A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Nuremberg U-Bahn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Overview | |||
| Locale | Nuremberg, Fürth | ||
| Transit type | Rapid transit | ||
| Number of lines | 3[1][2] | ||
| Number of stations | 49[1][2] | ||
| Daily ridership | 410,000 As of 2017[update][3] | ||
| Annual ridership | 111 million (2023)[4] | ||
| Website | VAG Nürnberg | ||
| Operation | |||
| Began operation | March 1, 1972 | ||
| Operator(s) | Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg | ||
| Number of vehicles |
| ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 38.2 km (23.7 mi)[2] | ||
| Track gauge | standard gauge | ||
| Electrification | 750 V DC third rail[1] | ||
| Average speed | 33.4 km/h (20.8 mph)[1] | ||
| Top speed | 80 km/h (50 mph) | ||
| |||
The Nuremberg U-Bahn is a rapid transit system run by Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg (VAG; Nuremberg Transport Corporation), which itself is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg (VGN; Greater Nuremberg Transport Network). The Nuremberg U-Bahn is Germany's newest metro system, having begun operation in 1972, although the Nuremberg-Fürth route (U1) uses part of the right of way of the Bavarian Ludwig Railway, Germany's first passenger railway opened in 1835. The current network of the U-Bahn is composed of three lines, serving 49 stations, and comprising 38.2 kilometres (23.7 mi) of operational route, making it the shortest of the four metro systems in Germany, behind Berlin, Hamburg and Munich.[2]
In 2008, driverless and fully automated trains were introduced on the new U3 line, making it Germany's first automatic U-Bahn line. U2 was converted to driverless operation by 2010, the first such conversion anywhere in the world.
History
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Plans for a metro in Nuremberg go back to 1925, when Nuremberg graduate engineer Oscar Freytag spoke out in favor of building a metro under Fürther Straße. His proposal was not to replace the parallel tram but rather to complement it with a faster connection. In addition, the proposed subway should be extended over the Plärrer along the Frauentorgraben to Nuremberg Central Station. At that time, however, the project never got beyond ideas and talks because of the high technical complexity and the costs. The first real forerunners of a metro came in 1938 during the Nazi era, when the tram routes were buried under Allersberger Straße and Bayernstraße. These facilities, still in existence but no longer used for passenger service, were built to not disturb the tram by the deployment columns of the SS barracks and the masses of visitors of the rallies held on the adjacent Nazi party rally grounds in their operations.
Only after the Second World War and with the onset of the economic miracle and the increasing motorization of the population were new plans for an "underground tram" ("Unterpflasterstraßenbahn" – "sub pavement tram" in German) set up. The suggestion of the Ulm professor Max-Erich Feuchtinger to move the tram between Plärrer and main station under the earth, was rejected by the Nuremberg city council on 19 March 1958. In 1962, the city council commissioned the Stuttgart traffic scientist Professor Walther Lambert to prepare an opinion on the future of Nuremberg public transport. The "Lambert report" with the recommendation to build an underground tram was published in 1963, and so the city council voted on 24 April 1963 to go ahead and build such a system with the option of a later conversion to full metro. This would've been in line with contemporary Stadtbahn projects in Stuttgart, Hannover or the Ruhr area.
On 24 November 1965 the city council reversed its decision of 1963 and decided to build a classic metro. This was preceded by a personal statement by Hans von Hanffstengel, head of the Nuremberg city planning office, on the opinion of Professor Lambert. Hanffstengel spoke out against the "temporary" solution of an underground tram and demanded the direct construction of a full underground. He was supported indirectly by the federal government, which offered a participation in the construction costs of 50%, and the then Bavarian Prime Minister Alfons Goppel, who assured the financial equality of the Nuremberg metro plans with those of the state capital. Other reasons brought forth at the time were the claimed necessity to close the entire line during a conversion (from underground tram to metro) for a period of several years.
Planning a basic network
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Initial considerations for a metro network already existed after the City Council decision of 1965, but concrete Grundnetz (starting or basic network) planning began only in the late 1960s after the adoption of the land-use plan of 1969. The first metro axis (what is now U1) was at this time already under construction and thus included in all variants. It was to connect the newly emerging satellite town of Langwasser via the main station, the old town and the Plärrer with Fürth and follows essentially the former tram line 1. Important goals for the other lines were the connection of the destinations airport, Meistersingerhalle, Municipal Hospital (today: Klinikum Nord ) and Tiergarten, covering as much of the urban area with as few stops as possible and the easy possibility to extend the base network into new urban development zones. All these considerations eventually led to a large number of network proposals, of which the models P, Q, R and S most closely approximated the specifications.
