Once abandoned, now restored urban rail lines

[Slartibartfas]

Many urban rail lines have been closed over the years around the world, but there are ever more examples where old corridors are getting revived again in one way or another, especially in the US but also elsewhere.

If you have an urban rail line (no matter if streetcar, light rail, commuter rail etc) that uses at least to a large extend once for passenger travel abandoned corridors, here is the place to present them..

[Slartibartfas]

I'll start with an example from Vienna. The S45, also called "Vorortelinie" (roughly translates to "suburban line") is located in the north west of Vienna, connecting to U-Bahn lines 4, 3 and 6 as well as various S-Bahn lines, trams and buses.

It was built originally in the very late 19th century, the double track line opened in 1899 and was like other urban rail lines planned by Otto Wagner, a leading Viennese Art Nouveau architect. Right from the start, freight traffic dominated, as the western suburbs developed a lively industrial scene.

Already in the 1930's regular passenger service was stopped, the line reduced to a single track and only infrequent services continued. In 1975 then it looked like that rail corridor was being sacrificed completely as freight service was discontinued as well. It took 5 years until it was agreed what to do between ÖBB and the city of Vienna. Luckily it was decided to reactivate the line, upgrade it to double track, electrify, and restore the line as an S-Bahn line which was opened as S45 in 1987 between Hütteldorf (U4) and Heiligenstadt (U4).

In 1996 the line was extended from Heiligenstadt to Handelskai (U6) and headways have been continuously reduced. In the first years, usage was not very high, but because of the new U3 line and the extension to the U6 things are different now. As of today trains run every 10 min except in the late hours where its mostly 15 min.

6 stations are historic, one was abandoned and 2 were rebuilt from ruins in postmodern style. This map shows the context of the S45 in the high priority PT network of Vienna (credit goes to urbanrail.net; map was modified by adding the 2 main S-Bahn line corridors)



Station Hernals, once and nowadays:




All pictures from wikipedia

[Slartibartfas]

S45
station Ottakring:



recent picture along track in Ottakring


station Gersthof:


All pictures from wikipedia

[Slartibartfas]

S45

Station Oberdöbling




All pictures from wikipedia

[musiccity]

Excellent thread Slartibartfas, there is a humongous project in South Africa of this nature. They are doing a complete overhaul of their rail network. Refurbishing abandoned and run down rails and rail stations.

From the South African forum:

Originally Posted by Lydon

South Africa has just awarded the tender for its R51 billion overhaul of its national commuter rail network. All trains will of course have automated doors, aircon, CCTV, routing announcements, automatic braking and there will be wifi on long distance trains:







Here's an article:

PASSENGER Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) unveiled what it said would be the long awaited modernisation of South Africa’s consumer rail infrastructure at Johannesburg Park Station on Tuesday.

In 2015 Prasa will have faster, safer trains that will embark at three minute intervals and will maintain the rail system in South Africa for the 40 years that follow. The Gibela Consortium led by French Alstom are the preferred bidders for the R51bn contract and will manufacture 3,600 new trains between 2015 and 2025.

Benefits of the new trains will include world class safety standards, facilities accessible to the physically challenged, 18% increased loading capacity, advanced communications systems and upgraded security features.

Prasa group CEO Lucky Montana said the unveiling of the new trains was a proud moment for the commuter rail industry and a positive change for the many commuters who experience difficulty when travelling by rail everyday.

"Our cities are growing at a faster rate. The increasing urbanisation requires a modern, functioning public transport system. Modern cities around the world require a cleaner transport system and can transport massive amounts of people at high capability. It was mistake for South Africa not to invest in the rail system over the past 23 years. We have paid the price for that lack of investment," Mr Montana said.

"These trains will be built in South Africa. They will not be built in France and assembled in Johannesburg. They will be built in South Africa and we will use the next ten years to revive our rail engineering capacity as a country," he said.

Alstom senior vice president in Africa Andreas Knitter applauded his company and Prasa for the project.

"We worked very hard to make a good product as well as translating the vision of the leadership to revitalise the rail industry. We aim to be able to deliver this product not only in South Africa but also in the medium-term to export them to the African continent and elsewhere," Mr Knitter said.

President of the South African Commuters Organisation (Saco) Steven Sangweni hailed the project as a step in the right direction to improve rail and making it a preferred means of public transport.

"What we are seeing here is not just empty promises but will bring much needed change to public transport in South Africa. We cannot compromise South Africans because without commuters there would be no public transport anywhere," Mr Sangweni said.

Mr Sangweni said he hoped that this development would lead to South Africa having one effective rail system in South Africa, saying Gautrain must also be "pulled to Prasa" so the two can operate as one entity servicing commuters throughout the country.

"We want to see an integrated public transport system with one payment system," he said.

Head of Prasa, enterprise programme management, Piet Sebola said that the new trains, made of stainless steel would be lighter than the current trains and would therefore be faster and more fuel efficient, making a 31% saving on energy.

He also said Prasa was well on course in their part of a 25-year integrated master plan by the Gauteng department of transport which will eventually include a universal ticket for access to all facets of Gauteng’s public transport infrastructure.

"We will work closely with the province to ensure that the universal ticket introduced in the shortest time possible. With the modernisation of South African rail that is coming and other transport infrastructure there is no reason that it should not work," Mr Sebola said.

More than 8,000 direct jobs will be created as a result of the programme, which is eventually expected to bring about 33,000 jobs into the rail engineering sector.

bdlive.coza

Originally Posted by HigerBigger

Originally Posted by Cuberman

Accurate representation or just conceptual?

Another nice thing about this project is that all trains are to be constructed in South Africa as opposed to elsewhere.

[Slartibartfas]

Do you have a network map, and how many abandoned lines are reconstructed? Or is it mostly substantial modernization of still existing lines?

