On 1 June 1975, a completely new means of transport was launched in the greater Cologne area: the ‘S 11’ was the first line of the ‘S-Bahn Köln’ to go into operation. It travelled between Cologne’s neighbouring town of Bergisch Gladbach, Cologne Central Station and the Cologne district of Chorweiler and served important and large Cologne districts such as Mülheim, Deutz, the trade fair, Nippes and Longerich.
On 19 May, the ‘50 years of the Cologne S-Bahn’ anniversary was celebrated at the Cologne-Nippes S-Bahn depot. A good 100 guests accepted the invitation from ‘DB Regio NRW’ and ‘Go.Rheinland’ (the special-purpose association responsible for public transport in the south-west of North Rhine-Westphalia around the major cities of Cologne, Bonn and Aachen). They were taken from the main station to the S-Bahn depot in a nostalgic special train consisting of two 2nd class D-train compartment carriages from the years of the young German Federal Railways and a ‘Silberling’ with 1st and 2nd class. The train had a locomotive at both ends: at one end the electric locomotive 111 111-1, at the other the diesel locomotive 218 137-8 in the look of the former ‘Citybahn’ Cologne – Gummersbach.
The guests were welcomed by Frederik Ley, Chairman of the Regional Management of DB Regio NRW, Harmen van Zijderveld, CEO of DB Regio Schiene, Cologne’s Mayor Henriette Rekers, NRW Transport Minister Oliver Krischer and Dr Norbert Reinkober, Managing Director of Go.Rheinland.
Mayoress Rekers reported that the fact that Cologne’s first S-Bahn line was given the number ‘S 11’ was no coincidence. It was a reference to the ‘most important’ time of year in Cologne, carnival. After all, the number 11 has a very special meaning in carnival. Whether this is really the case remains to be seen. It is more likely that the line number ‘S 1’ was already occupied by an S-Bahn line in the Ruhr area, and due to the proximity of the two metropolitan areas, the two S-Bahn networks overlap. It therefore made sense to avoid duplicate line numbers.
Dr Reinkober quoted impressive figures: the Cologne region has 350,000 inbound and 150,000 outbound commuters every day. These figures alone made it clear how important the S-Bahn was for their region. And that is why an expansion – which we will discuss below – is urgently needed.
The history of the Cologne S-Bahn
Initially, the S 11 only ran every 20 minutes. Nevertheless, it was reported at the anniversary celebration that even then, the introduction of the S-Bahn had doubled the number of passengers compared to the local trains that had travelled before. Reinkober: ‘Cologne’s S-Bahn was a great success from day one’.
The ‘S 6’, which was originally the first S-Bahn line in the greater Rhine-Ruhr area and ran from Essen via Ratingen and Düsseldorf to Langenfeld, was soon added as a second line. Now it has been extended via Leverkusen to Kön. And it has already become clear how sensible it was not to assign line numbers twice … the two metropolitan areas in the urbanised Rhineland cannot be separated so clearly.
The S 11 was also extended from Cologne-Chorweiler via Dormagen, Neuss and the centre of Düsseldorf to Düsseldorf Airport.
This was followed by the S 12: (Windeck-)Au – Eitorf – Hennef – Siegburg/Bonn – Troisdorf – Cologne – (Kerpen)-Horrem.
There is also the S 13, which runs from (Kerpen-)Horrem via Cologne and Cologne/Bonn Airport to Troisdorf, the largest town in the Rhein-Sieg district with over 80,000 inhabitants.
The newest line to date, the S 19, complements the S 12. It runs from Düren via (Kerpen-)Horrem – Cologne-Ehrenfeld – Cologne Central Station – Cologne Trade Fair Centre/Deutz to Cologne-Porz, serves Cologne/Bonn Airport and continues via Troisdorf – Siegburg/Bonn – Hennef and Eitorf to (Windeck-)Au.
The ‘Cologne’ S-Bahn network also includes the S 23, a rather unusual S-Bahn line in Germany. This is because it is not operated with electric units, as is the case everywhere, but with diesel engines. In addition, its route does not reach the Cologne city area anywhere on its route Bonn Hbf – Bonn-Duisdorf – Alfter – Meckenheim – Rheinbach – Euskirchen – Bad Münstereifel – it is, seen in the light of day, the (so far only) Bonn S-Bahn line, but there is no such thing as a ‘Bonn S-Bahn network’. (Note: electrification of this line is planned and the first masts for the overhead line are already being installed between Euskirchen and Münstereifel).
Let’s summarise: Cologne’s S-Bahn currently operates on five electrified lines.
The rolling stock
When operations began on the S 11 in 1975, it was initially operated with push-pull trains consisting of class 141 electric locomotives with ‘Silberlingen’ (‘n-Wagen’). This was exactly how the S 6 on the Rhine and Ruhr started. Later, class 420 electric EMUs also arrived, which DB had specially developed for its alternating current S-Bahn lines in Frankfurt, Munich, on the Rhine and Ruhr and in Stuttgart. And while the ‘420s’ originally had special liveries for each of these four networks, this was never the case for the EMUs in Cologne.
