Überetscher Bahn

Bolzano-Kaltern
Route length:	17.3 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	650 V  =
Maximum slope :	31.3  ‰
Minimum radius :	150 m
Legend Brenner railway from Innsbruck 150.231 Bozen / Bolzano 266  m slm 150,000 0,000 Railway to Verona and Merano (from 1980) Kilometers formerly Bozen-Merano railway 0.425 ehem. railroad crossing Verdiplatz tram to Laives 0.870 Talfer 1.537 former level crossing at Rome Bridge 261  m slm 1.574 Rome Bridge / Ponte Roma 261  m slm 3.170 Reschenbrücke / Ponte Resia 248  m slm 3.365 former Reschenbrücke level crossing 248  m slm 4,171 0.000 Former route Route to Merano Beginning of the Überetscher Bahn current route from Bolzano 0.125 Kaiserau / Bivio 242  m slm 0.239 Kaiserau level crossing 0.350 to Meran 0.410 Iron bridge over the Adige (67.5 m) 244  m slm 0.950 Sigmundskron- Überetsch / Castel Firmiano 242  m slm 1.302 Firmian Castle Tunnel / Galleria C. Firmiano (145.5 m) 270  m slm 3.824 St. Pauls Tunnel / Galleria S. Paolo (123.8 m) 340  m slm 4,750 St. Pauls / S. Paolo 365  m slm 6.135 Eppan - Girlan / Appiano-Cornaiano 402  m slm 8,900 Montiggl- Planitzing / Monticolo-Pianizza 400  m slm Kalterer junction / Bivio Caldaro 10.428 Kaltern / Caldaro 408  m slm 10.653 End of the route Kaltern 11.783 Salegg-Mitterdorf 12,850 Sankt Anton / S. Antonio valley station of the Mendelbahn 509  m slm 12,900 End of the route St. Anton Mendelbahn to the Mendelpass

The Überetscher Bahn was a 13-kilometer-long, single-track, electrified, standard-gauge South Tyrolean railway line that ran from Sigmundskron to Kaltern and on to the valley station of the Mendelbahn in St. Anton . From Bolzano to Sigmundskron, the railway used the tracks of the former route of the Bolzano-Merano railway .

Route

The line originally branched off directly after the Bolzano train station, where it used the route of the Bozen-Meraner Bahn along the Eisack . In the center of Bolzano there were 4 level crossings, a bridge over the Talfer and the two stops Rome and Reschenbrücke. At kilometer 3, the route separated from the course of the Eisack and, after a right bend, led straight through the orchards of Kaiserau in the direction of Sigmundskron. Shortly before the Sigmundskron train station, at 4.171 km, there was the junction where the actual Überetscher Bahn began. The track then ran a few hundred meters parallel to the Bozen-Meraner Bahn, where it then moved away in a tight left curve shortly after the “Kaiserau” stop and a level crossing. The “Sigmundskron-Überetsch” stop was after the junction and an iron bridge over the Adige . Then the railway snuggled through two shorter tunnels at Frangart along the slope to finally reach the plateau. The first stop there was in St. Pauls . After about one and a half kilometers there was the Eppan - Girlan train station , shortly thereafter the Montiggl stop and finally the Kaltern terminus . Shortly before the Kaltern train station there was also a switch that guaranteed a connection to the valley station of the Mendelbahn . This strange routing meant that the trains first entered Kaltern station and had to reset after the stop in order to continue to St. Anton.

history

The railway was built in just two and a half years and was finally opened on December 15, 1898 to provide a connection to the Überetsch . On the one hand, the railway made it easier to transport goods, on the other hand, tourism reached the towns better. In the first year of operation, a journey from Kaltern to Bolzano took 1 hour and 1 minute, in the opposite direction the fastest train took 1 hour and 8 minutes.

