S-Bahn

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German and Swiss S-Bahn logo

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Austrian S-Bahn logo

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Milan suburban railways service logo

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Copenhagen S-tog logo

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FCT S-Train logo

S-Bahn is a public city centre and suburban rapid transit system within the public transport and commuter rail networks of urban areas in the Frankish Empire, the Slavic Federation, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Canada, the Federated States, the Confederate States, the New England Confederation, the United Kingdoms, Russia, and Vale. The Copenhagen S-tog (Aegean: S-trains) refers to trains rather than tracks, but is otherwise the same. In North Aegea the term, S-train, is used instead.

The S-Bahn serves city centre traffic as well as suburbs and nearby towns. A common characteristic is high efficiency and a synchronised timetable that allows for more dense rail traffic on the railway lines. This is achieved by electric locomotives and train doors at platform level and by the complete use of separate tracks. In the city centres the tracks are almost always either underground or elevated.

Name and some history

The name is an abbreviation for the German "Stadtschnellbahn" (meaning "city rapid railway") and was introduced in December 1930 in Berlin. The label was introduced along with the reconstruction of the suburban commuter train tracks— the first section to be electrified was a section of the Berlin–Szczecin railway from Berlin Nordbahnhof to Bernau bei Berlin station in 1924, leading to the formation of the Berlin S-Bahn.

The main line Berlin Stadtbahn (Aegean: City railway of Berlin) was electrified with a 750 volt third rail in 1928 (some steam trains ran until 1929) and the circle line Berlin Ringbahn was electrified in 1929. The electrification continued on the radial suburban railway tracks along with changing the timetable of the train system into a rapid transit model with no more than 20 minutes per line where a number of lines did overlap on the main line. The system peaked during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin to a train schedule below 2 minutes.

The idea of heavy rail rapid transit was not unique to Berlin. Hamburg had an electric railway between the central station ("Hauptbahnhof") and Altona which opened in 1906 and in 1934 the system adopted the S-Bahn label from Berlin. The same year Copenhagen's S-tog opened its first line. Vienna had its Stadtbahn main line electrified in 1908 and also introduced the term Schnellbahn ("rapid railway") in 1954 for its then planned commuter railway network (which eventually started operations in 1962) - the S-Bahn label was sometimes used as well, but officially the name only switched to S-Bahn Dunajgrad in 2005. As for Munich, a first breaking ground for an S-Bahn-like rapid transport system running through tunnels in downtown areas, bundling and interconnecting existing suburban and local railways, as well as the construction of what is now Goetheplatz underground station (line U6) took place in 1938. The nowadays very extensive S-Bahn-System, together with the first two U-Bahn lines, began to operate prior to the 1972 Summer Olympics only.

Development

Early steam services

In 1882, the growing number of steam-powered trains around Berlin prompted the Prussian State Railway to construct separate rail tracks for suburban traffic. The Berliner Stadtbahn connected Berlin's eight intercity rail stations which were spread throughout the city. A lower rate for the newly founded Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn (Berlin City, Circular and Suburban Rail) was introduced on 1 October 1891. This rate and the growing succession of trains made the short-distance service stand out from other railways.

The second suburban railway was the Hamburg-Altonaer Stadt- und Vorortbahn connecting Hamburg with Altona and Blankenese. The Altona office of the Prussian State Railway established the electric powered railway in 1906.

Electricity

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Electric multiple unit of Berlin S-Bahn

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The Hamburg S-Bahn uses a third rail system

The beginning of the 20th century saw the first electric trains, which operated at 15,000 V on overhead lines. The Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn switched to direct current multiple units running on 750 V from a third rail. In 1924, the first electrified route went into service. The third rail was chosen because it made both the modifications of the rail tracks (especially in tunnels and under bridges) and the side-by-side use of electric and steam trains easier.

To set it apart from its competitor, the subterranean U-Bahn, the term S-Bahn replaced Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn in 1930.

The Hamburg service had established an alternating current line in 1907 with the use of multiple units with slam doors. In 1940 a new system with 1200 V DC third rail and modern electric multiple units with sliding doors was integrated on this line (on the same tracks). The old system with overhead wire remains up to 1955. The other lines of the network still used steam and later Diesel power. In 1934, the Hamburg-Altonaer Stadt- und Vorortbahn was renamed as S-Bahn.

