Bochum Stadtbahn

Bochum Stadtbahn

A new Tango train on the U35 line.
Overview
Locale	Bochum/Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Transit type	Light rail (Stadtbahn)
Number of lines	1
Line number	U35
Number of stations	21 (15 underground)
Website	BOGESTRA
Operation
Began operation	2 September 1989
Operator(s)	BOGESTRA
Technical
System length	approx. 15 km (9 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge)
System map

The Bochum Stadtbahn is a light rail line, linking the cities of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen and the surrounding cities of Herne, Hattingen and Witten. It is operated by BOGESTRA. It consists of a single Stadtbahn line, which includes some underground tunnel sections beneath the city centers of Bochum and Gelsenkirchen.

The Bochum Stadtbahn opened on 2 September 1989, then operating a route between Castle Herne Strünkede and Bochum Central Station. An extension of the line from the Bochum Central Station south to the Ruhr-University Bochum and to Hustadt opened for service on 28 November 1993. Planned sections of the Bochum Stadtbahn northwest to Recklinghausen and southeast to Witten were never implemented due to the associated costs to these respective municipalities.

The Bochum Stadtbahn route is called the U35 line. It runs north-south for approximately 15 kilometers (9 mi) from Schloss Strünkede in Herne, via the city center of Bochum and the Ruhr University Bochum, to Querenburg in Bochum. More than two-thirds of this line runs underground. Only the southernmost six stations are at grade, in the portion of the U35 line that runs in the median of a highway. On this section, there are three at-grade road crossings, which renders it not a true metro system but a light rail one. The U35 is by far the busiest public transport line in the BOGESTRA service area – it is the only rail line to run every 5 minutes on weekdays and the only one on which the trains consist of two coupled-car trainsets.