1920s: Berlin and Vienna cross-city lines The term
Stadtbahn first arose in the first half of the 20th century as a name for the 19th century built cross-city lines in
Berlin and
Vienna. The
Berlin Stadtbahn line is an elevated heavy rail line linking the East and the West. Long distance, regional, suburban, and urban services (
S-Bahn) are operated on it. In Berlin unqualified use of the term is still widely understood to refer to the Berlin Stadtbahn. The
Vienna Stadtbahn was in the beginning a system of heavy rail lines circling the city, free of level crossings, operated by steam trains. After World War I the
Wiental,
Donaukanal and
Gürtel lines were converted into an electric light rail system with tram-like two-axle cars (which on line 18G until 1945 switched into the tram network at Gumpendorfer Strasse station). In the 1970s to 1990s the infrastructure was updated, and the lines were partially relocated: they are now part of the
Vienna U-Bahn services 'U4' and 'U6'. The
Vorortelinie line remained heavy rail and is now part of the
Vienna S-Bahn. at
Bensberg in 2005 train in 2022
1960s: modern Stadtbahn Since the 1960s the term
Stadtbahn has become identified with a second, now dominant, meaning. Here
Stadtbahn is an underground urban rail network that is used by conventional trams but planned at the outset to be eventually converted into a metro system. A final metro system may or may not be implemented in the end. This concept has the benefit of being cheaper in comparison with constructing a metro from scratch. Post-World War II transport policies in West German cities aimed for a separation of public and private transport. The conflicts that arose between increasing car usage and the existing tramway systems led to the so-called 'second level' concept for future light rail schemes. This concept focused on the grade separation, i.e., elevation and/or tunneling of tram lines.
Munich and
Nuremberg decided to build pure, full-scale
U-Bahn (metro) systems.
Berlin and
Hamburg planned expansions of their existing U-Bahn networks, while most West German cities decided to upgrade their tramway networks step by step, linking new 'second level' infrastructure to existing sections. While some cities regarded this solution as an interim step that would lead to a fully separated
U-Bahn (metro) network independent of other forms of transport, others planned for a lesser degree of separation, one that would accommodate additional tram-like sections in the long run. For both the interim and the long-term based concepts, the following terms came into use , abbreviated as or ('underground tramway'), ('rapid tramway'), and finally . An older term already used in the 1920s is "Unterpflasterbahn" ('sub-pavement train'); this term has fallen almost entirely out of use by the 21st century. In French-speaking regions (particularly
Wallonia and the bilingual
Brussels Capital Region), these concepts were labelled "
pre-metro", stressing their – then-planned and advertised – interim nature. All German cities that had a "true" U-Bahn network had plans to abandon their tramway network at one point or another. In the case of Hamburg, those plans resulted in the shutdown of the
Hamburg tramway by 1978. In the case of Berlin, the network in
West Berlin was shut down in 1967 while the plans to shut down the system in East Berlin were reversed and ultimately the tram network started expanding again in the last years of East Germany; it now
serves some portions of the former West again. In Nuremberg and Munich the plans to shut down the tram networks were slowed down – in part due to protests by citizens against losing tram service without adequate replacement – ultimately abandoned and there are now plans for new tram construction in both cities. However, as late as 2011 the tram line through Pirckheimer Straße in Nuremberg was shut down in the course of the opening of a new section of
subway line U3 which runs slightly to the North. -Straße in
Frankfurt-Rödelheim Some operators and cities decided to identify the term
Stadtbahn with the eventual goal of installing an
U-Bahn so that both the original U-Bahn logo (e.g.
Frankfurt U-Bahn,
Cologne Stadtbahn,
Hanover Stadtbahn) and the derived
U-Stadtbahn logos (e.g.
North Rhine-Westphalia,
Stuttgart Stadtbahn; see example above) mark station entries and stops. The numbering scheme for
Stadtbahn services was prefixed with a 'U', except in the
Cologne Stadtbahn,
Bielefeld Stadtbahn, and
Hanover Stadtbahn. In local parlance some of those systems are referred to as "U-Bahn", especially when talking about tunnel sections. However, this somewhat misleading terminology is only officially used in Frankfurt am Main which calls its Stadtbahn "Frankfurt U-Bahn". Official documents and specialist publications or
railfans and transit advocates maintain the distinction in terms while large parts of the general public and non-specialist press by and large do not.
