Neusser Straße/Gürtel (KVB)

The underground station Neuss Straße / Gürtel is a station of the lines 12, 13 and 15 of the rail Cologne, all the lines are operated by the Cologne Transport companies. It is a railway junction between the Nippeser tunnel and the belt - high rail, the outer tangential line of the Cologne Stadtbahn. It was opened as part of the largest construction effort of the Cologne underground in 1974: the Nippeser tunnel together with the belt - high rink, zoo - route and the areas of Hansa Ring / Breslauer Platz / Hbf - Ebert place. It has four tracks, but had no track change. Daily hold more than 700 trains runs regularly at this station.

Location

The station is located at the District Town Hall Nippes, about the point of contact of the districts Nippes, Weidenpesch and Mauenheim. It lies at the Neuss road, today's Federal Highway 9 (B 9), which leads out to the left side of the Rhine north of the city. The Nippeser rail tunnel is the left bank, the most widely used route failure of the Cologne Stadtbahn. In addition to the lines 12 and 15 it is used daily for use trains to the Ford plants, and for trips to the street railway workshop Weidenpesch.

The called station name in the intersection with the belt road there is not actually until today. The northern extension of the belt road is by planning for planned since the 1920s, but not realized until today. The belt is included in the name because the station is part of the belt path of the light rail because it lies on the planned road, and because the belt for cyclists and walkers already exists by dirt tracks along the elevated railway viaduct today as a path.

The belt line (line 13) drives around linksrheinisch about 2-3 km further out of town than the ring route in a semi-circle near the inner city neighborhoods of Cologne. In the south, it starts on the Luxembourg road; in the north is towards the Rhine created a viaduct and united to the Mülheim Bridge with the line 18 direction Köln- Mülheim, where they enter together since 1997 in the Mülheim tunnel. In the other direction, however, the line 13 from Neuss road emerges after 700 m turn left into another tower station, where it stops at the tunnel platform, and where above the line S11 S-Bahn Cologne stops as a dam rail and interchanges offers.

The belt line is used daily for one and disengaging trains from 18 ( Vorgebirgsbahn ) to the depot in West Brown Field.

History

The station with the underground tunnel and the transverse elevated railway was opened in 1974. Previously, the now underground route traveled by Ebert space direction Weidenpesch was operated as a streetcar line since 1882, the tram - repair plant since about 1930 were the route already a line overarching importance. This is unchanged to this day, because at the Cologne Stadtbahn technically no difference between metro and tram vehicles is made. All vehicles KVB be serviced in the tram - repair plant in Weidenpesch.

The platforms of the belt - elevated ( 13) were raised to 90 cm to allow a same-level entry to the high-floor light rail vehicles in the late 1990s from the original 35 cm in height. In the context of this restructuring, the frosted glass windows were replaced with clear glass, which made the aboveground station appear more transparent and brighter. 2008, the originally very narrow escalators were renewed and widened.

Architecture

The station is designed as a tower station with three levels at which cross a tunnel and an elevated train track. Above wrong there, the line 13 as a high- lift with two side platforms. These are designed with 90 m length for triple traction and completely covered, the tracks in the middle, however, are free. The canopy is in the style of 1970s of coarse concrete, glazed on the outer sides by elongated windows.

The distribution level located at the 1 level. There are information points, a kiosk with Stehcafé and both escalators and fixed stairs to all four platforms. From there, the station has four outputs to the road plane, in this case, there is no escalators.

On the 2 level are the platforms of Nippeser tunnel. These are designed with 90 m length for triple traction, but are made entirely of the original 35 - cm flat platforms. There, on lines 12 and 15, The Tunnel platforms have remained almost unchanged, the walls are yellow / blue tile in the style of the 1970s. To the north, the train emerges after about 500 meters and then turn onto the street level. The ramp was built in 1974 as a temporary ramp, because the plan was to extend the tunnel out of town - even this is still unchanged in operation.

Weak points of the station

• The distribution level is underground, who wants to drive 13 with the elevated train line, so must of the road only a staircase to the first basement level, to then climb the stairs from the bottom to the upper floor. This means not only unnecessary stairways and loss of time for the passenger, but is particularly a problem when one of the very long escalators fails to elevated railway. However, one must consider in this review the planning situation. When the station was assumed that the continued construction of the belt road would take place relatively soon. Thus, the distribution level would have been below a busy intersection.
• The inputs and outputs of the street do not use escalators.
• Due to decades of operation with classic tram vehicles, the platforms were all originally created as flat platforms, but with preliminary work for future expansion on high-floor level. In the tunnel platforms reason it is important from the escalator to 90 cm in height, and then again three stages but must descend to the actual platform.
• Since the division of the Cologne Stadtbahn network in high-floor and low-floor line 2003 there is from this station is no direct line more to the subway station Dom / Hauptbahnhof or the other stations of Cologne city center tunnel, although the passenger flows actually exactly require this connection.

Lines

• Line 12: Merkenich - Ford -Werke - Niehl - Weidenpesch - Neuss Street / Belt - Ebert place - Hansa Ring - Fries Place - Rudolf Place - Barbarossa Platz - ruler

Line 12 runs weekdays every 10 minutes. On the approximately 17 km long line has 27 stations, of which eight tunnel stations. It is obtained as an average cruising speed of about 23 km / hr. The line runs partly only from / to Niehl.

• Line 13 "belt rail ": Sülzgürtel - Cologne Belt - Lindenthal - Brown Field - Bf Ehrenfeld - Geldernstraße / Parkgürtel - Neuss Street / Belt - Riehl - Wiener Platz - Bahnhof Köln -Mülheim - Holweide

The line 13 is also served on weekdays at 10- minute intervals. The route of the line 13 is similar to long ( 16.2 km ), at 22 stations (including 7 stations tunnel or elevated railway stations ) is an average travel speed of 29.5 km / h.

• Line 15: Chorweiler - Heimersdorf - Longerich - Weidenpesch - Neuss Street / Belt - Ebert place - Hansa Ring - Fries Place - Rudolf Place - Barbarossa Platz - Chlodwigsplatz - Ubierring

Line 15 runs weekdays every 10 minutes at peak times from / to Longerich every 5 minutes. On the 15 km long route there are 23 stations, of which 10 tunnel stations. The average cruising speed is 24 km / h