[musiccity]

It's a mix of both, there are some lines that are completely unused and some lines that are still being used but are in poor condition. I will try and find a map.

[musiccity]

Here are the current lines, all are either going to be refurbished or restored with new trains, tracks, stations, and security

Gauteng



Durban



Eastern Cape - Port Elizabeth & East London



Western Cape



Source: Wikipedia

[musiccity]

From Kinshasa, DRCongo.. a lot of these Rail restoration projects are happening in Africa

Originally Posted by Pius

13 new carriages at Kinshasa train station

Ex-Onatra: 13 nouvelles voitures du train interurbain à Kinshasa

Kinshasa, 7.02.2011

13 nouvelles voitures de l’Onatra pour le train urbain à Kinshasa, 07/02/2011.

13 nouvelles voitures de l’Onatra pour le train urbain à Kinshasa, 07/02/2011.

La Société commerciale des transports et des ports, ex-Onatra (Office

national des transports) a réceptionné lundi 7 février à Kinshasa 13 nouvelles

voitures passagers pour renforcer son transport interurbain. Cette acquisition

est le fruit du partenariat entre le gouvernement congolais et la Coopération

technique belge.Ces 13 voitures sont peintes en couleur du drapeau national:

rouge, jaune et bleu.

Elles viennent de la Tchécoslovaquie et ont une capacité de 200 places assises chacune.

Elles desserviront deux lignes: Gare centrale-aéroport de N’djili et Gare centrale-Kasangulu.

Selon Serge Basawula, administrateur délégué général de la SCTP, cette acquisition va permettre d’améliorer la mobilité des Kinois.

Et pour assurer un service sur une longue période, ces voitures arrivent avec un lot des pièces de rechange, a-t-il souligné.

En plus de cette dotation, l’entreprise a programme de réhabilitation de 9 autres voitures sur fonds propres, a fait savoir le même responsable.

Cette nouvelle acquisition est bien accueillie par la population.

Cependant il se pose un problème, celui de la bonne utilisation par des usagers qui souvent montent sur le toit et n’hésitent pas à le transformer en fumoir de chanvre.

A cette préoccupation, l’ADG Serge Basaula rassure que les dispositions sont prises assurer la sécurité de biens et de personnes.

Copyright Radio Okapi

Originally Posted by Pius

Some more pictures

[friedrichstrasse]

In Milan region the Saronno–Seregno railway had been closed to any passenger service in 1958 and used only for a few freight trains.

It has recently been restored with double track, re-electrified and integrated in the suburban railway network (line S9).

Map:



Before:



After:

[joshsam]

Brussels West station.
Today a major Metroline hub, a tramway station and a small trainstation and busstation.



10 years ago an abandonned station under a avenue bridge. Trains didn't serve the station between 1984 and 2009. I couldn't find a better pic.

image hosted on flickr

[joshsam]

Brussels has many abandonned railway stops along suburban Lines wich since 2007 are gradually been reuses through the GEN-project. The GEN will provide Brussels of a suburban rail network, wich it once had for a big part but with a lot of missing links. Those missing links are now being build.

Also many of the suburban stations that did stay in operating are in very bad shape and need to be renovated badly.

Reopening of the Meiser station in Brussels (2007):


http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/1407/1000085zf9.jpg

Reopening of Bordet station (2007):


http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/206/1000100cu6.jpg


http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3419/1000098qs3.jpg

Reopening Diesdelle (2012)

http://img857.imageshack.us/img857/5531/dsc03916t.jpg

Reopening of Rixensart (2012)


http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...80801379_o.jpg



Closed stations that will be reopened

Simonis:



Kuregem:


Cera:


and many more of wich i could find no pictures.


This is the Gen Project:

There is thread with pictures of the works on all new railways and stations in Brussels here :http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...825646&page=44

This is the GEN/RER Brussels:

[ikops]

I like an abandoned railline. It has a sinister feel to it. Makes me want to kill people and bury them.

[Slartibartfas]

Are you sure you don't play too many weird 1st person shooters or watch too much Dexter?

@Brussels
Great project. I was not aware that there suburban rail was in such a bad shape, only that they are working on upgrading it. It is things like that which fit perfectly to this thread.

[Suburbanist]

They reopened a railway in the Netherlands recently. It was actually a railway that for years was used only for the occasional heritage train but now is back on revenue service (since 2012)

image hosted on flickr
Aanleg perron Veendam by Arthur Kamminga, on Flickr

[Yuri S Andrade]

Originally Posted by musiccity

(...)

Western Cape



Source: Wikipedia

Missing the time I used the Simonstown line everyday! To Cape Town Station on working days an, Simonstown once in a while on the weekends. Once, I took Bellville though, to visit Paarl. The lady in Cape Town station sold me the Parow ticket and I almost got arrested when I arrived in Paarl...

BTW, I didn't realize South African urban rail system outside Cape Town were that comprehensive.

[zaphod]

There's been an increase in rail traffic and renewal of various rural lines in south Texas due to natural gas drilling. Frac sand and sometimes pipe moves by train. On the other end, in Wisconsin and Midwest, the places where they mine the frac sand are also seeing branch lines rebuilt.

Also the former "Macaroni Line" was a Southern Pacific freight line that ran from the southwestern edge of Houston(Rosenburg), south to the city of Victoria, Texas. It had closed in 1985 and was abandoned until 2009 when it was rebuilt by Kansas City Southern.

A small new intermodal facility and yard opened southwest of Houston in Kendleton:
http://maps.google.com/?ll=29.461104...21136&t=h&z=16

The bigger context for why the line was reconstructed is that KCS owns a lot of the privatized Mexican rail network now so they have an interest in buying and rebuilding tracks that run between the border and the rest of their network in the central US.