Society for trams in the Saar valley

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The company for trams in the Saartal (GSS) was a Saarland transport company in Saarbrücken . It operated the meter-gauge tram in Saarbrücken (from 1890 to 1899 as a steam tram and from 1899 to 1965 as an electric tram), the Saarbrücken trolleybus (1948 to 1964) and urban omnibus traffic since 1925. In 1982, the product name Die Saartal-Linien was introduced for the GSS . The successor took over in 2002 the Saarbahn GmbH . It has been operating a regular-gauge light rail system in Saarbrücken and the surrounding area since October 24, 1997 . All of the companies mentioned belong to the Stadtwerke Group of the City of Saarbrücken (SWS), formerly the Saarbrücken public transport company (VVS).

history

Partial bond for 500 marks of the company for trams in the Saartal dated February 13, 1920

Over time, the ownership changed a few times. After the opening on November 4, 1890 by the Localbahn-Bau und Betriebs-Gesellschaft Wilhelm Hostmann & Co. from Hanover , the management was initially incumbent on the owner, the Eisenbahn-Bau und Betriebs-Gesellschaft Vering & Waechter from Berlin , until the operational management from January 14, 1893 passed directly to the GSS. In 1899 AEG had become the main shareholder in GSS. After the end of the First World War, the company suffered considerably from the difficult economic conditions. In order to prevent the company from going bankrupt, the city of Saarbrücken bought all of the shares and was the sole owner of the railway from 1920. The period of inflation ended for the Saarland on June 1, 1923 with the introduction of the French franc as a means of payment. This enabled the company to plan reliably again.

The first bus lines were introduced in 1925, the tram network was expanded to its maximum in the 1930s, as did the St. Johann - Riegelsberg - Heusweiler and Saarbrücker Klein- und Straßenbahn AG (Brebach - Ensheim / Ormesheim) tram routes GSS was integrated. A line was operated together with the Völklingen tram and at the time of the annexation of Lorraine, the Forbach tram was also part of the GSS. The classic tram routes of the GSS led to the endpoints Ormesheim, Ensheim, Schafbrücke, Rotenbühl, Spiesen, Heusweiler, Luisenthal, Gersweiler, Goldene Bremm and St. Arnual.

On October 5, 1944, other parts of Saarbrücken were destroyed. Accordingly, from 1946 onwards, the company had to struggle again with difficulties. At that time the Saarland was placed under French administration. Since many tram operators in France were converted to omnibuses or trolleybuses or were soon to be converted, there were enormous difficulties in obtaining spare parts because the connection to Germany was interrupted. After the Saarland was reintegrated into the still young Federal Republic of Germany, there was hardly any chance for the tram. The automobile took over the traffic area, the train was in the way and the vehicle fleet was hopelessly outdated. Thus the last trams on lines 5 and 11 ran on May 22, 1965.

Omnibus operation

history

Although trams stopped running after 1965, the company name was retained. The bus drivers continued to call themselves “Tram operators” for a long time, even when the company only existed on paper (as the owner of the company premises) and was replaced by Saarbahn GmbH under private law (the later addition “Saartal-Linien”, however, was replaced after 1982 the old tram term and is still incorrectly used by some people today).

A complete reorganization of the bus routes took place on April 1st, 1988, before that there was the following network:

line Line route comment
1 Luisenthal - Ensheim / Ormesheim daily, 30/60 min., line overlay with lines 2, 3, 34, 43
2 Altenkessel - Güdingen Unner daily, 30/60 min. cycle, line overlay with lines 1 and 3
3 Altenkessel - Bischmisheim daily, 30/60 min. cycle, line overlay with lines 1 and 2
4th State Theater - Am Freibüsch Mondays to Saturdays, every 15/45 minutes, no evening traffic, lines overlap with lines 8 and 44
5 Rodenhof - Schafbrücke indoor swimming pool / Schlesienring daily, 30-minute intervals
6th Wackenberg - Heusweiler Trierer Strasse daily, 30/60 minute cycle, line overlay with line 9
7th Bernkasteler Platz - Güdingen Unner Every day
8th State Theater - Füllengarten settlement Mondays to Saturdays, every 60 minutes, no evening traffic, lines overlap with lines 4 and 44
9 Wackenberg - Heusweiler School daily, 30/60 min. cycle, line overlay with line 6
10 Rodenhof - Schlesienring Zoo / Schafbrücke indoor swimming pool daily, 30-minute intervals
11 Kieselhumes sports field - Goldene Bremm  
12 Rotenbühl - settlement of Füllengarten  
13 Rotenbühl - Rastpfuhl  
14th University - Holy Spirit Hospital  
15th Dudweiler market - Goldene Bremm  
16 Dudweiler Markt - Habsterdick main cemetery  
17th Rastpfuhl - Eschberg via Pommernring  
18th Rastpfuhl - Eschberg via Schlesienring  
19th At Homburg - Winterberg Hospital daily, 15/30-minute intervals
20th Saarbrücken - Völklingen Mondays to Saturdays, every 30/60 minutes, express transport with Stadtwerke Völklingen
21st Russhütte - Bellevue  
22nd Heusweiler swimming pool - election arbitration daily, every 60 minutes
24 State theater - ice rink daily, only single trips
25th Von der Heydt - Hauptbahnhof Mondays to Saturdays, only single trips
26th Central station - university  
27 Folsterhöhe - Herrensohr daily, 30-minute intervals
28 Spiesen Beckerwald - Wilhelm Heinrich Bridge Monday to Friday during peak hours, express transport
29 Rastpfuhl - Krughütte  
30th Saarbrücken - Forbach Express transport with Forbus
31 Central station - Folsterhöhe  
32 Dudweiler market - Quiigart market / wood market  
33 Hunter's joy Blechhammerstrasse - Dudweiler market  
34 Fechingen Nachtweide - Hauptbahnhof / Luisenthal daily, 60-minute intervals, line overlay with line 1
35 Central station - Riegelsberg Stumpen  
36 Friedrichsthal - Hauptbahnhof / Klarenthal Birkenweg / Jägerpfad Daily, every 30 minutes, no evening traffic, lines overlap with lines 38 and 39
38 Spiesen Haberdell - Klarenthal Birkenweg daily, every 60 minutes, lines overlap with lines 36 and 39
39 Spiesen Market - Klarenthal Birkenweg daily, every 60 minutes, lines overlap with lines 36 and 38
40 Spiesen Butterberg - Wilhelm Heinrich Bridge Express traffic
41 Central station - Funkhaus Halberg  
42 Central station - Matzenberg settlement  
43 Central station - airport  
44 At the Freibüsch - Bübingen  
45 Scheidt - Bischmisheim  
50 Saarbrücken - Neuweiler Express transport with DB Bahnbus, from 1989 regional bus Saar-Westpfalz RSW
Renault articulated car in Trierer Strasse in front of the old main post office (1990)
MAN 876 solo car (1992)

