User:Melkom/54

54
54 in Frankfurt-Nied
Overview
System	traffiQ
Operator	DB Busverkehr Hessen
Garage	Fritz-Klatte-Straße
Vehicle	Citaro II
Livery	Cyan
Status	operational
Began service	1940
Predecessors	D
Night-time	M55, N11
Route
Locale	Frankfurt am Main
Communities served	Griesheim, Nied, Höchst, Sindlingen
Landmarks served	Bolongaropalast, Höchster Schloß
Start	Griesheim Bahnhof
Via	Höchst Bahnhof
End	Sindlingen Friedhof
Length	10 km (6.2 mi)
Service
Level	Daily
Frequency	every 15 minutes
Journey time	29 minutes
Operates	4:00 am – 1:00 am
Zone(s)	50
Timetable	Timetable
Terminus locations class=notpageimage| The terminal stations (red) and depot (black) ← 53  {{{system_nav}}}  55 →

The 54 bus service is one of the oldest consistently operated bus services in Frankfurt. It connects the western neighborhoods of Frankfurt following roughly the river Main.

Route

Currently the primary route variant of the 54 bus service is about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) long. The 54 serves 32 stops on this route in east to west direction and 31 stops in west to east direction and it takes about 48 minutes. The average speed is 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) and the average time per stop is 80 seconds.

Variants

1. Zuckschwerdtstraße/Bolongaropalast ↔ Sindlingen Friedhof
2. Griesheim Bahnhof ↔ Sindlingen Friedhof

Stops

#	1	2	Stop	Transfer	1st service
1			Griesheim Bahnhof	S S1 S2 Bus 59	1997
2		∨	Jungmannstraße	Bus 59	1997
3		∧	Alte Falterstraße	Bus 59	1997
4			Staustufe Griesheim		1997
5			Chemisches Werk		1997
6			Lachegraben		1997
7			Dürkheimer Straße	Bus 51	1997
8			Nied Kirche	Tram 11 21 Bus 51	1940
9		∨	Nied Brücke	Bus 51 59	1940
10			Tillystraße	Tram 11 Bus 51 59	1940
11			Ludwig-Scriba-Straße	Bus 51 59	1997
12	∨	∨	Zuckschwerdtstraße	Tram 11 Bus 50 51 53 55 59	1952
13	∧	∧	Bolongaropalast	Tram 11 Bus 50 51 53 55 59	1940
14	∧	∧	Mainberg	Bus 50 55	1940
15	∨	∨	Hostatostraße	Bus 50 51 53 55 59 253 804	1948
16	∧	∧	Leverkuser Straße	Bus 50 55	1940
17			Höchst Bahnhof	Rail 10 12 13 20 S S1 S2 Bus 50 51 53 55 58 59 253 804	1940
18			Industriepark Höchst Tor Nord	S S1 S2 Bus 53	1954
19			Industriepark Höchst Tor West	Bus 55 57	1989
20			Pfingstbornstraße	Bus 55	1940
21			Westenbergerstraße	Bus 55	1940
22			Allesinastraße	Bus 55	1997
23	∨	∨	Farbenstraße/Friedhof	Bus 55	1997
24			Sindlingen Friedhof	Bus 55 837	1997

Connected Services

The 54 services lies in a cluster with other bus services of the 50s series (except for 52, 56 and 57). That cluster is centered around Höchst. The most similar service is the 59, which also runs along the 54 in Höchst and Griesheim.

#	Overlap		Common segments
	number	[%]
S1	2	8	Griesheim and Höchst
S2	2	8	Griesheim and Höchst
11	4	17	western Mainzer Landstraße
21	1	4	Nied Kirche
50	6	25	Höchst
51	9	38	Nieder Kirchweg, Alt-Nied, Bologarostraße, western Mainzer Landstraße, Höchst
53	3	13	Bolongaropalast, Höchst station, Industriepark Höchst Tor Nord
55	12	50	Höchst, southern Sindlingen
57	1	4	Industriepark Höchst Tor West
58	1	4	Höchst station
59	10	42	Alt-Nied, Bolongarostraße, Höchst

History

1928 – 1940: D service

After the incorporation of the western suburbs into Frankfurt, a new bus service was created. It started in the east at the old airport Rebstock at the terminus Flugplatz (today Mönchhofstraße). This was at the same time the western terminus of a few tram line services. At Waldschulstraße, the D then branched into two separate route, one through central Griesheim, another one along the Mainzer Landstraße. The two branches merged again at the Nied Kirche stop and continued through Nied, Höchst, Sindlingen to the western terminus in Zeilsheim. When the tram line was extended further to the west in 1935, both branches of the D service were cut back to the new tram terminus at Nied Kirche.

1940 – 1954: From Nied to Zeilsheim

In the 1950s, the 54 served the old Farbenstraße with its Hoechst AG administration building

The 54 was created in 1940 from the previous D service with the same route. It started at the loop of terminus of the Mainzer Landstraße tram line at Nied Kirche (Nied church), which was served by 14 and 23_E services at that time. It continued westwards via Bolongarostraße to Höchst, where it stopped at Bolongaropalast and the train station of this neighborhood. It then ran through the large factory compound of IG Farben to arrive Sindlingen at the western side. From Sindlingen, the service continued to the north to the Sindlingen station and its terminus in the neighborhood Zeilsheim. During war time, the service was successively restricted and shortened until it was eventually discontinued in the spring of 1945. Operation on the eastern part resumed later that year connecting the tram terminus with the train station in Höchst as the only bus service in Frankfurt. The western part resumed service in 1946 to the former IG Farben compound and 1948 again to Zeilsheim.

