In the future, a subway train will run between Jungfernstieg and Horner Rennbahn in Hamburg every 100 seconds. The technical conversion for this began on Thursday. The Hochbahn is equipping all new trains with antennas and computers – and the tracks with contact detectors.
Armed with a cordless screwdriver, Hamburg’s transport senator Anjes Tjarks (Greens) climbed onto the track bed at the Elbbrücken subway station. He quickly screwed the first of 400 yellow so-called beacons onto a track sleeper. These detect the subway trains rolling over and tell the next train: You can go now! This reduces the distance at which the trains can travel. Tjarks: “We are now installing digital technology with the aim of being able to offer our passengers more comfort. Currently, a train runs every two and a half minutes during rush hour, in the future it will be every 100 seconds.”
Hochbahn: Significantly more capacity
In concrete terms, this means that between Jungfernstieg and Horner Rennbahn, six trains will be able to travel every ten minutes instead of four today. According to Hochbahn, an additional 10,000 people per hour can travel on the U2 and U4 lines. The Hochbahn’s Chief Technology Officer, Jens-Günter Lang, emphasized: “This will not only create more passenger capacity, but also a frequency that will make any timetable superfluous.”
Project costs around 200 million euros
According to Hochbahn, six signal boxes on the entire U4 from the Elbbrücken to Horner Geest and on the U2 between Mümmelmannsberg and Christuskirche will be converted to automated operation. 21 stops and 25 kilometers of track will be prepared for the interaction between subway vehicles, track infrastructure and signal boxes. The investment volume for the “U-Bahn100” project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2029, is around 200 million euros.
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NDR 90.3 | NDR 90.3 Current | 19.09.2024 | 16:00
