Brandenburg an der Havel tram

Brandenburg an der Havel tram
Tram of the type KTNF6 in the main street
Basic information
Country	Germany
city	Brandenburg on the Havel
opening	October 1, 1897
electrification	April 1, 1911
operator	VBBr
Transport network	VBB
Infrastructure
Route length	16.3 km (2010)
Gauge	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system	600 volt DC overhead line
Depots	1
business
Lines	4th
vehicles	10 KTNF6 , 6 MGT6D , 2 Tatra KT4D
statistics
Mileage	0.678 million train km (2010)
Network plan (as of 2013)

The Brandenburg an der Havel tram has been running electrically in the city of Brandenburg an der Havel since April 1, 1911 . There are currently three lines, the network is meter-gauge and has a route length of 17.65 kilometers. The operator is the Stadt-owned Verkehrsbetriebe Brandenburg an der Havel GmbH .

history

Origin and development up to the Second World War

Inauguration of the new Millennium Bridge in 1929

The Brandenburg tram was opened as a horse-drawn tram on October 1, 1897. The lines were marked with colors and the track width was set at 1000 mm . After the city took over the company on April 1, 1910, it was decided to switch to electrical operation at the same time and opened a year later on April 1, 1911. In addition to an extension to the Altstadt train station and the Planebrücke in April 1911, the overland route to Plaue was opened on Christmas Eve 1912 ("yellow line").

GDR time

Gotha car train on overland line 1 to Kirchmöser

On July 20, 1950, work began on extending the line from the Altstadt train station to the steelworks . On October 1, 1952, the entire line was opened to its present end point at the Quenzbrücke.

To renew the vehicle fleet, new build cars of the types LOWA ET-50 and ET-54 (6 locomotives, 6 sidecars) and the T-series were purchased from Gotha from 1958. A total of 12 railcars and 22 sidecars were purchased by 1969, which replaced older vehicles from the 1920s. In contrast to almost all other companies in the GDR, Brandenburg (Havel) only had two-axle vehicles of the types ET-50/54, T-57, T59-E, T-61E, T-62 and T2D with matching sidecars.

The line to the tarpaulin bridge was shut down at the end of 1965. In 1970 the city of Brandenburg decided to stop tram operations entirely within ten years. Because of the rise in crude oil prices as a result of the oil crisis, the use of local energy sources was forced across the GDR and the decision was not implemented. From 1973, as a result of an intersection expansion on Fouquéstrasse, there was a direct connection from the Görden district to the steelworks. In the period that followed, the vehicle fleet was renewed by replacing Gotha trains from other cities with a 1000 mm gauge, mainly from Halle (Saale), but also from Erfurt, Gera, Plauen, Halberstadt and Jena. With this, the last pre-war cars were finally decommissioned. It was not until 1979 that new vehicles were procured again, now of the type KT4D from the ČSSR, since tram construction in Gotha ended in 1969. For the transport of the vehicles by rail, a special approach track with a ramp was laid at the end point in Kirchmöser, via which the vehicles could enter the route network directly from a railroad car.

Also in 1979 the line was rebuilt in the new development area Hohenstücke. In accordance with the further expansion plans for the residential complexes, the final stop at Hohenstücke Nord was dimensioned with six installation tracks. Preliminary work for a connection from the branch to Hohenstücke at the level of the curve on Tschirchdamm to Gördenallee has already been carried out. However, this link was never realized later.

Post-turnaround time

Kt4D in 1990

Former final stop in Kirchmöser, 1997

Gothawagenzug in the narrow town through Plaue, 1990

The dilapidated condition of the old bridge in Plaue was the reason for the discontinuation of line 1 to Kirchmöser

MGT6D in Hauptstrasse, 2013

In the 1980s and 1990s, the operation was gradually modernized with the reconstruction of the track systems. In 1995 four MGT6D type tram cars (No. 100-103) were procured in a bidirectional design. Before that, two MGT6Ds (No. 500–501) from Halle / Saale in Brandenburg had been guests and also in regular service. As the procurement of the MGT6D became too expensive for the city, ten Tatra KT4s were expanded to include a low-floor middle section to form the KTNF6 . The Gothaer and LOWA-Bahnen disappeared from the regular service in the 1990s, in addition, three bidirectional GT4s were taken over by the Freiburger Verkehrs AG , which were mainly used on the routes to Plaue and Kirchmöser . In addition, the vehicles were repeatedly used in construction site traffic. In 1997 the 100th anniversary of tram operation was celebrated and on September 16, 2000 the new depot in Upstallstraße was inaugurated.

On September 28, 2002, the 5.6 kilometer long overland tram line Anton-Saefkow-Allee - Plaue - Kirchmöser West was discontinued. The route section had been renewed shortly before, but no tram crossing was planned for the new construction of the Havel bridge in Plaue. Line 1 now ends at the Anton-Saefkow-Allee stop. After the section to Plaue and Kirchmöser was discontinued, the GT4-ZR were parked at the old depot in Bauhofstraße and scrapped a little later.

In 2005, the city of Brandenburg reduced its additional payments for Verkehrsbetriebe Brandenburg GmbH by two million euros. As a result of this measure, vehicles and employees were saved and the timetable was thinned out. Tram and bus lines run less often, especially on weekends. On Sundays and public holidays, for the first time in the history of the tram, two tram lines (lines 1 and 2) are connected with each other and run as line 1/2 (Quenzbrücke - Anton-Saefkow-Allee) every 60 minutes. Line 1/2 does not serve the main station, which is served by tram line 6 every 30 minutes.

