Railway line Bozen – Merano

Bolzano-Merano
Regional train in Gargazon station
Route number (RFI) :	45
Course book series (IT) :	211
Route length:	31.8 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	3 kV  =
Maximum slope :	10  ‰
Minimum radius :	181 m
Top speed:	100 km / h
Legend Brenner train from Innsbruck Hbf 150.231 Bozen / Bolzano 266  m slm 150,000 0,000 old route † 1980 0.425 former level crossing Verdiplatz / tram Bolzano 149,807 Eisack Bridge 0.870 Talfer Bridge 148.915 Tram to Laives 1.537 former level crossing at Rome Bridge 261  m slm 1.574 Rome Bridge / Ponte Roma 261  m slm 148.603 0.299 Adige Valley Railway to Trento, Verona 2,000 Bozen Süd / Bolzano sud † 1998 2.192 Beginning of the viaduct (1788m) 248  m slm 2.664 Bozen Süd / Bolzano sud * 1998 249  m slm 3.170 Reschenbrücke / Ponte Resia 248  m slm 3.365 former Reschenbrücke level crossing 248  m slm 3.384 Brenner motorway 254  m slm 3,496 Eisack 252  m slm 3,800 Bozen Kaiserau / Bolzano Casanova * 2013 249  m slm 3,980 End of the viaduct 247  m slm 4.385 old route † 1980 4,437 Kaiserau I level crossing 242  m slm 4,543 Überetscher Bahn † 1971 242  m slm 4,743 Kaiserau II level crossing 242  m slm 5.109 Sigmundskron level crossing 244  m slm 5.278 Sigmundskron / Ponte d'Adige 244  m slm 9.221 Siebeneich / Settequerce 247  m slm 9,695 Siebeneich level crossing 247  m slm 12.116 Terlano - Andrian / Andriano Terlano- 247  m slm 12.756 Terlan level crossing 247  m slm 15,940 Vilpiano - Nals / Vilpiano-Nalles 253  m slm 16.129 Vilpian level crossing 253  m slm 19.175 Gargazon / Gargazzone * 2003 257  m slm 19.274 Former level crossing Gargazon (closed to public traffic) 257  m slm 22.602 Local railway Lana-Meran † 1974 266  m slm 22.989 Lana-Burgstall / Lana-Postal 267  m slm 23.212 Local railway Lana-Meran † 1974 267  m slm 24,552 former Montecatini siding (reactivation in planning) 270  m slm 24.826 Meran- Sinich / Merano-Sinigo † 1995 270  m slm 27.287 Untermais freight yard / Scalo sussidiario M. Bassa † 1945 279  m slm 29,367 Merano-Lower Maize / Merano-Maia Bassa 290  m slm 29,496 Local railway Lana-Meran † 1974 290  m slm 29.684 Former level crossing Untermais (replaced by Marlingerbrücke) 290  m slm 30.784 Level crossing Meran Manzonistr. 304  m slm 30.808 Passer 304  m slm 30.833 Level crossing Meran Passerpromenade 304  m slm Meran (until 1906) 31,122 Level crossing Meran J. Speckbacherstr. 303  m slm 31.173 Merano tram 303  m slm 31,482 Meran / Merano (since 1906) 302  m slm Vinschgau Railway to Malles

The Bolzano – Merano railway ( Italian: Ferrovia Bolzano – Merano ) is a single-track, standard-gauge branch line in South Tyrol ( Italy ), which was originally built and operated by the Bozen-Meraner Bahn company as a private secondary railway. Today it is part of the Italian railway network under the management of RFI. It branches off from the Brennerbahn in the Bozen Süd industrial area and follows the course of the Adige to Merano .

Route

The route does not have any particularly demanding engineering structures, as the line follows the floor of the Adige Valley. Originally, the railway line moved away from the Brenner railway line in Bolzano station before the Eisack bridge in order to follow the Eisack on the right bank. After a three-span steel bridge over the Talfer , there were two stops, Rombrücke and Reschenbrücke, before reaching Sigmundskron . In 1980 the route was relocated in the city of Bolzano. Since then, the tracks of the Brenner Railway have been used initially. In the Bozen industrial zone, the new line branches off the Brenner line with a right-hand curve and leads straight across a long reinforced concrete viaduct to Sigmundskron station. In the course of this renovation, the Rome and Reschenbrücke stops were closed without replacement. The Bolzano industrial zone was opened up with the Bolzano South stop, which was relocated a few hundred meters in 1998 and has since provided direct access to the Bolzano exhibition center . The abandoned Überetscher Bahn branched off the old route shortly before the Sigmundskron station.

