A bridge spans the entire underground station that is accessible by lifts, providing an easy interchange and a barrier-free transfer for the disabled to trains running in opposite directions.

During the building of the first tramline in Essen in 1893, planning began on a partially underground railway, which was not realised until decades after the Second World War.

Thus a line was built on parts of today's Essen–Mülheim route, which was initially connected by temporary exit ramps with the rest of the tram network.

The plans for a tunnel under the centre of Essen replacing an above-ground tram line began in 1961.

For various reasons, however, it was agreed to build an underground tramway with the possibility of future upgrade to a full U-Bahn.

The planning was carried out simultaneously on the construction of a highway tunnel for the Ruhr Expressway underneath the inner city.

The first construction project was the establishment of the shell of Planckstraße station in 1964, which was later used for the connection to the existing above-ground tram line to Margarethenhoehe.

The next phase of construction was the building of the continuous Stadtbahn line from Essen to Mülheim along the Ruhr Expressway, which, as has already been mentioned, was partly built in the 1960s.

Line U11 is an important fast connection between the northern district of Altenessen and the exhibition ground (Messe) and Gruga Park in the southern suburbs.

It runs from Karlsplatz station in Altenessen to Margarethenhöhe, a garden suburb in the south of Essen.

It links Essen city in the east with Mulheim an der Ruhr in the West, with nine stations in Mülheim.

This includes the four-track terminus of Mülheim (Ruhr) Hauptbahnhof, which connects to the trams towards Duisburg, among other things.

Only line U18 retains this, but the link to the fairgrounds (Messe) for the residents of the northern suburbs of Essen and the city of Gelsenkirchen has been significantly improved.

The operation of the particularly well-used section from Essen Hbf to the University continues to run at 5-minute intervals.

The system's original Stadtbahnwagen Typ B ("B-Wagen") vehicles were produced by a consortium of Duewag, Siemens, and Kiepe between 1976 and 1985, and are still used today on all three lines.

However, since all stations have now been equipped with uniformly high platforms, these steps are being removed in the course of the current rollingstock upgrades (which includes the incorporation of surveillance cameras in the carriages, new paintwork, new dot-matrix displays inside and LED advertising outside).

In 1989, DLR procured ten P89 vehicles from British Rail Engineering Limited for route extensions.

Due to strong traffic growth and other route extensions, DLR procured new, more modern vehicles that could be used in trains of up to three sets.

The installation of DLR's new Alcatel SelTrac train control system would have meant that the P89 sets would have had to be rebuilt in order to maintain them in operation.

They also could not be operated in coupled sets in the DLR's tunnel sections due to their lack of connecting doors.

Among other things, driving cabs and rooftop pantographs had to be retrofitted, as these cars had been driven automatically in London and used bottom contact third rail while the Essen Stadtbahn uses overhead electrification.

The P86 sets then got this overhaul from 2005 to 2012, which also included the replacement of the dual-leaf inward folding doors being replaced with single-lead pocket doors that the P89s got while operating in London, in order to extend their service on the Essen Stadtbahn network, with the converted sets classified as P86U.

In June 2021, Ruhrbahn ordered 51 LRVs from Spanish train manufacturer CAF, seeking to replace the entire current Stadtbahn fleet.

[9] One project is the above-ground extension of line U17 from the current terminus of Margarethenhöhe to the south through three stations.

It was proposed to upgrade the southern section to Bredeney to standard gauge as Stadtbahn line U12, but this was eventually rejected by the city of Essen.

The high-floor platforms would be slightly elevated and thus would provide stepless entries and exits for line U11 services.

Up to this point, the stations that had already been built in the city centre and in Ruettenscheid would still be operated by trams in pre-metro mode (Stadtbahn-Vorlaufbetrieb).

The construction of underground railway in Essen officially ended with the inauguration of the northern line in 2001.