COLOGNE | public transport

[JoKo65]

Cologne is the fourth biggest city of Germany if inhabitants are counted and the third biggest in square kilometers.
Cologne public transport consists of Bus, Stadtbahn, S-Bahn and regional trains.
I will start with Stadtbahn. The Stadtbahn network has a high floor and a low floor part.

Network (192,2 km):



Low floor part:




High floor part:


Schemes: wiki

If we don't count Regio-Stadtbahns like Karlsruhe, the Cologne Stadtbahn is the biggest in Germany.
On both parts of the network are different cars in service.

These ones are the K5000 cars, the newest high floor trains:









Photos: railfaneurope.net

Some photos of the high floor network:







Photos: wiki

To be continued.

[JoKo65]

Some photos of K4500 – the newest low floor Stadtbahn trains:



wiki

Near Heumarkt:



Sülz, Hermeskeiler Platz:



Weiden-West, view from S-Bahn station down to Stadtbahn station:


railfaneurope.net

[JoKo65]

Some photos of the of the older K4000 cars. The cars were built in the 90ies and are "brothers" of Vienna's T1 cars for the U6 and are "fathers" of Frankfurt's U5 cars.

Leaving Heumarkt on the way to cross the river Rhine:



At Merkenich:




Deutzer Freiheit station 2:



Neumarkt at night:


railfaneurope.net

[JoKo65]

More photos of K4000.

Haus Vorst:



Melaten:



Weiden-West:



Maarweg:




Steinweg:



Westhoven, Berliner Straße:



Ebertplatz:


mm-trains.de

[Svartmetall]

Nice collection of pictures - thank you! I always find the Stadtbahn networks of Europe particularly interesting and Cologne has a very extensive one indeed.

[JoKo65]

More K4000:





K4000 in the foreground, K4500 in the background:


trampicturebook.de

[cristof]

so there isnt a real subway system in Koln? i remember my only trip to this city... there were entrances for subway station... i thought it was for a "real" metro... from what i've seen on this forum i guess it's like a premetro as we name that system in Belgium? strange for a city of that size ... close to one million maybe more now...

[JoKo65]

Originally Posted by cristof

so there isnt a real subway system in Koln? i remember my only trip to this city... there are entrances for subway station... i thought it was for a "real" metro... from what i've seen on this forum i guess it's like a premetro as we name that system in Belgium? strange for a city of that size ... close to one million maybe more now...

It's a Stadtbahn system which consists of:

1) Real Stadtbahn sections*
2) Stadtbahnvorlauf sections (with crossings – but should be converted to real Stadtbahn sections in the future)
3) Stadtbahnzulauf sections (sections which won't be changed in the near future)

* According to North Rhine-Westphalian standards (Cologne is located in North Rhine-Westphalia), real Stadtbahn is an independent rail system without crossings. On the way to reach this target a mixture of 1)/2)/3) is allowed.

So the target for the far future will be a complete real Stadtbahn system, which will be the same like a metro.

[Isek]

Originally Posted by cristof

strange for a city of that size ... close to one million maybe more now...

Well, i guess that the cities of Cologne and Frankfurt would love to operate a full heavy rail metro. Both cities would generate traffic by far having aggolmerations of 2-3 million people.

[JoKo65]

Originally Posted by Isek

Well, i guess that the cities of Cologne and Frankfurt would love to operate a full heavy rail metro. Both cities would generate traffic by far having aggolmerations of 2-3 million people.

Cologne had the choice between a metro like Munich, an Alweg monorail and the today's system. They discussed advantages and disadvantages and chose today's system.

[rheintram]

It's completely wrong to assume that a so called "full metro" are superior to a Stadtbahnsystem.

[cristof]

well i think a heavy system will more fit to cities such Koln and Frankfurt...

[JoKo65]

Originally Posted by cristof

well i think a heavy system will more fit to cities such Koln and Frankfurt...

I cannot tell you much about Frankfurt/Main's Stadtbahn standards, because it is not located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), but in NRW the Stadtbahn parameters of real Stadtbahn sections don't differ much from underground transit parameters. The parameters are very similar to the ones of Berlin's U-Bahn. So better forget about the difference between "heavy" and "light" rail, it doesn't fit the situation in NRW!
The difference is only the kind of development of the system. When the whole system will be completed – a real or full Stadtbahn – it will not differ much from underground transit systems.
That's the reason, why the biggest agglomeration of Germany, the Rhine-Ruhr area, uses such a system too.

[JoKo65]

Now some photos of older high floor cars.

The Stadtbahn car "Class Cologne" or Type B.

First generation, B100, built in the 70ies.

Near Severinsbrücke:



Near Widdig between Cologne and Bonn:



Kölnarena:



Buchheim, Herler Straße:



Second generation, B100, built in the 80ies.

Main railway station:



Eifelwall:



Brühl-Badorf:



Third generation, B80, built in the late 80ies by DUEWAG.

Wesseling:



Chorweiler – combined S-Bahn/Stadtbahn station, Stadtbahn section of the station:



Rodenkirchen:



Third generation, B80, built in the 80ies by Waggon-Union.

Ubierring:



Brühl-Mitte:



Third generation, B80, built in the 90ies.

Köln-Mülheim railway station:



Between Roisdorf and Bornheim:



Depot Wesseling, in the foreground B80, in the background K5000:


railfaneurope.net

[Svartmetall]

Originally Posted by cristof

well i think a heavy system will more fit to cities such Koln and Frankfurt...

Why? What is it about heavy rail that makes it automatically superior to this set up (which by the way is predominantly grade separated)?

If anything this at least offers a level of flexibility that would otherwise be impossible. Also, for full grade separated heavy rail, one wouldn't see such an extensive system - 191km of track for a heavy rail system for a city just shy of 1 million would be an incredible feat indeed.

[JoKo65]

Originally Posted by Svartmetall

[…]
If anything this at least offers a level of flexibility that would otherwise be impossible.
[…]

That's it. Flexibility is the reason, why they decided against Alweg and against a classic metro system.

[JoKo65]

Now something about another part of Cologne's rail network, the S-Bahn of Cologne (S-Bahn Köln):



The S-Bahn network of Cologne consists of five lines (one S-Bahnvorlauf), in spite of that fact it is approx. 200 Kilometers long.
There is something special, S-Bahn Köln has a border to another S-Bahnsystem in the north, the S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr, two lines cross the border to S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr, so these are only counted till the border.
S-Bahn Köln is part of Deutsche Bahn.

S-Bahn Köln:


wiki

Most common trains on the S-Bahn Köln are the Class 423.

Köln Hbf:




On the "Stammstrecke", the main tracks between Deutz and Hansaring:



Düren:



Chorweiler, combined Stadtbahn/S-Bahn station, S-Bahn part:


railfaneurope.net

[JoKo65]

S-Bahn at Cologne airport – in the middle are the S-Bahn tracks, right and left are the tracks for ICE and Regionalexpress:



On the left: class 423 – on the right: ICE which uses the S-Bahn tracks:

[Svartmetall]

How frequent is the S-bahn service? Also, the two lines that cross into the Ruhr, are these part of the VRS or the VRR tarif zone (or both)?

[JoKo65]

Originally Posted by Svartmetall

How frequent is the S-bahn service?

Every 20 minutes.

Originally Posted by Svartmetall

Also, the two lines that cross into the Ruhr, are these part of the VRS or the VRR tarif zone (or both)?

VRS till the border, then VRR.