Limmattal tram
The Limmattal-Strassenbahn ( LSB ) is a former tram company in Switzerland . It is one of the eight predecessors of today's Zurich Transport Authority (VBZ) and operated mainly in the Limmat Valley and the area of today's city of Zurich . Their infrastructure was integrated into the Zurich tram network .
The LSB operated the route between Zurich- Letzigraben and Dietikon , as well as the Schlieren- Weiningen connection. Today only the Letzigraben-Farbhof section of the former LSB in the Zurich city area is in operation and is served by line 2 of the Zurich public transport company.
history
prehistory
After the first application for an operating license for a tram line had been submitted to the Federal Parliament in 1893, the federal license for a tram line from Zurich (from the then city limits at Letzigraben) via Altstetten and Schlieren to Dietikon was issued on October 15, 1897, with a branch from Schlieren to Unterengstringen and Weiningen. Immediately afterwards, a funding committee was appointed to which the local presidents of Altstetten, Dietikon, Schlieren, Unterengstringen and Weiningen belong as local representatives.
Limmattal-Strassenbahn AG was founded two years later, and contracts were subsequently signed with BBC for the construction of the railway system within the scope of the cost estimate of 1,080,000 francs, with Motor AG in Baden for the takeover of the bond capital of 650,000 francs , concluded with Wagenbaufabrik Geissberger on the assignment of a piece of land as an operating area and with the electricity company of the City of Zurich on the delivery of three-phase current to the Schlieren transformer station, thus creating the technical basis for the operation of the Limmattal tram.
Installation
On April 10, 1900, the construction of the railway systems began, in the same year, on December 20, the opening of the Limmattal tram took place. Initially, it was operated on the 8.8-kilometer Zurich (Letzigraben) -Dietikon route with eight yellow-painted motor vehicles and vehicles for the transport of goods and mail. In the following year, operations on the 3.1 kilometer Schlieren - Weiningen route could also start. The Limmat was crossed on a 64 meter long bridge specially built for the operation of the tram.
After some financial turbulence in the early years, the LSB was in the black for the first time in 1904 and had an income surplus of 51 francs. In particular, income from freight transport, especially beer and gravel, improved the operating result around 1906. However, in 1911 a thorough financial restructuring was necessary.
Five years later, in 1916, the number of passengers exceeded the million mark for the first time. The LSB achieved a user record in 1920: The Limmattaler tram transported 2,253,265 people that year, the highest number in the entire history of the company. This number was mainly due to the lack of coal and the associated unreliability on the not yet electrified line of the Swiss Federal Railways . In 1928 the Schlieren-Dietikon tracks had to be demolished due to financial difficulties, and the route was temporarily operated by a bus company.
liquidation
In 1930 the Limmattal-Strassenbahn AG went into liquidation. In the following year, the operation of the LSB was taken over by the city of Zurich and transferred to the Zurich urban tram . The Schlieren-Dietikon and Schlieren-Weiningen routes were finally converted to buses. The urban tram line 2 served Schlieren from now on, which was connected to the Tiefenbrunnen station on the southern city limits. Motor car number 2 arrived at the Martigny-Châtelard-Bahn (MC) in the canton of Valais .
In 1956 the tram service on the Farbhof – Schlieren section was discontinued. As part of the temporarily planned conversion of all Zurich trams to trolleybuses, this route was replaced by the new line 31 of the trolleybus Zurich from Burgwies via Zeltweg, Hauptbahnhof , Hardplatz and Farbhof to Schlieren, which was created instead of the previous tramline 1.
today
The Limmattal overall transport concept presented in 2004 by the cantons of Zurich and Aargau provides for a new tram on the former axis of the Limmattal-Strassenbahn AG. The route of this Limmattalbahn is to be continued in a second stage to Killwangen-Spreitenbach station. Following the decision of the Cantonal Council of March 30, 2015, the "Limmattalbahn - NO!" the referendum. This came about in a short time and the referendum was scheduled for November 22, 2015. In this vote, the canton of Zurich as a whole clearly approved the construction, while the directly affected district of Dietikon refused. The planned tram can thus be built. On the first section from Farbhof to Schlieren, Geissweid, operations began on September 2, 2019. For the time being, tram line 2, which has been extended to Schlieren, will be operated by the Limmattalbahn trains.
Restoration of the LSB rolling stock
In 1967 the former LSB car No. 10, which had been converted into a welding car by the Zurich city tram in 1931, came to the Tram Museum. The intention there was to restore the vehicle to its original state before 1931, as the car had since received disc wheels, newer motors and controllers.
In 1974, the Zurich Tram Museum Association managed to bring the number 2 motor vehicle back to Zurich. Until 1995 it could be restored by the voluntary members of the association. Since a return to the condition of 1900 with a trolley handle would have made trips on the network of the Zurich Transport Company impossible, it was decided to return the car to the condition of 1931. In 2001 the motor vehicle called "Lisebethli" celebrated its second maiden voyage.
Web links
- Tram Museum Zurich
- Swisstopo, topographical time travel through old maps with the course of the route
Individual evidence
- ↑ Limmattal regional traffic concept ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.kantonsrat.zh.ch/Geschaefte/Geschaefte.aspx?GeschaeftID=c256c87f-50fa-4aab-a922-895fd0e09ce3
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://limmattalbahn-nein.ch/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Medienmitteilung_20150712.pdf
