Anhalt Suburban Line
Anhalt suburban line | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Native name | Anhalter Vorortbahn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line number | 6036 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | standard gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Electrification | 750 V third rail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Anhalt suburban line (German: Anhalter Vorortbahn) is a suburban railway in Berlin and Brandenburg. It originally ran from Potsdamer Ringbahnhof in Berlin over the Berlin–Halle railway (also called the Anhalter Bahn or Anhalt Railway). With the opening of the Berlin Nord-Süd Tunnel in 1939, this service was abandoned. Subsequently, the electric services ran to the south parallel with the long-distance tracks of the Anhalt Railway. Its terminus was at Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost until the 1940s. In 1943, it was extended to Lichterfelde Süd for electric trains and to Ludwigsfelde for steam trains. The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 stopped services at the outskirts of Berlin. In 2005, a new Berlin-Lichterfelde Süd–Teltow Stadt S-Bahn line was opened.
History
The population of many towns and villages around Berlin grew significantly in the late 19th century. Lichterfelde (incorporated into Groß-Lichterfelde, meaning Greater Lichterfelde, from 1884) grew into a residential suburb from the 1870s. The number of commuter trains on the Anhalt Railway increased continually during the last decades of the 19th century. A convenient system of suburban fares was applied from 1891 on many lines into Berlin, among them on the Anhalt Railway to Groß Lichterfelde B. H. station (the acronym stood for Berlin and Halle; the station was called Groß Lichterfelde Ost from 1899). In 1893, a new Groß-Lichterfelde-Süd station was opened, which was not, however, included in the suburban fare zone until 1943. Lankwitz-Victoriastraße (now: Berlin-Lankwitz) station was opened in 1895.[2]
Because of the increasing volume of trains, it was decided to build a separate suburban railways and to raise the line to Lankwitz above street level. The original plans envisaged that the suburban tracks would initially run to the east of the long-distance tracks. It was, however, finally decided to move it to the west of the long-distance tracks. One reason for this was to facilitate the planned extensions to the
Yorkstraße (now Yorckstraße) station opened on 1 May 1903.[4]
Electrical operations
In 1903 electric operations was trialed for suburban trains between the Potsdamer Ring station and Lichterfelde Ost using a 550 volts DC system. After that the trains ran most of the day at 10-minute intervals.[5] In 1929 the line was converted to the system adopted for the Berlin S-Bahn in 1924.
Groß-Lichterfelde-Ost station was placed on an embankment and upgraded in 1915.[6] After the power supply of the line was greatly improved between 1936 and 1938, electrical operations commenced on the Dresden railway to Mahlow on 15 May 1939. This ended the previous mixed operation of steam and electric trains between Potsdamer Ring station and Priesterweg.[7] On 9 October 1939, the suburban line was connected to the new Nord-Süd Tunnel by a ramp from Yorckstraße station and the connection from there to Potsdamer Ring station was abandoned.
Extension to Ludwigsfelde
Plans of the 1930s envisaged a series of major rail projects especially in southern Berlin, but these could only be partially realised due to the war. This included the extension of the S-Bahn to Trebbin, where a new S-Bahn depot was to be built.[8] Separate suburban tracks were actually built to Ludwigsfelde station, which went into operation on 9 August 1943. This line ran on an embankment as far as Genshagener Heide and after that at ground level. In Ludwigsfelde a separate terminal station was built for the suburban line. New stations were opened in Birkengrund Nord (north) and Birkengrund Süd (south). These were initially intended for traffic to the Daimler aircraft engine factory, but were opened to the public a short time later.[8] In 1944, the suburban trains ran between Lichterfelde Süd and Ludwigsfelde every 10 to 20 minutes in the peak hour and every 30 or 60 minutes during the day.[9] The long-distance tracks were built on an embankment past Teltow station.
Towards the end of the Second World War, there was severe damage to the Anhalt Railway and the bridges over the Teltow Canal were blown up by German troops.
