Hanover Stadtbahn

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 tramway 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 predecessor, the "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 GVH 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 tramways, 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 € 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 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 points were not removed but just welded shut. During the renovation of the 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

References

* [http://www.uestra.de/download/StadtBahn_mit_System.pdf "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

* [http://www.uestra.de üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe]
* [http://www.gvh.de Großraum-Verkehr Hannover]
* [http://public-transport.net/bim/Hannover.htm Stadtbahn/tram Hannover]