The Essen Stadtbahn ( is a light rail (Stadtbahn) network in Essen and the two neighbouring towns of Mülheim an der Ruhr and Gelsenkirchen in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia. It forms part of the Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn.
Like the Frankfurt U-Bahn, it is a mixed system of light rail and underground railway. One of its three lines, U18, runs completely free of intersections with other traffic. The other two lines are partly tramlines and partly underground lines. The sections of tramline have only a few sections that have no intersections with road traffic.
Like all urban public transport in Essen, the Essen Stadtbahn is operated by Ruhrbahn, a company owned by the Cities of Essen and Mülheim an der Ruhr. The transport companies of neighbouring municipalities are also involved with the operation of some lines under concessions.
Operations
The Essen Stadtbahn includes three standard gauge lines: U11, U17 and U18. The Essen tram network also has seven "classic" tram lines, which run on metre gauge tracks, with around of track. Both the metre and standard gauge lines run underground in the centre of Essen. While sections are built as Stadtbahn lines, partly in tunnel, and have stations with high platforms, there are also tram lines used only by low-floor trams serving stops with low platforms. An exception is the underground section of the southern route to Bredeney where the stations are served by a mixture of high-platform and low-platform rollingstock and therefore the stations have to be adapted for both types of vehicle.
The four-track station at Essen Hauptbahnhof is the most important point of intersection between the three Stadtbahn lines and four, sometimes five tram lines where it is possible to switch between Stadtbahn trains and trams on the same platform. For this purpose the two different levels of the platform are connected by ramps. The platforms are arranged so that it is possible to transfer across the platform between trains and trams running to the north and between trains and trams running to the south. A bridge spans the entire underground station that is accessible by lifts, providing an easy interchange and a barrier-free transfer for the disabled to trains running in opposite directions. Stadtbahn cars and trams share several other stations. Tram lines 101 and 107 run on the southern section of the Stadtbahn tunnel from Essen Hauptbahnhof to Martinstraße, using the high platforms of the Stadtbahn. Therefore, the high-floor tramcars use fold-up steps on these two lines. This line is equipped with dual gauge track with three rails to cater for the different track gauges.
All three Stadtbahn lines run to the same pattern: services on each line run during the peak hour at 10-minute intervals, in the evenings and on weekends or public holidays at 15-minute intervals and late in the evening at 30-minute intervals. During trade fairs, services on line U11 run on weekends at 10-minute intervals; between Messe (fair ground) and Berliner Platz they sometimes even run at 5-minute intervals. Operations end on all three lines at about 23:00.
History
During the building of the first tramline in Essen in 1893, planning began on a partially underground railway, which was not realised until decades after the Second World War. The first preliminary line of the current Stadtbahn emerged in the early 1960s and were laid partly as tram tracks on the median strip of the Ruhrschnellweg ("Ruhr Expressway"), which is exactly where the modern line U18 runs. In this case, an underground Stadtbahn (U-Stadtbahn) was not initially planned. Construction work on the tram line in the Ruhr Expressway was carried out simultaneously with the upgrade of the Ruhr Expressway itself, since the latter up to that time had only three lanes and flat junctions and had insufficient capacity because of the large increase in traffic. Following the upgrade of other forms of public transport, the possibility of some form of public transport on the Ruhr Expressway were considered, including express buses on a separate bus lane. Ultimately, however, an option based around a rapid tramway gained favour. Thus a line was built on parts of today's Essen–Mülheim route, which was initially connected by temporary exit ramps with the rest of the tram network.
The plans for a tunnel under the centre of Essen replacing an above-ground tram line began in 1961. Again, there were considerations of relieving the above-ground tramway and congestion in the quite small Essen inner city (about ), which suffered from increasing traffic. The initial solutions ranged similarly from the retention of the surface tramway with the creation of a new centralised node, up to the creation of a pure U-Bahn (metro) system as in Berlin and Hamburg. For various reasons, however, it was agreed to build an underground tramway with the possibility of future upgrade to a full U-Bahn. The idea of building a pure U-Bahn system at once was considered, but discarded due to the need to handle the existing passenger flows linking the tramway systems of the neighbouring cities of the Ruhr.
