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The Munich S-bahn, suburban railways converted to "metro"
style services similar to the Paris RER, consist of 10 lines covering
435 km of route. At the outer edges of the S-bahn lines the trains run
either on their own tracks or shared with those of the Deutschebahn,
the German national railways. There are many single track sections in
the S-bahn network and many grade (level) crossings.
A tunnel 4.2 kilometres long underneath central Munich
links the western S-bahn lines with the eastern ones. Eight lines use
the center city tunnel. Its construction started in 1967. The tunnel
was partly built with open-cut (cut and cover) methods, but at the big
intersection stations Karlsplatz and Marienplatz a covered
construction was used. The tunnel section under the Neuhauser Straße
and Im Tal were built in a special vault method. Between Isartorplatz
and Rosenheimer Platz two single track tunnels built with the shield
method cross under the river Isar.
The tunnel and almost the whole S-bahn system opened
April 28/29, 1972, the year of the Olympic Games in Munich.
The S-bahn train reaches the tunnel behind the
Hackerbrücke station over a ramp. The two underground stations
Hauptbahnhof and Karlsplatz each have an
island and two side platforms; with the island platform used for
boarding and the side platforms used for exiting the trains. At
Marienplatz station there are also seperate platforms,
but in two levels. The trains towards Ostbahnhof stops at level -2,
the trains towards Hauptbahnhof on level -3. A lot of moving stairs
connect the different levels and lead to the U-bahn platforms in level
-4. At Hauptbahnhof and Karlsplatz stations there are also
connections to the U-bahn. The connection leads over mezzanines under
the S-bahn platforms.
The other two subway stations Isartor and
Rosenheimer Platz have only island platforms. Before
reaching Ostbahnhof station the trains leave the tunnel in a curve
turning to the left. The platform length is 210 metres at all
stations.
A new S-Bahn section (20 kilometres) from
Ismaning to the new airport north-east of Munich was
opened on March 17, 1992. For this line a tunnel 2 km long with one
subway station was built in the suburb Ismaning. Along this new line
on the surface portion there are new stations at Hallbergmoos, with
side platforms, and one in the airport area called Flughafen
Besucherpark. Below the airport the S-bahn runs in a 1300
metres long tunnel to München Flughafen, an island
platform station. This station lies directly below ground with
openings to the daylight in the ceiling above the island platform.
From here a extension will be built to the city of Erding. The airport
is also served by a part-time extension of S-bahn line S1.
A new tunnel with one station on the existing section in
Unterföhring will be finished in 2005. Also, a second tunnel 8 km long
may be built in the inner city of Munich to unburden the existing
tunnel. The new tunnel will get only two stations at Hauptbahnhof and
north of Marienplatz at a depth of 40 metres to cross under the U-bahn
lines. Nearby the Max-Weber-Platz station of the U-Bahn the new tunnel
will divide into two branches, one to Leuchtenberg Ring station and
one to Ostbahnhof station.
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