From Sigmundskron the railway line follows the former natural course of the Etsch. After passing the Siebeneich demand stop, the former course of the river required the route to the village of Terlan. From Vilpian the route runs much straighter, due to the Adige, which was already straightened on this section, via Gargazon, Lana-Burgstall and (formerly) Sinich to Meran-Untermais. Here it connects a tight right-hand bend with the actual main train station of the city of Merano.

There has also been a connection to the Vinschgau Railway since 1906 .

As long as the local line Lana – Meran was in operation, there was a track crossing after both the Lana-Burgstall station and the Untermais station. Due to the different contact wire voltages, elaborately insulated contact line crossings were necessary.

history

Immediately after the Brennerbahn was built, it was decided to connect the spa town of Merano to the European rail network.

With the law of June 28, 1872, concerning the construction of a locomotive railway from Bolzano to Merano , the first formal legal basis was created for the project, in particular for the concession granted on September 14, 1872, according to the concessionaires Carl Freiherr von Schwarz , Johann Putzer von Reibegg and Eduard von Weinhardt were granted the right to build and operate a locomotive railway from Bozen to Merano that was connected to the southern line . Since this concession was not implemented, it was declared expired on July 24, 1874 by a declaration by the Ministry of Commerce .

With the law of March 11, 1876, provisions were again made to secure a local railway from Bolzano to Merano , which resulted in the concession document of June 11, 1880 on the right to build and operate a standard-gauge secondary railway . This document, announced on July 16, 1880, was accompanied on the same day by an agreement in which the state administration undertook to make an advance payment of one million guilders at interest for the immediate start of construction. Finally, the line was inaugurated on October 4, 1881.

In the course of the construction of the route, the dams that line the Adige today were also built to finally dry the valley floor and use it for agricultural purposes. However, since only the Meran-Vilpian section was straightened at the time of construction, you can still see from the large number of curves from Vilpian that the railway line followed the natural course of the Adige at that time. These loops, which resulted in an extension of the route, were also used to save expropriation costs. Another advantage was that at that time the Imperial and Royal Government subsidized secondary railways that could have a minimum length of 30 km.

The Merano train station was located on the site of what is now the Emma Hotel; a new train station was built a little further from the city center for the Vinschgau Railway. This is why the route still has a characteristic, very tight curve before it reaches Merano station.

In 1934, Ferrovie dello Stato electrified the railway line in connection with the Brenner southern ramp with three-phase current (3.6 kV with 16⅔ Hz). In 1952 the line was converted to direct current (3 kV) together with the Trient – ​​Bozen section of the Brenner Railway .

In 1980 the section in downtown Bolzano was replaced by a new section further south in the industrial zone. This project had been planned since the mid-30s, as the two, mostly closed, level crossings at the Rome and Reschen bridges caused major traffic problems. However, lack of money delayed this project. For lack of money, the two stops at Rome and Reschenbrücke were closed without replacement, but a new stop was built in the Bolzano industrial area. This was moved a few hundred meters in 1998 in order to be able to offer a direct connection to the trade fair. Today the abandoned part of the route is part of the Bolzano cycle path.

In 1995 the Meran-Sinich train station was closed.

The Gargazon train station was moved a few hundred meters south in 2003 and reactivated after being closed for many years. In the years 2007–2008, all access points along the route were renovated. These now have higher platforms for easier boarding and alighting. The overhead line was also completely renewed. In 2011, all train stations and stops were equipped with flat screens to provide up-to-date information about the trains.

In 2012, the train station in Bolzano South was redesigned and received raised platforms for level boarding.

In the period from June 22 to July 21, 2013, the RFI closed the railway line due to urgent maintenance work and operated it alternatively with buses. The four-week closure was also used for work close to the track at the new Kaiserau stop between Bozen Süd and Sigmundskron, which went into operation on December 15.

business

Merano railway station

The railway line was originally operated by the Bozen-Meran-Bahn BMB building company from 1881 to 1906 and then by the KK Staatsbahn until 1918. In 1919 it was taken over by the Italian state railways Ferrovie dello Stato (FS); today it is managed by the FS subsidiary RFI. In 1994, all of the train service lines at the stations were closed. Initially, the route was remote-controlled from Bolzano; today from Verona. In the past, Merano was also regularly served by long-distance trains. There were connections to Dortmund, Hamburg, Bologna and Milan. However, these were gradually reduced, since 2003 there has only been regional traffic.

The line benefited from the restart of the Vinschgau Railway in 2005 , as all stations and stops were converted and expanded in a user-friendly manner. In addition to the Trenitalia trains, SAD trains have also been running since September 2005 , so that there was a half-hourly service. The direct connections between Mals and Bolzano were canceled with the 2010/2011 timetable, but they are to be reintroduced after the Vinschgau Railway has been electrified.