Model P
In the model "P" all lines connect at the main railway station as a central hub, which brings the advantage of offering easy connections between all modes of transport (U-Bahn, S-Bahn, long-distance trains and Buses at the ZOB). The main drawbacks would be a potential overburdening of the single interchange station (compare Châtelet–Les Halles in Paris) and the difficulty of tunneling in several levels (for the various lines) near the center of the historic old town. Further problems were identified with the Hauptbahnhof-Plärrer main trunk line. The lines would be as follows:
- U1: Langwasser – Hauptbahnhof (Main Railway Station) – Altstadt (Old Town) – Plärrer – Fürth
- U2: Flughafen (Airport) – Rathenauplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Opernhaus (Opera House) – Plärrer – Gebersdorf
- U3: Tiergarten (Zoo) – Hauptbahnhof – Opernhaus – Röthenbach
- U4: Thon – Rathenauplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Opernhaus – Plärrer – Wetzendorf
Model Q
The "Q" model is based on a new settlement axis between Nuremberg and Fürth along the Willstraße and new road tangents to be served by the U3 line. Positive effects are attributed to this network model for the development of the new settlement axis, negative could be the transfer links from the U3 to the city center and the supply of defective trains to the depots. The line network would look like this:
- U1: Langwasser – Aufseßplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Altstadt – Plärrer – Gostenhof – Fürth
- U2: Flughafen – Rathenauplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Steinbühl – Röthenbach
- U3: Tiergarten – Aufseßplatz – Steinbühl – Schlachthof – Gostenhof – St. Johannis – Rathenauplatz – Erlenstegen
- U4: Gebersdorf – Schlachthof – Gostenhof – St. Johannis – Wetzendorf
Model R
In the model "R", the three main lines intersect in the points Aufseßplatz, Hauptbahnhof and Plärrer and thus correspond to a classic network concept, which was similarly applied in Munich among other cities. An advantage would be a uniform utilization and development potential of all lines, a possible disadvantage would be unwanted settlement developments along the U3 north direction Thon and the U5 South direction Gartenstadt (urban sprawl). The lines would be as follows:
- U1: Langwasser – Aufseßplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Altstadt – Plärrer – Gostenhof – Fürth
- U2: Flughafen – Rathenauplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Plärrer – Gostenhof – Schlachthof – Röthenbach
- U3: Tiergarten – Aufseßplatz – Steinbühl – Plärrer – Gostenhof – St. Johannis – Thon
- U4: Erlenstegen – Rathenauplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Plärrer – Gostenhof – Schlachthof – Gebersdorf
- U5: Gartenstadt – Steinbühl – Plärrer – Gostenhof – St. Johannis – Wetzendorf
Model S
In the model "S" all lines run independently of each other and only intersect at the stations Aufseßplatz, Friedrich-Ebert-Platz, Hauptbahnhof, Rathenauplatz, Plärrer, Steinbühl and Schlachthof. The advantage is that there are no shared sections of the route and thus delays on one line would not induce delays on others. As a disadvantage, the frequent need to change trains would make few one-seat-rides possible and make a trip e.g. from Erlenstegen to Zerzabelshof need several changes. The lines would have been as follows in this model:
- U1: Langwasser – Aufseßplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Altstadt – Plärrer – Fürth
- U2: Flughafen – Rathenauplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Plärrer – Schlachthof – Röthenbach
- U3: Gebersdorf – Schlachthof – Steinbühl – Aufseßplatz – Tiergarten
- U4: Thon – Friedrich-Ebert-Platz – Plärrer – Steinbühl – Gartenstadt
- U5: Erlenstegen – Rathenauplatz – Friedrich-Ebert-Platz – Wetzendorf
Adopted plan
In the end, the model R was deemed to be the most useful of the four models in terms of urban planning, operational engineering and development possibilities. It was slightly modified and formed the basis of the "Nuremberg General Transit Plan" (GNVP) adopted on 8 September 1971 by the City Council. The planned metro network should thereafter consist of the three main lines, out of which the lines U2 and U3 should receive branching possibilities at the stations Friedrich-Ebert-Platz (direction Thon), Rathenauplatz (direction Erlenstegen), Steinbühl (direction Gartenstadt) and Schlachthof (direction Gebersdorf).
- U1: Langwasser – Aufseßplatz – Hauptbahnhof – Altstadt – Plärrer – Fürth (under construction)
- U2: Stein – Schlachthof – Plärrer – Hauptbahnhof – Rathenauplatz – Flughafen
- U3: Wetzendorf – Friedrich-Ebert-Platz – Plärrer – Steinbühl – Aufseßplatz – Tiergarten
One point of criticism is the insufficient consideration of the territories incorporated into the GNVP on 1 July 1972 (when several suburbs were annexed into Nuremberg in the course of a Bavaria-wide redrawing of municipal boundaries), since metro planning was only slightly adapted to the new settlements.
