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The
Hanover Stadtbahn is a Stadtbahn light rail system in the city of
Hanover, Germany that opened in September of 1975, gradually replacing the city's tram network over the course of the following 25 years. As of 2005, it transports 115 million passengers per year. The system is run by
Üstra, named after its (former) "Überlandstrassenbahn" , an extensive interurban streetcar network extending into the rural villages and cities around Hanover.
Two types of light rail cars operate on the system, the
TW 6000, built from 1974 to 1993, and the TW 2000, built from 1997 to 1999. The system is extensively used, especially during trade shows on the
Hanover fairground like CeBIT or the
Hannover Messe, and is widely regarded to be one of the best of its kind, ranking along with the Stuttgart Stadtbahn. It makes up for more than 60% of the Großraum-Verkehr Hannover transport association's total traffic and has 170 stops as well as 19 stations in tunnels, spanning over four cities, two counties and 115 kilometres of total line length.
Network
The network is a mixture of traditional trams, of which 82% have been upgraded so far to have their own right-of-way, and an U-Bahn-like system of tunnels in the city centre.The network is owned by
infra GmbH and covers the whole city area with the exception of the Misburg borough. Parts of the network reach into the neighbouring towns of Garbsen, Isernhagen, Langenhagen, Laatzen and Ronnenberg as well as into the town of Sarstedt, which is in the borough of Hildesheim. The operator's concession is held by
üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG, which has sub-licensed the operations to
intalliance AG, a company owned with 40% each by üstra and Deutsche Bahn AG and with 20% by NORD/LB.The system currently consists of three full Stadtbahn lines, respectively named (with their tunnels in brackets)
- A (Waterlooplatz – Lister Platz),
- B (Vahrenwald – Döhren)
- C (Königsworther Platz – Braunschweiger Platz).
A fourth tunnel, to be used for the
D line
(Goethestraße - Sallstraße), has been proposed but has not been realised so far due to the high costs of construction, currently estimated to be around Euro 1 billion. Nevertheless, the above-ground parts of the D line, most notably the
D Süd, connecting the Hanover fairground to the C tunnel, have been upgraded to proper Stadtbahn standards, some preparations for interchange with the current stations, like an empty station below the current Hannover Hauptbahnhof station, have also been built in the past.
The whole Stadtbahn network uses various colours to differentiate between the lines. For example, a station that would service both A and B lines would have a blue and a red stripe on its station sign; stop on the D line would feature a lime stripe on the station sign, and so on. This scheme sometimes also recurs in the architecture of the stations, for example the station Kröpcke used to feature tilework that changes colours when stepping over between lines, i.e. yellow elements would be introduced in the red tiles when walking from the B to the C part of the station.
Individual routes operate within the main lines, diverting to various terminals at the city's edge. The route numbers are assigned to the lines as following (routes that only run during exhibitions on the Hanover fairground are denoted in
italics):
- A line - routes 3,7,9
- B line - routes 1,2,8,18
- C line - routes 4,5,6,16
- D line - routes 10 and 10E (10E is an express peak service, using parts of the A tunnel)
Whilst the number 6 and 16 services are using a large part of the D line, they are still denoted as C services by using the colour yellow on station signage.
The main hub of the network is Kröpcke, a large subterranean station in the city centre. Routes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,16 and 18 call at this station, making it possible to reach every point on the A, B or C lines from every other point with one stepover only.
The D tunnel
One proposed major tunnel that was part of the 1965 plans has not been built so far. The city centre tunnel for the D line was originally supposed to run from a ramp at
Goethestraße via Steintor - Hauptbahnhof/ZOB - Berliner Allee - Sallstraße to Bahnhof Bismarckstraße , resurface on a ramp at
Lindemannallee and continue to Bischofsholer Damm.Whilst some preparations have been made, most notably an empty station under today's
Hauptbahnhof station and a special arrangement of pillars at stations
Steintor and
Marienstraße to allow a tunnel to be built underneath, the plans could not be realised so far, due to the high costs. It would however be greatly beneficial to the D line, reducing stepover times to other lines. The current surface D line between Goetheplatz and Aegidientorplatz is regarded as a temporary solution for the time being, for example when the wye at
Steintor was demolished after the tearing down of tram tracks that had been replaced by the C-Nord line, the railway switch were not removed but just welded shut. During the renovation of the
Hannover Hauptbahnhof in 1999 and 2000, the tram tracks in front of the station were not replaced either.
