Private company

Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Municipal transport company of Dresden

Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB) is the municipal transport company of the city of Dresden in Germany. It is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe transport association that manages a common public transport structure for Dresden and its surrounding areas. The DVB operates the Dresden tram network comprising 12 tram lines, with a total line length of approximately 210 kilometres (130.5 mi) and a total route length of 132.7 kilometres (82.5 mi) (as of 2008), and 28 bus lines, with a total line length of approximately 306 kilometres (190.1 mi).2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1872Founded1
  • HeadquartersDresden1
  • Websitewww.dvb.de
  • Legal formAktiengesellschaft1
NGTD12DD front
Photo: burts, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB) is the municipal transport company of the city of Dresden in Germany. It is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe transport association that manages a common public transport structure for Dresden and its surrounding areas. The DVB operates the Dresden tram network comprising 12 tram lines, with a total line length of approximately 210 kilometres (130.5 mi) and a total route length of 132.7 kilometres (82.5 mi) (as of 2008), and 28 bus lines, with a total line length of approximately 306 kilometres (190.1 mi). It is also responsible for two funicular railways and three ferries across the River Elbe.2

Corporate structure

Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe sits at the top of its group. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe Dresden
    • Taeter Tours Subsidiary · Dresden, Germany
    • tram line 12 (Dresden) Owned · Dresden, Germany
    • tram line 4 Owned · Radebeul, Germany
    • tram line 6 (Dresden) Owned · Dresden, Germany
    • tram line 9 (Dresden) Owned · Dresden, Germany

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

  • tram line 12 (Dresden)
  • tram line 4
  • tram line 6 (Dresden)
  • tram line 9 (Dresden)

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

Products and brands

Tram network

The Dresden tramway is a mixed system of traditional street running, especially in the inner city boroughs close to the city centre, and modern light rail lines. The tramway uses the unusual and completely unique track gauge of 1,450 mm (4 ft 9+3⁄32 in), which is just 15 mm or 19⁄32 in wider than 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge.

In recent years, street running has been replaced by independent right-of-way arrangements wherever possible, and new extensions created in the same form. In November 2008, a 2.8-kilometre (1.7 mi) extension of route 7 was opened from Gorbitz to Pennrich, in Dresden's south eastern suburbs. In May 2011, a 1.6-kilometre (0.99 mi) extension of route 10 opened from Friedrichstrasse to the city's Messe or exhibition centre, involving construction of a 315-metre (1,033 ft 6 in) long, 15-metre (49 ft 3 in) wide, and 5.4-metre (17 ft 9 in) high bridge across the floodplain of the River Elbe.

Unlike various other German cities of comparable size, no stadtbahn style tunnel sections or high platform stations have been created. However, many tram stops have been rebuilt so as to be fully accessible to physically disabled persons, and to allow level boarding to the low floor trams that now operate most services.

Different routes can be identified by a route number and a colour code. The current routes are:

Read the full text

Future plans, as part of the Stadtbahnprogramm 2020, include 14.9 kilometres (9.3 mi) of new tram route, with work starting in 2014. Some 10.5 kilometres (6.5 mi) would be on reserved track, and the new routes would replace bus routes 61 and 62, some of the city's busiest, with an estimated cost of 223 million euros. The new routes comprise:

Prager Str to Plauen Bhf via Budapester Str and Chemnitzer Str

Großer Garten to Löbtau via Technische Universität

City Center to Fetscherplatz via Pillnitzer Str and Striesener Str

Sachsenallee to Max-Planck-Institute via Johannstadt

Bühlau to Weißig

Part of the work for Stadtbahnprogramm 2020 has been completed. Routes 9 and 13 were realigned along a 1.1-kilometre (0.68 mi) section to provide better connections with regional trains at Dresden-Strehlen station in July 2019.

On all tramway routes except routes 4 and 7, a general 10-minute headway is offered on weekdays, extending to 15 minutes on Saturday, Sunday and in the evening. On the main lines through the inner city, where different routes intertwine, vehicles run up to every two minutes. Route 4, which extends a considerable distance beyond the city boundary to the towns of Radebeul, Coswig and Weinböhla, operates the standard 10 or 15 minute interval service as far as Radebeul West, and a 30-minute service beyond that to Coswig and Weinböhla. Route 7, the busiest line, has reduced its frequency to every 20 minutes on its outer section between Gorbitz and Pennrich.

Tram fleet

Most of the trams operating in Dresden are articulated low floor cars, of two different basic designs, each of which has several variants. The first generation of low floor cars was built by Deutsche Waggonbau (DW) in Bautzen between 1995 and 2002; both 6 and 8 axle variants exist. The second generation of low floor cars have been built since 2003 by Bombardier Transportation, also in Bautzen, and are of that manufacturer's Flexity Classic design; both 8 and 12 axle variants exist. The articulated cars vary in length from 30 to 45 metres (98 ft 5 in to 147 ft 8 in) long; all run as single car sets.

The fleet used to be composed of ČKD Tatra trams that provided service towards the end of the GDR era. At present some Tatra T4 cars built between 1968 and 1984 are still in service, but it is intended that they will all be replaced by 2010. The Tatra cars are all high floor, precluding level boarding from tram stops, and run in two car sets with a set length of some 30 metres (98 ft).

The DVB tram fleet operates out of three depots; at Gorbitz on routes 2,6 and 7 in south west Dresden, at Trachenberge on route 3 in the north-west, and Reick on routes 1, 9 and 13 in the south-east. Gorbitz is new facility opened in 1996 and includes a new central workshops. Trachenberge and Reick are older facilities that have both been heavily rebuilt to similar standards, whilst several other older depots have been closed. The former central workshops at Trachenberge, adjacent to the current depot, now house the Dresden Tram Museum, which has a collection including examples of many former Dresden trams.

From Wikipedia’s article on Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

Subsidiaries

Also owns

  • tram line 12 (Dresden)
  • tram line 4
  • tram line 6 (Dresden)
  • tram line 9 (Dresden)

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

  1. Succeeded Dresdner Vorortsbahn1

Timeline

  1. 1872Founded Founded1