(Germany )ZWICKAU

Zwickau
Zwickau, former DDR town located in Saxony, has changed its economical role in the last years, developing the tertiary sector, besides the main historical heavy industry; in this district there are many siderurgic and textile activities and, at the time of the comunist regime, there was the factory of the famous Trabant car (currently overtaken by Volkswagen).
Zwickau shows a transport system with the typical DDR characteristics, which has a large local standard guage railway network (diesel, partly dismissed after many factories closures) and a metric gauge old tramway net, partly reduced in the years '70s but still working.
The latter, after some rumours of a complete closure, was renewed and partly upgraded in last years of DDR and after the Germany unification, trying to integrate it to the suburban railways (brought into the city perimeter thanks to the re-use of some of the eleder dismissed tracks converging in the city center).
The railway station (Hautbahnhof)-Zwickau Zentrum section shows some very peculiar features, like the adoption of a typical 3 rails track, determined by the need to compatibilize the electric metric gauge tramway with the standard gauge diesel trains; the last part of this section, because of the narrowness of the road, has a single track.
Currently the Zwickau tramway network is articulated in: - Pölbitz-Hauptbahnhof (line 7, from 1997);
- Eckersbach-Städtisches Klinikum (line 6, from 1997);
- Eckersbach-Glück-auf-Center-Niederplanitz-Neuplanitz (line 3, from 1999).
This network is integrated by Zwickau (Zentrum)-Zwickau Hbf.-Klingenthal regional railway, which shares about 1.3 km with Line 3 tram tracks (tram-train mode).

CHRONOLOGY
1992	Neumarkt-Eckersbach
1999	tram-train service (Stadthalle-Zentrum)
2005	Stadthalle-Neuplanitz

Country	Germany
Line	--
Inhabitants	City 125.000, District --
Date opening	1999
Future development:	--
Length (km)	18.5
Track sections	existing tram tracks with 1.3 km in track sharing
Stops	40 average distance 500 m
Platforms	--
Platform doors	--
General characteristics	--
n. of vehicles	35
n. of cars per vehicle	--
Type	steel wheels
Vehicle dimensions (m)	--
Vehicle capacity (pax)	--
Frequency	10'/
Current/Voltage	electric trams and diesel trains
Type of guide/gauge	tram: metric gauge; trains: standard gauge (1435 mm)
Speed Km/h	Max tram: 50, train: 120
Accel./Decel. (m/sec2)	--
System capacity	--
Ridership	5 million pax/year
Total cost	--
Staff	--
System builder	SIEMENS
Model	tram-train vehicles: RegioSprinter
NOTE	3 rails track sections to armonize metric (tram) and standard (train) gauge date opening referred to tram-train service