Development after the Second World War
After the war, traffic on the line was restored to operation a section at a time. Services were restored between Yorckstraße and Südende on 8 June 1945 and to Lichterfelde Süd on August 17, originally as a single track. The second track south of the Teltow Canal Bridge was taken back into operation on 18 July 1946; in contrast the S-Bahn line near the bridge still remains single-track. The southern part of the Nord-Süd tunnel was reopened in the summer of 1946, but traffic on the ramp between Anhalter Bahnhof and Yorckstraße only resumed on 15 August 1946.[10]
In subsequent years, the effects of the
Parts of the embankment of the suburban railway can still be seen between the Berlin city limits and the south of Großbeeren. Some other relics, such as the stairs to the suburban platform in Großbeeren, were removed during railway reconstruction after 1990.
Operation and closure after 1980
After a strike by West Berlin employees of the East German Railways in September 1980 the Anhalt suburban line continued operating, unlike some other lines. On 8 January 1984 it was closed down after its takeover by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (Berlin Transportation Company), because the West Berlin Senate (government) did not consider the operation of the line as economically viable. North of Priesterweg the line continued to be used for trains on the Dresden railway to Lichtenrade.
As a result, plans were discussed for S-Bahn operations on the Anhalt line to be partly replaced by a
Reopening after 1990
After the
The new Berlin-Lichterfelde Süd–Teltow Stadt railway was opened on 24 February 2005. This line was based on old plans. The idea of connecting the Stahnsdorf Cemetery Railway with the Anhalt S-Bahn line at Teltow dates back to the 1930s. The first earthworks were begun during the Second World War. The original plans for further construction to Stahnsdorf are not being pursued and the route is not being protected.[11] Teltow Stadt station is near the centre of Teltow. The route planning from the 1930s was used in the new construction despite the delays. The S-Bahn line branches to the west from the Anhalt line at Berlin-Lichterfelde Süd station, shortly before the Berlin city limits.
Teltow station on the Anhalt line is now only served by regional services. The platforms of the suburban tracks were demolished after 2000 during the upgrade of the Anhalt line. The embankment of the suburban line to Großbeeren has been preserved, but it is no longer used. In the Birkengrund area trains operate over both the former long-distance tracks and the former suburban tracks.
In February 2014, the new Zugbeeinflussungssystem S-Bahn Berlin (Berlin S-Bahn train control system) was put into operation on the section between Yorckstraße and Lichterfelde Süd (and continuing to Teltow Stadt). This replaced the old system based on train stop equipment.
Passenger services
S-Bahn services operated as follows on the Anhalt suburban line after the completion of the
- 6 November 1939: Lichterfelde Ost–Berlin Friedrichstraße–Velten
- 9 August 1943: an extension was opened from Lichterfelde Ost to Lichterfelde Süd
- 1945: Lichterfelde Ost–Bernau bei Berlin
- 1951: Teltow (suburban line, Anhalter Railway)–Bernau.
- 13 August 1961: Lichterfelde Süd–Gesundbrunnen
References
Footnotes
- ISBN 978-3-89494-139-0.
- ^ Bley 1990, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Bley 2008, pp. 22–24.
- ^ Bley 1990, pp. 92–96.
- ^ Bley 1990, p. 98.
- ^ Bley 1990, p. 104.
- ^ Bley 1990, p. 113.
- ^ a b Bley 1990, p. 121.
- ^ German railway timetable, 1944/1945
- ^ Bley 1990, p. 126.
- ^ "Neue S-Bahn-Verbindung zwischen Berlin und Teltow eröffnet" (Press release) (in German). S-Bahn Berlin. 24 February 2005. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
Sources
- "Anhalter Bahn" (in German). beefland. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
- Bley, Peter (1990). 150 Jahre Berlin-Anhaltische Eisenbahn [150 years of the Berlin-Anhalt railway]. Düsseldorf: alba. ISBN 3-87094-340-8.
- Bley, Peter (2008). Eisenbahnen auf dem Teltow (in German). Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer. ISBN 978-3-933254-92-4.