Tramscape Tramway Photographs
Whilst trams always had their supporters, it was not until the mid 1980s that retention, for the medium term at least, of a viable network was in prospect, if never fully assured. It had previously been assumed that once the decision had been made to build a "U-Bahn", the role of the tram would dwindle to a feeder service, disappearing once the planned network was complete. This is what happened in Hamburg, a similar sized German city, and was what the politicians generally regarded as the natural course of development in a large city of international stature.
Munich's transport policy had been subject to political whim perhaps more than any other German city. Potential mayors fought elections on pro- or anti-tram platforms and the main political parties often took opposing stances on the issue. Like some, but unlike many cities, there was rarely any consensus.
The city's sense of self-importance stemmed from its long history as the capital of Bavaria and it's grudging incorporation into the larger German state, and the focus on the city intensified once it became the base of Hitler's National Socialists in the 1920's. After Hitler came to power, albeit in Berlin, Munich remained a spiritual home and grandiose developments planned for the city included it's railways. The Hitler era was too short for any substantial projects to be realised as resources quickly came to be diverted to the war effort and when the victorious American troops arrived in 1945, the city lay largely in ruins.
Munich was a particular beneficiary of the subsequent "Wirtschaftswunder", when the western German economy, supported initially by massive American aid, grew rapidly throughout the 1950s and 60s. The city's population exploded - by 1958, it had doubled it's 1945 size to over 1 million - and growing wealth brought about an even greater rise in car ownership. The city had been rebuilt very much on the lines of the (now inadequate) pre-war street plan and Karlsplatz and Kaufingerstrasse in particular became gridlocked for much of the day. The ageing fleet of trams converging on the city centre in ever increasing numbers were obvious targets for many in the heated debates that resulted.
In 1955, however, it was decided that tram system would not be shut down as many had proposed, and a short network of tram subways would be built in the city centre. The plans called for tunnels at what is now known as Hauptbahnhof Nord and Hauptbahnhof Sud, continuing to Karlsplatz in separate tunnels and following the current routes of the tram to Maxomonument and the S-Bahn to Isartor. In addition, the link between Sendlinger Tor Platz and Odeonsplatz, not rebuilt after the war, but now connected by U-Bahn, would be restored.
The General Tranport Plan of 1955, although adopted by the city council, never got off the ground. Detailed planning and design needed to be undertaken, and external finance secured. The required money would have to come from Federal and State funds, and these bodies favoured the building of an underground heavy rail line through the city centre, linking Hauptbahnhof and Ostbahnhof. The heavy rail option being promoted strongly by the German Railways (DB) was seen by the city authorities as not really addressing the immediate traffic problems at Karlsplatz and on Kaufinger Strasse and precluding a tram tunnel under the city's main traffic axis. The rail tunnel fulfilled wider regional development objectives and was supported by the Christian Social Union (CSU) party which held power in the state of Bavaria as opposed to the Socialists (SPD) who ruled in the city itself.
The delays dragged on into the early 1960s by which time the tide was slowly but inexorably turning against the "Tiefbahn" plan for trams in shallow tunnels and on reserved track in the suburbs for which new lines (Furstenried-West, Freimann and Hasenbergl being the most significant) were built.
The central tunnel issue was finally settled in favour of the heavy rail option (the tramway closed in April 1968 once construction had got underway) and in January 1964, it was decided to rebuild the north-south (Freimann - Harras) line as a U-Bahn line. This would incorporate the unused stretch of tunnel under Lindwurmer Strasse, built in the Hitler era. In the following year the decision was taken to build a complete U-Bahn network - a change of plan which anticipated the award, in 1966, of hosting the 1972 Olympic Games to Munich. There then arose a pressing need for a high-capacity route to the sports grounds and Olympic village to be constructed at Oberwiesenfeld in the northern suburbs, for which Federal financial support became readily available. Construction of the link to "Olympiazentrum ", as a branch from the north-south line at Munchener Freiheit, began.
Surprisingly, some, but not all, of the earlier planned new lines were built and trams reached St Veit Strasse in 1968, Cosimapark in 1970 and Neuperlach Zentrum in 1973. The latter two routes were regarded as provisional, pending later U-Bahn construction and fell victim in 1980. The St-Veit-Strasse route survives despite the proximity of an underground line as a testament to a later change in policy.
Now Munich has a first class transport system - a dense network of U-Bahn lines, but also a large tramway which has survived alongside it. Routes were closed as the U-Bahn expanded, especially in the south west and south south east, where trams were virtually eliminated, but other lines running close to U-Bahn lines, initially closed, such as from Hauptbahnhof to Romanplatz, have been reopened. Current plans envisage a tram ring around the north and west of the city - and the reopening of the line from Kurfurstenplatz to Romanplatz, left for depot workings only for many years, was the first phase of this plan. The "Eastern Tangent", linking the Grunwald line to Max-Weber-Platz, has also revived an earlier service.
A planned extension eastwards from Kurfurstenplatz through the "English Garden" to Herkomerplatz, with a short extension reviving the line to Cosimapark has, however, been the subject of intense conflict. A tramway through a wooded area (on an alignment already used by buses, and close to a route used by a busy highway) has angered conservationists who might normally have been tram supporters and looks unlikely to be built in the foreseeable future. More encouraging is the recent decision to proceed with the planned new tramway from Munchener Freiheit to Funkkaserne West and the intention to extend the line to Pasing to the planned new development at Freiham, despite the presence of an S-bahn link and a likely extension of the U-Bahn to Pasing.
Munich is proving that a traditional but modern tramway can co-exist with a fully-fledged U-Bahn where traffic flows justify it and where the will exists to operate it.