The Bochum Stadtbahn is a light rail line in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, linking the cities of Bochum and Herne. It is operated by BOGESTRA, and is integrated into the

Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn The Rhine-Ruhr Stadtbahn (german: Stadtbahn Rhein-Ruhr) is an umbrella system of all of the Stadtbahn ( light rail) lines included in the integrated public transport network of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR), which covers the Rhine-Ruhr met ...

network. It consists of a single ''

Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...

'' line, which includes a tunnel section between the city centers of Bochum and Herne.

History

The Bochum Stadtbahn opened on 2 September 1989, then operating a route between Castle Herne Strünkede and Bochum Central Station. An extension of the line from the Bochum Central Station south to the Ruhr-University Bochum and to Hustadt opened for service on 28 November 1993. Planned sections of the Bochum Stadtbahn northwest to Recklinghausen and southeast to Witten were never implemented due to the associated costs to these respective municipalities.

Route and operations

The Bochum Stadtbahn route is called the U35 line. It runs north-south for approximately from Schloss Strünkede in Herne, via the city center of Bochum and the

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

, to Querenburg in Bochum. More than two-thirds of this line runs underground.BOGESTRA -- Daten und Zahlen
Only the southernmost six stations are at grade, in the portion of the U35 line that runs in the median of a highway. On this section, there are three at-grade road crossings, which renders it not a true

metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

system but a light rail one. The U35 is by far the busiest public transport line in the BOGESTRA service area – it is the only rail line to run every 5 minutes on weekdays and the only one on which the trains consist of two coupled-car trainsets. Stadtbahn Bochum - RiemkeMarkt

The other Stadtbahn lines that were planned for the Bochum Stadtbahn system were never finished, but portions of those planned lines were built and are in use by transit. In Bochum, two more tunnels were built under the city center, one east-west tunnel and one northeast-southwest tunnel. Both of these have four underground stations. In Gelsenkirchen, a tunnel was built as well – it begins at the train station and from there heads north, via the city center.

Rolling stock

The U35 line uses 25 standardized Stadtbahnwagen B trainsets from

Duewag Düwag or Duewag, formerly Waggonfabrik Uerdingen, was a German manufacturer of rail vehicles. It was sold in 1999 to Siemens with the brand later retired. History Duewag was founded in March 1898 as Waggonfabrik Uerdingen in Uerdingen an ...

supplemented with 6 Stadler

Tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

trainsets. These all have a high-floor design and operate independently from the low-floor NF6D and

Variobahn The Stadler Variobahn (formerly sold as the ABB Variotram, Adtranz Variotram and Bombardier Variotram) is a German-designed model of articulated low-floor tram and light rail vehicle. Since its introduction in 1993, the Variobahn has been manufa ...

used by the on-street tram network.

References

Inline references

External links

BOGESTRA Homepage

Track plan of the Bochum/Gelsenkirchen tram system, including the Stadtbahn
{{Urban public transport in Germany Bochum Light rail in Germany Tram transport in Germany Underground rapid transit in Germany