In June 1965, the city council of Hanover made a historic decision:the state capital should get a subway. From now on, large construction sites will characterize the center for almost 30 years.
by Ole Lerch
With the construction of the subway network in 1965, a new phase of urban development began for Hanover. The city council's decision on June 23 to move the light rail underground is intended to relieve the city center with its rapidly increasing car traffic. Above all, commuter traffic to the Lower Saxony state capital had steadily increased up until the mid-1960s. But it should still be ten years before the first trip.
Temporary end of subway construction after just one year
The largest inner-city construction project in northern Germany in the mid-1960s begins on November 16, 1965 at Waterlooplatz. This is where the first ramming will take place, and a ramp will be built to connect the tunnel to the existing rail network. The first tunnel route should lead from Waterlooplatz to the main station. But after just one year of construction, 1966 is the end. The city stopped the construction work due to lack of funds. It only goes on because the federal government in Bonn passed the so-called Municipal Transport Financing Act shortly thereafter and contributed 50 percent to the construction costs. The state of Lower Saxony also takes on 25 percent.
September 1975:Hanover has an underground
At the beginning of the 1970s, there was not much evidence that the Kröpcke was to become a major subway hub.Hanover's subway construction continues - with far-reaching consequences for the cityscape and citizens:the city center is becoming a huge construction site. At the Kröpcke hub alone, the ground has to be excavated up to 25 meters deep - 50,000 truckloads of earth are transported away. The construction site is called the "big hole" in Hanover. On September 26, 1975, the time had come:for the first time, an underground train ran from the main station via the Kröpcke and Markthalle stations to Waterlooplatz. From now on, route 12 will run on this section of the tunnel.
Businesses are giving up
In the following years further tunnel sections are built. The so-called A route, from Waterloo to the main station, will be extended in the direction of List with the tunnel stations Lister Meile/Sedanstraße and Lister Platz. Especially here, in the area of today's Lister Meile north of the main station, the huge construction project brings with it many problems. Cars can no longer drive on what was then the Celle Heerstraße. The shops can only be reached via wooden planks, and many retailers complain about massive sales losses. The city is trying to help by arranging loans. Nevertheless, some shops go bankrupt.
"Ghost stations" are also being built
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, subway construction continued. First, the so-called B line will be built - from the Werderstrasse station in the north to Altenbekener Damm on Hildesheimer Strasse. Finally, the C line follows, which runs from Königsworther Platz to Steintor and further via the stations Kröpcke, Aegiedientorplatz, Marienstraße to Braunschweiger Platz. And the original plan of the specially created subway building authority of the city envisages running the fourth line - the so-called D-line between Ahlem and the exhibition center - as a subway through Hanover's city center. Two stations are even being built under Steintorplatz and under the main train station. But they are never put into operation.
In September 1993, with the completion of the Kopernikusstraße station on Engelbosteler Damm in Hanover's northern part of the city, the decades of subway construction in Hanover came to an end for the time being.
D line remains above ground after long dispute
As part of the modernization of Stadtbahn lines 10 and 17, the construction of the D line in the 2000s again became a bone of contention between parties in the Hanover region, the city and the citizens' initiative "Pro D-Tunnel". The core of the discussion is whether the line should run through the city center above ground, through an existing tunnel or through a completely new tunnel. Both the regional assembly and the city council of Hanover ultimately voted for the above-ground variant. And the station under the main train station will remain a "ghost station" for the time being.