The Stadtbahn combines an efficient urban railway in the city with an S-Bahn (suburban railway), overcoming the boundary between trams/light railways and heavy railways. Its logo does not include the green and white S-Bahn symbol used in other German suburban rail systems and the symbol is only used at stops and stations outside the inner-city tram-operation area.

The idea to link tram and railway lines with one another in order to be able to offer an attractive transport system for town and outskirts was developed in Karlsruhe and implemented gradually in the 1980s and 1990s. This idea, known as the Karlsruhe model or tram-train, has been adapted by other European cities.

The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is operated in co-operation by Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (Alb valley transport corporation, AVG), Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe transport authority, VBK) and Deutsche Bahn (DB). The two urban transport operators, VBK and AVG, operate most services, while DB is responsible for the sections from Pforzheim and Bretten to Bietigheim-Bissingen.

Contents

Network

The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn includes ten lines, in four different forms:

Line no.
Route Stations Railways Operator
S 1 HochstettenBad Herrenalb
Hochstetten – Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen – Neureut – Yorckstraße – Marktplatz – HauptbahnhofAlb Valley Railway – Rüppurr – EttlingenBusenbachBad Herrenalb
54 Hardt Railway, Alb Valley Railway AVG
S 11 HochstettenIttersbach
Hochstetten – Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen – Neureut – Yorckstraße – Marktplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Albtalbahnhof – Rüppurr – Ettlingen – Busenbach – Ittersbach
56
S 2 SpöckRheinstetten
Spöck – Blankenloch – Hagsfeld – Durlacher Tor – Marktplatz – Entenfang – Daxlanden – Rheinstetten
47 Karlsruher Lokalbahn, Entenfang–Rheinstetten Stadtbahn line VBK
S 31 FreudenstadtOdenheim
Freudenstadt – BaiersbronnForbachRastattMuggensturm – Hauptbahnhof – DurlachBruchsal – Odenheim
56 Murg Valley Railway, Rhine Valley Railway, Katzbach Railway AVG, DB Regio
S 32 AchernMenzingen
Achern – Baden-Baden – Rastatt – Muggensturm – Hauptbahnhof – Durlach – Bruchsal – Menzingen
30 Rhine Valley Railway, Kraich Valley Railway
S 4 Achern–Öhringen-Cappel
Achern – Baden-Baden – Rastatt – Durmersheim – Albtalbahnhof – Hauptbahnhof – Marktplatz – Durlacher Tor – Tullastraße / VBK – Durlach – Grötzingen Oberausstraße – BrettenEppingenHeilbronn – Öhringen-Cappel
86 Rhine Valley Railway, Karlsruhe–Mühlacker Railway, Kraichgau Railway, Hohenlohe Railway
S 41 Eutingen im Gäu–Tullastraße / VBK
Eutingen im Gäu – Freudenstadt – Baiersbronn – Forbach – Rastatt – Durmersheim – Hauptbahnhof – Marktplatz – Tullastraße / VBK
53 Gäu Railway, Murg Valley Railway, Rhine Valley Railway
S 5 Wörth Dorschberg–Bietigheim-Bissingen
Wörth am Rhein – Maxau – Entenfang – Yorckstraße – Marktplatz – Durlacher Tor – Tullastraße / VBK – Durlach – Grötzingen Oberausstraße – PfinztalPforzheimMühlackerVaihingen an der Enz – Bietigheim-Bissingen
59 Palatine Maximilian Railway, Karlsruhe–Mühlacker Railway, Western Railway
S 51 Germersheim–Marktplatz
Germersheim – Rheinzabern – Wörth am Rhein – Maxau – Westbahnhof – Hauptbahnhof – Markplatz
26 Schifferstadt–Wörth railway, Palatine Maximilian Railway
S 52 Germersheim–Hauptbahnhof
Germersheim – Rheinzabern – Wörth am Rhein – Entenfang – Yorckstraße – Markplatz – Hauptbahnhof
24
S 6 PforzheimBad Wildbad
Pforzheim – Neuenbürg – Bad Wildbad
19 Enz Valley Railway AVG
S 9 Bruchsal–Mühlacker
Bruchsal – Bretten – Mühlacker
17 Western Railway DB Regio

S-Bahn line S3 between Germersheim, Speyer, Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Heidelberg and Bruchsal and Karlsruhe is controlled by RheinNeckar S-Bahn, not by the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. It is operated by DB Regio with Class 425 EMUs.

History

Karlsruhe attempted to create of a network of street and interurban tram lines for the development of the surrounding countryside, modelled on the Oberrheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft. However, by the middle of the twentieth century there had been little lasting achievement due to the difficult economic times in between.

