Frankfurt U-Bahn

The Frankfurt U-Bahn, together with the Rhine-Main S-Bahn and the Frankfurt Straßenbahn, forms the backbone of the public transport system of Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. Its name derives from the German term for underground, Untergrundbahn. Since 1996, the U-Bahn has been owned and operated by Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt (VgF), the public transport company of Frankfurt, and is part of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) transit association.

The U-Bahn opened in 1968, and has been expanded several times. It consists of three inner-city tunnels and above-ground lines in the suburbs. About 59% of the track length is underground. The above-ground sections operate at different standards from traditional rapid transit systems due to the independent expansion of at-grade rail for those sections – they are more like light rail (Stadtbahn) due to their not being fully grade-separated.

The network consists of 86 stations on nine lines, with a total length of 64.85 kilometres (40.30 mi). Eight of the nine lines travel through the city center (line U9 being the exception). In 2012, the U-Bahn carried 117.3 million passengers, an average of approximately 321,000 passengers per day.