German and French Transit in 1994 (1)

Introduction

In 1994 my wife and I spent three weeks mainly in Germany. Besides visiting friends in various places, we went to Paris and Berlin purely for sightseeing. These pictures are scanned from Kodachrome slides.

Frankfurt

We flew to and from Frankfurt, but didn't spend much time there, so the only pictures I have to show are around the main railroad station (Hauptbahnhof).

[picture] A route 11 tram passes in front of the station.

[picture] A high-speed ICE train at the platform, with the station's control tower in the background.

[picture] The interior concourse of the station.

Paris

[picture] An ornate entrance to the Cité Metro station.

[picture] I went off by myself for a few hours one morning to visit Paris's first tram line, which had opened only a couple of years earlier. This was the first time I ever rode a low-floor tram.

[picture] The entrance to the platform at Gare de l'Est, where we caught the 8:54 train to return to Germany.

Bonn

[picture] Near the Hauptbahnhof, a route 61 tram descends into the underpass that takes it under the railroad tracks.

[picture] Inside the station, a long-distance train arrives.

Cologne

[picture] At Rudolfplatz, a route 1 tram passes the Hahnentor, built in the early 13th century as part of Cologne's city wall.

Krefeld

[picture] Krefeld has a local meter-gauge tram system, and is connected to Düsseldorf via a meter-gauge interurban line which is part of Düsseldorf's Rheinbahn system. The two systems meet at the central transfer point in downtown Krefeld, the Rheinstraße stop.

[picture] Just after leaving Rheinstraße, an interurban rolls down the Ostwall boulevard. The track here is dual gauge, to accommodate both systems. The logo at the upper right corner of the front window indicates that this train carries a café (Rheinbahnbistro).

[picture] An interurban stops at the Grundend station near the edge of Krefeld, in the district of Fischeln.

[picture] The Grundend station is also the terminal for tram route 041 which runs from Fischeln through downtown Krefeld to the district of St. Tönis. This type of tram was built in the late 1960s, and was still running on my most recent visit to Krefeld in 2009! It was to be replaced with new low-floor trams in late 2009.

[picture] A more modern type of tram, built in the late 1970s, stops at Eichhornstraße in Fischeln.

[Continued on next page]