Soon after that actual planning started on the tunnels in the city centre. The planning was carried out simultaneously on the construction of a highway tunnel for the Ruhr Expressway underneath the inner city. In the end, the so-called Y-Lösung ("Y solution") was adopted under which the Essen Hauptbahnhof Stadtbahn station became a central, four-track junction station serving all lines, which a branch in the north to the northeast and the northwest. The first construction project was the establishment of the shell of Planckstraße station in 1964, which was later used for the connection to the existing above-ground tram line to Margarethenhoehe. The first section of the underground tram line to go into operation, however, was a -long urban tunnel section through Saalbau station, opened on 5 October 1967. This was also the first part of the entire underground tram (U-Straßenbahn) network of the Rhine-Ruhr region, since Saalbau station was also the first underground railway station in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The next phase of construction was the building of the continuous Stadtbahn line from Essen to Mülheim along the Ruhr Expressway, which, as has already been mentioned, was partly built in the 1960s. This route was considered a "model line" for the other Stadtbahn construction projects. On 28 May 1977, the opening of a nearly eight kilometre-long, continuous connection between Mülheim-Heißen and the Essen inner city took place, including the underground stations of Heißen Kirche in Mülheim city and the metro stations of Bismarckplatz, Essen Hauptbahnhof and Wiener Platz (now Hirschlandplatz) in Essen. This was the first Stadtbahn line of the network that was completely independent of the tram network to be opened. Porscheplatz (now called Rathaus Essen) Stadtbahn station was also put into operation on 28 May 1977; it was (and still is) operated by trams. The commissioning of the remaining five underground stations in Mülheim followed on 3 November 1979.
In 1981, the route of line U17 to Margarethenhoehe was put into operation. This included Planckstraße station, which had been built as a shell in the 1960s along with its associated ramp. The surface stations initially had low platforms located on the outside of the tracks, which were raised in 2002 and relocated onto islands between the tracks. At the same time, the two underground stations of Berliner Platz and Universität Essen (University) were opened; both are also stations on line U18 and Universität Essen is a station on line U17.
The next construction phase now included for the first time the construction of an underground section on the outskirts of Essen, namely the building of the so-called southern line (Südstrecke) from the existing Saalbau station towards Messe/Gruga and Bredeney. This line was equipped with dual gauge track with three rails for both Stadtbahn and tramway operations to Martinstraße station; south of that station the lines branch to form pairs of metre gauge and standard gauge track. This included four underground Stadtbahn stations for line U11 and, south of the junction, an underground tram station at Florastraße. Services started in 1986.
The last major phase of construction to date was the northern extension, carried out in two stages. In 1998, the tunnel was finished from Universität Essen station to Altenessen station. Three years later, the section was opened to Karlsplatz and up the ramp to the surface station of II. Schichtstraße. U11 services ended at Karlsplatz, while U17 services continue to Gelsenkirchen, the above ground section north of Karlsplatz was upgraded up to 2001 on the route on an earlier metre-gauge tram line for standard gauge Stadtbahn operations. The Gelsenkirchen section of line U17 ended from 2001 to 2004 at Fischerstraße. Two extra stations in Gelsenkirchen, Schloss Horst and Buerer Straße, were taken into operation in 2004. From January 2010, line U11 operated to Gelsenkirchen Buerer Straße, replacing line U17, which now ran only as far as Berliner Platz. Line U18 was called a "shopping line" and continued to Karlsplatz station. Since September 2011, line U11 continues to Gelsenkirchen Buerer Straße and line U17 has replaced line U18 to Karlsplatz. Line U18 has run since September 2011 between Mülheim Hauptbahnhof and Berliner Platz in Essen.
Lines and stations
The Essen Stadtbahn system includes a underground trunk line through the centre of Essen and four outer branches, each of which is served by one or two Stadtbahn services. The Stadtbahn serves 45 stations. The main line is the section between Essen Hauptbahnhof and Berliner Platz, which is served by all three Stadtbahn lines. The northern section between Berliner Platz and Karlsplatz is served by lines U11 and U17. The line between the Essen Hauptbahnhof and Bismarckplatz station is served by lines U17 and U18, while the other lines are served by only one service.
The lines in detail
Line Route Stations(underground stations) GE-Buerer Str. – E-Karnap – Altenessen – Essen Hbf – Rüttenscheid – Messe 23(14) Karlsplatz – Berliner Platz – Essen Hbf – Holsterhausen – Margarethenhöhe 17(12) Berliner Platz – Essen Hbf – MH-Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum – Mülheim Hbf 17(10)
The numbering of the line follows the VRR's system for Stadtbahn lines, which is composed as follows: the preceding "U" indicates that it is a Stadtbahn line that is largely or completely separated from traffic and that it is not a tram or bus line. This is followed by a number that represents the area of the transport lines, in Essen and Mülheim this is 1. The second digit is the local line number, which in Essen is not assigned in consecutive order, but instead reflects the number of the tram line that it replaced or which ran nearby.
U11: GE-Horst Buerer Str.–E-Messe West-Süd / Gruga
The route of line U11 since the timetable change in January 2010 is no longer fully separated from other traffic. It runs completely underground from the ramp from II Schichtstr. to Messe Ost / Gruga, except that the southern terminus at Messe Süd / Gruga is in a cutting. Line U11 is an important fast connection between the northern district of Altenessen and the exhibition ground (Messe) and Gruga Park in the southern suburbs. This line passes under through the city centre with the two interchanges to tram lines at Berliner Platz and Essen Hauptbahnhof. Line U11 serves a total of 23 stations.
U17: Karlsplatz–Margarethenhöhe