Start of public transport in Wiesbaden
- Start on 16 August 1875 with a horse-drawn tram on "single-track standard gauge" (gauge: 1,435 mm)
- First route: From Rheinstraße through the city centre to the Nero Valley (today's bus route 1)
Nerobergbahn
The Nerobergbahn was built in 1888 as a water load and rack funicular railway
- Line: 438 m long, 19 % gradient, 83 m difference in altitude
- Technical cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act
- Operator: ESWE transport company
- Usage: Over 250,000 passengers a year, around 80% tourists
- Everything about the Nerobergbahn at www.nerobergbahn.de
Expansion of the horse-drawn railway network and introduction of new technologies
- 1889: Second horse-drawn tramway and first steam tramway
- 1896: Introduction of the electric tramway (replaces horse-drawn and steam trams by 1900)
- 1906: Tram line between Wilhelmstraße and Dotzheim, extension to Bierstadt in 1910
Introduction of bus lines
- 1922: First bus line between Wiesbaden city centre and Schierstein
- 1929: Foundation of the "Städtische Verkehrsbetriebe" and introduction of the first bus lines, which gradually replace trams
Development of transport companies
- 1943: Integration of the "Städtische Verkehrsbetriebe" into the "Stadtwerke Wiesbaden Aktiengesellschaft" to save costs
- 1970: Introduction of the abbreviation "ESWE"
- Mid-1970s: Introduction of the blue-orange-white vehicle livery
The origins of ESWE Verkehr
- 1985: Purchase of the first Mercedes-Benz O 405 buses with the latest livery
- 1990: Introduction of a passenger advisory board (second city in Germany after Cologne)
- 2000: Transformation of the transport company into the independent ESWE Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH
- 2004: Foundation of Wiesbadener Busgesellschaft mbH (WiBus) to strengthen the market position
- 2014: WiBus is renamed ESWE Verkehr Fahrbetrieb GmbH and all shares are transferred to ESWE Verkehr
- 2015: Complete merger of ESWE Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH with its subsidiaries
2025 is our anniversary year
This year is a very special one for us, as we are celebrating two major milestones:
- 25 years of ESWE Verkehr in its current organisational form: ESWE Verkehr became an independent company in 2000 - and in 2025 we will be celebrating our 25th anniversary as a modern transport company!
- 150 years of local public transport in Wiesbaden: On 16 August 1875, the first horse-drawn tram began operating in Wiesbaden - marking the birth of public transport in our city. Back then, a single horse pulled the carriages along a route of around three kilometres from Rheinstraße to Nerotal. The development since then has been impressive: from the steam tram (1889) to the first electric tram (1896) to the complete switch to bus operation from 1929 - all this has made Wiesbaden the ‘bus city’ it is today.