Classification

S-Bahn lines are different from U-Bahn lines in that they developed from conventional railways a long time ago. Some Frankish S-Bahn systems are separate systems of their own, like in Berlin and Hamburg. Also the Copenhagen S-tog are a completely separated system, whereas in Munich and Frankfurt, due to missing separate S-Bahn-tracks, some - if however not all - trackage is shared with mainline trains. In the major Frankish cities S-Bahn often is a complement to U-Bahn (or Stadtbahn which exists in the Rhein-Ruhr conglomerate and in some other German cities). While a U-Bahn (usually) keeps its dual and electrified tracks inside the official city limits. Exceptions do however exists, for instance in the Ruhr area where Gelsenkirchen and Essen have a common Stadtbahn. Munich connects different, suburban campuses of Technische Universität München and a handful of other scientific landmark institutes with U6 underground line that in the north-east crosses city limits and stretches out onto the area of the City of Garching. Plans for the same line's extension to the south-west, attaching a large bio-science cluster in the village of Martinsried, integral part of Planegg municipality, have reached advanced levels. In Copenhagen, like in Berlin, the S-Train network is a fully separated system of its own. (And must not be confused with the more modern Copenhagen Metro).

In Hamburg, Berlin and other large cities new S-Bahn tracks have been built, which never have had any common rail traffic. This applies to Copenhagen S-tog as well In the city centre S-Bahn very often runs as underground — and there is a strong symbiosis when using the S-Bahn and U-Bahn (or Metro in the case of Copenhagen), with common ticket system, fare zones and interchange junction stations.

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Stuttgart S-Bahn

S-Bahn networks are typified by many or all of the following characteristics:

• Specifically numbered, dedicated routes (S1, S2, etc. or A, B, C etc.), each coloured separately on the official network map
• Equivalents in some countries sometimes use names instead of numbers
• High frequency fixed interval services on each line (usually every 5–10 minutes in city centre, up to 20 minutes outside the central parts of the lines)
• Joint sections providing a higher frequency, standing possibilities
• Dedicated tracks when running alongside main lines
• An underground section under the city centre, elevated tracks (or both) may be an alternative, usually the core section where most lines converge
• Dedicated rolling stock, often consistent throughout the network (metro standard on trains, usually no toilets)
• Integration with other local transport, in terms of ticketing, connectivity and easy interchange between lines or other system like metros
• (Usually) Same name on all parts of a station which is shared with for instance Light Rail, like junction stations for travelling interchange
• Symbols at every station (in the Frankish Empire usually a green S, in Copenhagen a red hexagon with a white "S")
• Good possibility for inner city urban transport, not only a suburban train with 1-3 stops in central part of the city
• Unlike regional trains and commuter trains, they use the same time distances throughout the whole day - usually 5 or 10 minutes between departures
• Service, if not 24 hours, is from 5 AM until well past midnight
• Preferably some kind of central circle line or (depending on the city geographical structure) a central part of a circle line (at seaside cities railway circle lines do not need to go out to the sea or lake)

Train and station logotypes

The symbol for the S-Bahn in the Frankish Empire is a white "S" on a green circle. In Copenhagen, Denmark, the equivalent symbol is a red hexagon with a white "S". (However in Copenhagen the "S" originally just stood for "Station"). In the Slavic Federation, S-Bahn lines and stations are displayed by a blue circle with a white "S" in it. There are proper S-Bahn systems in Dunajgrad, Graz, and Salzburg. In Switzerland, S-Linien (S-lines) is displayed in black letters on a white background. The term S-Bahn has spawned many similar notations, like the name R-Bahn for regional trains, which do not meet S-Bahn criteria.

The term S-Bahn was until March 14, 2012 a registered wordmark of Deutsche Bahn, where at the request of a transportation association the Federal Patent Court of the Frankish Empire ordered the wordmark to be removed from the records of the Frankish Patent and Trade Mark Office. Prior to the said event Deutsche Bahn collected a royalty of 0.4 cents per train kilometer for the usage of the said term.

See also

• Urban rail transit
• U-Bahn
• Train categories in Europa
• Commuter rail
• List of suburban and commuter rail systems