The Line A can be divided into five sections, which are used by the four services U1, U2, U3 and U8. All services start at the
Südbahnhof and use the common inner-city trunk line to Heddernheim. Here, the track divides into four branches that run over the northwest city to Ginnheim (U1), over Bonames and Nieder-Eschbach to Gonzenheim (U2), Oberursel to Hohemark (U3) and since 2010 via a connecting link to Riedberg (U8), Basically, this is a single route that branches into three branches in the northern outskirts with a connection between the middle and the eastern branch. The U1 operates as the oldest Frankfurt subway service since 1968, until 1978 under the name "A1". The U2 to Bad Homburg wore from 1910 to 1971 as the overland tram of the Frankfurt local train route number 25, then she operated until 1978 as the subway service "A2". The Oberurseler route, today driven by line U3, operated from 1910 to 1971 as tram route 24, then until 1978 as subway service "A3". In addition, operated from 1910 to 1971 on the Homburger branch a reinforcing route 23 from the city to Bonames, from 1971 to 1978 as "A4". Since the end of 2010, the new U8 service connects the district of Riedberg with the city center. Due to the forced abandonment of an open construction method, other tunnel construction techniques such as shield tunneling and the new Austrian tunnel construction method were used alongside the icing for the first time on the A line. A designation from the construction planning and time of the tunnel has survived to this day: the "B-level". The different levels were designated in the plans with letters (ground surface A, first basement B, etc.), according to plan the A-line of the subway at Hauptwache reverses in the D-level; the S-Bahn and the C-line of the subway (U6, U7) in the C-level. While the other names, with the exception of the buttons of the subsequently installed elevators, have disappeared, the term "B-level" has remained in common usage until today. Officially, the line A is not subdivided according to the route, but according to construction sections. The sections of the trunk line are numbered with Roman numerals. The connection routes have Arabic numbers, whereby the distance to the Riedberg officially belongs to the D-distance.
U1 The
U1 is a service on the
Frankfurt U-Bahn. When the service was introduced in 1968, it ran from the
south railway station to the
Hauptwache and then continued along the Eschersheimer Landstrasse all the way up to
Heddernheim and then continued to their terminus in
Ginnheim. The branch from Heddernheim to Ginnheim is also served by the U1 and between the Heddernheimer Landstraße and Ginnheim stations by the U9 belonging to the D-line. In contrast to the two branches of the U2 and U3 services, this section was rebuilt from the start as a subway, while the other two emerged from overland trams. It was part of the first Frankfurt subway line, which led from 1968 from the Hauptwache in the early 1960s built large housing estate northwest city. The route of the U1 branches off at the Heddernheimer Station Zeilweg from the Oberurseler route to the south, where it meets with the Riedberg coming section of the route. It runs some 100 meters east parallel to Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße, a city highway, which owes its existence as the U1 the connection of the northwest city. On the interrupted by the highway Heddernheimer highway is the same metro station. It opens up the northern part of the large housing estate, the quarter "Wiesenau". The station was heavily drawn to its completed in April 2010 renovation by decades of vandalism. Immediately on the southern platform of the train begins the subway tunnel under the northwest city. At first, it passes under Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße at an acute angle and leads underground to the subway station Nordwestzentrum. The northwestern center was originally not designed as a closed shopping mall, but as the center of the northwest city, and in addition to numerous shops also included many social facilities and a campus of the University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt. The current operator, who even took care of the refurbishment of the subway station, turned the northwest center into a large shopping center, and today its catchment area extends far beyond the northwest city. In addition to the subway station, there is also a bus station in the northwest center, which is located within the building complex. South of the station, the tunnel swings back to the axis of Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße and ends after about 600 meters on the
median strip of the city highway. Directly at the exit of the tunnel is the subway station Römerstadt, named after the settlement Römerstadt, built by
Ernst May on the site of the ancient city of Nida. South of the Hadrianstraße the Stadtbahn passes over a concrete area, which is partly used as a parking lot. From here begins a path that leads from the subway station to the nearby Niddapark. The railway bridge also moves closer to the Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße, as it has to pass a former air raid shelter there. After the bunker ends, the bridge and the light rail lead together with the Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße on a railway embankment. On the railway embankment there is a turning facility between the railway tracks to Ginnheim. The western track is 155 meters long, so here six railcars can be parked in a row. The eastern track is only 105 meters long and thus designed for only four railcars. Here, mainly individual courses of the U1 service are parked, which are no longer needed in the late hours. The turning system is normally no longer used for turning after the extension to Ginnheim, with the exception of two cases: on the one hand in the section Römerstadt → Ginnheim, on the other hand if the U3 the section Wiesenau → Heddernheim can not use. Behind the turning plant ends the earth dam and the metropolitan railway passes on a bridge the Nidda. The bridge also spans the south of the Nidda lying street "Am Ginnheimer grove", which then flows onto the Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße. ;
Europaturm tower on the left. Now the light rail is again on a railway embankment along with the Rosa-Luxembourg-road through the Niddapark. The route runs through the Niddapark, a public park created after the 1989 Federal Garden Show. The then built station, which lies on the edge of the railway embankment, opens up the park. Due to the low passenger usage in the evenings and lack of social control, the station, afflicted by countless vandals, today offers a sad image. Originally there was a lift at Niddapark station that led from the road to the distributor level, as well as two inclined lifts leading to the platforms. Due to strong vandalism damage, the elevators were shut down in the 1990s. The city highway then crosses the Main-Weser-Bahn and the district Ginnheim, the elevated railway thread here to the south and finally reaches its ground-level terminus Ginnheim. It is also the terminus of the coming from the south tram route 16, which meets here with the U1 and the U9 and shares a five-track community station. From the mezzanine of the Niddapark metro station, you can reach a footpath that leads along the metro to Ginnheim. The entire section from the Römerstadt train station to Ginnheim is the only section of the surface completely developed according to metro criteria.