1980s: Renaissance of the tramway By the 1980s conventional tramways had been seen by decision-makers as overloaded systems for more than two decades. However, public attention focused on them at this time for two reasons. The
Stadtbahn cities' second level plans faced unexpected complications in the form of lengthy construction work, budgetary problems for tunnel projects, and protests against elevated sections. At the same time, the smaller cities which had not started Stadtbahn plans reassessed their options in relation to their existing tram systems. Furthermore, relocating public transit or even pedestrians underground increasingly got a negative reputation and the concept of the
automotive city – all but dominating public discourse in the 1950s and 1960s – was increasingly called into question. East German cities had no 1960s-style Stadtbahn plans in place, and the fleets and the infrastructure were in need of massive investment and improvement. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the use of the
Stadtbahn term became popular in the former East Germany as well, as in
Erfurt and
Dresden. However, neither the
Erfurt tramway nor the
Dresden tramway have any significant tunnel or elevated sections or plans to build any. In their case separation from road traffic is achieved by giving the trams their own right of way on the surface.
Stadtbahn in this wider meaning is thus not a clearly defined concept, but a vague one linked to a set of attributes, much in the same way that
Straßenbahn ('tram') is linked to very different, sometimes mutually incompatible attributes. A system that is called
Stadtbahn today may not have all of the Stadtbahn attributes: barrier-free access, higher cruising speed than tramways, doors on both sides of the train, driver's cabs on both ends, higher operating voltage, wider cars with comfortable seats, and so on.
1990s: The tram goes railway In 1992
Karlsruhe started an innovative new service, using both heavy and light rail infrastructure, to link the wider region to the city. The vehicles were designed to comply with technical specifications for the (federal) heavy railway and for light rail (communal tramways). Such vehicles are called Dual-System Light Rail Vehicles. The meaning of Stadtbahn was enlarged to encompass this new type of "
tram-train" service. In other regions, stimulated by the Karlsruhe example and planning to copy it, other terms are in use: Stadt-Umland-Bahn (city-to-region railway, e.g.
Erlangen, also in discussion to connect the nearer surroundings of
Munich, as far as not supplied with S-Bahn services so far, with the existing public transport there),
Regional-Stadtbahn (regional light rail, e.g.
Braunschweig). The difference of this system to other systems where light rail mixes with heavy rail, is that in systems like Cologne-Bonn's the tracks were converted for Stadtbahn use by changing the electrification, while in Karlsruhe the trains were equipped to run on both types of track. Straßenbahn (tram) and Stadtbahn in the
Karlsruhe region are differentiated more by the nature of their city-border crossings only, and not by the technical dimension (Dual-System Light Rail Vehicles). Only those services that extend into the suburbs are called Stadtbahn. They are represented by the 'S' logo that is used for () in the rest of Germany and therefore partially conflict with it, as it has acquired a second meaning in Karlsruhe.
2000s: The Tram logo As part of the redevelopment of their main city
stations, national railway company
Deutsche Bahn adopted a new logo to indicate
Straßenbahn (tram) connections: a square containing the word 'Tram'. Although the design is the same nationwide, the colour varies from city to city to match local public transport operators' systems of colour-coding. The logo is part of the 'S logo scheme' initially developed by
Berlin public transport operator
BVG, based on the established logos for urban metro ('U', for
U-Bahn) and suburban metro ('S', for
S-Bahn) and including bus ('Bus') and ferry ('F', for
Fähre) operations. The logo also helped spread the word "Tram" at the expense of
Straßenbahn and
elektrische ("electric [railway/tramway]") the latter of which having become somewhat antiquated. The term "Bim" (short for "Bimmelbahn" in turn derived from the semi-
onomatopoetic "bimmeln" for the sound of a bell) meanwhile has become limited to Austria, particularly the
"Bim" in Vienna. As the new logos became part of the information systems at more and more main railway stations, an increasing number of cities and public transport operators came to accept and adopt the scheme. As far as the
Stadtbahn terminology problem is concerned, however, the scheme serves only to add further confusion to the matter, since there is no nationwide logo for
Stadtbahn services. The result appears to be a contraction in the use of the term
Stadtbahn, especially in cities where it has been used in its wider 1980s 'light-rail system' meaning. In cities where
Stadtbahn has the 1960s '
pre-metro' meaning, both the 'U' (for ) and the 'Tram' logo are used on city maps (to indicate the location of stops) and on railway station signage (to indicate connections). The 'U' Logo is normally used both where stops or stations are underground and where they serve grade separated 'pre-metro' type lines. In cities which prefix all their
Stadtbahn line numbers with a 'U' (e.g.
Stuttgart), the 'U' logo is used at stops on services that are essentially 'classic' tram lines, not grade separated at all. == Regionalstadtbahn ==