Bonn

Tramscape Tramway Photographs

Bonn, Germany


1983 There are now two routes from central Bonn to the Hauptbahnhof - via a tunnel (tracks to the left) or on the traditional street alignment being used by the tram	1984 The Stadtbahn at Bad Godesberg terminated at Rheinalle, but now runs further into the central area in a tunnel	2001 Left : Pariser Strasse, close to the Auerberg terminus of the newest route extension in Bonn

For over 40 years from 1949, Bonn was the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, a period in which the home city of Beethoven gained an international importance far removed from it's earlier image as a pleasant but sleepy university city on the west bank of the Rhein, overshadowed by it's northern neighbour Cologne. The politicians and the civil servants of the federal ministries have now moved to Berlin leaving the city out of the spotlight once more, but with a legacy which includes a modern light rail system. .

The system today consists of three "urban" tram routes, operated since 1994 by low-floor trams and "Stadtbahn" routes linking Bonn with Bad Godesberg, Bad Honnef, Siegburg and Cologne (via two separate routes and involving through-running on the Cologne tramway system).

The General Transport Plan of the Federal State of Noth Rhine - Westfalia of 1970 envisaged so-called Stadtbahn networks being developed to replace the traditional tramways in the conurbations of the Rhein-Ruhr and Rhein-Sieg areas, and so it was that in May of 1974, Bonn along with the city of Cologne and the neigbouring Rhein-Sieg-Kreis communities and a number of communities from the Erftkreis area formed the "Stadtbahn-Gesellschaft Rhein-Sieg" to develop an appropriate transport system. Both Cologne and Bonn had already embarked on a programme of upgrading their tramways and tram tunnels were in operation in Cologne and under construction in Bonn, both to a design standard which precluded the use of the "full Metro" cars which the State's transport plan had envisaged. This meant that a new design of vehicle was required, and the Dusseldorf factory of the famous tram builders Duwag produced the Stadtbahn-B car, often referred to as the "Cologne Design" to meet the specifications of the Cologne tunnels and to allow, through the use of folding steps, the cars to serve stations on the existing tram network pending conversion to the new standards.

It was soon realised that the construction of full Metros, not only in the Rhein-Sieg area, but also in the much more densely populated Rhein-Ruhr area (including Dusseldorf, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund) would be too costly, inappropriate for the anticipated traffic flows and would take too long to constuct. The result has been the progressive upgrading of the existing tramways in both areas to "Stadtbahn" rather than "Metro" standards and, undoubtedly, the retention of tram routes which would otherwise have closed.

Joining forces with neighbouring authorities to operate trams is nothing new for Bonn. In fact, the Stadtbahn routes of today are those jointly owned and operated since the early years of the 20th century, which now form an integrated network rather than independent routes. The city has been owner of local tramways since 1904 when it took control of the city's hitherto privately run horse tramways and, at the same time, the steam tramway to (Bad) Godesberg and Mehlem, which it bought in partnership with what was then an independent Godesberg community. In 1911, the Siegburg line and the Bad Honnef line (opened in stages between 1911 and 1925) was built with the city, the Landkreis Bonn and the Landkreis Sieg as equal partners, but operated independently of the other lines. The two routes to Cologne were owned by the KBE (Koln-Bonner Eisenbahngesellschaft) which retained its independence up until its lines were absorbed into the Stadtbahn system, carrying through services between the Bonn and Cologne networks.

The jointly-owned routes had a distinctly "interurban" character, much of which is retained today. The KBE's lines were closer to mainline railway standards and operated to railway rather than tramway regulations. The Stadtbahn has brought about the integration of the various interurban lines into one network instead of maintaining independent termini in central Bonn, the standardisation of facilities and rolling stock and the general improvement of services. The urban services, once threatened with extinction, have also been modernised and redesigned around the low-floor tram concept.

City Tramways

From 1891 a network of horse tramways developed, owned by Havestadt, Contag & Cie, and operated by the AG Rheinisch-Westfalische Bahngesellschaft, who took over ownership in 1899 before selling out to the city of Bonn five years later. The city had already instituted a short electric tramway linking Bonn and Beuel (on the eastern bank of the Rhine) in 1902, taking advantage of the bridge linking the two communities which had opened in 1898 and immediately embarked on an electrification programme and all lines, including the Beuel line, were regauged to 1435 mm. The takeover of the tramways coincided with the incorporation of neighbouring communities of Poppelsdorf, Kessenich and Endenich, three of the four termini served by the horse trams. New lines were promptly built to Gronau and Venusberg, the latter like the three incorporated communities, on the western side of the mainline railway. The railway was an insurmountable barrier to through services from the city centre as regulations did not allow trams to cross the tracks at-grade at Hauptbahnhof with passengers aboard. The Kessenich line, which used a crossing located on Rheinweg to the south of Hauptbahnhof was closed in 1909 as it was decided not to electrify this line and it was not until 1936 that a short underpass at Hauptbahnhof removed the need for passengers to cross the line by a footbridge. A crossing to the north of Hauptbahnhof did operate did operate from 1915 but required a long detour for most trams to reach the city centre and it lost its service once the new tunnel came into operation.

