1.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
2.
Berlin U-Bahn
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The Berlin U-Bahn is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and a major part of the citys public transport system. Together with the S-Bahn, a network of train lines. In addition, a tram network operates in the parts of the city. Opened in 1902, the U-Bahn serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a track length of 151.7 kilometres. Trains run every two to five minutes during peak hours, every five minutes for the rest of the day, over the course of a year, U-Bahn trains travel 132 million km, and carry over 400 million passengers. In 2015,534.5 million passengers rode the U-Bahn, the entire system is maintained and operated by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe, commonly known as the BVG. Designed to alleviate traffic flowing into and out of central Berlin, the East Berlin U-Bahn lines from West Berlin were severed, except for two West Berlin lines that ran through East Berlin. These were allowed to pass through East Berlin without stopping at any of the stations, Friedrichstraße was the exception because it was used as a transfer point between U6 and the West Berlin S-Bahn system, and a border crossing into East Berlin. The system was reopened following the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin U-Bahn is the most extensive network in Germany. In 2006, travel on the U-Bahn was equivalent to 122.2 million km of car journeys, at the end of the 19th century, city planners in Berlin were looking for solutions to the increasing traffic problems facing the city. As potential solutions, industrialist and inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens suggested the construction of elevated railways, while AEG proposed an underground system. Years of negotiations followed until, on 10 September 1896, work began on an elevated railway to run between Stralauer Tor and Zoologischer Garten, with a short spur to Potsdamer Platz. Known as the Stammstrecke, the route was inaugurated on 15 February 1902, before the year ended, the railway had been extended, by 17 August, east to Warschauer Brücke, and, by 14 December, west to Knie. In a bid to secure its own improvement, Schöneberg also wanted a connection to Berlin, the elevated railway company did not believe such a line would be profitable, so the city built the first locally financed underground in Germany. It was opened on 1 December 1910, just a few months earlier, work began on a fourth line to link Wilmersdorf in the south-west to the growing Berlin U-Bahn. The early network ran mostly east to west, connecting the areas in and around Berlin. In order to open up the network to more of the workers of Berlin, in 1920, the surrounding areas were annexed to form Groß-Berlin, removing the need for many negotiations, and giving the city much greater bargaining power over the private Hochbahngesellschaft
3.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
4.
Berlin Hauptbahnhof
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Berlin Hauptbahnhof is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany. It came into operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. Lehrter Bahnhof opened in 1871 as the terminus of the railway linking Berlin with Lehrte, near Hanover, in 1882, with the completion of the Stadtbahn, just north of the station, a smaller interchange station called Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was opened to provide connections with the new line. This station later became part of the Berlin S-Bahn, in 1884, after the closure of nearby Hamburger Bahnhof, Lehrter Bahnhof became the terminus for trains to and from Hamburg. Following heavy damage during World War II, limited services to the station were resumed. In 1957, with the railways to West Berlin under the control of East Germany, Lehrter Bahnhof was demolished, in 1987, it was extensively renovated to commemorate Berlins 750th anniversary. After German reunification it was decided to improve Berlins railway network by constructing a new main line. Lehrter Stadtbahnhof was considered to be the location for a new central station. Between 1868 and 1871, a 239 kilometre railway was built between Hannover and Berlin via Lehrte by the Magdeburg Halberstädter railway company, Lehrter Bahnhof was constructed as the Berlin terminus. It was adjacent to Hamburger Bahnhof, just outside what was then Berlins boundary at the Humbolthafen port on the river Spree and its architects were Alfred Lent, Bertold Scholz, and Gottlieb Henri Lapierre. In contrast to earlier railway stations, built with brick façades and its originally planned stone façade was replaced with glazed tiles to save money. With its magnificent architecture, the station was known as a palace among stations, the train shed was 188 metres long and 38 metres wide. Its roof was a barrel vault with steel supports. As was common for the period, the station was divided into a side on the west. Originally there were five tracks, four of which ended at the side and the central platform, at the turn of the century this track was removed to accommodate the widening of the central platform. Although the front of the building was ornate and had an entrance, most passengers entered and left via the east side. In 1882 the metropolitan railway, predecessor of the S-Bahn, began service along two of the Stadtbahn tracks, long-distance traffic commenced in 1884 along the other two, with the expansion of Lehrter Bahnhof, it was able to take over the functions of Hamburger Bahnhof. A300 m connector line was built, on 14 October 1884, traffic towards Hamburg, northeast Germany, and Scandinavia was diverted to Lehrter Bahnhof, and Hamburger Bahnhof closed
5.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
6.
