It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world. Being grade-separated, it is considered rapid transit. Langen first offered the technology to the cities of Berlin , Munich , and Breslau which all turned it down. The elevated tracks and stations were built between and ; the first track opened in The railway line is credited with growth of the original cities and their eventual merger into Wuppertal. The Schwebebahn runs along a route of The entire trip takes about 30 minutes.
The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn had a forerunner: in , Henry Robinson Palmer of Britain presented a railway system which differed from all previous constructions.
It was a low single-rail suspension railway on which the carriages were drawn by horses. Friedrich Harkort , a Prussian industrial entrepreneur and politician, loved the idea. He saw big advantages for the transport of coal to the early industrialised region in and around the Wupper valley. Harkort had his own steel mill in Elberfeld ; he built a demonstration segment of the Palmer system and set it up in on the grounds of what is today the Wuppertal tax office.
He tried to attract public attention to his railway plans. On 9 September , the town councillors of Elberfeld met to discuss the use of a "Palmer's Railway" from the Ruhr region, Hinsbeck, or Langenberg , to the Wupper valley, Elberfeld, connecting Harkort's factories. Friedrich Harkort inspected the projected route with a surveyor and a member of the town council. The plans never went ahead because of protests from the transport branch [ clarification needed ] and owners of mills that were not on the routes.
In the cities of Elberfeld and Barmen formed a commission for the construction of an elevated railway or Hochbahn. Construction on the Schwebebahn began in , overseen by the government's master builder, Wilhelm Feldmann. In the railway came into operation. The railway was closed owing to severe damage during World War II , but reopened in The Schwebebahn carries approximately 80, [ 1 ] passengers through the city per weekday. Since , the supporting frame has been largely modernized, and many stations have been reconstructed and brought up to date technically.