Dead tunnels
Even though it is of a relatively young age, the Hanover Stadtbahn already has some buildings that are likely not to be used as intended. These are three tunnel stubs in the A and B tunnels.
Under both the ramps
Hammersteinstraße (A-Nord) and
Vahrenwalder Platz (B-Nord) the tunnel continues until the ramp's end since the original U-Bahn plans had proposed an extension of the tunnels. Whilst this made some theoretical sense at the A-Nord due to the relatively narrow Podbielskistraße, an extension of the tunnel is completely unneeded on the rather wide Vahrenwalder Straße. The stubs currently house some technical service rooms.
A notably larger structure exists behind the middle tracks of the station
Waterloo. It was originally supposed to extend a tunnel toward the A-West (line 9 toward Empelde) and to construct a turning loop. However, this would require tearing down the current A-West ramp at Gustav-Bratke-Allee which would disconnect the Glocksee depot from the network. Thus, this will likely never be carried out.
History
Stadtbahn lines opened
{| class="wikitable"! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |Line! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |from! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |to! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |Opening date|-!colspan="4"|
The lines to Laatzen/Süd and Rethen were built according to Stadtbahn standards but used as tramway lines until September, 1982.|-|
B-Süd|Laatzen/Nord|Laatzen/Süd*|Sep 20 1973|-|
A-Süd|Oberricklingen|Hauptbahnhof|Sep 26 1975|-|
A-Nord|Hauptbahnhof|Buchholz
- Lahe
- Fasanenkrug|Apr 4 1976|-|
B-Süd|Laatzen/Süd|Rethen/Nord*|Jun 18 1976|-|
A-Süd|Oberricklingen|Mühlenberg|Sep 25 1977|-|
C-Ost|Nackenberg|Med.Hochschule/Süd|Oct 1 1978|-|
A-West|Empelde|Schwarzer Bär|May 27 1979|-|
B-Nord|Hauptbahnhof|Vahrenwald - Langenhagen
- Alte Heide|May 27 1979|-|
B|Hauptbahnhof|Kröpcke B|May 27 1979|-|
B-Süd|Kröpcke B|Schlägerstraße|May 31 1981|-|
B-Süd|Betriebshof Döhren||Sep 2 1982|-|
B-Süd|Schlägerstraße|Döhren- Messegelände
- Rethen
- Laatzen - Sarstedt|Sep 26 1982|-|
C|Aegidientorplatz|Kröpcke C|Sep 26 1982|-|
C-West|Kröpcke C|Steintor|Mar 30 1983|-|
C-Ost|Med.Hochschule/Süd|Roderbruch|Sep 29 1984|-|
C-West|Steintor|Stöcken|Jun 2 1985|-|
C-Ost|Aegidientorplatz|Kleefeld
- Roderbruch
- Kirchrode|Sep 24 1989|-||Freundallee||Sep 24 1989|-|
B-Nord|Lgh./Berliner Platz|Langenhagen|Sep 29 1991|-|
C-Nord|Steintor|(Nordstadt) - Haltenhoffstraße- Nordhafen|Sep 26 1993|-|
C-Ost|Clausewitzstraße|Zoo|Sep 26 1993|-|
D-West|Limmer|Ahlem|May 29 1994|-|
C-West|Hogrefestraße|Marienwerder/Wissenschaftspark|Sep 24 1995|-|
C-West|Marienwerder/Wi.|Garbsen|Sep 29 1996|-|
C-West|Stöcken/Friedhof|Betriebshof Leinhausen (Fuhsestr.)|Sep 26 1998|-|
D-Süd|Freundallee|Bult/Kinderkrankenhaus|Dec 5 1998|-|
A-Süd|Waterloo|Krankenh.Siloah (Legionsbrücke)|May 29 1999|-|
A-Süd|Mühlenberg|Wettbergen|May 29 1999|-|
D-Süd|Bult/Kinderkhs.|Bünteweg/Tierärztl.Hochschule|May 30 1999|-|
D-Süd|Bünteweg/Ti.Ho.|Kronsberg|Oct 13 1999|-|
D-Süd|Kronsberg|Expo/Ost|Feb 19 2000|-|
C-Ost|Kirchrode|Anderten|2002|-|
A-Nord|Lahe|Altwarmbüchen|June 2006|}
References
- StadtBahn mit System, published by üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG
See also
External links
- üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe
- Großraum-Verkehr Hannover
- Stadtbahn/tram Hannover
The
Hanover Stadtbahn is a Stadtbahn light rail system in the city of Hanover,
Germany that opened in September of
1975, gradually replacing the city's tram network over the course of the following 25 years. As of 2005, it transports 115 million passengers per year. The system is run by Üstra, named after its (former) "Überlandstrassenbahn" , an extensive interurban streetcar network extending into the rural villages and cities around Hanover.
