The southern section of Bielefeld’s Line 1 tram route between Brackwede railway station and Senne has undergone extensive modernisation in recent years. The aim was to upgrade the infrastructure for the modern Vamos light rail vehicles, make the stops accessible to passengers with reduced mobility and prepare the section for efficient operation over the long term.
In future, the wider VAMOS light rail vehicles will be able to operate in coupled pairs along the entire section. This is particularly important in view of the planned extension of Line 1 to Sennestadt. Plans for this extension have been around for decades and, if all goes well, the trams could actually be running here in the next decade.
An important part of the work involved constructing new raised platforms to provide step-free access. A new raised platform has also been built at the newly established Brackwede Friedhof stop, which replaces the former Windelsbleicher Straße stop. Work began in June 2025. The new platform is located around 150 metres east of the previous stop and provides step-free access to the trams. The Rosenhöhe stop has also been extended and modernised.
The relatively narrow Brackweder Hauptstraße had already been redesigned earlier, with raised platforms also being built in the central reservation. Once one of the main through roads in the Brackwede district, the road is now essentially reserved for local residents’ traffic, with the speed limit set at 30 km/h.
Bielefeld’s Line 1 tram route to Senne was closed to rail traffic for almost three and a half years in total. The trams last ran all the way to the Senne terminus in early April 2023, after which services terminated at Brackwede railway station, where passengers had to change to replacement buses.
Following completion of the extensive modernisation work, operator MOBIEL resumed regular services as far as the temporary terminus at Brackwede Kirche on 15 June 2025. And, since 2 September 2026, the moment has finally arrived: Line 1 trams are once again running all the way to Senne.