In 2007 the company celebrated its 110th anniversary. The city of Brandenburg wants to keep the tramway until 2020, the future is uncertain. In spring 2012 work began on redesigning the station forecourt. The tram tracks were also completely renewed by May.

In 2011 Neuendorfer Strasse was renewed and between 2012 and 2013 Nicolaiplatz was rebuilt. Both construction measures meant that the route of Line 1 via Neuendorfer Straße, Luckenberger Straße and Bauhofstraße could not be used by trams. For this reason, line 1 ran from March 7 to August 14, 2011 and from June 18, 2012 to November 2, 2013 instead in the city center of line 2, the Luckenberger Straße and Kanalstraße stops were not used by the tram served.

On January 4, 2014, the VBBr bought the two prototypes from the Bogestra series of the MGT6D type (No. 500–501) from Halle / Saale, which were already being used in 1995 for test purposes in Brandenburg. In the course of the new acquisition of the two low-floor trams, the KT4D No. 173 and 180 are to be sold, so that the fleet of the Brandenburg tram will be 100% low-floor in the future.

During the Federal Garden Show 2015 in the Havel region , traffic on weekends and public holidays in the city center was increased by the 8 ring line. The line ran through Steinstrasse twice in the direction of Neustädtischer Markt, so that the route was similar to an 8. In addition, the name of the Quenzbrücke – Anton-Saefkow-Allee line has been changed from "1/2" to "12" and its frequency has been reduced from 60 to 30 minutes.

The changes to line 12 were also retained after the Federal Garden Show.

Line overviews

1989

Shortly before and after the fall of the Wall, the following tram lines were in use:
1 : Kirchmöser West - Nicolaiplatz - Neustädtischer Markt - Hauptbahnhof - Bauhofstraße - Nicolaiplatz - Kirchmöser West
2 : Quenzbrücke - Nicolaiplatz - Bauhofstraße - Hauptbahnhof - Neustädtischer Markt - Nicolaiplatz - Quenzbrücke
3 : Quenzbrücke - Nicolaiplatz - Neustädtischer Markt - Bauhofstraße - Nicolaiplatz - Quenzbrücke
4 : Waldcafé Görden - Nicolaiplatz - Bauhofstraße - Neustädtischer Markt - Nicolaiplatz - Waldcafé Görden
5 : Waldcafé Görden - Quenzbrücke and back
6 : Hohenstücke North - Nicolaiplatz - Bauhofstraße - Neustädtischer Markt - Hohen Nicolaiplatz - North
7 : Hohenstücke North - Nicolaiplatz - Neustädtischer Markt - Bauhofstraße - Nicolaiplatz - Hohenstücke North
8 : Hohenstücke North - Quenzbrücke and back
9 : Hohenstücke North - Nicolaiplatz - Neustädtischer Markt - Central Station - Bauhofstraße - Nicolaiplatz - Hohenstücke North

Lines currently in operation

Track plan (as of 2013)

line	route	Hold
1	Central Station (← Neustadtischer Markt) ↔ Kanalstraße ↔ Nicolaiplatz ↔ Fontanestraße ↔ Waldcafé Görden ↔ Anton-Saefkow-Allee	20/23
2 Discontinued since December 6, 2019 due to bridge closure	Central station (→ Steinstraße) ↔ Neustädtischer Markt ↔ Nicolaiplatz ↔ Quenzbrücke	18/16
6th	Central station (← Steinstraße) ↔ Neustadtischer Markt ↔ Nicolaiplatz ↔ Fontanestraße ↔ Hohenstücke Nord	18/20
12 Discontinued since December 6, 2019 due to bridge closure	Anton-Saefkow-Allee ↔ Fontanestrasse ↔ Quenzbrücke	20th

Line 12 replaces lines 1 and 2 on Sundays and public holidays.

gallery

• Play media file

  Ride on line 1 from Anton-Saefkow-Allee via the main train station to Magdeburger Straße / Higher Regional Court, June 2012

• Play media file

  Ride on Line 2 from Ritterstraße / Museum via Hauptbahnhof and Quenzbrücke to Hauptstraße, June 2012

• Play media file

  Ride on line 6 from Magdeburger Straße / Higher Regional Court via the main train station to Hohenstücke Nord, June 2012

literature

• Author collective: Tram Archive 6. Cottbus, Magdeburg, Schwerin, Rostock area . transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-344-00003-9 .
• Walter Menzel, Jörg Schulze: 100 years of the electric tram in Brandenburg an der Havel . VBN Verlag Bernd Neddermeyer, Berlin 2011, ISBN 3-941712-13-6 .

Web links

Commons : Trams in Brandenburg an der Havel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Brandenburg Transport Authority
• Chronicle - Tram in BRB as PDF
• Tram museum of Verkehrsbetriebe Brandenburg GmbH
• The Brandenburg tram at Tram-Pictures

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Website of the Brandenburg (Havel) transport company (accessed on May 6, 2012, 6:10 p.m. CET)
2. ↑ GothaWagen.de (accessed on May 6, 2012, 6:36 pm)