Two types of light rail cars operate on the system, the
TW 6000, built from 1974 to 1993, and the
TW 2000, built from 1997 to 1999. The system is extensively used, especially during trade shows on the
Hanover fairground like CeBIT or the Hannover Messe, and is widely regarded to be one of the best of its kind, ranking along with the
Stuttgart Stadtbahn. It makes up for more than 60% of the Großraum-Verkehr Hannover transport association's total traffic and has 170 stops as well as 19 stations in tunnels, spanning over four cities, two counties and 115 kilometres of total line length.
Network
The network is a mixture of traditional
trams, of which 82% have been upgraded so far to have their own right-of-way, and an
U-Bahn-like system of tunnels in the city centre.The network is owned by
infra GmbH and covers the whole city area with the exception of the Misburg borough. Parts of the network reach into the neighbouring towns of Garbsen, Isernhagen, Langenhagen, Laatzen and Ronnenberg as well as into the town of Sarstedt, which is in the borough of Hildesheim. The operator's concession is held by üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG, which has sub-licensed the operations to
intalliance AG, a company owned with 40% each by üstra and
Deutsche Bahn AG and with 20% by
NORD/LB.The system currently consists of three full Stadtbahn lines, respectively named (with their tunnels in brackets)
- A (Waterlooplatz – Lister Platz),
- B (Vahrenwald – Döhren)
- C (Königsworther Platz – Braunschweiger Platz).
A fourth tunnel, to be used for the
D line
(Goethestraße - Sallstraße), has been proposed but has not been realised so far due to the high costs of construction, currently estimated to be around Euro 1 billion. Nevertheless, the above-ground parts of the D line, most notably the
D Süd, connecting the
Hanover fairground to the C tunnel, have been upgraded to proper Stadtbahn standards, some preparations for interchange with the current stations, like an empty station below the current Hannover Hauptbahnhof station, have also been built in the past.
The whole Stadtbahn network uses various colours to differentiate between the lines. For example, a station that would service both A and B lines would have a blue and a red stripe on its station sign; stop on the D line would feature a lime stripe on the station sign, and so on. This scheme sometimes also recurs in the architecture of the stations, for example the station Kröpcke used to feature tilework that changes colours when stepping over between lines, i.e. yellow elements would be introduced in the red tiles when walking from the B to the C part of the station.
Individual routes operate within the main lines, diverting to various terminals at the city's edge. The route numbers are assigned to the lines as following (routes that only run during exhibitions on the Hanover fairground are denoted in
italics):
- A line - routes 3,7,9
- B line - routes 1,2,8,18
- C line - routes 4,5,6,16
- D line - routes 10 and 10E (10E is an express peak service, using parts of the A tunnel)
Whilst the number 6 and 16 services are using a large part of the D line, they are still denoted as C services by using the colour yellow on station signage.
The main hub of the network is Kröpcke, a large subterranean station in the city centre. Routes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,16 and 18 call at this station, making it possible to reach every point on the A, B or C lines from every other point with one stepover only.
The D tunnel
One proposed major tunnel that was part of the 1965 plans has not been built so far. The city centre tunnel for the D line was originally supposed to run from a ramp at
Goethestraße via Steintor - Hauptbahnhof/ZOB - Berliner Allee - Sallstraße to Bahnhof Bismarckstraße , resurface on a ramp at
Lindemannallee and continue to Bischofsholer Damm.Whilst some preparations have been made, most notably an empty station under today's
Hauptbahnhof station and a special arrangement of pillars at stations
Steintor and
Marienstraße to allow a tunnel to be built underneath, the plans could not be realised so far, due to the high costs. It would however be greatly beneficial to the D line, reducing stepover times to other lines. The current surface D line between Goetheplatz and Aegidientorplatz is regarded as a temporary solution for the time being, for example when the wye at
Steintor was demolished after the tearing down of tram tracks that had been replaced by the C-Nord line, the
railway switch were not removed but just welded shut. During the renovation of the Hannover Hauptbahnhof in 1999 and 2000, the tram tracks in front of the station were not replaced either.
Dead tunnels
Even though it is of a relatively young age, the Hanover Stadtbahn already has some buildings that are likely not to be used as intended. These are three tunnel stubs in the A and B tunnels.
