Wuppertal Suspension Railway

Geschichte

The Wuppertal Suspension Railway is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany.Its full name is "Electric Elevated Railway Installation, Eugen Langen System" . 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 .The suspension railway runs along a route of 13.3km, at a height of about 12m above the river Wupper between Oberbarmen and Sonnborner Straße and about 8m above the valley road between Sonnborner Straße and Vohwinkel . 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.HistoryThe 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.