Hamburg S-Bahn

On 5 December 1906, under the description Hamburg-Altonaer Stadt- und Vorortbahn, the Prussian Eisenbahndirektion (railway division) of Altona opened with steam trains between Blankenese, Altona (Elbe) and Hamburg.[6]

The Stadt- und Vorortbahn (City and Suburban railway) included the Altona-Blankenese line (Altona-Blankeneser Bahn, opened in 1867), the local tracks of the Hamburg-Altona link line (Verbindungsbahn, opened in 1866) and a new section to Ohlsdorf.

The Verbindungsbahn had been extended from one track to four and level crossings eliminated between 1893 and 1903. The new double-track line adjoining it was completed in the summer of 1906 after an eight-year construction period. It ran alongside the Lübeck–Hamburg line of the Lübeck-Büchen Railway Company as far as Hasselbrook and then on its own tracks as far as the new Ohlsdorf cemetery. A new main cemetery with good transit connections was necessary in part due to the extension of the central railway lines, which had reduced the area of the existing already strained cemeteries near the city's medieval fortifications.

Detail of part of a wall in Hamburg Hauptbahnhof: bolts used to attach a mast for the overhead power lines.

The line was electrified with overhead lines supplying 6,600 V alternating current at 25 Hz. The electricity came from a coal-fired power station in Leverkusenstraße in Bahrenfeld, which also provided power to the Altona harbour railway.

The first electric trains ran on 1 October 1907, and from 29 January 1908 the line from Blankenese to Ohlsdorf was served exclusively by electric trains. These dates are considered the birthdates of the S-Bahn.

The basic unit of an AC train consisted of two articulated compartment carriages on six axles with motorised two-axle bogies under each cab end and a Jacobs bogie in the middle. The carriages, with doors on each side of the compartments, took their design and functionality from Prussian compartment carriages.

A railway line constructed and operated by a local company in 1914 and taken over by the district of Stormarn after bankruptcy, led from Ohlsdorf to Poppenbüttel in Prussia, with the goal of connecting neighbouring settlements along the Alster river. It was known as the Alster Valley Railway. It opened in 1918 with petrol-powered trains. The district of Stormarn gave the line to the German Imperial railway company, which electrified it and provided the extension of the Hamburg-Altona City and Suburban railway to Poppenbüttel in 1924.

The term S-Bahn was first coined and used in Berlin from 1930, where a similar system on the City, Ring and Suburban lines had been operated since 1924; it was first used by the German Imperial railway with reference to its Hamburg-Altona City and Suburban railway in 1934. The term was also used to describe non-electric services on lines within the local suburban tariff: the steam-powered lines from Blankenese to Wedel, from Altona to Elmshorn, from Hamburg to Friedrichsruh and to Harburg. Since 2002, lines not served by S-Bahn have been designated "Regional railway lines".

Third rail on the Hamburg S-Bahn, here with a plastic cover

In the 1930s, after almost 30 years of service, the necessity to renew the trains and infrastructure had become apparent. Since the DC system had proved itself over more than a decade with the Berlin S-Bahn, where the 750 volt DC power was supplied by a third rail, the German Imperial Railway decided to adopt the same system for Hamburg in 1937 and to abandon overhead AC. In order to allow improved acceleration, the S-Bahn uses 1200 volts: as a consequence, Berlin and Hamburg rolling stock are not compatible with each other. The first DC trains, of the type ET 171, were delivered in 1939; daily service began in July 1940 alongside the AC trains. Due to the Second World War and the post-war years with their shortages, mixed usage lasted until 1955.

The basic DC train unit consisted of three four-axle carriages, each with four sliding double doors per side. The middle carriages had upholstered seats for second class, while the motorised end carriages had third-class wooden seats.

The DC S-Bahn was extended along the single-track suburban line from Blankenese to Sülldorf in 1950 and to Wedel in 1954. A section of the mainline railway between Hamburg and Berlin, which, due to the division of Germany, had very little traffic, between Haupbahnhof and Bergedorf was added to the network in 1959 by the addition of the third rail. This was the first section where S-Bahn and mainline trains (the number of the latter remained small until 1990) shared tracks. It was the second S-Bahn line, from Bergedorf via Berliner Tor to Altona. In 1962 a connecting curve was constructed from the Verbindungsbahn at Holstenstraße to the Altona-Kaltenkirchen railway, whose terminus was relocated to Langenfelde. The S-Bahn was extended in 1965 along the AKN to Eidelstedt and from there along the mainline tracks towards Kiel as far as Elbgaustraße.

In 1965, the German Railway, along with two local transport companies, founded the Hamburger Verkehrsverbund, a common tariff system for U-Bahn and bus lines. The S-Bahn joined in December 1966. From January 1967, the S-Bahn lines were designated S1−S6 (see Network). Line designations with a leading letter "S" have since been adopted for other S-Bahn systems in the German-speaking world. Analogically, U-Bahn lines got the leading letter "U".

S- & U-Bahn Station Landungsbrücken (left)

Extensions were made in 1967 on separate tracks from Elbgaustraße to Pinneberg, and in 1969 on existing mainline tracks from Bergedorf to Aumühle.

To ease the strain on the central Verbindungsbahn ("connection railway"), a second main connection was constructed, the City S-Bahn, which traverses the city centre in a tunnel. The first section was opened in 1975 between Hauptbahnhof and Landungsbrücken, the extension to Altona in 1979 and was completed in 1981 with the connection above ground to Diebsteich.[7] 1983 saw the opening of the line via Wilhelmsburg to Harburg Rathaus, a long stretch of which runs along the existing mainline. Through Hammerbrook the trains run on a concrete viaduct and in a tunnel under the centre of Harburg. The line was extended in 1984 along the Niederelbebahn to Neugraben.

