Many people may ask where the hell Wuppertal is. Even more will ask what the reason to go there is. Well, you won’t find ancient monuments; not even medieval ones. Ok, there are no monuments at all. It is just a middle-sized city in Germany, not far from Cologne or Dusseldorf. But still, people from around the world keep coming to Wuppertal. And they come to use its public transport.
At this moment you might think that I must be crazy. Nobody comes to London, for example, just to travel on the underground. True, but in Wuppertal they don’t just have an underground, they have something way better. It is called the Schwebebahn and it is a train. Well, sort of.
Trains run every few minutes and tickets cost just €2.20. Onboard you can always meet travellers from around the world who visit Wuppertal just to use the Schwebebahn. It is probably one of the cheapest tourist attractions in Germany (not counting the free motorways without speed limits of course, but then you have to pay for petrol anyway).
So what’s all the fuss about? It is just a train, isn’t it? Well not quite.
It is a unique and very scenic “hanging railway”. Its double-carriage trains run on tracks which are above the ground. The whole system (which is actually one line only) is 13.3km in length, of which 10km are 12m above the river and the remaining 3.3km are 8m above streets. Sounds cool? Wait till you ride it. You board the trains via stations which are located above the streets or above the river, which is fun in itself. Some might still say it is just a shorter version of Docklands Light Railway in London (DLR). Wrong again. The big difference is that the trains are actually suspended under the tracks.
When you get into the train you can feel that the whole carriage is moving. But the best fun begins when the trains run between the stations. Especially on bends, you feel the train is tilting outside due to the centrifugal force. And it travels really fast – well, at least fast enough to feel all the forces – it is almost like a rollercoaster. Don’t worry, the Schwebebahn is also considered one of the safest modes of transportation in the world – there has been just one fatal accident during its entire 108 years of operation.
The most amazing thing is that this system is more than 100 years old. It was opened by William II, German Emperor on 24 October 1900 and it is the oldest monorail system in the world. It was built to connect six different communities in the narrow industrial valley of the river Wupper. Then in 1929, those towns merged to form the city of Wuppertal, so some say that the Schwebebahn was actually the father of the city.
Apart from the Schwebebahn there is not much else to see in Wuppertal. It is a neat and tidy city (as some can imagine in Germany) but quite boring actually. It is a good place for a daytrip from Cologne, which is of course a much more interesting place. To visit Wuppertal from Cologne, take a train from the city’s main railway station and you will be there in less than an hour.
I recommend this trip to anyone with even vaguely remote interests in railways, or industrial past. It is real toy for boys, but of course I recommend it for girls too.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find travel publications in English just about Wuppertal. There is small chapter in the Eyewitness guide to Germany, and Rough Guide to Germany (but interestingly not in the Lonely Planet to Germany). I also recommend the ADAC street plan of Wuppertal. Have a nice ride!
Author: Gregor Swiderek