M-Line (Linz)
| Line M: Weingartshofstraße – Weißenwolffstraße | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Line M at the last stop at Weingartshofstraße
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 900 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The line M was a line of tram Linz , led by the Weingartshofstraße on Mozart Street to Weißenwolffstraße and was the only transverse line. It was opened in 1914 and initially replaced by a bus line in 1968, later the Linz trolleybus took over .
history
Opening and renewals
On November 22, 1914, the cross line M was opened through Mozartstrasse. It initially ran from Waldeggstrasse via Stockhofstrasse, Herrenstrasse, Rudigierstrasse, Mozartstrasse to Weißenwolffstrasse and ended roughly in front of today's deaconess hospital. It was the first and only tram line that ran across the country road.
At the Mozart Crossing, there were siding to the Landstrasse, for the purpose of pulling into the Remisen Urfahr and Kleinmünchen. The line was double-tracked with the exception of one area in Rudigierstrasse in front of the Mozart Crossing. A second track was only built there in the 1930s by widening Rudigierstrasse.
In 1919 the route in the east was extended to Garrisonstrasse. In 1932 it was extended to the west from Waldeggstrasse via Handel-Mazetti-Strasse to Weingartshofstrasse. There was a connection to the trolleybus line to the Froschberg from the opening.
business
Line M was initially run with a solo multiple unit and also with a sidecar, after the war only with a single multiple unit. Before the hiring, the oldest rolling stock still in operation always drove here. During rush hour there were additional push-in trains between Mozartkreuzung and Weißenwolffstraße.
Cross line M served as a connection between the city center and the General Hospital as well as the Neustadt and Stockhof districts.
Shutdown
Due to the increasing number of motorized individual traffic and the opening of the Römerberg tunnel and thus the western bypass as a new traffic axis, the tram was perceived as an obstacle. In addition, a loop would have had to be built at both end points for future operation with modern equipment trolleys. For reasons of space, the decision-makers at the time saw no possibility of doing this, although objectively speaking, a loop around a block would have been feasible.
On March 9, 1968 the last trip of the tram line M took place with a large participation of the population with a decorated railcar. The tram was replaced by the bus line of the same name, which did not end in Handel-Mazetti-Straße but went to the main train station. The route was removed in the following years.
Bus and trolleybus operation
The bus line M (Hauptbahnhof – Garnisonstraße) was renamed to line 20 with the introduction of the new numbering scheme in 1974. Line 21 (Hauptbahnhof – Hafen) was introduced later. In 1991, line 21 was switched to trolleybus operation and line 20 was discontinued. In 2002 the trolleybus lines were restructured: Line 21 was replaced by the new lines 45 (Hauptbahnhof – Stieglbauernstraße via Mozartkreuzung) and 46 (Froschberg – Hafen). The line Hauptbahnhof-Waldeggstraße-Stockhofstraße was closed; Lines 45 and 46 go via Volksgarten and Coulinstrasse to Stockhofstrasse. The Märzenkeller stop (named after the large inn of the same name at the beginning of Bockgasse that existed until the 1970s) on the old section of the route at the intersection of Waldeggstrasse / Stockhofstrasse was abandoned without replacement.
Others
Today the Gasthaus Tramway on Stockhofstrasse is a reminder of the former connection, which is furnished with some devotional objects from the M line. In many places, the tracks were not removed, but merely paved over, so that they could e.g. B. at the New Cathedral and Auerspergplatz are occasionally visible due to the wear and tear of the road surface, and there are still catenary rosettes of the tram on old house facades .
literature
- Hans Sternhart: Tram in Linz. Slezak, Vienna 1980. ISBN 3-900134-17-0
- Gottfried Kuře: Linz on the tramway. 100 years of the electric tram. Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 1997. ISBN 3-85366-867-4
Web links
- Chronicle of public transport in Linz
- The prehistoric times of the Linz tramway. OÖN, March 12, 2015.
- The M-Wagen , a song on YouTube, accompanied by some historical pictures