U8 (Berlin U-Bahn)
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U8 is a line on the Berlin U-Bahn. It has 24 stations and is 18.1 km long, the U8 is one of two north–south Berlin U-Bahn lines, and runs from Wittenau to Neukölln via Gesundbrunnen. The original proposal was for a suspended monorail like the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, the U8 line has had dark blue as its distinguishing colour since it first opened in 1927. It initially ran between Gesundbrunnen and Neukölln and was known as the GN-Bahn. Until 1966 it was designated the D line, when the U-Bahn then changed to a designation system. In 1984, the letter U was added as part of efforts to distinguish the S-Bahn from the U-Bahn. Their preferred route ran from Gesundbrunnen to Rixdorf, however, the Magistrat and city council were sceptical about the project, above all fearing accidents. In 1907, AEG made a proposal for almost the same route, in the form of an underground line within the city. After lengthy negotiations, in March 1912 the City of Berlin, the line was to begin as elevated track on Schwedenstraße and then continue to Humboldthain via Badstraße. AEG intended to build the line for the wider of the two formats, known as Großprofil, like the first north-south line. Like Siemens, AEG had formed an elevated railway company. Finally, AEGs financial situation became so difficult that they ceased all work in October 1919. Thereupon the City of Berlin brought a legal action against AEG. The city then received all the sections which had been built and planned to complete the line itself. Work did not resume on the GN-Bahn until 1926, the first work was on the southern portion of the GN-Bahn, so that service began on 17 July 1927 between Boddinstraße and Schönleinstraße. A switching track was built between the two, at the Kottbusser Tor station, the existing elevated station was relocated to make changing trains easier. Operation of the line continued on wooden trestles. It now seemed natural to continue the line via Dresdener Straße and the Oranienplatz to Neanderstraße - perhaps too natural, the GN-Bahn would now be diverted to Moritzplatz and then round a sharp curve to Neanderstraße
7.
U6 (Berlin U-Bahn)
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U6 is a Berlin U-Bahn line,19.9 km long line with 29 stations. It runs in a direction from the Berlin locality of Tegel in the north via Friedrichstraße to Mariendorf. It is a large profile line. During the Cold War, both U6 termini were in the former West Berlin but the line passed under East Berlin for a section of its route. It was formerly named G1 from 1923 to 1928, just after the Scharnweberstraße station it enters a tunnel and continues under Müllerstraße. From this point it runs in a southerly direction. U6 crosses this canal in an attached to and immediately below the road-traffic bridge. The line ends at the intersection of Reisseckstraße, Friedenstraße and Mariendorfer Damm at its terminus, as early as 1901 the city of Berlin had plans for a subway running from north to south under Friedrichstraße. This work was delayed and finally abandoned due to associated with World War I. In 1919 work was resumed, but during the hyperinflation period the filling in of the already existing tunnel was proposed in 1921. However it was decided to continued construction after all, and on 30 January 1923 the first tunnel section was opened between Hallesches Tor and Stettiner Bahnhof. A northwest extension was opened on 8 March 1923 between Stettiner Bahnhof and Seestraße, with a workshop being built at the Seestraße station. At the junction Mohrenstraße and Friedrichstraße two subway lines intersected for the first time, the city’s North-South Line, renamed Line C, and the private Central Line. But as the concept of a station was not well known. The result is that passengers transferring between the two lines still today have to walk through a long connecting tunnel, popularly known by Berliners as the “mouse route”. At Belle-Alliance Straße where the line separated into two branches, three tracks were built, in the course of constructing the U7 line, the station was completely redesigned and is now called Mehringdamm. Due to disputes with the district of Tempelhof, the first route to be built was the branch to Neukölln. Work on the branch only began in 1924, but just two years later, on 14 February 1926, the stretch from Belle-Alliance-Straße to Kreuzberg was opened
8.