U2 The
U2 is a service on the
Frankfurt U-Bahn. At the time of the service's inauguration in 1968, it ran from the
south railway station to the
Hauptwache and then continued along the Eschersheimer Landstrasse all the way up to
Heddernheim and then continued to their terminus in
Bad Homburg. The leading to Gonzenheim, driven by the U2 Streckenast is older than the Frankfurt subway. He emerged from an overland section of the Frankfurt local railway, which connected Heddernheim and Bad Homburg since 1910. Bad Homburg also had from 1899 to 1935 its own tram network, which was connected via the local railway with the Frankfurt network. The local railway used in Frankfurt and Homburg along the street-level tracks of urban trams, the intermediate part was traced in the manner of a railroad independent of the road network. The local railway lines were actually not licensed as a tram, but as a small train. The former Homburger Lokalbahn line used today by the U2 begins at Heddernheim station with the aforementioned depot and turns north. On the edge of the former factory premises of the 1982 closed United German metal works the route leads along the Olof-Palme-Straße to the north. The stations Sandelmühle and Riedwiese open up here since 1987 as Mertonviertel residential and commercial area. At Marie-Curie-Straße, the route swings in an easterly direction, crosses below the Riedberg A 661 and then runs through undeveloped terrain. There it meets with the route of the U9 to the Riedberg and leads up to the quarter Bonames, in which the stations Kalbach and Bonames middle lie. After the railroad crossing Homburger Landstraße immediately after the station Bonames Mitte lies on the right hand side the Friedrich-Fauldrath-Anlage, which is a relic of the former tram turning loop. Then the route follows for a short stretch of Steinernen Straße, a historic main street from Mainz into the Wetterau, and then turns towards Nieder-Eschbach, the last district before the city limits. Nieder-Eschbach has a turning facility and since its conversion to automatic operation has been the terminus for a number of trains, as only one in two trains runs to Gonzenheim in the slower traffic times. Between Nieder-Eschbach and Ober-Eschbach, the route crosses the A5, which follows here approximately the city boundary between Frankfurt and Bad Homburg. Around the station Ober-Eschbach emerged in recent years, a densified residential area, which exploits the convenient transport links. The following station Gonzenheim has been the terminus of the Homburger line since the changeover to subway operation. The formerly from here in the Homburg city center continuing tram line led through narrow city streets, in which a subway operation on the surface was not possible. The terminus is one of the many long-term temporaries of the Frankfurt subway, because since its commissioning in 1971 is planned to extend the U2. This is partly due to objections from the residents, partly due to concerns of the FVV because of parallel traffic; A tour of the tunnel was opposed by the high construction and operating costs. Since 2012 the planning approval procedure for the further construction runs. The new route is to begin about 200 meters before today's final stop with a ramp to which a 350-meter long single-track tunnel between the portals Erlenweg and Gotenstraße connects. The Gonzenheim stop will be moved 200 meters to the west and lie in a low position in the future. At the western end of the tunnel will pass under the Homburger Bahn in a tight turn. West of the railway crossing, the route climbs in a trough structure, crosses the Dornbach and the Lange Meile and then runs parallel to the railway to the station Bad Homburg, where the U2 will end at track 301. The entire new line is 1646 meters long, of which 550 meters single track
U3 The
U3 is a service on the
Frankfurt U-Bahn. At the time of the services's inauguration in 1968, it ran from the
south railway station to the
Hauptwache and then continued along the Eschersheimer Landstrasse all the way up to
Heddernheim and then continued to their terminus in
Oberursel. The U3 has also begun running from the Frankfurt tunnel. The connection between Heddernheim and the state station, Oberursel, at the Homburger course was opened in 1910. The
