Kurzbeschreibung
In keinem anderen Land Europas gibt es so viele städtische Bahnen wie in Deutschland. In diesem Band stellen wir Ihnen nicht nur die vier klassischen U-Bahnen vor, sondern auch alles andere, was teilweise nach "Metro" aussieht, also von der ältesten U-Bahn in Berlin über die Stadtbahnen im Ruhrgebiet und S-Bahnen mit Tunnelstrecken bis hin zur modernen unterirdischen Straßenbahnhaltestelle in Rostock. Einen kurzen Blick werfen wir auch auf die einst geplanten U-Bahnen in Bremen oder Ludwigshafen/Mannheim.
Synopsis
It has been 36 years since Fritz D. Kegel wrote the fi rst comprehensive book about U-Bahn systems in Germany in 1971, at a time when the construction of U-Bahn and Stadtbahn lines was at its peak. In that year, Germany's third 'real' metro opened in Munich, while most of the larger cities in West Germany were excavating tunnels or about to start. This book will show you what has come of all these projects. Due to a lack of funds, as is generally said, but also due to a lack of political vision, the big boom is long gone, and many of the once-planned routes have only partly been completed. German tunnelling engineers now have to look elsewhere for jobs, because the coming years don't look very promising either. At the time of writing, a total of approx. 17.5 km of urban railway tunnels (including the Leipzig city tunnel) is under construction. Despite this pessimistic situation, rail-based urban transport is doing quite well in Germany. Tram and light rail systems are experiencing a certain revival in other Western European countries like the U.K., France or Spain, after their cities had abandoned virtually all their tramways during the 1960s and 1970s.
In Germany, however, most of the larger cities, both in the West and the East, have maintained their tramway networks, with the exception of Hamburg and West Berlin. Most of these have been expanded and modernized in recent years, and some of them have even, at least partly, been converted into U-Bahn systems. Due to the lack of space, this book can only give you a brief introduction to each network, but you can find out more about each city in our black series "Urban Transport in Germany"!