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The Hamburg Airport S-Bahn line is a nearly three-kilometre long section of the Hamburg S-Bahn

Hamburg S-Bahn

The Hamburg S-Bahn is a railway network for public rapid mass transit in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Together the S-Bahn, the Hamburg U-Bahn, the AKN railway and the regional railway form the backbone of railway public transport in the city and the surrounding area...

. It was opened on 11 December 2008.

Route

The Airport S-Bahn line connects Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport

Hamburg Airport

Hamburg Airport , also known as Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport , is an international airport serving Hamburg, Germany.It originally covered . Since then, the site has grown more than tenfold to . The main apron covers . The airport is north of the centre of the city of Hamburg in the Fuhlsbüttel...

 via Ohlsdorf station

Ohlsdorf station

Ohlsdorf is a train station in Hamburg, Germany, located at the junction of the Hamburg-Altona link line with the Alster Valley line and the Hamburg Airport line near the Ohlsdorf Cemetery.-History:...

 with central Hamburg. The line, with the exception of a short section to the north of Ohlsdorf, is entirely underground. The tunnel ramp is located directly in front of Klein Borstel station on U-Bahn

Hamburg U-Bahn

The Hamburg U-Bahn is a rapid transit system serving the cities of Hamburg, Norderstedt and Ahrensburg in Germany. Although technically an underground, most of the system's track length is above ground. The network is interconnected with the city's S-Bahn system, which also has underground...

 line U1. The tunnel is built at a depth of up to 30 metres below the surface due to geological conditions. It passes under the Alster

Alster

The Alster is a right tributary of the River Elbe in Northern Germany. It has its source near Henstedt-Ulzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, flows roughly southwards and reaches the Elbe in Hamburg. In the centre of Hamburg the Alster has been dammed...

 river and the large residential area of Fuhlsbüttel

Fuhlsbüttel

Fuhlsbüttel is an urban quarter in the north of Hamburg, Germany in the district Hamburg-Nord. It is known as the site of Hamburg's international airport, and as the location of a prison which served as a concentration camp in the Nazi system of repression....

.

Operations

The route is served by S-Bahn line S1. Trains coming from the city are partitioned at the Ohlsdorf station. The front part of the train runs to the airport and the back of the train continues on the original route of line S1 to Poppenbüttel. Similarly trains running into the city are coupled together at Ohlsdorf. The journey time from Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof

is the Hauptbahnhof for the German city of Hamburg. It was opened in 1906 to replace 4 terminal stations. Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is operated by DB Station&Service...

 to the airport is 24 minutes and it is 25 minutes in the opposite direction. Trains between the city and the airport run at ten minute intervals during the day and at 20 minute intervals in the early morning and the late evening. The track is operated and monitored from an electronic signal box in Ohlsdorf, which was opened in September 2008, just months before the opening of the airport line. The line is equipped with the modern Ks-signal system and GSM-R

GSM-R

GSM-R, Global System for Mobile Communications - Railway or GSM-Railway is an international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications. A sub-system of European Rail Traffic Management System , it is used for communication between train and railway regulation...

 digital radio.

History

A railway to the airport has been discussed since the 1960s, including as a possible extension of the original route of U-Bahn line 4, on which work was abandoned in 1974. Further planning of a rail connection progressed slowly, partly because until the 1980s, there were plans for a new major airport at Kaltenkirchen

Kaltenkirchen

Kaltenkirchen is a town located on the outskirts of Hamburg in Germany. It is part of the Segeberg district, in Schleswig-Holstein...

, replacing the existing Hamburg airport. It was only after the plans for the new airport were dropped that a new rail link to the airport was re-examined, but little progress was made in the late 1980s due to lack of funding. However, in 1991 a shell for part of a station was built at the airport. In 1998 the Senate of Hamburg (government) decided to expand the airport, including a rail link. Progress was delayed by protests by local residents and work finally began on 11 April 2001. However, work was again delayed by water leaks during construction in 2004 and the line was finally opened to regular traffic on 12 December 2008. On the previous day free familiarisation trips operated to the airport station.

Extensions

Under the air train (Flugzug) concept, the S-Bahn line would be extended north of the airport the line to connect with the line of the AKN Railway or the Alster Northern Railway

Alster Northern Railway

The Alster Northern Railway or ANB was a non-electrified, single-tracked branch line in northern Germany. It linked the stations of Ochsenzoll in Hamburg-Langenhorn with Ulzburg Süd in the district of Segeberg in Schleswig-Holstein....

. Connection to an upgraded AKN-trunk line via Henstedt-Ulzburg

Henstedt-Ulzburg

Henstedt-Ulzburg is a municipality in the district of Segeberg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.-Geography:The municipality of Henstedt-Ulzburg is situated on the outskirts of Hamburg approx. 30 km north of Hamburg and 13 km north of Norderstedt. Currently it is the largest municipality in...

 and Kaltenkirchen would create a Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

–Hamburg Airport–Hamburg line, allowing connections between many parts of Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

 and the airport.

Line data

The track is designed for a maximum speed of 80 km / h and electrified with the third-rail DC system used by the Hamburg S-Bahn. The tunnel ramp has a slope of 8.0 percent. Hamburg Airport (Flughafen) station

Hamburg Airport station

The Hamburg Airport station is the latest addition to the Hamburg S-Bahn, serving Hamburg Airport. It opened in 2008. According to S-Bahn Hamburg plc — owner and operator of the S-Bahn — approximately 13,500 passengers per day used the Ohlsdorf–Hamburg Airport line in 2009.From...

 has a 140 metre long central platform and is therefore suitable for the assembly of trains. The total cost of the project (as of 2008) was about € 280 million, with 60% of funds coming from the city of Hamburg and 40% from the federal government. In the early days about 13,500 passengers a day were expected.

Discussion on the station name

Until September 2008 it was envisaged that the new station would be named Hamburg Airport, that is, using English only. Following the current addition of the German term, Flughafen to the name, the Hamburg government responded to a joint request of its Christian Democratic Union

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

 and Green/Alternative List Hamburg

Alliance '90/The Greens

Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...

 members to change the name to Flughafen (Hamburg Airport). The proposal responded to complaints regarding the over-use of Anglicisms. Within days of the application the government distanced itself from the proposal, as modification would have led to significant costs for, for example, the reprinting of timetables and maps. Critics of the proposed change also suggested that an internationally-oriented place like the airport station should use an English name. Nevertheless, the main signing of S-Bahn stations at Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport use German names as well as English.