Preliminary operations started on 10 June 2001, initially with six borrowed
Saarbahn tramcars, on the
Warburg–Kassel line. Thus, the previous regional railway timetable was now being served by the new vehicles. RegioTram operation with 30-minute headways was realized. RegioCitadis type vehicles manufactured by
Alstom in
Salzgitter were delivered in July 2004, and took over the operation on this line on 8 May 2005; the borrowed Saarbahn tramcars were then returned. This route is now served by RegioTram Line 1 (RT1). train approaching
Wolfhagen using diesel power. Starting on 29 January 2006, the first RegioTram operations began on the Kassel tram rail network itself. The hybrid RegioTram vehicles joined the tram tracks in the downtown core of Kassel on the Lossetalbahn to
Hessisch Lichtenau during peak hours, the terminus of the tram line. The diesel-electric vehicles used a direct route over the
Waldkappel rail line between Ober- and Nieder-
Kaufungen which is not electrified. This meant, in contrast to the trams which served all stops, a reduction in journey time. In August 2007, the switch to the continuous use of conventional tramcar vehicles on this line was made. The former tram-train runs over the non-electrified railway through Waldkappel were replaced by tram "express" trips that do not operate at all stops along the route. Starting 1 June 2006, RegioTram operations from Kassel Hauptbahnhof, through
Baunatal,
Guxhagen and
Körle, to
Melsungen, began. This RegioTram Line 5 (RT5) runs alternately once and twice every hour. Operations between Kassel and
Wolfhagen, through
Ahnatal and
Zierenberg, began on 10 December 2006 on RegioTram Line 4 (RT4). Between 16 September 2007 and the timetable change in December 2007, the RegioTram Line 9 (RT9) operated in advance from Kassel Hauptbahnhof to
Treysa. RegioTram routes in Kassel started running on the Inner City Ring to Leipziger Straße on 19 August 2007 (RT4), 16 September 2007 (RT3 and RT5) and December 2007 (RT9). The full development of the infrastructure to allow for a 30-minute headways on all lines was implemented in December 2013. On the lines RT3 and RT4, new stops at Kassel-Jungfernkopf, and Vellmar-Osterberg/EKZ on the Harleshäuser Kurve, were put into operation on 13 December 2008. On 25 April 2009, a new station Kassel-Kirchditmold was also added to the same section. In Melsungen, a new stop at Melsungen-Bartenwetzerbrücke was put into operation on the RT5 on 20 May 2011. In December 2015, the RT9 line to Treysa was discontinued and replaced by
Regionalbahn and
Regional-Express trains. ==See also==