H-Bahn

Suspended, driverless passenger railway system developed in Germany

The H Bahn (abbreviation for Hängebahn, German for 'hanging railway') in Dortmund and Düsseldorf (there known as "Sky train") is a driverless passenger suspension railway system. The system was developed by Siemens, who call the project SIPEM (SIemens PEople Mover). Two installations exist, one at the Dortmund university campus, the other at the Düsseldorf Airport. While Siemens is no longer actively marketing the system, and will no longer carry out turnkey projects, new installations are still possible in collaboration with the Dortmund operating company. Since 2011 Air Train International has been marketing the system in China and as of May 2013 there are proposals to build lines in Shanghai and Wenzhou. A number of other Chinese cities are also studying the system.

The cabins are centrally controlled and do not need a driver. The system can operate on a schedule or on demand, whereby a passenger requests a carriage by pushing a button, similar to summoning an elevator. The maximum speed is The system allows forking by a system of switches in the carrier.

Each cabin is long (, including couplers), wide and high. The interior height for standing passengers is It has two wide automatic sliding doors at each side. The Dortmund cabin provides seating for 16 and standing room for 29 passengers, while the Düsseldorf airport version provides space for 15 and 32, respectively. The cabin shell weighs The complete car weighs , with bogies weighing each. It can carry a useful load of up to and has a maximum gross weight of .

Switching is done with the help of the horizontal guiding wheels, where short blades on both sides of the common section of the carrier move as a canal of the same width as the carrying box to the left or right, while a long blade between the two forking guideways moves right or left to provide the horizontal guidance into the intended direction.

In 1973, the Federal Ministry made DM 22 million (€11,250,000) available for the research and promotion of this system. A test line was opened on 21 July 1975 in Düsseldorf by the former transport minister Hans Matthoefer with a length of 180 metres (approx. 200 yards). In 1976, the system was extended by 1.5 km (a little less than a mile).

A nearly identical monorail system called SkyTrain transfers passengers at Düsseldorf Airport, which opened on 1 July 2002 after almost six years of construction. The system links Terminal C and Terminal A+B with the long term parking facility and the long distance train station along a twin line.