Limburg tramway Maatschappij
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The Limburgsche Tramweg Maatschappij (LTM) was a transport company that existed in the Dutch province of Limburg from 1921 to 1978. It emerged from the merger of various predecessor companies that already operated steam trams in the province . From 1923 to 1950 the LTM also operated electric trams, from 1950 it was a pure bus operation.
founding
The LTM was born out of the need for better traffic development in the southern Limburg coalfield, which during the First World War had gained special importance for the Netherlands as the only significant national energy base at that time. From 1918 onwards, a commission set up by the Ministry of Transport developed plans for a comprehensive tram network.
On February 21, 1921, the Limburgsche Tramweg Maatschappij was founded jointly by the Dutch state, the province of Limburg and the municipalities . 43% of the shares went to the state, 26% to the province and 31% to the municipalities. It also took over various predecessor companies that had started operating various steam trams in 1912.
Forerunners
The oldest forerunner company was the Stoomtramweg-Maatschappij Venlo-Maasbree-Helden (VMH), which operated a 20.2 km long meter-gauge steam tram between Venlo and Helden-Beringe since March 24, 1912 . It was only taken over by her on January 1, 1923 after the LTM was founded.
The second company was the Central Limburgsche Spoorweg Maatschappij (CLSM), which had built a network of meter-gauge steam trams starting in Roermond since 1915. The first line to Ittervoort on the Belgian border opened on June 18, 1915, followed by the Venlo – St. Mount Odile on August 15th of the same year. The latter route was extended to Vlodrop on March 1, 1916 , the originally planned continuation to the German Heinsberg was not carried out. In Ittervoort, on the other hand, there was a connection to the SNCV / NMBS route to Maaseik . In 1918 the CLSM was able to open a third line to Roggel, which branched off from the line to Ittervoort in Horn. The route was extended in stages to Deurne , which could be reached by tram from Roermond on February 12, 1921.
The third predecessor company was the Limburgsche Elektrisch Spoorweg Maatschappij (LESM) founded in 1916 , which from 1918 operated the normal-gauge Heerlen - Hoensbroek line , still with steam traction, taken over by the Staatsmijnen .
Steam trams
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Soon after it was founded, the LTM began building new, steam-powered lines, all of which were standard gauge. The first new line was the connection from Maastricht to Vaals , which was opened in two sections on June 28, 1922 (Vaals – Wijlre) and on April 16, 1925 (Wijlre – Gulpen –Maastricht). A special feature of the route was the 620 m long iron viaduct over the valley of the Gulp river. In Vaals there was a connection to line 12 of the Aachen tram in the direction of Aachen city center. Mostly laid out on its own route, the route was more like a branch line and not a tram. It ran almost parallel to Provinciale Weg 278 .
The second power supply was the route from Roermond via Echt and Born to Sittard , which was also handed over to operation in stages. The first section from Roermond to Roosteren was opened on November 30, 1922. The railways ran to Grevenbicht from October 5, 1924, the remainder to Sittard did not follow until July 15, 1931. Like the Vaals route, the line was also designed for freight traffic. For this purpose, it received various branch lines that were not used for passenger traffic, for example in Roosteren to the Maas bridge, in Stevensweert to the Maashafen to Maasbracht and in Echt to the railway station of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen there .
As early as the early 1930s, the LTM began to discontinue its steam-powered lines; the competition with buses and trucks for the expensive and slow operation of the steam tram could not be won. The use of various motorized railcars on the standard gauge line from Roermond to Sittard could not change that. First, in 1929, the isolated VMH line was transferred to the Maas-Buurtspoorweg (MBS), which had its main line between Venlo and Nijmegen . The MBS stopped operations in 1944 as a result of the war damage.
The remaining narrow-gauge railways were discontinued from 1931. Initially, the route from Roermond to Deurne disappeared in stages, starting with the last section from Meijel to Deurne on May 1, 1931. In 1933 the route was completely closed. As early as 1932, the route to Vlodrop was closed on August 1st. In January 1935, the last narrow-gauge line of the LTM from Roermond to Ittervoort was finally closed.
