page_title: Stadtbahn
section_title: Regionalstadtbahn
hierarchical_section_title: Stadtbahn / Regionalstadtbahn
caption_attribution_description: The Zwickau Model sees lightweight diesel TrainTrams (also known as RegioSprinters) being extended from the mainline railway through urban streets just like regular trams (streetcars) - albeit although they are used within the street environment and even (for a short distance) over part of a pedestrianised zone they are always segregated from the normal road traffic. These TrainTrams are operated by the VogtlandBahn railway. Because the trams are metre gauge and the trains are standard gauge so where the trams and trains share tracks they use a three rail system featuring one shared rail and one exclusive rail each. Photographed by SPSmiler in July 2005.
context_page_description: A Stadtbahn are types of rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that could be used independently from other traffic.
  In the 1960s and 1970s Stadtbahn networks were created again but now by upgrading tramways or light railways. This process includes adding segments built to rapid transit standards –usually as part of a process of conversion to a metro railway– mainly by the building of metro-grade tunnels in the central city area. In the first years after the opening of the tunnel sections, often regular trams vehicles were used. These trams were followed by specially designed vehicles like the Stadtbahn B series. By the 1980s virtually all cities had abandoned the long-term goal of establishing a full-scale metro system due to the excessive costs associated with converting the tramways. Most Stadtbahn systems are now a mixture of tramway-like operations in suburban and peripheral areas and a more metro-like mode of operation in city centres, with underground stations.
context_section_description: The concept of Regionalstadtbahnen (also known by RegioStadtbahn or other names) arose as a result of the harmonisation or integration of railway lines into Stadtbahn networks. In the area of Cologne–Bonn a single operational system (of so-called above ground lines or Hochflurstrecken) was created by the Cologne Stadtbahn and the Bonn Stadtbahn, opened in 1974, from the conversion of two former railway lines (the Rheinuferbahn and Vorgebirgsbahn belonging to the old Köln-Bonner Eisenbahnen). Further developments led to tram-train networks that rather resembled an S-Bahn. This idea was first realised in 1992 in Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Stadtbahn), where as part of the Karlsruhe model even so-called dual system railbuses were used, which in addition to the direct current of Straßenbahn lines (750 V) could also draw power from the 15-kV-alternating current from normal DB catenary. In Karlsruhe this network reached as far as Heilbronn, 84 kilometres (52 mi) away, where a Stadtbahn network was created going out from this line. Both in Karlsruhe and in Heilbronn the Stadtbahn filled both the roles of a classic tramway system as well as an S-Bahn. The Karlsruhe mixed-operation concept was also adopted by the Saarbahn in Saarbrücken. This model is today referred to in France as the tram-train.
  Other Stadtbahn networks in Germany without tunnels, but which incorporate railway lines, are found in:
  Kassel (Kassel RegioTram with hybrid railcars for the transition between electrified and non-electrified routes)
  Zwickau (Diesel railbuses of the Vogtlandbahn on tramways in the city centre)
  Chemnitz (Variotrams trams fitted with railway equipment, which City-Bahn Chemnitz runs daily on the Chemnitz–Stollberg/Erzgeb. line)
  Gotha (Trams in Gotha/Thüringerwaldbahn), above ground tramway (24 km long), in existence since 1924, to Waltershausen, Friedrichroda and Bad Tabarz
  Nordhausen in the South Harz. This tramway network run by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways is notable because it supplements the diesel-hybrid cars with steam engines.
caption: Zwickau diesel tram-train (Vogtlandbahn)
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