In common with most German tramways, there were significant wartime losses of rolling stock and shortages of money in the immediate post-war period meant that new stock could not be purchased . From February 1947 the services were restricted to the Rheindorf-Poppelsdorf and Dottendorf-Endenich lines due to shortage of trams although most of the pre-war network had been brought back into operation by the end of 1946. The Rhine crossing to Beuel was not available until November 1949. The condition of the tramway gradually deteriorated and its entire existence came under threat in the early 1950s as it was not seen as commensurate with the image of the city as the country's new capital. By 1955, the branches to Dottendorf, Rheindorf and Beuel were all that remained, following closures to Poppelsdorf along with the city centre route from Friedrichsplatz to Frankenplatz in 1953 and to Venusberg and Endenich in April of 1955.

The future was looking bleak until the arrival of new Duwag "Grossraumwagen" in 1957 and 1960 and six-axle articulated cars from the same builder in 1959-60. With a reduced network, Bonn was able to take much of its inadequate existing rolling stock out of service. In November 1966 a new alignment was opened in Rheindorf as a consequence of road building in the area and in the following year a new route through the city centre, on today's Oxfordstrasse, was opened with trams removed from Friedrichstrasse and Bruckenstrasse as a result. These developments never entirely secured the future of the city's tramways as there remained intermittent pressure from the Federal Government for closure which was always resisted by the city authorities.

The decision, made in 1967, to build a tunnel for the Bad Godesburg and the subsequent involvement in the Stadtbahn concept suggested that the street tramway probably had no long term future, but with the tunnels reaching no further under the city that Stadthaus and the "Stadtbahn" using "tramway" alignments through the city, co-existence has proven to be possible. Tunneling did bring about the final removal of surface trams from the old city centre from September 1974 when a new alignment in Thomas-Mann-Strasse replaced the tracks in Poststrasse, Munsterplatz, Vivatgasse and Friedensplatz. Bonn's new Transport Plan of 1994 did, however, indicate a secure future for the trams : new low floor vehicles of Duwag's Bochum-type were delivered and a new extension built from Graurheindorf to a modern hosing development at Auerberg. At the same time, low floor trams were introduced between Beuel and Ramersdorf (extending to Oberkassel in the peak) over what were previously tracks of one of the "interuban" lines, now diverted to run via Rheinaue and the tunnel to Hauptbahnhof. The entire overhead cabling was renewed and the operating voltage raised to 750 V.

Bonn - Godesberg - Mehlem

Opened as a metre-gauge steam tramway by Havestadt, Contag & Cie, owners of the city's horse tramwa, in May 1892, linking Bonn (Koblenzerstrasse / Reuterstrasse, and from 1897 Kaiserstrasse / Konigstrasse) with the riverside town of Godesberg, this single-track line was extended southwards to Mehlem in May 1893. It catered primarily for excursionist traffic, having a higher frequency of service on Sundays than on weekdays, a pattern which was to persist until the establishment of government ministries and the parliament building in the south of Bonn after 1949 encouraged the general growth of the area and commuter traffic in particular. Along with the horse tramways, the line was taken over by the AG Rheinisch-Westfalische Bahngesellschaft in 1899 and in 1904 went into the ownership of the city of Bonn in a 50:50 partnership with the town of Godesberg. During 1911, under ownership of the "Strassenbahn Bonn-Godesberg-Mehlem" (BGM), the line was electrified and re-gauged to 1435 mm and for the most part double-tracked, with reopening taking place in three stages finishing in October.

The line had no physical connection with other routes in Bonn, although from 1925 its terminus was resited to Hansaeck (at Meckenheimer Strasse) adjacent to that of the Cologne and Siegburg interurban routes and followed those to Thomastrasse when their new terminus was inaugurated in 1937.

It came under exclusive ownership of the city of Bonn following the incorporation of Bad Godesberg in 1969 and was from then on operated by the Stadtwerke Bonn transport department taking the route number 3 in place of the various letters traditionally used to denote the tram's destination. By this time Bonn was in the process of establishing its underground tram line which was to form the main axis of the Stadtbahn network through the city and the chosen alignment was southwards through the "administrative area" to Bad Godesberg. Tunneling and track upgrading in the Adenauer Allee and Friedrich-Ebert-Allee required a re-routing on temporary tracks along Strassburger Weg and Baunscheidstrasse from October 1972 until the new line opened in March 1975 with its terminus at Bad Godesberg's Rheinallee. The total length was 7.5 km, of which 3.2 km was in tunnel with six underground stations including the provisional northern terminus "Am Hauptbahnhof". A short 0.3 km stretch of unreserved track remained in Bad Godesberg.