On May 3, 1937, passenger traffic on the standard-gauge line between Roermond and Sittard was discontinued, and at the end of 1937 also goods traffic, after the previously intensive coal traffic to Maasbracht port was no longer necessary after the completion of the new Julianakanal . Only the section from Sittard to Born was retained and has since been served as a siding by the state railway. In 1938 the Maastricht – Vaals line was finally closed.
The LTM took over various locomotives and wagons from the predecessor railways. In addition, from 1922 onwards it procured four B-coupled locomotives for the narrow-gauge lines and 15 B-couplers for the standard-gauge lines, all from Hanomag . One of the standard gauge locomotives was sold to Germany in 1938, in 1972 it returned to the Netherlands and has been running on the Museumstoomtram Hoorn-Medemblik ever since . A C-coupler each came from Linke-Hofmann and one from Krupp for freight traffic . The only Garratt locomotive in the Netherlands, which was delivered by Henschel for the route to Vaals in 1931, was unusual .
In total, there were also 10 passenger and post / baggage cars as well as 182 open and closed freight cars for the standard gauge. Various petrol motor vehicles were also used on a trial basis. The various passenger and freight cars of the predecessor railways were used on the narrow-gauge lines.
Electric trams
On October 27, 1923, the first section of the standard gauge electric railway from Sittard via Hoensbroek to Heerlen was put into operation. On August 18, 1925, the section from Heerlen followed via Valkenhuizen and Kerkrade to Kerkrade-Holz. There was a connection to the Aachen tram route to Merkstein and Aachen across the border . In addition to the main Sittard – Kerkrade line, the LTM had two shorter branch lines. Since March 24, 1924, trams also ran from Hoensbroek to Brunssum and from May 15, 1928, after the Valkenhuizen – Locht section was completed, there was also a connection to the Aachen tram. Coming from the direction of Sittard, the route in Heerlen was also given a larger loop in the inner city of Heerlen. The section from Heerlen to Hoensbroek and part of the route to Brunssum were double-tracked, the rest only single-track. The depot was created in Heerlen behind the NS train station. The total network length was 32 km.
The vehicle fleet consisted of heavy overland vehicles, similar to those used on the Cologne suburban railways or the suburban lines of the Den Haag tram . In 1923, 10 two-axle vehicles were initially procured from the Uerdingen wagon factory and 5 four-axle vehicles from Linke-Hofmann, plus 20 four-axle sidecars and 4 two-axle postal sidecars. Another five four-axle vehicles followed in 1930, this time from the Dutch manufacturer Beijnes . In the mid-30s, the two-axle vehicles were converted into three-axle vehicles to improve their running properties.
After the shutdown of all steam lines, the LTM operated the electric railways until after the Second World War , interrupted by the war-related shutdown from September 1944 to mid-1945. Only the short section to the German border to Locht - like its counterpart at ASEAG - was not restored put into operation. The rest of the route network was shut down from 1949. First, from August 1, 1949, the branch line to Brunssum and the Sittard – Hoensbroek section were converted to buses. The Hoensbroek – Heerlen section followed on October 2nd. The last electric tram in Limburg ran between Heerlen and Kerkrade on May 13, 1950.
Most of the vehicles could still be sold. The four-axle vehicles went to the HTM, the Hague tram, and were used there on their suburban routes to Delft and Voorburg for around 10 years. Some three-axle vehicles went to the Saarlouis tram , which they used on their last line to Creutzwald until 1961. From 2005 to 2010, one of the four-axle vehicles was once again kept in Limburg as a museum vehicle at the Zuid-Limburgse Stoomtrein Maatschappij in Simpelveld . Since then, the vehicle has been exhibited at the Tram Foundation in The Hague.
Bus operation
After 1950, the LTM was a pure bus company, whose route network extended beyond the provincial borders to Aachen. In 1978 LTM merged with various other bus companies to form Verenigd Streekvervoer Limburg , which in turn was merged with other southern Dutch transport companies to form the Hermes transport company . Hermes has been a 100% subsidiary of Connexxion since 2007 . All shares from Limburg were sold to Connexxion as Hermes no longer operated in Limburg.
literature
- Peter Herberholz, Ottmar Krettek: Trams in the Aachen tri-border region . Alba Verlag, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-87094-323-8 .