The line to Bergedorf was placed on separate tracks due to increased traffic on the main line during the 1990s as a result of German reunification. For the same reason, S-Bahn service between Bergedorf and Aumühle was suspended in 1994. The section to Reinbek was reopened in 1997; completion to Aumühle was delayed until 2002 due to court challenges from local residents. In 1999, Allermöhe station (between Mittlerer Landweg and Nettelnburg) opened in the new housing development of Neuallermöhe-West.

Since December 2007, the S3 has served stations between Neugraben and Stade.

The groundbreaking for a 3.3 km (2.1 mi) long line from Ohlsdorf to the airport took place in 1991, and again in 2001; the line was opened on 11 December 2008 and has been fully operational since 12 December 2008. Northbound S1 trains split at Ohlsdorf, the front section to the airport, the rear section continues to Poppenbüttel.

An expansion plan which is in proposal, is the opening (or reopening) of a line S4. Plans for this have been around since the 1960s. Whilst planning the City S-Bahn and network extensions of the 1960s, the German railway thought of building an S-Bahn line S4. This line will Altona in a north westerly direction towards Itzehoe via Elmshorn, being an Express line until Pinneberg. To the east of the city, the new line should have travelled with the current S1 and S11 to Hasselbrook and from there further to the northeast direction via Wandsbek to Ahrensburg along the existing regional train line.

Only the eastern part of the line from Hauptbahnhof was implemented, as a regional railway line, which was designated a S-Bahn line, since the HVV did not offer travel with regional railways at the time, but wanted its fare system to be valid on the line.

Since September 2000, a popular initiative in Stormarn has been working for the improvement of the S4, today the RB 81. The initiative is currently basing their arguments on a feasibility study which was ordered by S-Bahn Hamburg GmbH in the year 2002, and in principle dusted off the plans from the 1960s. According to the study, the extension involves upgrading the line to proper S-Bahn standards, served by EMUs and the addition of extra stations. The first step would be the improvement of the line as far as Ahrensburg, with a further intended step being the continuation to Bad Oldesloe. Dual-system trains would be necessary for the new line like those used on the extension to Stade. A third rail would be built as far as Ahrensburg, from where the trains would use the existing tracks with overhead lines.

As of November 2019, those plans are already approved,[9] with the construction of the line scheduled for 2020.[10]

The route will be removed from the existing network at the Hasselbrook S and regional train stop and along the Lübeck – Hamburg route via Rahlstedt to Ahrensburg and Bad Oldesloe run. The route corresponds to the course of the regional train line RB81, which between 1966 and 2002 was already tariffed as an S-Bahn to Ahrensburg and operated under the name S4, but served by locomotive-hauled push-pull trains. For the expansion of the line, a double-track S-Bahn line will be created between Hasselbrook and Ahrensburg , and a single-track S-Bahn line to Gartenholz , then the S-Bahn trains will switch to the long-distance network and cross over this Bad Oldesloe . The new line has a length of around 20 km (12 mi), the total length of the route between Hasselbrook and Bad Oldesloe is 35.9 km (22.3 mi).[11] The route is planning divided into the four sections `` Hasselbrook - Luetkensallee , `` Luetkensallee - state border Hamburg / Schleswig-Holstein , `` state border - Gartenholz and ``Gartenholz - Bad Oldesloe . The first three are also the sections that have been or will be individually plan approval. No separate approval procedure is required for the fourth section, as no construction work is planned for it.

In the Hamburg area, the four new stops Wandsbek Rathaus , Bovestraße , Holstenhofweg and Am Pulverhof are being built, the existing regional train station Wandsbek will be replaced by Wandsbek Rathaus and Bovestrasse replaced. In Schleswig-Holstein, the establishment of an additional stopping point near the existing U-Bahn station Ahrensburg West is planned. The platforms of the existing stations will be adjusted in height and length for S-Bahn operations; In Tonndorf , Ahrensburg , Kupfermühle and Bad Oldesloe the existing systems can be raised to the height of 96 cm customary in the S-Bahn network, in Rahlstedt , Gartenholz and Bargteheide this requires a completely new building. In the first step, all platforms will be built with a length of at least 140 m, a later expansion to serve the route with long trains was taken into account in the planning.[11] Furthermore, the existing level crossings with other types of traffic along the Route eliminated. For nature conservation reasons, complex structures are sometimes required, such as a wide-span new bridge in the nature reserve Stellmoor-Ahrensburger Tunneltal, which in the context of the planning process leads to delays and More costs resulted.

On June 2022, The S-Bahn Hamburg announced a new network system which will be in effect starting December 2023 on the nationwide schedule switch. The new network also introduced the 5- minute interval waiting times, replacing its original 10 minute intervals on majority of train lines.[12] The S1 travels from its original line track of Airport/Poppenbüttel to Blankenese/Wedel and vice versa with the addition of Ottensen S-Bahn Station in between Altona and Bahrenfeld.[13] The S2, however replaces all trains such as S11, S21, and S31 that passes by „Verbindungsbahn“ (via Dammtor, Sternschanze and Holstenstrasse) since the track runs from Aumühle to Altona via Dammtor and back. The S3 still runs up from Pinneberg, however only ends until Neugraben and vice versa via the Citytunnel. In light of the track shorting for the S3, the S5 is introduced and runs between Elbgaustraße and Stade vice versa via the Verbindungsbahn, without stop in Altona. The S6 is still being planned but is rumored to extend from Kaltenkirchen to Neugraben via the Citytunnel. [14]