Frankfurt U-Bahn
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Underground station Westend on Lines U6 & U7.
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| Overview | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | RMV | ||
| Locale | Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany | ||
| Transit type | Rapid transit/Light rail | ||
| Number of lines | 9 | ||
| Number of stations | 86 | ||
| Daily ridership | 321,000 (2012) | ||
| Annual ridership | 117.3 million (2012) | ||
| Website | VGF | ||
| Operation | |||
| Began operation | 4 October 1968 | ||
| Operator(s) | Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (VgF) | ||
| Character | Mostly underground, with significant sections at-grade (including at-grade intersections), with some street running (U5 line) | ||
| Train length | 50–105 metres (164–344 ft) | ||
| Headway | 5-15 minutes (daytime) | ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 64.9 km (40.3 mi) | ||
| Track gauge |
1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) (standard gauge) |
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| Top speed | 80 km/h (50 mph) | ||
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The Frankfurt U-Bahn, together with the Rhine-Main S-Bahn and the Frankfurt Straßenbahn, forms the backbone of the public transport system of Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. Its name derives from the German term for underground, Untergrundbahn. Since 1996, the U-Bahn has been owned and operated by Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (VgF), the public transport company of Frankfurt, and is part of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) transit association.
The U-Bahn opened in 1968, and has been expanded several times. It consists of three inner-city tunnels and above-ground lines in the suburbs. About 59% of the track length is underground. The above-ground sections operate at different standards from traditional rapid transit systems due to the independent expansion of at-grade rail for those sections – they are more like light rail (Stadtbahn) due to their not being fully grade-separated.
The network consists of 86 stations on nine lines, with a total length of 64.85 kilometres (40.30 mi). Eight of the nine lines travel through the city center (line U9 being the exception). In 2012, the U-Bahn carried 117.3 million passengers, an average of approximately 321,000 passengers per day.
Planning began in the 1950s to replace the overburdened streetcars with a more robust public transit system. The various local political parties put forward plans for a full U-Bahn, a streetcar system with an underground section downtown (i.e. a Stadtbahn), and an elevated railway, respectively. Eventually politics, in the form of the 1964 municipal election, resolved the issue in favor of the U-Bahn project that began as a light rail/Stadtbahn network using tunnels in Frankfurt's city core, but which in the future would be transformed into a fully rapid transit U-Bahn network.
The U-Bahn opened on 4 October 1968, with the underground route from Hauptwache to Nordweststadt.
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