Under both the ramps
Hammersteinstraße (A-Nord) and
Vahrenwalder Platz (B-Nord) the tunnel continues until the ramp's end since the original U-Bahn plans had proposed an extension of the tunnels. Whilst this made some theoretical sense at the A-Nord due to the relatively narrow Podbielskistraße, an extension of the tunnel is completely unneeded on the rather wide Vahrenwalder Straße. The stubs currently house some technical service rooms.
A notably larger structure exists behind the middle tracks of the station
Waterloo. It was originally supposed to extend a tunnel toward the A-West (line 9 toward Empelde) and to construct a turning loop. However, this would require tearing down the current A-West ramp at Gustav-Bratke-Allee which would disconnect the Glocksee depot from the network. Thus, this will likely never be carried out.
History
Stadtbahn lines opened
{| class="wikitable"! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |Line! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |from! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |to! style="color:#fff;background-color:#039; text-align: center;" |Opening date|-!colspan="4"|
The lines to Laatzen/Süd and Rethen were built according to Stadtbahn standards but used as tramway lines until September, 1982.|-|
B-Süd|Laatzen/Nord|Laatzen/Süd*|Sep 20 1973|-|
A-Süd|Oberricklingen|Hauptbahnhof|Sep 26 1975|-|
A-Nord|Hauptbahnhof|Buchholz
- Lahe
- Fasanenkrug|Apr 4 1976|-|
B-Süd|Laatzen/Süd|Rethen/Nord*|Jun 18 1976|-|
A-Süd|Oberricklingen|Mühlenberg|Sep 25 1977|-|
C-Ost|Nackenberg|Med.Hochschule/Süd|Oct 1 1978|-|
A-West|Empelde|Schwarzer Bär|May 27 1979|-|
B-Nord|Hauptbahnhof|Vahrenwald - Langenhagen
- Alte Heide|May 27 1979|-|
B|Hauptbahnhof|Kröpcke B|May 27 1979|-|
B-Süd|Kröpcke B|Schlägerstraße|May 31 1981|-|
B-Süd|Betriebshof Döhren||Sep 2 1982|-|
B-Süd|Schlägerstraße|Döhren- Messegelände
- Rethen
- Laatzen - Sarstedt|Sep 26 1982|-|
C|Aegidientorplatz|Kröpcke C|Sep 26 1982|-|
C-West|Kröpcke C|Steintor|Mar 30 1983|-|
C-Ost|Med.Hochschule/Süd|Roderbruch|Sep 29 1984|-|
C-West|Steintor|Stöcken|Jun 2 1985|-|
C-Ost|Aegidientorplatz|Kleefeld
- Roderbruch
- Kirchrode|Sep 24 1989|-||Freundallee||Sep 24 1989|-|
B-Nord|Lgh./Berliner Platz|Langenhagen|Sep 29 1991|-|
C-Nord|Steintor|(Nordstadt) - Haltenhoffstraße- Nordhafen|Sep 26 1993|-|
C-Ost|Clausewitzstraße|Zoo|Sep 26 1993|-|
D-West|Limmer|Ahlem|May 29 1994|-|
C-West|Hogrefestraße|Marienwerder/Wissenschaftspark|Sep 24 1995|-|
C-West|Marienwerder/Wi.|Garbsen|Sep 29 1996|-|
C-West|Stöcken/Friedhof|Betriebshof Leinhausen (Fuhsestr.)|Sep 26 1998|-|
D-Süd|Freundallee|Bult/Kinderkrankenhaus|Dec 5 1998|-|
A-Süd|Waterloo|Krankenh.Siloah (Legionsbrücke)|May 29 1999|-|
A-Süd|Mühlenberg|Wettbergen|May 29 1999|-|
D-Süd|Bult/Kinderkhs.|Bünteweg/Tierärztl.Hochschule|May 30 1999|-|
D-Süd|Bünteweg/Ti.Ho.|Kronsberg|Oct 13 1999|-|
D-Süd|Kronsberg|Expo/Ost|Feb 19 2000|-|
C-Ost|Kirchrode|Anderten|2002|-|
A-Nord|Lahe|Altwarmbüchen|June 2006|}
References
- StadtBahn mit System, published by üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG
See also
- üstra
- intalliance AG
- TW 6000
- TW 2000
- List of rapid transit systems
External links
- üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe
- Großraum-Verkehr Hannover
- Stadtbahn/tram Hannover
