Tramscape Tramway
Photographs : Special
Report
Dortmund,
Germany
Tramscape currently has 392 photos of the Dortmund "Stadtbahn",
taken between 1984, shortly before the first phase of underground operation
was inaugurated, and 2002, when the last of the three routes through the city
centre was still on a surface alignment. With the last tunnel due to open in
2007, the centre will be tram-free, although the last line is now to be opened with
low-height platforms rather than the high levels on the other two and new trams
are to be bought for the diverted Marten to Wickede and Westfalenhutte lines,
much of which are still street running and not entirely suitable for conversion
to "Stadtbahn" standards.
As well as showing trams in long-disappeared
city centre scenes, these photos illustrate the changes made throughout the
network as reserved alignments have been created and new tram stations built.
New rolling stock has been introduced as lines have been converted from tram
to Stadtbahn to create a very modern and highly efficient transport system for
this large German city.
Click on the years below to see
the thumbnails
Click here to see
the Dortmund Tramway Photograph Catalogue
1984
1986
1988
1991
1995
2002
The opening of the first horse
tramway in Dortmund, in 1881, coincided with the rapid growth of the
city at the height of the industrial revolution, and soon a dense
network of lines developed in the city, and linking the city to
neighbouring communities. At this time, Horde was an independent town
and destination of one of the first lines to be built. Dortmund
itself still had a population of 67,000, confined within a relatively
small city boundary. The "Landkreise" (rural districts) of Dortmund,
to the north, and Horde, to the south, opened their own interurban
tramways, linking smaller but growing communities, which
progressively became incorporated into the growing city between 1914
and 1929. With the incorporation of Horde and much of the Horde
Landkreis, the city assumed it's present boundaries and had a
population of 540,000.
The city tramways, which operated under various names , reflecting
their private owners, introduced their first electric tram in 1894,
quickly replacing horse and steam trams. Another spurt of growth
followed, with the first four lines (to Fredenbaum, Dorstfeld, Horde
and Funkenburg), joined by a Ring line, encirling the centre of the
city mostly around the "Wallring" and a new radial route to
Block-Friedrich-Wilhelm in the south. In the east, the route to
Funkenburg was extended beyond the city boundary to Coerne. North of
the Koln-Mindener Railway, which separated the northern suburbs from
the city centre, the Fredenbaum route remained cut off from the rest
of the network. With new lines opening in the new century to Hafen
and to the Hoesch steelworks, a small network developed in the north
of the city and it was not until the opening of the new main station
and the relocation of the railway on an embankment in 1910, that it
was possible to unify the network.
The "Horder Kreisbahn" first opened in 1899 and, in the north, the
Dortmund Landkreis inaugurated it's own services from the end of
1904. The Horder Kreisbahn was built as metre-gauge, which meant that
it's network remained independent of that of the standard-gauge city
tramways, with a change of trams needed where the two systems met. In
the north, the new lines (from Fredenbaum to Brambauer and Lunen
initially) were built to standard-gauge. Other lines were effectively
extensions to the city tramways : from Coerne to Unna in the east,
and from Dortsfeld to Castrop, Ickern and Heinrichburg in the west,
with no links between the various lines.
The incorporation of the most of the Dortmunder Landkreis communities
in 1914 led to their tramways being united with the Dortmund city
tramways in a new company, the Dortmunder Strassenbahnen AG, and
through services were introduced immediately, although the lines in
Castrop and Brambauer now lay in areas incorporated into other
neighbouring towns. The Horde Kreisbahn was bought out by the city
tramways in 1927, two years before incorporation, but the gauge
difference prevented through running, so a few short stretches of
line were re-gauged. In 1934, the metre-gauge line from Aplerbeck to
Asseln was closed, the first loss of former Kreisbahn track, most of
which was never reconstructed after the end of World War II, with the
last line, between Berghofen and Schwerte, closing in June 1954. On
1st January 1939, the city of Dortmund purchased the remaining
interests of the former Landkreis communities which had not been
incorporated into Dortmund, and the tramways became a wholly
integrated subsidiary of the Dortmunder Stadtwerke AG.
In the recent era, Dortmund joined the VRR - the tariff union
covering most local transport in the Rhein-Ruhr area, stretching from
Monchengladbach in the west to Dortmund in the east and participated
in the Stadtbahngesellschaft Rhein-Ruhr, a joint company with other
local cities, responsible for the planning of an integrated regional
"Metro" based on an upgrade of the most important tram lines into a
high-speed segregated transit system. As a result, the tunnel from
Hafen to Markische Strasse, routing the lines to Mengede and
Aplerbeck under the city centre, was opened in June 1984 and was the
first stage in an on-going upgrade of the city's network . At the
same time, much of the street tramway in the city centre was closed.
Although the concept of a fully-segregated metro has been abandoned,
two tunnels run through the city, with the surface extensions in the
suburbs running as far as possible on reserved track with
high-platform level access to vehicles rather wider than the former
street trams. The remaining tram line on the east-west axis through
Dortmund will, from 2007, run through a third city centre tunnel,
although the decision has now been made that due to the long
stretches of traditional street tramway at either end, it will be
fitted out to accommodate low-floor trams.
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Series List
Text and Photographs
by Gordon Stewart
Tramscape
2002