U7 (Berlin U-Bahn)
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The U7 is a rail line on the Berlin U-Bahn. It runs completely underground for a length of 31.8 kilometres, through 40 stations, as of 2007, the U7 is Berlins longest underground line, both in terms of absolute length and total travel time and one of the longest subterranean lines in Europe. Starting in Rudow, at the junction of Gross-Ziethener Chaussee and Neuköllner Straße, a tight left curve brings the U7 under the Tempelhofer Ufer to Möckernbrücke station, with another taking it back and below the area of the former Anhalter Güterbahnhof. The route continues west under Yorckstraße, Willmanndamm, Grunewaldstraße, Bayerischer Platz and Berliner Straße, at Jungfernheide station, the U7 crosses the Ringbahn for the second time before passing under the Westhafenkanal. The track then turns west through an arc and follows Siemensdamm. It passes to the south of the Spandau Citadel below the road Am Juliusturm, runs under the Old Town of Spandau, and ends at the Spandau city hall. The U7 passes through 12 districts of Berlin, Rudow, Gropiusstadt, Britz, Neukölln, Kreuzberg, Schöneberg, Wilmersdorf, Charlottenburg, Charlottenburg Nord, Siemensstadt, Haselhorst and Spandau. Around 1901, the city of Berlin planned to build a railway line below Friedrichstraße to connect the north to the south. Consequently, Berlin started the construction of the Nord–Süd-Bahn to link Wedding and Tempelhof, World War I made the construction work difficult, and finally stopped it completely. In 1919, work started again, but not without further complications, in 1921, during the time of hyperinflation, filling up the existing tunnels was considered as financial turmoil hit hard. The construction work was continued, however, and the first tunnel section from Hallesches Tor to Stettiner Bahnhof was opened on 30 January 1923. The history of the U7 began with the construction of the branch to Neukölln, with inflation still taking its toll, the construction work proceeded in small steps only. The extension to Hasenheide station, named after a nearby park, as the financial situation of Germany and Berlin improved, so too did the underground railway construction, including the branch to Neukölln. At Hermannplatz station, which resembles something of an U-Bahn cathedral, the station is also the first Berlin underground station to use escalators. The section from Hasenheide to Bergstraße was put into operation on 11 April 1926, the final stage of the Neuköllner branch at that time, the 1. Underground passengers could travel from Seestraße, through the city centre. The new trains and tunnels, which were wider but used the same track, were described as Großprofil. Following World War II—in which many of Berlins residences were destroyed—large new housing developments were needed, the track from Grenzallee to Britz-Süd opened on 28 September 1963
9.