A special aspect of this railway was that a few years after its construction, in 1911, it was switched from steam to electric operation (650 V direct current). There are very few parallels to this in the old Austrian railway history. Most of the electrically operated local railways have been so since their construction, "preliminary phases" with steam operation only existed in rare cases. Initially, there were massive problems with engine damage, after which it was driven entirely on steam for two months.

In 1913, at the branch of the Überetscher Bahn from the Bozen-Meraner Bahn, the Kaiserau stop was built at the request of the surrounding residents.

From 1935, the power supply between Bozen and Sigmundskron took place instead of an overhead line with a busbar running to the side, as the Italian state railroad equipped the line to Merano with a different power system.

The passenger service ended on August 1, 1963, the complete shutdown took place on May 1, 1971.

Freight transport

Freight traffic played an important role on the Überetscher Bahn. After all, they wanted to export the local export goods, fruit and wine, without having to bring the goods to Bolzano in a cart and reload there. Due to the transport of wine, the railway was also nicknamed the "Lepsbahnl" in the vernacular.

Plans to reactivate the line

After the route had been left to decay for many years, the entire route was recently converted into a cycle path. Today it is very popular with the local population and tourists. At the same time, however, voices have also been heard calling for the railways to be returned in order to reduce the everyday traffic jam to the city of Bolzano. On the basis of these votes, a feasibility study was carried out on behalf of the communities of Appiano , Kaltern and Bolzano in cooperation with the State of South Tyrol , which assessed a tram from Bolzano to Kaltern with construction costs between 230 and 250 million euros as feasible. If the train were to run every quarter of an hour on the 15 km long route, commuter traffic jams could be greatly reduced.

In March 2010, Leitner AG proposed the concept of a cable-drawn, rubber-tyred MiniMetro with two sections, as already implemented in Perugia . This is to run every seven minutes from Kaltern to Bozen ( Sigmundskron ) on a 9.6 km long and partially underground route. The first section would connect Kaltern with Sigmundskron, the second section would then lead from there to Verdi-Platz (about 5 km). In total, it would take about 36 minutes (20 minutes to Kaltern-Sigmundskron and 16 minutes to Sigmundskron-Verdi-Platz). The Leitner AG project would cost a total of around 196 million euros (including an orbit from EURAC to the Jenesien cable car ). The annual operating costs are around EUR 9.5 million.

These projects were put on hold because the state government preferred a concept with express buses (working title: Metrobus ).

On 30 July 2016, presented SAD transport in an international mobility conference in Fiè its infrastructure program before, in addition to a Dolomites Railway Bolzano - Cortina d'Ampezzo and the construction of a tram line between the base station of the Renon Cable Car (Bolzano) and the Mendelbahn ( Kaltern ) provided. On December 11, 2017, the South Tyrolean provincial government decided to build a new Überetscher railway.

Received vehicles

The Vienna Technical Museum owns an original steam locomotive from the Überetscher Bahn - but later converted into a tunnel locomotive with a smaller cab. The locomotive, originally called "Kaltern 1", was built in 1898 by the Krauss Co. locomotive factory in Linz. At the kk priv. Südbahngesellschaft it was assigned to the 32d1 class and given the number "1851". In 1926 it came to GKB with its sister machine "1852", where both were converted for use as tunnel locomotives in the Piberstein lignite mining. After the mud disaster in Köflach in 1965 , the two locomotives had had their day, as the Revier tunnel was flooded. The 1852 was then used on the Sulmtalbahn until it was discontinued , then it was handed over to the Judenburg cast steelworks and scrapped in 1975. After having been parked at Graz Köflacherbahnhof for almost 20 years, the 1851 was given to the Vienna Technical Museum. On the initiative of the Styrian Railway Friends , the locomotive was restored in 2008 and then erected as a memorial in Bärnbach.

gallery

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  Eppan station of the Überetscher Bahn

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  Kaltern station of the Überetscher Bahn

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  Roofing detail at Eppan train station