In 1952, an additional route variant was introduced. In the western part the 54_A connected Zeilsheim and Höchst directly via Pfaffenwiese, a route that only one year earlier was used by the 58 service. The eastern part of this branch was extended further to the northeast with a new stop at Nied station, creating a new terminus for this service at the railroad workers' settlement in the outskirts of Nied. In the same year, the tram terminus was relocated further west to Zuckschwerdtstraße in Höchst. The new tram loop would become the new eastern end of the regular 54 service, which therefore was cut back. Both service, 54 and 54_A, only shared the route through Höchst and the common western terminus in Zeilsheim.

1954 - 1980: From Höchst to Sindlingen

One of the biggest change in the routing of bus service 54 was the closure of the Hoechst AG compound. It could no longer take the direct route from Höchst to Sindlingen. Instead, the 54 used the western branch of the 54_E that was simultaneously discontinued. Hence, the new 54 started at Zuckschwerdtstraße, stopped at Höchst Bahnhof, followed the new Hoechster-Farben-Straße along the nortern wall around the Hoechst AG compound, made a turn to the north towards Zeilsheim, where it ended at the Alt-Zeilsheim (today Kirche Zeilsheim) terminus. In 1957, the service was extended southwards along the Westhöchster Straße towards its new terminus Richard-Weidlich-Platz (today: Sindlingen Bahnhof). This section is part of the original route from 1940, but did not connect the southern parts of Sindlingen, that were originally served by the 54, a situation that remained for the next 30 years. A small change to the service occurred in 1968. Instead of using the Hoechster-Farben-Straße, the service now ran via the parallel Silostraße with a stop at the public swimming pool (today Silobad/Ballsporthalle). Another change was made at the western end of the service. It was extended to the west into the Ferdinand-Hofmann-Siedlung, a densely populated housing estate, with a new terminus Hugo-Kallenbach-Straße.

1980 - 2006: The new underpass and the incorporation of the 53 service

Since 1997 the new eastern terminus: Griesheim Bahnhof

Until 1980, the 54 only served the northern part of Sindlingen, while the 53 service only served the southern part. When construction for the street underpass at the Sindlingen station started, the 54 could no longer reach the station and its terminus Hugo-Kallenbach-Straße. For the construction time, the 54 had to end at Annabergstraße in Zeilsheim. The service to northern Sindlingen returned in 1982, but it got its prior terminus with the new name Sindlingen Bahnhof (before Richard-Weidlich-Platz).

The new underpass made it possible to cross the busy railroad line at the station without having to wait at a level crossing. An extension southwards across the railroad was realized in 1989 to Hoechst AG Tor West (today Industriepark Höchst Tor West). In 1997 the former bus service 53 was almost fully integrated into the 54. In Sindlingen, the 54 now served the western part of the 53 from Hoechst AG Tor West along its pre-1955 route through southern Sindlingen to its new terminus Sindlingen Friedhof, connecting northern and southern Sindlingen again after over 40 years.

Simultaneously, the eastern part of 53 was integrated as well. The 54 now ran as in 1940 through western Nied to its old terminus Nied Kirche and continued southwards to the river bank of the Main. It ran along the Main passing another factory compound of Hoechst AG and southern Griesheim, eventually reaching the new terminus Griesheim Bahnhof, a route that was already served as an alternative branch of the D service until 1935.

2006 - 2020: New bus concept for Zeilsheim

Just before the opening of Frankfurt Zeilsheim station, a revised bus concept for the neighborhood was implemented. The existing bus services 50 and 51, that only served a part of Zeilsheim, were pulled back to Höchst and the 54 was pulled back to a new bus terminus at the mentioned S-Bahn station. Instead the 53 service was reactivated to serve the same route as the 54 did before between Zeilsheim and Sindlingen. In Zeilsheim, these services had exactly the same route. In 2013, the 54 changed back to its previous route with the terminus at Sindlingen Friedhof while the 53 now terminates in Zeilsheim.

Since 2020: Discontinuation of the service in Zeilsheim and extension to the north-east

With the introduction of the new metrobus concept for Frankfurt in 2020, the 54 service does no longer serve the stops in Zeilsheim. These stops are served by the new M55 bus service. The 54 will instead use the direct route from Sindlingen to Höchst that was previously served by 55 service.

For the timetable change in winter 2021, the 54 was further extended to the north-east. After the prior terminal stop Griesheim Bahnhof, it follows the course of the 59 service along Waldschulstraße and diverges at Neufeld by continuing to the east through the Rebstock and towards the new terminal Leonardo-da-Vinci-Allee. This change was reverted again in winter 2023, after a bridge on that route had to be demolished for safety reasons.

Operator history

Date	Operator	Vehicles	Livery
1940 – 1972	Stadtwerke/VgF (Municipal corporation)	...	Cream
1972 – 1990		Mercedes-Benz O305 Mercedes-Benz O405	Cream/Orange
1990 – 2009		Mercedes-Benz O405N Mercedes-Benz Citaro I	Cyan
2009 – 2014	In-der-City-Bus	Solaris Urbino
since 2014	DB Busverkehr Hessen	Mercedes-Benz Citaro II