Berlin Ringbahn
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The Ringbahn is a 37.5 km long railway line of the Berlin S-Bahn network in Germany, around the city centre. The circle route is made up of the double tracked S-Bahn ring, S-Bahn service on the line is provided by lines S41 and S42, carrying 400,000 passengers a day. Due to its shape, the line is often referred to as Hundekopf. These four sections served as tariff zones of the railway Berlin suburban fare structure before the world war. It was laid in the streets, disrupting traffic and disturbing residents, in order to minimise disruption of traffic, trains ran at night, with the train bell being rung constantly. Plans were soon developed to build a ring line primarily for freight, funding for construction was possible only after the victory in the war with Austria of 1866. The Lower Silesia-March Railway Company was commissioned to construct and manage the line, the first section opened on 17 July 1871 from Moabit through Gesundbrunnen, Central-Viehhof, Stralau-Rummelsburg, Rixdorf and Schöneberg to Potsdamer ring station, an annex of Potsdamer station. From there, trains returned in the opposite direction, the line crossed the Anhalt Railway on bridges. This section from the ring into the Potsdamer ring station became known as the Südringspitzkehre. Passengers could change at the Kolonnenstraße station across the platform to continue to ride on the Ring without going all the way to the Potsdamer Ringbahnhof, from 1 January 1872, freight was carried on the line to freight yards separate from the passenger stations. The line was electrified in 1926, in 1930, ring line operation was combined with the Stadtbahn and suburban services as the Berlin S-Bahn. Since the trains were pulled by locomotives, they had to be refilled with water and coal and serviced at relatively short intervals. Originally, there were not even the necessary rails for continuing on the Ring between Schöneberg and Papestraße stations, in World War II, the Potsdamer and Anhalter stations were heavily bombed, the Südringspitzkehre was closed in 1944 and was never reopened. From 1944 until the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, with the building of the Wall, the line was broken in two places, In West Berlin a separate line on a three-quarter ring ran between Gesundbrunnen and Sonnenallee or Köllnische Heide. In East Berlin the remaining section ran between Schönhauser Allee and Treptower Park, on the lines to Bernau and Königs Wusterhausen or Schönefeld Airport. The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 prevented continuous operation, after passenger numbers on the West Berlin side. This was caused partly by a politically motivated call for a boycott, because revenue from the West Berlin S-Bahn, the East Berlin section, from Schönhauser Allee to Treptower Park, remained in operation as it formed part of a major north-south tangent. After the 1980 S-Bahn strike, service on the part of the ring was suspended for about 13 years
10.
Deutsche Bahn
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Deutsche Bahn AG is a German railway company. Headquartered in Berlin, it is a private company, with the Federal Republic of Germany being its single shareholder. It carries about two billion passengers each year, Deutsche Bahn came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany. It also gained ownership of railway assets in West Berlin held by the Verwaltung des ehemaligen Reichsbahnvermögens. There are three periods of development in this unified German railway, its formation, its early years. At its creation, Deutsche Bahn took over the abbreviation and logo DB from the West German state railway Deutsche Bundesbahn, erik Spiekermann designed the new corporate font DB Type. However, these plans have been put on hold, and the Bahntower leased for at least three more years, the second step of the Bahnreform was carried out in 1999. This new organisational scheme was introduced not least to implement European Community directive 91/440/EEC that demands access to railway systems free of discrimination. In December 2007, DB reorganised again, bringing all passenger services into its DB Bahn arm, logistics under DB Schenker and infrastructure, the DB is owned by the Federal Republic. By the Constitution, the Federal Republic is required to retain a majority of the infrastructure stocks, in 2008, it was agreed to partially private DB, with 25% of the business to be sold to the private sector. However the onset of the Financial crisis of 2007–08 saw this cancelled, in World war II the Deutsche Reichsbahn helped the Nazis to deport the Jews from Greece. As of 2016, the company currently lacks a management director, other members of the board include, Dr. The DB group is divided into five main groups, Arriva, DB Bahn, DB Dienstleistungen, DB Netze. These subsidiaries are companies in their own right, although most of them are 100% owned by DBAG, Deutsche Bahn placed a bid in May 2010 for the UK-based transport company Arriva. Arriva runs bus and rail companies in 12 European countries, the merger was approved by the European Commission in August 2010, subject to DB divesting Arriva services in Germany. The merger became effective on 27 August 2010, services in the UK formerly run as DB Regio are now operated by a new subdivision of the company, Arriva UK Trains. It operates the Arriva Trains Wales, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Grand Central, on 1 April 2016 Arriva became the operator of the Northern rail franchise. It also holds a 50% shareholding in London Overground Rail Operations and has lodged an application to operate services under the Great North Western Railway brand, in November 2016, Arriva Rail London will commence operating the London Overground concession in its own right
Media related to U5 (Berlin U-Bahn) at Wikimedia Commons
