S-Bahn

A good example of such an exception is the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn, which interconnects the cities, towns and suburbs of the Ruhr, a large urban agglomeration.

In many cases, this central corridor is a dedicated grade-separated line in the city centre with close stop spacing and a high frequency, similar to metro systems.

Further out from the central parts of a city the individual services branch off into lines where the distances between stations can exceed 5 km, similar to commuter rail.

The interior is designed for short journeys with provision for standing passengers, but may have more space allocated to comfortable seating than metro trains.

Integration with other local transport for ticketing, connectivity and easy interchange between lines or other systems like metros is typical for the S-Bahn.

The S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland constitutes the main local railway system for Leipzig but also connects to Halle, where a few stations are located.

Hamburg had an electric railway between the central station (Hauptbahnhof) and Altona which opened in 1906, and in 1934 the system adopted the S-Bahn label from Berlin.

[citation needed] As for Munich, in 1938 the Nazi government broke ground for an S-Bahn-like rapid transport system in Lindwurmstraße near what is now Goetheplatz station on line U6.

The planning process mainly consisted of the bundling and interconnecting of existing suburban and local railways, plus the construction of a few new lines.

Plans and construction work - including the building shell of Goetheplatz station - came to a very early halt during World War II and were not pursued in its aftermath.

Very extensive nowadays, Munich's existing S-Bahn system, together with the first two U-Bahn lines, only began to operate prior to the 1972 Summer Olympics.

In 1882, the growing number of steam-powered trains around Berlin prompted the Prussian State Railway to construct separate rail tracks for suburban traffic.

[citation needed] The second suburban railway was the Hamburg-Altonaer Stadt- und Vorortbahn connecting Hamburg with Altona and Blankenese.

The Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahn instead implemented direct current multiple units running on 750 V from a third rail.

[citation needed] The Hamburg service had established an alternating current line in 1907 with the use of multiple units with slam doors.

In 1940 a new system with 1200 V DC third rail and modern electric multiple units with sliding doors was integrated on this line (on the same tracks).

The rolling stock was blue for a long time, reflecting the logo colour, but red is used uniformly for nearly all local traffic today.

The network is served by three corporations: the Berchtesgadener Land Bahn (BLB)(S4), the Austrian Federal Railways (German: Österreichischen Bundesbahn / ÖBB)(S2 and S3) and the Salzburger Lokalbahn (SLB)(S1 and S11) and .

[10] The S-Bahn Steiermark has been inaugurated in December 2007 in Styria, built to connect its capital city Graz with the rest of the metropolitan area, currently the following lines are active: S1, S11, S3, S31, S5, S51, S6, S61, S7, S8 and S9.

The youngest network is the S-Bahn Oberösterreich in the Greater Linz area of the state of Upper Austria, which was inaugurated in December 2016.

The average distance between stations is 2.0 km, shorter in the city core and inner boroughs, longer at the end of lines that serve suburbs.

The branch towards Køge (the southernmost S-train station in Copenhagen's S-network) has a rather unique history, as it was built in the 1970s where no previous railway ever had existed.

Although not called a "Train S" in French, the Paris RER has the characteristic structure of an S-Bahn system, with branches going to distant suburbs and sharing a common corridor in the city center.

In June 2008, the Swiss canton of St. Gallen, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, and the Principality of Liechtenstein signed an agreement for a project to upgrade this line (and the surrounding ones) and to increase the rail traffic.

There are three operational railway stations in Liechtenstein along the Feldkirch–Buchs line: Schaan-Vaduz (which serves the capital Vaduz), Forst Hilti and Nendeln.

An international S-Bahn network also existsts across the Swiss-Italian border, in the Swiss Canton of Ticino and the Italian state of Lombardy.

[19] Léman express was launched in December 2019 and is operated by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS) and SNCF.

Presently, the Bodensee S-Bahn only operates services around Lake Constance in Austria, Germany and Switzerland (without Liechtenstein).

Swiss S-Bahn services are operated mostly by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS) but also by private railway companies, such as Appenzeller Bahnen (AB), BLS AG, Forchbahn (FB), Regionalverkehr Bern-Solothurn (RBS), Rhätische Bahn (RhB), Sihltal Zürich Uetliberg Bahn (SZU), Südostbahn (SOB) or Zentralbahn (ZB).

Rail transport in Switzerland, including S-Bahn systems, is noteworthy for its coordination between services due to the clock-face schedule.