Meridian (train)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Meridian was an international passenger train operated from 1969 to 1993 by several European railway administrations. The course of the train got its name from the route that almost follows a meridian . It operated from Malmö in Sweden to Bar in Yugoslavia at times , the route passed through the GDR (from 1990 federal German territory ), Czechoslovakia and Hungary .

history

The Meridian was introduced, still as a nameless express train , with the beginning of the summer timetable in 1969 in May of this year with the route from Berlin Ostbahnhof via Dresden , Prague , Bratislava and Budapest to Belgrade . A year later it was extended northwards via the royal line to Malmö and at the same time received its name, derived from its leadership largely along the 15th longitude . Initially, however, only a single couchette car operated by JŽ over the entire route.

In the 1976 summer timetable, the railways involved extended the meridian beyond Belgrade to Bar, so that the train ran over a single route and almost 2,100 km, but initially without wagons running continuously from Malmö to Bar. This was the first time that there was a scheduled train connection from Sweden to the Yugoslav Adriatic . Also in the 1978 summer timetable and then all year round from 1979 summer until the end of the 1980/81 winter timetable, the Meridian ran to Bar, otherwise only to Belgrade. From Malmö to Bar, only couchettes and sleeping cars were used , not seating cars. From 1981 the train was generally shortened to the Berlin-Belgrade route. From 1970 to 1976, as well as from 1983 to 1986 and from 1989 to 1990, the Meridian also carried through coaches from Berlin to Vienna , which were released in Prague and from there ran as an independent express train Sanssouci to Vienna.

From 1987, the Meridian continued south of Belgrade to Sofia , and in 1990 the train was briefly given through coaches to Bar again. The Yugoslav wars resulted in significant losses in demand, so that the train was stopped at the end of the winter timetable 1992/93.

Train formation and locomotives

Train formation of the Meridian in the 1979 summer timetable, section Dresden – Berlin

As was common in international rail traffic for many years, the meridian was formed from the wagons of the participating railway companies. Cars were mainly provided by the German State Railroad (DR), the Hungarian State Railroad (MÁV) and the Yugoslav State Railroad (JŽ). The Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD) also provided individual wagons, and from 1987, when the line was extended to Sofia, the Bulgarian State Railways (BDŽ) also used wagons . The through coaches to Vienna were partly provided by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). Only JŽ and DR wagons ran over the entire length of the train to Malmö, Hungarian wagons the train carried as far as Saßnitz . For example, in the summer of 1979, in addition to the full-length sleeping and couchette cars from Bar – Malmö, there were also JŽ seating cars from Bar to Saßnitz, MÁV seating cars between Budapest and Sassnitz , and MÁV dining cars , sleeping and couchette cars between Budapest and Berlin.

Until 1977, the Meridian was almost exclusively drawn by steam locomotives on its German section . It was one of the last long-distance international long-distance trains to be carried on longer sections with this type of traction. Between Dresden and Berlin these were locomotives of the class 01 of the Dresden-Altstadt depot and the class 01.5 of Berlin Ostbahnhof, north of Berlin mainly locomotives of the class 03.10 converted by the Deutsche Reichsbahn drove it . After diesel locomotives had already hauled the Meridian in individual timetable years, the steam locomotives south of Berlin from 1977 and from 1980 also north of Berlin were finally replaced by series 118 and 132 vehicles . The ČSD, MÁV and JŽ had already replaced their express steam locomotives with diesel locomotives a few years earlier. The railways involved also gradually electrified their routes, so that the Meridian could be driven continuously with electric locomotives from the late 1980s.

Over the years the Meridian changed its train numbers several times. Until 1973 it had the numbers D51 / 52 on the DR section. With the general introduction of international continuous train numbers, it received the train numbers D270 / 271 from the summer of 1973. From the 1986 summer schedule, the numbering changed to D376 / 377; the Meridian kept these numbers until it was discontinued in 1993.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rico Bogula: International express trains in the GDR , EK-Verlag Freiburg, 2007, ISBN 978-3-88255-720-6 , p. 183 ff.
  2. ↑ Rico Bogula: International express trains in the GDR , EK-Verlag Freiburg, 2007 ISBN 978-3-88255-720-6 , pp 192-193