The onward extension to Mehlem remained a problem for the operators as it was not planned to extend the Stadtbahn beyond Bad Godesberg. A collision on the single track stretch in July 1973 gave the Stadwerke a pretext for closing the section three days after the mishap, but local protesters secured a restoration of the service in March of the following year. From March 1975 Mehlem continued to be served by a shuttle service from Rheinallee, an arrangement which survived only until December 1976 when the branch was finally closed.

The Bod Godesberg line was finally integrated with another part of the network in August 1978 when the KBE's Rheinuferbahn from Cologne via Wesseling was routed to Am Hauptbahnhof via a ramp just to the north of the station., and a through line was established between the north of Cologne and the south of Bonn. The indaequate arrangement at Am Hauptbahnhof (single track , single platform) was overcome in April 1978 with the opening of the spacious "Hauptbahnhof" underground station to the north of the previous stop. At the same time, services from Bad Honnef and Siegburg were diverted into the new station via a ramp at Berliner Platz in the city centre, leaving the KBE's Vorgebirgsbahn the only service not linked into the central interchange point.

In April 1979 in connection with the Federal Garden Festival (Bundesgartenschau) taking place on the meadows alongside the Rhein near the Government Area, a new branch was opened from Landesbehordenhaus to Rheinaue, a station constructed in the centre of a motorway leading to new bridge built across the Rhein at this point. Stadtbahn services from Siegburg were extended from Hauptbahnhof to Rheinaue as well as a new special Festival-line from Tannenbusch on the KBE Rheinuferbahn. The Stadtbahn line was extended to cross the new bridge to Ramersdorf, opening in September 1981.

The latest extension to the former BGM line has been the removal of the surface alignment in Bad Godesberg, including the anachronistic single-track concealed crossing of Burgerstrasse which, for many years including into the Stadtbahn era, was controlled by a traffic warden complete with red flag! The new 2.1 km long tunnel from the ramp on Max-Lobner-Strasse immediately south of Hochkreuz station to Bad Godesberg Statdhalle (serving Wurzerstrasse, Plittersdorfer Strasse and Bad Godesberg Bahnhof) was opened for service in September 1994. Further southward extension is under consideration - including restoring services to Mehlem - but that remains some time in the distant future.

Siegburg and Konigswinter / Bad Honnef (Siegburger- und Siebengebirgsbahn)

Following the signing of a contract allocating equal shares in a new company to the city of Bonn, the Landkreis Bonn and the Landkreis Sieg, standard gauge electrified lines were opened from Beuel to Siegburg in September 1911 and to Oberdollendorf in October of the same year. The latter was entended southwards close to the east bank of the Rhein to the picturesque Siebengebirge area including the towering Drachenfels hill, reaching Konigswinter in March 1913 and passing the Drachenfels to a new terminus at Bad Honnef in September 1925.

The single track line to Siegburg was powered at 1000 V but required the use of dual voltage trams to reach it's Bonn terminus at Hansaeck, running over the city's 550 KV lines to end adjacent to the KBE Rheinuferbahn. Use of the city's tracks was by special arrangement and a charge of 5 pfennig per pasenger was levied on passengers crossing the Rhine bridge from Beuel. A short extension was opened in Siegburg in 1915 when the raising of the mainline railway tracks on to an embankment allowed the line to reach the eastern side of the tracks though a short underpass. This allowed the trams to terminate adjacent to those of the light railway to Zundorf, to the south of Cologne and current terminus of one of that city's current Stadtbahn lines.

The next significant changes occurred in 1960 when the electrical voltage was changed to match that of the city network. New trams were introduced as the lines' operating regulations were changed from "interurban" to "tramway" rules, which allowed a simplification of operation in terms of level crossing security, signalling and dispatching New 8 axle trams were delivered between 1960 and 1969, but continued shortages also required 4 axle trams to be acquired from the closing Kleinbahn Wesel-Rees and more of similar size to be borrowed from Cologne in the early 1970s. From 1975 onwards, rolling stock of the standard Stadtbahn-B design began to arrive allowing progressive withdrawal of earlier types, with the 8-axle cars disappearing by 1995 (many of which found further use in Sofia, Bulgaria)..

The terminus of the Siegburg route (line 6) was swiched from Bruckenstrasse, to where it had been cut back from Hansaeck in it's early years of operation, to Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz in 1967 when the new alignement in Oxfordstrasse was opened. It was extended through the tunnels via Hauptbahnhof to Rheinaue in 1979 and Ramersdorf in 1981 and eventually ran through to Bad Honnef, linking both arms of the former SSB which had been renamed "Elektrische bahnen der Stadt Bonn und des Rhein-Sieg Kreises" aftger the change of communal boundaries in 1969. That part of the Bad Honnef line from Ramersdorf to Beuel is now operated by the "urban" system's low-floor trams.

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