page_title: Cologne Stadtbahn
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cologne Stadtbahn / History
caption_attribution_description: The underground station Äußere Kanalstraße of the Cologne Stadtbahn
context_page_description: The Cologne Stadtbahn is a light rail system in the German city of Cologne, including several surrounding cities of the Cologne Bonn Region. The term Stadtbahn denotes a system that encompasses elements of trams as well as an underground railway network and interurban rail, even including three lines that are licensed as heavy rail and used by freight trains as well as Stadtbahn vehicles. Two of these lines connect the Cologne Stadtbahn to the Bonn Stadtbahn. These lines are jointly operated by both cities' transport authorities, resulting in both systems and the lines connecting them sometimes collectively referred to as Stadtbahn Rhein-Sieg.
  The Cologne Stadtbahn is operated by the Kölner Verkehrsbetriebe and the Bonn Stadtbahn is operated by the Stadtwerke Bonn. The KVB and SWB are members of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg, formed in 1987 to consolidate the transit authorities in the metropolitan Cologne area and operate a joint fare structure. There were 38 underground stations, with an additional four being added since 2015.
context_section_description: The Cologne Stadtbahn traces its history to the first horsecar lines that started operating in 1877. Within a few years, several companies had built an extensive network. Because none of these companies showed interest in electrifying their lines, the city of Cologne bought them on 1 January 1900. Electric trams were introduced and additional lines built until 1912, including Vorortbahnen to surrounding villages outside the city limits. Outside the city center, these lines had segregated right-of-way and were more similar to "real" railroads than to trams.
  During World War II, Cologne suffered heavy damage. The city center was almost destroyed and the tram lines with it. After the war, only a few of the existing lines were rebuilt in the downtown area, while meanwhile automobile traffic increased heavily. To improve the situation, construction of the first tunnel began in 1963. When it opened in November 1968, it was integrated into the tram network, instead of being run as a separate subway. Since then, street-running tram lines have gradually been replaced by tunnels, some elevated track and segregated surface lines. From 1973 until 2006 light rail vehicles have operated together with classic trams on the same lines.
  Underground construction in downtown Cologne, one of Germany's oldest cities, is often obstructed by archeologists' legal rights to dig in all future building sites within the medieval city limits before all heavy construction machinery.
caption: The Colone Stadtbahn at Äußere Kanalstraße station
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