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Düsseldorf has 570,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the German Bundesland North-Rhine Westphalia. Extending on both sides of the river Rhine, Düsseldorf was included in the general 1970 Stadtbahn network designed for the Rhine-Ruhr area. For the city of Düsseldorf this project included mainly one 4-track east-west tunnel through the city centre which would split into two branches east of the central station (Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof). One branch continues east towards Düsseldorf-Eller and the second (2 km) runs southeast to Düsseldorf-Oberbilk and further south along the existing route to Holthausen. North of Heinrich-Heine-Allee the central trunk route also splits into two branches, one crosses the river Rhine on the Oberkassel Bridge towards Neuss and Krefeld, and the other one continues underground to Victoriaplatz/Klever Straße and then on the surface along the upgraded route of interurban tram line D towards Duisburg. Now there are 11 underground stations in Düsseldorf.

Apart from the Stadtbahn, Düsseldorf maintains a large network of tram lines. Along some sections on outer branches, trams and Stadtbahn trains share tracks.

04 Oct 1981 - Nordstraße - Klever Straße (1.6 km)
07 May / 06 Aug 1988 - Nordstraße - Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof and branch to Tonhalle and Rhine bridge (6.2 km)
26 Sept 1993 - Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof - Kettwiger Straße - ramp - Ronsdorfer Straße (1.7 km)
16 June 2002 - Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof - Oberbilk S - ramp - Kaiserslauterner Straße (2.1 km)

 Projects

The so-called "Wehrhahn"-Line will be the second cross-city tunnel, for the existing low-floor tram lines 703, 712, 713, between S-Bahn stations Wehrhahn and Bilk (3.4 km with 6 underground stations). At Heinrich-Heine-Allee a 300 m stretch was already built together with the first city tunnel. Construction finally started in Dec. 2007, scheduled to open in 2014.

Rheinbahn (Official Page)

Wehrhahnlinie (Official Project Site)

Stadtbahn Rhein-Ruhr by Jochen Schönfisch

Linie D - Arbeitsgemeinschaft historischer Nahverkehr Düsseldorf e. V.

Düsseldorf Track Map at gleisplanweb.de

Volkmar Grobe: Stadtbahn Düsseldorf. - Von den Anfängen des spurgeführten Verkehrs zur städteverbindenden Schnellbahn. - EK-Verlag, ISBN 978 3882558487