Stendal tram

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The Stendaler Straßenbahn AG was founded in 1892 as the forerunner of today's urban traffic in the largest city in the Altmark in the state of Saxony-Anhalt and has always been operated as a horse-drawn tram . It was replaced by a bus company in 1926 .

history

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Stendal, with around 25,000 inhabitants, was the lively and prosperous center of a vast agricultural area in the Prussian province of Saxony . The core of the city center was about one to two kilometers north of the state train station. There was also the Ostbahnhof, from which the trains of the Stendaler Kleinbahnen to Arendsee and Arneburg started; but that was almost as far from the city center as the other train station .

As in many cities of this size, public transport was required to shorten the distances for residents and visitors. In 1891 private individuals founded the Stendaler Straßenbahn AG , which on June 3, 1892 put a 2.4-kilometer horse-drawn tram into operation. The line with a gauge of 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) led from the train station through Bahnhofstrasse to Tangermünder Tor and further north over Schadewachtenstrasse and Breite Strasse to its end point near Uenglinger Tor .

However, this connection did not meet all the wishes of the residents. Numerous citizens of the city, but also from the surrounding area, founded the Neue Straßenbahn AG on May 7, 1909 (in Stendal). On October 28, 1909, the first part of another horse-drawn railway line was opened, which was completed on November 15, 1909 with a length of three kilometers. It also led from the train station through the old town to Uenglinger Tor, but then continued on Arneburger Strasse to the Ostbahnhof. Another difference to the older horse-drawn tram line was that it was driven over Frommhagenstrasse and Nikolaistrasse to the cathedral , then through Hallstrasse to the market and further on Winckelmannstrasse.

During the First World War , due to a lack of personnel, only one line was served that used the route sections of both companies. In October 1921 came to the union of the two companies by the new streetcar AG the Stendaler streetcar AG took over. After a 200 meter long connecting piece had been laid through Karlstrasse in 1923, one drove from the station first on the route of the younger society to the cathedral, then over to Breite Strasse and then again on the "new" route to the Ostbahnhof, a total of 2, 9 kilometers.

However, from 1925 the name Stendaler Straßenbahn AG was used by the new company until it was renamed Stendaler Verkehrsgesellschaft AG on June 22, 1928 . The reason was that on October 15, 1926, the horse-drawn tram had been replaced by an omnibus company that owned six omnibuses at the start of the Second World War in autumn 1939. This served two city lines of seven kilometers and an overland line to Borstel of 6.5 kilometers in length.

literature

  • Wolfgang Hendlmeier: Handbook of German Tram History . Second volume, Munich 1979.

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