Schwebebahn Wuppertal

Wuppertal Suspension Railway
(Wuppertaler Schwebebahn)

Wuppertal Suspension Railway
Overview
Locale	Wuppertal, Germany
Transit type	Suspension railway
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	20
Daily ridership	82,000
Operation
Began operation	1 March 1901; 116 years ago (1901-03-01)
Operator(s)	Wuppertaler Stadtwerke (WSW)
Technical
System length	13.3 km (8.3 mi)
System map Depot and turning loop 0.0 Oberbarmen 0.7 Wupperfeld L419 Brändströmstraße 1.3 Werther Brücke 2.0 Alter Markt Friedrich-Engels-Allee 2.8 Adlerbrücke 3.3 Loher Brücke L433 Loher Straße 4.1 Völklinger Straße 5.1 Landgericht Bundesallee 5.8 Kluse/Schauspielhaus Bundesallee L70 Morianstraße Alte Freiheit 6.3 Hauptbahnhof 6.8 Ohligsmühle Bundesallee L427 Tannenbergstraße 7.4 Robert-Daum-Platz 8.2 Pestalozzistraße 8.8 Westende 9.7 Varresbecker Straße 10.3 Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway 10.4 Zoo/Stadion 10.5 Former turning loop 10.6 Start of the Overland section Sonnborner Straße 11.0 Sonnborner Straße 11.3 Sonnborner Kreuz 11.7 Hammerstein 12.5 Bruch Gräfrather Straße 13.3 Vohwinkel Schwebebahn Main workshops, depot and turning loop This diagram:

The Wuppertal Suspension Railway (German: Wuppertaler Schwebebahn) is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany.

Its full name is "Electric Elevated Railway (Suspension Railway) Installation, Eugen Langen System" (Anlage einer elektrischen Hochbahn (Schwebebahn), System Eugen Langen). It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world and is a unique system.

Designed by Eugen Langen to sell to the city of Berlin, the installation with elevated stations was built in Barmen, Elberfeld and Vohwinkel between 1897 and 1903; the first track opened in 1901. The Schwebebahn is still in use today as a normal means of local public transport, moving 25 million passengers annually (2008).

The suspension railway runs along a route of 13.3 kilometres (8.3 mi), at a height of about 12 metres (39 ft) above the river Wupper between Oberbarmen and Sonnborner Straße (10 kilometres or 6.2 miles) and about 8 metres (26 ft) above the valley road between Sonnborner Straße and Vohwinkel (3.3 kilometres or 2.1 miles). At one point the railway crosses the A46 motorway. The entire trip takes about 30 minutes. The Wuppertal Suspension Railway operates within the VRR transport association and accepts tickets issued by the VRR companies.

The Wuppertal Suspension Railway had a forerunner: in 1824, Henry Robinson Palmer of England presented a railway system which differed from all previous constructions. It was a low single-rail suspension railway on which the carriages were drawn by horses. Friedrich Harkort, a Prussian industrial entrepreneur and politician, loved the idea. He saw big advantages for the transportation of coal to the early industrialised region in and around the Wupper valley. Harkort had his own steel mill in Elberfeld; he built a demonstration segment of the Palmer system and set it up in 1826 on the grounds of what is today the Wuppertal tax office. He tried to attract public attention to his railway plans.