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The city of Wuppertal (375,000 inhabitants, 20 km east of Düsseldorf) was founded in 1929 when the towns of Elberfeld and Barmen, together with some other municipalities, were joined to form the new city in the Wupper valley. But already in 1898 construction of Europe's most peculiar metro, the Schwebebahn, had begun here. The line started passenger service on 1 March 1901 between Kluse and Zoo. The western section between Zoo and Vohwinkel followed on 24 May 1901. Two years later, on 27 June 1903, also the eastern section between Kluse and Oberbarmen was brought into service. The line was quite damaged during World War II, but service was resumed one year after the end of the war. The destroyed Kluse station was only rebuilt in 1999.

The Wuppertal Schwebebahn is the continent's only suspension urban rail line, which for most of its length runs 12 m above the river Wupper (10 km). Only the westernmost section between Sonnborner Straße and Vohwinkel runs 8 meters above streets (3.3 km). This line can be called a full metro line because it's totally independent, absolutely urban and runs on a 4-6 minute headway. For almost 100 years this was one of the safest means of transport in the world, but unfortunately in April 1999 a bad accident happened after repair work had been carried out during the weekend and 3 people died and more than 40 were injured as a train fell down into the river Wupper. The single rail which carries the train is supported by 472 iron arches that span over the river bed. In recent years, all these arches have been replaced and all the stations restored, most of them in their original Jugendstil design. In timetables, the Schwebebahn is identified as line 60.

1 March 1901: Kluse - Zoo
24 May 1901: Zoo - Vohwinkel
27 June 1903: Kluse - Oberbarmen

Wuppertaler Stadtwerke - Schwebebahn (Official Site)

Die Schwebebahn (Official Site)

Neue Schwebebahn > new trains for Wuppertal

Wuppertal Schwebebahn at Wikipedia.de

Wuppertal Photo Gallery

Stadtbahn Rhein-Ruhr by Jochen Schönfisch

Christoph Groneck & Paul Lohkemper: WUPPERTAL SCHWEBEBAHN ALBUM. - June 2007, Berlin ISBN 978 3 836573 15 2