Stadtwerke Solingen

The Verkehrsbetrieb der Stadtwerke Solingen GmbH, or SWS, is a public transport company in the German city of Solingen and its surrounding area. Stadtwerke Solingen operates the Solingen trolleybus system as well as various bus lines and is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr transport agency.

Stadtwerke Solingen GmbH
Former logo of Stadtwerke Solingen
Overview
Owner	City Solingen
Area served	Solingen and Wuppertal
Locale	North Rhine-Westphalia
Transit type	bus trolleybus
Number of lines	6 (Trolleybus) 19 (Bus) 6 (Night bus)
Line number	Hauptschule Höhscheid – Krahenhöhe Albert-Schweitzer-Realschule Theodor-Heuss-Realschule Alexander-Coppel-Gesamtschule Friedrich-Albert-Lange-Gesamtschule Geschwister-Scholl-Gesamtschule / Uhlandstraße Schulzentrum Leichlingen Schulzentrum Vogelsang August-Dicke-Gymnasium Humboldtgymnasium Gymnasium Schwertstraße
Number of stations	508
Daily ridership	65,000
Headquarters	Weidenstraße 10, 42655 Solingen
Website	www.sobus.net/
Operation
Began operation	30 December 1896
Technical
System length	219.4 kilometres (136.3 mi) (total) 162.8 kilometres (101.2 mi) (bus) 56.6 kilometres (35.2 mi) (trolleybus)

History

Solingen city tramway

The metre gauge Solingen city tramway began operations on December 30, 1896, by the Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (UEG) from Berlin. The first route began by Stöckerberg near the tollgate, and down cologne street to the Südbahnhof, service began on June 7, 1897. Another line followed the same day, beginning at Neumarkt near the Kaiserstraße, next to Schützenstraße and down Burger Straße to Krahenhöhe it was 2.4 kilometers in length.