mountain railway, beginning from the stationo Oberursel began in 1899. Both routes are today, after numerous modifications, are part of Frankfurt U-Bahn. The Oberurseler stretch leads from the railway station Heddernheim in a westerly direction. After about one kilometer, the line used by the U1 opened in 1968 branches off to the south. The railway, formerly used by industrial areas and undeveloped terrain, today leads through a residential area that originated as part of the Merton area in the early 1990s. Near the station Zeilweg is a well-known kindergarten designed by the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The railway crosses the Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße and follows the valley of the Urselbach. Here are the stations Wiesenau and Niederursel. After the Niederursel station, the route branches off the U8 and U9 to Riedberg. After that, it passes under the A 5 and follows in a lateral position to the side of the Frankfurter Landstraße. At the junction of Kurmainzer Straße is the station Weißkirchen East, which is already on Oberurseler urban area, at the confluence of the Bommersheimer Straße the station Bommersheim. From the station Oberursel the route runs on a special railway body through Oberursel, first along the Berliner Straße (station Oberursel city center), then from the station Oberursel old town along the Hohemarkstraße. The railway line and the stations Lahnstraße, Glöcknerwiese and copper hammer are located south of the road, then it changes to the northern side of the road. The last section with the stops Rosengärtchen and Waldlust is single-tracked, the terminus Hohemark again double-tracked. Here, at the beginning of the Taunus Nature Park, there is a large park-and-ride area next to the station. The former turning loop was closed in 1986 and dismantled. Until the Hessentag 2011, all platforms were converted, usable for three-car trains of 75 m in length and a platform height of 80 cm. The new U5 railcars were first used on this route.
The connecting U8 and U9 The
U8 is a service on the
Frankfurt U-Bahn. At the time of the service's inauguration in 2010, it ran from the
south railway station to the
Hauptwache and then continued along the Eschersheimer Landstrasse all the way up to
Heddernheim and then continued to their terminus in
Riedberg. The connecting link between the Oberurseler and the Homburg branch of the A line was originally planned as part of the D line, which was to form a second north–south axis in addition to the A line. After that, the section between Ginnheim and Heddernheimer Landstraße would have become part of the connection from the main station to the university campus Niederursel. The gap between the already existing distance main station – Bockenheimer Warte (U4) and the final stop Ginnheim the line U1, for which already a baureife planning existed, was rejected however after the local elections 2006 by the new coalition of CDU and the Greens. This resulted in the need to connect the Neubauviertel on the Riedberg over the A-line to the subway network. Between the stations Heddernheimer highway, Wiesenau and Zeilweg a new track triangle was planned. This is where the completely above-ground new line over the Riedberg, built between June 2008 and December 2010, begins. Of the almost four kilometers of track, 2.3 km were built as a grass track and 1.5 km as a conventional gravel track. In the area of the new Gleisdreieck, the previous branch from Heddernheim to the northern portal of the Nordweststadt Tunnel was swiveled slightly to the northeast and the Heddernheimer Landstraße station was moved by a few meters. Unlike originally planned the Riedberg received thereby a direct connection to the city center. Only the planning designation D IV still reminds of the original planning. The 12.3-kilometer U8 runs every 15 minutes between Südbahnhof and Riedberg; In order to win the required timetable routes on the A route, the clock of the U3 between Südbahnhof and Oberursel was also extended to a quarter of an hour. Behind the Riedberg station, a single-track turning plant for the U8 was built between the track towards Nieder-Eschbach. Since December 2010, the 10.3 kilometer U9 service has been operating on the originally planned D line. It starts in Ginnheim and initially drives together with the U1. Shortly after the station Heddernheimer highway it turns off and meets in front of the station Wiesenau on the U3 and the new U8. While the U8 only goes to Riedberg, the U9 is continued via Kalbach to Nieder-Eschbach on the route of the U2. The U9 is thus the first Frankfurt subway service, which does not affect the city center, as long as the gap in the D-stretch between Bockenheim and Ginnheim remains. The station Ginnheim is now a central transfer station between the tram route 16, the subways U1 and U9 and there-operating bus lines 39 and 64. At the station Niddapark a four-track expansion of the
Main-Weser-Bahn is under construction. An interchange is created between U-Bahn and S-Bahn service S6 which is planned to call there. Travelers from the north could then change to tram 16 or suburban train S6 to get to the main station. Instead of the originally planned 175 million euros cost this variant, which was presented in December 2006 by the then Traffic Department Lutz Sikorski, only 71 million. 70 percent of this is borne by the federal and state governments. It was opened at the timetable change on December 12, 2010. ==Opening Dates==