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  Remise in Kaltern with remains of the track

literature

• Werner Duschk, Walter Pramstaller, among others: Local and trams in old Tyrol . Self-published by Tiroler Museumsbahnen , Innsbruck 2008.
• Michael Alexander Populorum: Railway archaeological excursions south of the Brenner Pass - Part 4: The Überetscher Railway from Bozen via Eppan to Kaltern and Mendel. (=  Series of publications by the Documentation Center for European Railway Research (DEEF) . Volume 7 ). Mercurius Verlag, Salzburg 2013 (2nd edition 2016 on DVD, ISBN 978-3-903132-12-2 ).
• Alexander von Egen , Arnold Dissertori, Martin Sölva: The Mendelbahn in Kaltern . Ed .: Association for Culture and Home Care Kaltern. Athesia, Bozen 1988, ISBN 88-7014-492-5 .
• Martin Sölva: The Überetscher Bahn. Bolzano-Kaltern . Ed .: Association for Culture and Home Care Kaltern. Kaltern 1998.
• Walter Kreutz: The Überetscher Railway . In: Railway . No. 9 , 1957, ISSN  0013-2756 , pp. 153–155 (part of the series of electric local and trams of Austrian origin in South Tyrol ).
• Karl Armbruster: The Tyrolean mountain railways . Buchdruckerei G. Davis & Co., Vienna 1914, The Mendelbahn and Ueberetscherbahn, p. 123–146 ( digitized version from the South Tyrolean Regional Library [accessed on September 15, 2017]).

Web links

Commons : Überetscher Bahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Announcement concerning the list annexed to the International Convention on Freight Transport by Rail. 19 February 1899  - Sources and full texts

• Documentation Center for European Railway Research, DEEF : The Überetscher Bahn from Bolzano via Eppan to Kaltern - a railway archaeological hike as well as new projects to develop the Überetsch. Retrieved October 8, 2013 . 
• Tyrolean Museum Railways : The Überetscher Bahn. Retrieved October 26, 2011 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ From town and country - The electrification of the Überetschbahn . In: Bote für Tirol u. Vorarlberg . tape 97 , no. 119 . Innsbruck May 24, 1911, p. 802 (2) ( digital.tessmann.it [accessed February 13, 2015]). “The test drives on the overetscherbahn, which will in future be operated with electric power, are being carried out with all zeal. It is hoped to be able to start operating electric companies on the Bozen-Kaltern route tomorrow. "
2. ↑ Heimatliches - The electrical operation of the Ueberetscher Bahn - discontinued . In: Bozner Nachrichten . tape 18 , no. 157 . Bolzano July 12, 1911, p. 3 ( digital.tessmann.it [accessed February 13, 2015]). “On the Bozen-Kaltern line of the Ueberetscher Bahn, electrical operation had to be completely stopped yesterday, but the timetable is fully maintained by steam operation. In the section Kaltern-St. Anton, however, the operation is still electric. [More detailed description of the damage and criticism] "
3. ↑ Homeland - Resumption of electrical operation on the Überetscher Bahn . In: Bozner Nachrichten . tape 18 , no. 211 . Bolzano September 15, 1911, p. 3 ( digital.tessmann.it [accessed February 13, 2015]).
4. ↑ Feasibility study website of the municipality of Bolzano, accessed on June 6, 2010
5. ↑ Presentation of the Leitner AG project Website of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, accessed on June 6, 2010
6. ↑ A new mobility concept for the Überetsch in the portal of the South Tyrolean provincial administration
7. ↑ “Dolomites suffocate in traffic”: The train idea is welcomed . In: Südtirol News . ( archive.org [accessed December 6, 2016]).
8. ↑ "Land says yes to Überetscher Bahn" https://www.stol.it/Artikel/Chronik-im-Ueberblick/Lokal/Land-sagt-Ja-zu-Ueberetscher-Bahn , accessed on December 13, 2017

Coordinates: 46 ° 25 ′ 4 "  N , 11 ° 15 ′ 4"  E