the then southern suburbs. This project, which was completed in 1913, involved relocating the route of the Hardt Railway within the city of Karlsruhe and the then independent municipality of Neureut. As a result, the Hart Railway now followed the relocated Maxau Railway (which was, in effect, the Baden section of the Palatine Maximilian Railway) to Mühlburg station and then continued for another kilometre, where it separated from the Maxau Railway to the right and ran straight towards Neureut. As a result of continuously falling patronage on the Hardt line, last listed in the timetable as line number 302e, since 1950, passenger services were abandoned on 28 May 1967. The line was then dismantled between Graben-Neudorf and the turnoff to the east to the Nuclear Research Centre Karlsruhe (Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe, now the North Campus of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), which was located in the Hardt forest between Leopoldshafen and Linkenheim. Only the freight to the U.S. barracks in Neureut and to the Research Centre preserved the line from full closure. From 1952 to 1974 there was a siding connecting with the U.S. base at the old airfield on the pre-1913 route of the line. Beginning of Stadtbahn operations (1967–1979) After Neureut was incorporated in Karlsruhe in 1974, it was agreed to connect it to the Karlsruhe tram network. A route had been reserved for this purpose east of the Hardt Railway, running to the Neureut development area. The possibility of using the Hardt Railway to Neureut for the tram service was considered. From 1978, the AVG extended line A, which started on the Alb Valley Railway (Albtalbahn) or the Busenbach–Ittersbach railway, through Karlsruher Nordweststadt to Neureut. This was followed by lengthy and difficult negotiations between the AVG and Deutsche Bundesbahn. The originally planned route for a separate tram link has not been built on yet and it can still be seen clearly. On 23 December 1977, an agreement was finally reached between DB and AVG that would allow the AVG and DB freight to share use of the line in Neureut. An AVG multiple unit ran over the line to prove that operations were possible. Work then began. The redesigned section was opened to Neureut on 5 August 1979. A service ran as line A on the tracks of the Hardt Railway from Welschneureuter Straße station to the temporary terminus at Neureut Kirchfeld. The first trains ran at twenty-minute