Abstract

Once planning and construction will be complete, Cologne’s new subway tunnel will enable fast and direct transportation between the central and southern urban quarters, and the city’s central station. This paper takes a closer look at the project’s four decades spanning history, its characteristics, and the impact of its integration on the overall system’s performance. When representations of the tunnel and the re-routed light-rail lines are integrated with an existing simulation model, experiments show that no negative impact on the network’s performance is to be expected. Some weaknesses are discovered, resulting for example in delayed departures at the tunnel’s stations.