Bike path that created community. The history of Wuppertal Nordbahntrasse

The Nordbahntrasse bicycle path in Wuppertal, Germany, is a great example of how an initiative of active citizens becomes an important citywide project that unites the community and becomes an example for other cities.
In addition, its railroad background is very interesting.
#cityforall #urbanism #city #cycling #germany #wuppertal

Timecodes:
00:00 – Intro
01:10 – Railway background
04:21 – Turning an abandoned railroad into a bike path
08:38 – Conclusion

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Today we will discuss a bicycle infrastructure project that is interesting not only by itself but also because of the history of its Creation in particular we will talk about the nbound truss bicycle path in the German city of wer tal and as you might guess from its name it’s somehow connected

With the railway how exactly you will know in a few minutes vieral is a strong industrial city in the North Ryan vestalia region which is known to transport fans mostly for its unique Bon suspension Railway in general this city can hardly be called a cycling Paradise it is quite car oriented its bicycle

Infrastructure is far from Perfection and the picture is complemented by a quite hilly terrain vetal is located in the hilly Valley of the wer River so there are descents and asense everywhere and all the flat areas along the banks are built up very densely that’s why the

23 km long bicycle route that stretches continuously through the city was a very important Improvement and for its construction they used the remains of the abandoned Rish or Northern Railway here we have to take a few steps back to understand how the abandoned railroad appeared in the

City the city of Wal itself is quite young it was formed only in 1929 by merging towns of Barman alfeld and several others but the railroad in the area was developed long before that in a 1941 was launched at 27 km rail line between Elberfeld now it is one of the

Districts of Wal and dorf which was running through a valley along the voer river but this line had one big problem there was a very steep asent near the aircraft station over a distance of 2 and 1/2 kilm the tracks gained 82 M of heat and for 100 years it was the

Steepest climb on the main line in all of Europe the locomotives of that time were not able to climb clb this hill at first they were pulled up by cables and stationary steam engine and later they began to use an additional locomotive for this purpose looking at these problems the competing Railway company

Reeg Rish Eisen ban gastle shaft built an alternative line with gentler climbs on the opposite Northern hillsides which was launched in 1879 and called the Rin line it passed through a very difficult terrain with a whole bunch of tunnels and long viaduct in fact the new line consisted almost entirely of them with

Only short sections running right on the ground but the plan didn’t work the problems with the assent on the old line were solved by more powerful locomotives and later by the electrification of the Railway the main rail traffic still went through the Old Branch of Whooper Valley

Which had more space for trains to pass and to stop so from the very beginning the newer Rin line was in the older Lin’s Shadow and was used only for Freight Transit and and some local passenger trains but the passenger trains that were operated there were slow and attracted very few passengers

For example the train from vieral vland Housen to dorf took 70 minutes at the same time from the vle obber barman station which is only a 5 minute walk from bishin Housen dorf could be reached in 35 minutes by a local train and 25 minutes by original Express in the 1960s

And ’70s there were several attempts to Electrify the r line but these plans were not realized nevertheless the Rainin line was used for more than 100 years but in September 1991 finally passenger trains stopped operating there and soon after that regular Freight traffic stopped as well from time to

Time only a few freight trains used the track to approach local Industries but even that stopped in the 2000s and it is rumored that the railway company intentionally overcharged for the use of the tracks in order to speed out the the closure and avoid spending money on

Their maintenance after that some of the tracks were dismantled the tunnels were breaked up and for several decades the tracks of the Rin line were abandoned and overgrown with the trees and Roots gradually destroyed the masonry of bridges and retaining walls in 2005 an initiative group of local residents led by Carston garhart

United around the idea of turning the abandone tracks into a bicycle and pedestrian route the idea was very promising because the tracks of the Rin line stretched across the city passing through various residential areas and next to the parks and didn’t intersect with the traffic at all creation of a

Bicycle route on the railroad side would allow safe and fast commuting around the city without a car and would also help to preserve the Old Railway vucks which were very important for the overall image of the city in February 2006 they established the nonprofit organization wer tal babun which was supposed to deal

With this project and a few months later they presented their economic calculations to the public According to which the project was supposed to cost about6 million EUR they were very active in communicating with the residents media and the city authorities and as a result The public’s attitude was very

Positive the city authorities also took the project positively although they immediately noted that the city has no money for its implementation but the activist didn’t give up and launched a campaign to raise donations from local residents and companies and began looking for a national and European grants to finance the project in this

Way they managed to raise €3.3 million EUR which allowed them to start Works in 2007 citizens organized a large campaign to clean up overgrown tracks and volunteers also build a 200 M Test Section near the VIN housing station to show how the future bicycle path would look like in 2008 the city received

Funding from the state for the first part of the route next year the vortal Bon set up a daughter company verer tler NBN truss gmbh which was supposed to manage the construction and operation of the bike route for the next 20 years however the city Administration demanded

That all tenders must be proceeded in the same way as it does the city itself and in the same year the rail tracks were purchased from its former owner for €2.2 million allowing construction work to begin in 2010 in just a few weeks they’ve built the first 2 and2 kilm of

The route between vieral rod and uster bom it is interesting to knowe that about 100 workers were sent to the construction by the local employment center and it was a part of their retraining but once the stage was completed problems began to arise the city Administration decided to review

How well the public management company had managed the construction and hired the third party engineering company to do so which found serious procurement errors representatives of NBN trust and gmbh denied this but as a result the city refused to give them other sides to work on and decided to build next stages

By itself moreover the first construction works showed that the actual costs were much higher than the project estimates as a result the width of the path was reduced from 6 to 4 m in some later sections and no separate areas for pedestrians and cyclist were created which led to a growing

Disagreement between the city authorities and the project initiators but despite all the disagreements in the following years construction continued at the final stage in 2014 the city reconstructed the viaduct and the Engelberg tunnel and at the end of the year the bicycle route was fully open to pedestrians and cyclists the total cost

Of construction amounted to about 32 million e 80% of which were financed by the federal government and the European Union and the remaining 20 were covered by the Nations at the same time the initial cost of the project was estimated at 16 million EUR and the main reasons for this increase were the

Bridges and tunnels that needed restoration and reinforcement and this is not surprising cuz in general there are six tunnels along the Route with a total length of 2 km and 23 Bridges and vodu the longest to which is 280 M notably the tunnels have also become the subject of intense debate about animal

Protection as they were home to a large population of bats as a result it was decided not to use one of the tunnels and leave it for nature since then norbon tra has become one of the city’s most popular recreational areas and aide for various events the route passes

Through densely populated areas and there are about 100,000 people living along it so it is also an important Urban Mainline the viu now offer a great panoramic views of the city and some Bridges have become a famous Instagram locations also most of the path passes through green areas so cycling here is

Very pleasant and also easy because there is no steep slopes there are many schools nearby and now school children can safely get to them on bicycles using noran truss without crossing streets with the cars along the path have been set up playgrounds and recreational areas and railway station buildings have

Been transformed into cafes restaurants and community centers but in my opinion the most important thing is a large community of active citizens that formed around this project who have always responded whenever they needed to do something with their own hands and also more than the 50 local companies that

Joined to support of the project either by donating money or by their own labor overall this is a great example of how a citizen’s initiative can become the start of a major project for a City