South German Railway Company - Essen Tramways Dominate

Essen Tramways Dominate

At this time – on 1 April 1916 - the SEG firm owned branch lines totaling 216 km (134 mi) in length, of which 37 km (23 mi) were narrow gauge. In addition it owned two important tramway operations in Essen (71 km or 44 mi) and Wiesbaden (48 km or 30 mi) with a total of 119 km (74 mi) of metre gauge lines. In 1919 the Mainz Suburban Line was transferred to the city of Mainz.

Whilst the SEG began to gradually close its tram lines in 1929 due to differences with the city of Wiesbaden, the Essen tramway remained at the heart of the SEG, in which the city of Essen in 1933 had 66% of the shares.

Although early on buses were used as a backup for rail services and to extend the branch lines, they only produced meagre profits compared with the tramways, so that the SEG endeavoured not to renew concessions when they expired. They invited the German Reich to take over the Worms-Offstein Railway, because its concession was running out on 1 December 1936. This offer was answered with a Reich law, according to which the Reich Minister of Transport decree that operations were to continue after the end of the concession period. So the SEG had to carry on supporting all its railways. That said, it was able to improve the profitability of them by and by.

After the end of the Second World War, the SEG was dispossessed of the three railways in Thuringia (AIE, HEE, IGE). In West Germany the branch lines could continue to be operated thanks to the revenue from Essen Tramway operations.

In 1952/53 the SEG came to agreements with the states in which SEG branch lines operated:

• Baden-Württemberg took over the Breg Valley Railway, Kaiserstuhl Railway and Wiesen Valley Railway, which went into the state-owned Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen AG.
• Rhineland-Palatinate let the Deutsche Bundesbahn continue to run the lines, but quickly introduced bus services as well.
• Hesse took over the Reinheim-Reichelsheim Railway, whilst the Hetzbach-Beerfelden Railways was closed.

Because now only the tramways, whose network at times was over 100 km (62 mi) long, and buses in Essen belonged to the SEG, the company was renamed on 29 September 1954, as the Essener Verkehrs-AG (EVAG). This company exists to the present day with standard and metre gauge tramways of 74 km (46 mi) length.