Notes

It’s not a coincidence that this picture resembles one I took in Berlin. I just liked that picture a lot.

Hamburg’s subway is officially called a subway or underground, and the line names all start with an U. Nevertheless, it is operated by a company called Hochbahn (elevated railway), and large parts of the system are, indeed, above ground, such as here at the Baumtorwall stop.

It’s quite interesting to compare this with Berlin. Both use very narrow vehicles (in Berlin only the small loading gauge lines), in Berlin with longitudinal seating, in Hamburg with normal seating in 2+1 configuration. In terms of light weight construction, both went very different ways. Berlin used lots of (externally invisible) aluminum, while Hamburg preferred a light steel construction that is actually licensed from Budd. The DT3 here is an older articulated (another thing that Berlin never had) EMU, just departing for central station.