The network from May 1988 no longer contained single-digit line numbers and was initially divided into line color groups: Line 10-19 red (northeast - southwest), line 20-29 blue (northwest - southeast) and line 31-39 green (district lines and others ). The express lines 30, 40, 50 were added to the red lines, the lines 41 - 43, later also 44, were added to the green lines. However, after a few years this scheme was abandoned.

Some settlement and industrial areas were newly or better connected to the line network from 1988, such as the industrial area south, the university, the airport as well as Jägersfreude / Herrensohr, Hixberg or some parts of Dudweiler . At the same time, transfers should be avoided as much as possible and, if necessary, better coordinated.

The introduction of the Stadtbahn, known as the Saarbahn, in October 1997 changed the route network again, as some main roads were now served by the train and (with the expansion of the Saarbahn) more and more bus routes had to be converted into feeder lines. As a result, in addition to the previous nodes of the main train station and Dudoplatz, the Roman fort, Brebach train station and Rastpfuhl as well as Riegelsberg Süd were created. Until 2014, the Saarbahn line 1 (light rail) was extended to Lebach. Since then, the services for bus transport outside the Saarbrücken city area have been largely transferred from Saarbahn GmbH to private operators for reasons of competition law, such as in Riegelsberg, Heusweiler or Qui Various to Saar-Mobil GmbH & Co. KG.

As in most of the larger cities, in Saarbrücken, too, since the 1990s, for cost reasons, an ever larger part of the line operation has been outsourced to private bus operators on behalf of the GSS or Saarbahn with their own buses and drivers. This started on selected lines, but was expanded more and more. The first subcontractors were Seibert, Feld, Fischer, Harz and Baron. They are still in use today.

vehicles

After the war, under French administration, Berliet and Chausson buses and trolleybuses were initially procured from Vetra. The procurement of the buses after the reclassification to Germany around 1960 came mostly from MAN (initially mainly MAN 750 HOM "Metrobusse"). Apart from test cars from various companies, there was only one Mercedes ( articulated bus , car number 830) and one Neoplan (car number 299). Articulated buses, type MAN SG 192, were tested and procured from the beginning of the 1970s. For the line changeover in 1988, articulated buses (later seven standard buses) from Renault were purchased as a special feature in Germany (a total of 43 RVI PR 180.2). Until 2006 only MAN vehicles were ordered (from 1992 low-floor buses and from 1995 natural gas buses); the latest new acquisitions are Citaro buses from Mercedes. The so-called “Munich model” (MAN SL-200) drove in Saarbrücken until the 1990s; these buses were very similar in paintwork and equipment to those of the Stadtwerke München . At times there was the largest natural gas bus fleet in Germany with over 80 natural gas vehicles in Saarbrücken. Since the mid-2000s, however, this has been turned away again. In 2020, only 19 natural gas vehicles were still in use at the successor Saarbahn GmbH. MAN buses have been procured again since 2015. As of 2020, 138 buses and 28 railcars are owned by the GSS successor Saarbahn GmbH.

literature

  • 25 years of trams in the Saar Valley. In: Deutsche Straßen- und Kleinbahn-Zeitung , Volume 31, No. 34 (August 24, 1918), pp. 266–270.
  • The Saartal-Linien, Gesellschaft für Strassenbahnen im Saartal AG (Ed.): Hundred eventful years (1892–1992) The history of the Gesellschaft für Strassenbahnen im Saartal AG (Saartal-Linien). Publishing house "Die Mitte", Saarbrücken 1992, ISBN 3-921236-69-X .
  • Philipp, Markus: Just a small piece of paper. The history of the Saarbrücken ticket. Saarbrücken 2019, ISBN 978-3-946036-92-0 .
  • Saarbahn GmbH; Herrmann, Hans-Christian; Bauer, Ruth: Always on the move - the history of local public transport in Saarbrücken. St. Ingbert 2017.

Web links