Tramscape Tramway
Photographs
Bochum - Gelsenkirchen,
Germany.
The two cities built on coal and steel squeezed between Essen in the west
and Dortmund in the east and surrounded both other smaller industrial communities
has operated a joint public transport network with the Bochum- Gelsenkirchner
Strassenbahnen AG (Bogestra for short) running trams in the respective cities
and between them via Wattenscheid. They have also signed up to the Stadtbahn
Rhein-Ruhr concept through which their tramways would be gradually replaced
by a fully-fledged metro system.
On December 29th 2005 with the opening
of the third tunnel alignment through the centre of Bochum (3.9 km long, serving
trams from Gelsenkirchen in the north and from Laer and Witten in the south),
the latest step in achieving the Stadtbahn concept (modified on cost grounds
to a high-quality tram-like system) was completed. With the closure of tracks
from Bochum's Hauptbahnhof to Rathaus via Massenbergstrasse and Bongardstrasse,
both the city centres of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen were free of surface trams
after many years of tunnel building. At this point it has originally been anticipated
that the tram line from Wanne-Eickel to Bochum would disappear and most traffic
be served by the heavy rail line linking the two cities. Not so. With the first
route diverted into the tunnels through Bochum (from Hattingen to Gerthe) still
a metre-gauge tramway and likely to remain so, a plan was devised to run the
Wanne-Eickel line into the tunnel system allowing trams to terminate at the
Hauptbahnhof platforms of its south-west to north-east running tunnel. The Wanne-Eickel
line, which reaches Bochum's Rathaus before descending a new ramp, is now being
modernised, with new low-floor trams of the "Variobahn" design on
order from Stadtler. A further commitment to the "tramway" is the
firm proposal toextend the network with a branch from Laer to Langendreer in
the south-east.
The one line in the entire Bogestra area which is closest
to the original Stadtbahn concept is the line northwards from Bochum to Herne,
running completely underground, standard-gauge and with high platforms served
by cars of the Stadtbahn B design pioneered in Cologne and adopted for the Ruhr
Stadtbahn as the accepted alternative to heavy metro trains. The line, opened
in 1989, replaced a surface running metre-gauge tramway, but further extension
was proving impractical on financial grounds. The soutward extension of this
line, opened in 1993 to Ruhr-Universitat and Hustadt, involved re-gauging and
high-platform stations, but a surface alignment only, mostly but not full segregated
from other traffic.
In Gelsenkirchen, the central tunnel is an underground
tramway and although extended northwards in the direction of Buer it is an
essential part of the existing metre-gauge network and conversion to standard
gauge now exists as a very long term objective only. More progress was made
with standard-gauge conversions in neighbouring Essen which did convert its
line northwards to the Gelsenkirchen suburb of Horst, a small stretch of this
line running on Gelsenkirchen territory. For onward progress, passengers have
to change to metre-gauge trams at Horst.
Click on the years below to see the thumbnails
Click
here to see the Bochum-Gelsenkirchen Tramway Photograph Catalogue
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1983 : 6 photos
The
first fruits of tunnel building in the Bochum-Gelsenkirchen area
were felt by passengers arriving from Hattingen and Dahlhausen when
from 1979 trams descended a ramp at Bergmannsheil (tram 337, left)
to reach central Bochum en route to the north-eastern suburb of
Gerthe. |
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1985 : 34 photos
Gelsenkirchen
quickly followed Bochum into the underground tramway era. A traditional
6-axle Duwag tram is at home at the new Hauptbahnhof station. Passengers
still have to climb into trams from the low floors of the platform.
The passenger in the foreground is walking down a short ramp from
the escalators which stop above platform level in anticipation of
future plans to convert the line to a full metro-like Stadtbahn
system after which the platforms would be built up to the cars'
floor level. |
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1986 : 61 photos
The
grand plans for the Stadtbahn did not include the line from Wanne-Eickel
to Bochum (seen at Eickel Kirche with tram 17 on the traditional
street alignment typical of so much of the tram lines in the Ruhr
area). Only later once the original plans were deemed unrealistic
and trams had come back into favour was it decided to retain the
line. On December 29th 2005 a tunnel spur linking the line to Hauptbahnhof
was opened as other upgrading work took place to secure its future.
Photos also include the line to Herne shortly before it was replaced
outright by an underground line adhering closely to the original
Stadtbahn principles. |
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1988 : 30 photos
Later
to disappear - surface tracks at Olgastrasse in Gelsenkirchen, where
tram 35 heads northwards towards Buer. On the easterly of the two
links from the city centre to the busy interchange at Buer-Rathaus,
a new tunnel was built as far as Gelsenkirchen-Zoo and opened on
May 28th 1994, but services continued to be metre-gauge and low-floor.
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1991 : 69 photos
This
view of tram 14 at Wasserstrasse on the south side of Bochum was
also to change soon - but not by so much. On a natural southward
extension of the Herne route, it was incompatible with the newly
re-gauged line to the north. As the line south of Bochum was largely
in the central reservation of roads or otherwise removed from traffic
it was decided to go ahead and link the lines, with new standard
gauge tracks laid and the tramstops rebuilt with high-platforms
and suitable passenger information systems. The "upgraded"
line to Ruhr-Universitat and Hustadt reopened in 1993 |
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1995 : 94 photos
Bogestra
re-equipped its tram fleet with low-floor trams from Duwag, its
traditional rolling stock supplier. Despite the earlier introduction
of Stadtbahn-B cars for re-gauged lines, it was accepted that the
metre-gauge tramway would continue to exist for many years and probably
at least the expected life of the new cars such as 429, seen at
Querstrasse in Wattenscheid, between Gelsenkirchen and Bochum. |
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2002 : 45 photos
Motor
cars have been removed from much of the centre of Bochum and between
Rathaus and Hauptbahnhof time was limited for trams as well as work
progressed below the surface on the replacement tunnel. The last
tram services here were on December 26th 2005. Tram 344 is seen
at the Bongardstrasse tramstop. |
Classic Scenes in
Central Bochum : the last three central tramstops as they were in the 1980s
Photographs by Gordon
Stewart
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