This was followed by a phase in which reversible trains consisting of so-called ‘x-Wagen’ with a dedicated S-Bahn design were used with class 111 locomotives. And after the unification of DB and DR (the GDR), DR class 143 locomotives were also used on the Cologne S-Bahn.
Since 2000, only S-Bahn series 422 and 423 have been used.
Network expansions and timetable consolidations made additional S-Bahn EMUs necessary. As a result, a number of class 424 EMUs became superfluous in Hanover. They had been put into service there for the ‘Expo’ world exhibition in 2000. These 24 vehicles were transported to Cologne, where they were thoroughly refurbished. At the same time, they were given a new exterior: although the heads remain in DB’s traffic red, the sides are medium grey in accordance with the design ideas of ‘Go.Rheinland’, and the EMUs bear the large inscription ‘S Bahn Köln’.
The Cologne S-Bahn has a total of 123 four-car electric EMUs.
And one more thing: Go.Rheinland has announced that completely new trainsets will be used on the Cologne S-Bahn from 2029, which will be supplied by Alstom.
The future
After the speakers at the anniversary celebration unanimously emphasised that the Cologne S-Bahn is a great success and welcomed it as part of the public service, it seems only logical that the network and services should be significantly expanded. The S 13, for example, which currently still terminates in Troisdorf on its way from Cologne, will be extended via (Sankt Augustin-)Menden and Bonn-Beuel to Bonn-Oberkassel. Construction work is in full swing. Existing stations are being extended and modernised, and two new stations are being built in Bonn-Vilich and Bonn-Ramersdorf. A large Deutsche Telekom office complex is being developed in Ramersdorf, and it will also be possible to change to the neighbouring light rail system. The new tower railway station in Vilich will be more significant. This is where the S-Bahn line crosses the Bonn light rail line 66 (at the time of opening, the light rail line will probably be called 67). This means that in future, Cologne/Bonn Airport can also be reached by rail from the districts of Bonn on the left bank of the Rhine by changing trains in Vilich – currently from the main railway station with the SB 60 express bus line via the 59 motorway in a journey time of just over 20 minutes.
An S 10 is to be added as a peak-time booster line between Bergisch Gladbach, Cologne city centre and Cologne-Worringen.
There will also be an S 14 from Bergisch Gladbach via Köln-Mülheim – Köln Messe/Deutz – Köln Hauptbahnhof and Köln-Ehrenfeld to (Kerpen-)Horrem
The future S 15 will run between Euskirchen and Lüdenscheid via Cologne, Overath, Gummersbach and Marienheide, from Euskirchen to Gummersbach every 30 minutes and then every hour to Lüdenscheid. From Euskirchen to Cologne, the S 15 will run on the ‘Eifel route’, from there on the route of the ‘Oberbergische Bahn’ (RB 25). The Oberbergische Bahn already operates as a kind of S-Bahn pre-carriage service, albeit with diesel trains – incidentally the same trains that also run on the S 23 from Bonn – and it serves all S-Bahn stops on its route. As the S 15, it will of course also run electrically.
A new S 16 is to run from Eitorf via Hennef – Siegburg/Bonn – Troisdorf – Cologne/Bonn Airport – Cologne South Bridge – the western Cologne railway ring – Cologne Central Station – Cologne Messe/Deutz and Cologne-Mülheim to Langenfeld (at the VRS / VRR network border).
There will also be an S 17 from Bonn Central Station via Brühl – Cologne Central Station – Cologne Trade Fair Centre/Deutz – Cologne-Mülheim and Leverkusen-Opladen to Solingen Central Station.
Finally, the S 6 is to be extended via Cologne-Ehrenfeld and Grevenbroich to Mönchengladbach Central Station, and the S 23 from Bonn Central Station to Bonn-Mehlem. And the S 12 is to continue its route beyond Horrem via Bergheim to Bedburg. In Bedburg, it will have a connection to the ‘S 39 x’ coming from the Rhine-Ruhr region.
The future Cologne S-Bahn network (‘Network 2040’) will therefore reach far into the Cologne region – and, see Lüdenscheid, even beyond, as far as south-west Westphalia.
Dr Norbert Reinkober, Managing Director of Go.Rheinkand, also announced that the frequency of the S-Bahn connections will be significantly increased. ‘In 1975, we started with a 20-minute interval; in future, we want to offer trains every 2.5 minutes on some connections.’
Planned investments
In order to expand the Cologne S-Bahn network to this extent, investments totalling around five billion euros will be necessary.
Dr Reinkober: ‘Since a study has just shown that every euro spent on public transport results in an economic value added of 3 euros, this seemingly very high amount is very well invested.’
We last reported on S-Bahn Köln here:
https://www.urban-transport-magazine.com/en/alstom-wins-4-billion-for-s-bahn-cologne-for-vehicles-and-maintenance/