Acquisition and extension of the Alb Valley Railway

The acquisition of the Alb Valley Railway (Albtalbahn) by the city of Karlsruhe, the establishment of AVG and the integration of the Alb Valley Railway cross-country line into the Karlsruhe tram system between 1957 and 1966 formed the foundation for the later Stadtbahn network. The Alb Valley Railway was connected to the tram system and electrified as a tramway, so that modified trams could run through between the southern outskirts and Karlsruhe city centre.

The success of the Alb Valley Railway encouraged the Karlsruhe planners in the 1960s to connect the northern surrounding outskirts by a modern tram/stadbahn system as well. For this it negotiated with Deutsche Bundesbahn to use the Karlsruhe-Neureut-Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen line, sharing with the local goods traffic, and reached an agreement at the end of the 1970s. After building a connecting line between the tram network and the railway line in 1979 the tram service shared the railway line for 2 km to Neureut, where the few remaining goods trains left the line. In 1986 and 1989 the Stadbahn was extended north to Leopoldshafen and Linkenheim-Hochstetten and to the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, again sharing existing railway tracks. Since the remaining goods traffic was hauled by diesel locomotives, the electrification of the line with the tramway’s 750 V DC system did not cause technical problems.

Line B: introduction of tram-trains

Apart from the Stadtbahn line Hochstetten–Karlsruhe–Alb Valley (formerly line A, since 1994 lines S1/S11), a further Stadtbahn line, S2 (Stutensee-Karlsruhe-Rheinstetten), was built in stages between 1989 and 2006, extending an existing city tram line. This line connects the northeast with the southwest suburbs. This line included single-track sections in the main streets of the local centres of Blankenloch, Forchheim and Mörsch. This route through the cetres was preferred to a route on the edge of these localities or in a tunnel because it was seen as promoting development.

While the development of the lines to the nearby northern and southern municipalities could be achieved by use of the Alb Valley and Hardt Railway and by building new tram lines, this was not true of the eastern suburbs. Therefore shared operations over the existing railway lines was considered, although they were electrified, at least in sections, with the 15 kV system of the main-line railway. After development of a Stadtbahn vehicle, with the electrical systems of both trams and railways, that could be operated under both the tram and rail regulations, lengthy negotiations with DB were required (well before rail reform legally permitted access by other rail operators to Germany’s rail infrastructure) before it was agreed that the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn could share the Karlsruhe–Bretten line.

In 1992, Stadtbahn operations between Karlsruhe and Bretten-Gölshausen started on the Kraichgau Railway (then line B, now S4). The tram and rail networks were linked by building a connecting line between Durlacher Allee and Grötzingen station. This connecting line also contains the equipment that controls the change between the two electrification systems.

Extension of the network

The unexpected success of the new Stadtbahn line between Karlsruhe and Bretten (passenger numbers increased fivefold in fewer weeks) led to an accelerated development of the Stadtbahn system in the 1990s. The modernization and integration of additional lines resulted:

The Karlsruher Stadtbahn is over 400 km long with over 120 trains. The longest line (S4) runs from Achern to Öhringen and takes three hours.

Rolling stock

Stadtbahn cars of the Karlsruhe type have been used since 1983. The fleet includes 60 single-current vehicles for the direct current services only and operate on lines S1, S11 and S2. This type was derived from the Stadtbahnwagen B. 40 vehicles are 38 m-long 8-axle cars, while the remaining 20 6-axle cars are 28 m-long.

For services running under a mixture of direct and alternating current overhead line an 8-axle two-system car of the design GT8-100C/2Sy was developed from the direct current vehicles, and 36 examples were supplied between 1991 and 1995. As technology advanced the follow-up design GT8-100D/2Sy-M was developed in 1997.

New cars have been ordered by the VBK and AVG. Bombardier won its first order in late 2009 (30 Stadtbahn cars), and Vossloh won the 2011 order of 25 cars. The delivery is beginning in 2012 for Bombardier and 2013 for Vossloh.[1]

Planned works

The extensive development of the network into the 1990s opened all of Karlsruhe’s surrounding countryside. The proposed urban tramways in Bruchsal, Rastatt, Baden-Baden and Landau failed to proceed, however, because of the political resistance of local politicians. A separate network, the Stadtbahn Heilbronn, is planned in the Heilbronn area to link with line S4.

Few lines have been opened so far to the area west of the Rhine, the Vorderpfalz (eastern Palatinate). This area has a lower population density, has closer connections to Mannheim and Ludwigshafen and the railways connecting it to Karlsruhe are not electrified.

See also

Tyne and Wear Metro

Notes

  1. ^ "Karlsruhe diversifie ses fournisseurs" (in French). tramwaydefrance.canalblog.com. http://tramwaydefrance.canalblog.com/archives/2011/10/27/22486441.html. Retrieved 2 December 2011. 

External links