The first step is to double-track the Bozen – Terlan section; the measure should be completed by 2026.

In addition, an independent access point to the Bolzano train station is to be set up. This means that trains to and from Merano will be able to run without using the tracks of the Brenner Railway. Since December 2013, a pair of trains has been running from Merano to Innsbruck for the first time in a long time from Monday to Friday. In addition, the new Kaiserau stop has been served by Trenitalia trains every hour, and the Flirt low-floor trains run the route once an hour.

Freight transport

Trichlorosilane for MEMC before departure towards Merano

In addition to passenger traffic, the railway also had a heavy freight traffic. At the beginning of the 20th century, south of Untermais, there was a five-track freight station and in every further station there were connections for surrounding businesses, mostly fruit stores, which had been located in large numbers conveniently near the railway. Many former connections are still visible or can be guessed at when you are near a train station. The freight traffic with collective trains was stopped in 1992.

Currently (2013) there are no longer any freight trains running. The last freight train last ran on Thursdays and brought RID tank wagons with trichlorosilane to Untermais. From here they were brought to the MEMC Electronic Materials company in Sinich on a street scooter . However, the company stopped production at the Merano plant in December 2011.

Vehicle use

Steam locomotives of the Bozen – Meraner Bahn (BMB)

BMB no.	First name	number	Manufacturer	Years of construction	Axis formula	kkStB no	FS no.	Whereabouts	Remarks
1-2	MERANO	2	Krauss / Munich	1882	C n2t	294.11-12		OIL 605-606	ordered by BMB, delivered to ÖLEG
1 "-2"	MERAN "	2	Krauss / Linz	1882	C n2t	294.09-10	FS 899.006-007
3	ENGADIN	1	Wr. Neustadt	1881	C n2t	397.01
4th		1		1873	B n2t			Retired in 1905	Adopted from the Adige Regulation in 1879
5-10	TRAFOI	6th	Krauss / Linz	1891-1905	C n2t	294.04-08, 13	FS 899.001–005, 008

gallery

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  Former industrial connection of the Memc company

• 

  Service building of the former Sinich train station

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  Hp Siebeneich

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  Steel truss bridge over the Talfer of the Bolzano – Meran and Bozen – Kaltern railway lines ( Überetscher Bahn ) before re-routing

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  Hp Kaiserau-Casanova

literature

• Victor von Röll : Art. Bozen-Meraner Eisenbahn . In: Enzyklopädie des Eisenbahnwesens , Volume 2. Berlin, Vienna 1912, p. 478.
• Populorum, Michael Alexander: The Bozen-Meraner-Bahn. Through wine and fruit cultures from Bolzano via Sigmundskron and Terlan to Merano. Series of publications by the Documentation Center for European Railway Research (DEEF), Volume 19, 2nd edition 2016 on DVD, ISBN 978-3-903132-15-3 . Mercurius Verlag Grödig / Salzburg. Railway Research Austria

Web links

Commons : Bolzano – Meran railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Presentation of the train with some pictures
• Railway portrait South Tyrol: The Bozen-Meraner-Bahn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tecneum station Gargazon [1]
2. ↑ RG Bl. No. 103/1872
3. ↑ RG Bl. No. 143/1872 as well as Volkswirthschaftliche Zeitung. ... (Bolzano – Meran railway.) The Fatherland, August 30, 1872
4. ↑ RG Bl. No. 107/1874
5. ↑ RG Bl. No. 38/1876
6. ↑ RG Bl. No. 88/1880
7. ↑ RG Bl. No. 89/1880
8. ^ Nico Molino: Trifase in Italia 1925-1976. Locknotes, Edizioni Gulliver, Torino 1991, ISBN 88-85361-12-9
9. ↑ Railway line Bolzano-Meran will soon be out of service for four weeks. The Südtirolbahn, accessed on June 3, 2013 . 
10. ↑ State is checking electrification of the Vinschger Railway. Press office of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol, December 16, 2014, accessed on December 12, 2015 . 
11. ^ Land-RFI: Big rail projects for South Tyrol launched. suedtirolnews.it, accessed June 28, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Three major rail projects are on track. rainews.it, accessed June 28, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Working meeting between the city government and some members of the state government. City of Bozen, accessed on January 29, 2011 . 
14. ↑ MEMC cuts 20% of workforce. renewableenergyfocus, accessed January 6, 2012 . 
15. ↑ MEMC: State government continues to push for electricity connection with Europe. (chr), accessed January 6, 2012 . 

Coordinates: 46 ° 40 ′ 24 ″  N , 11 ° 8 ′ 55 ″  E