Construction
On 20 March 1967, German transport minister Georg Leber and Nuremberg Oberbürgermeister ("Lord Mayor") Andreas Urschlechter (both SPD) had the honour of "striking the first blow" for the new metro. This was done in Bauernfeindstraße when they triggered the pile driver.[5]
On 1 March 1972, the first 3.7-kilometre (2.3 mi) stretch of the system opened, U1 Langwasser Süd to Bauernfeindstraße.[6] An elevated line from Muggenhof station to Stadtgrenze station started construction along with the works on the first stretch of U1 in the Southeast of Nuremberg. This line along Fürther Straße would be used on an interim basis for the Straßenbahn (Tram) from 1970 to 1981 before being opened for the U-Bahn in 1982.[7][8] Over the next few years, further stretches of U1 were opened. Uniquely, the metro was built "from the outside in", starting in the rather outlying area of Langwasser before reaching the historical core and the central train station. Langwasser was a new housing development with many high-rise buildings assembled from prefabricated parts as was the style in that era. Similar developments in East Germany are known as Plattenbau. When Plärrer station was built, it was built with two sets of tracks above each other and provisions were made for another level of tracks to cross the existing tracks. The former has been in use for U2 (and later U3) ever since those lines opened, whereas the latter has never been fully built up as of 2024. Unlike at Hauptbahnhof where U2/U3 and U1 stop on different levels, at Plärrer there is on track on both levels used for U1 and the other for U2/U3, enabling easier change between trains (Cross-platform interchange). The first subway line reached Fürth Hauptbahnhof in 1985 which would remain its endpoint until 1998. The focus thus shifted to the construction of a second subway line in Nuremberg.
On 28 January 1984, Nuremberg's second U-Bahn line, U2, went into service between Plärrer and Schweinau. This line, too, underwent further extensions, eventually even reaching the airport in 1999 - the last extension of U2 as of 2024. Even during construction, provisions were made for future branching extensions at Rothenburger Straße station and Rathenauplatz station. Those tunnel stubs were indeed used roughly two decades later when what is now U3 was built.
Expansions of the metro were often accompanied with the closure of nearby tram lines, which was initially not opposed by most of the city's population. The original plans of the 1960s had called for the complete abandonment of the tram network if and when the metro was fully built out. However, in the 1990s a change of course became apparent and the decision to shut down the tram network was officially reversed. Nonetheless, in the course of the construction of the northern branch of U3, further shutdowns of trams occurred along Pirckheimerstraße – however, the tracks are still operational for non-revenue movements of trams or in case of interruptions on the rest of the network and it is variously debated to restart revenue service on those tracks.[9][10]
On 4 December 2004, a new 1.3-kilometre (0.81 mi) section of U1 opened in Fürth, stretching from Stadthalle station to Klinikum station and allowing a further interchange with S1 (Nuremberg S-Bahn), which was extended to serve that station in 2010. On 8 December 2007, U1 was further extended to Fürth Hardhöhe. Those were the last (as of 2024) extensions of U1.
On 14 June 2008, the newest U-Bahn line, U3, opened for service.[11] U3 was first extended in 2011 with Kaulbachplatz and Friedrich Ebert Platz (interchange for Tram line 4) opening on 11 December. U3 was extended again in 2017 with Klinikum Nord and Nordwestring being the latest stations to open on its northern branch on 22 May. The latest station to open was on 15 October 2020, Großreuth bei Schweinau, along the southern branch of U3. Further extensions along the same branch with tentative names "Kleinreuth" and "Gebersdorf" are already planned or under construction.
Network
The U-Bahn network comprises three lines,[1] covering about 38 kilometres (24 mi) of network route[1] of which 38 kilometres (24 mi) is operational route.[2] The network serves 49 stations[1][2] which can all be reached by lift. The system uses "firm tracks" (i.e. rails fastened to a solid trackbed, rather than to sleepers on ballast) in almost all tunnels, although not at Langwasser Mitte (U1) and the adjoining tunnel up to just before Gemeinschaftshaus. Also, ballast is still used on the inbound track, at the entrance to Schoppershof station (U2).
| Line | Route | Opened | Length | Stations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fürth Hardhöhe ↔ Langwasser Süd | 1972–2007 | 18.5 km (11.5 mi) | 27 |
|
Flughafen/Airport ↔ Röthenbach | 1984–1999 | 13.2 km (8.2 mi) | 16 |
|
Großreuth ↔ Nordwestring | 2008–2020 | 9.2 km (5.7 mi) | 14 |
