The conversion of the heavy rail line to a tramtrain line from Karlsruhe to
Bretten caused an increase
in ridership
of 400%, as shown by a 1992 passenger census. Currently the
passenger increase has risen to sixfold of the original numbers,
influenced by the transfer-free connection of Bretten to Karlsruhe's
center. Riders were saved 15 minutes of travel time. New
transit stops in Bretten have improved the availability of transit to
housing areas, schools, and companies.
Based
on the great success of the initial
tramtrain line, political officials were encouraged to extend the
tramtrain network. Further development was financially supported by the 1996 enacted
Regionalisierungsgesetz (the German light rail transport financing
body).
The tramtrain network was then extended to Bruchsal, Pforzheim,
Wörth,
Baden-Baden, and Eppingen. Today, the tramtrain network
consists
of nearly 470 km of track. The AVG owns more than 260 km of
the
network track, and the DB owns the remainder. Some of the
track
is leased. Not all of the lines are contained completely within
the jurisdiction of the KVV (Karlsruhe's transport authority).
The line which connects Karlsruhe's city center to Heilbronn's city
center is particularly interesting because the trains operate as trams
in both cities, and as heavy rail on DB infrastructure between the two
centers.
The 100th dual-mode tramtrain vehicle was put
into operation on February 5, 2004. In 2004, a total of 16 new
tramtrain vehicles were introduced into the system. Each new tramtrain
contains toilets and other such facilities as required by
long-distance trains.
