Küstrin tram

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The Küstrin tram existed from 1903 to 1923 as a horse tram and from 1925 to 1945 as an electric tram . It was operated by the city of Küstrin as the Küstrin urban tram and served inner-city traffic in what was then a small town in Brandenburg . Although Küstrin only had around 21,000 inhabitants in 1937, it was of great importance as a traffic junction and garrison town . Due to the topographical conditions at the confluence of the Oder and Warta rivers, the individual districts were also far apart. Characteristic for these conditions is the fact that there were four train stations in the city.

Horse tram

As early as the beginning of the 20th century, the need for inner-city means of transport arose with the increasing population and the construction of the Küstriner Neustadt. However, since an electricity company did not start operating until 1913, the only option was initially to build a horse-drawn tram. The depot was built very close to the water tower and was later taken over by the electric tram. The horse tram opened on March 10, 1903. Its main line connected the Neustadt station, where the main lines Stettin - Wroclaw and Berlin - Landsberg crossed, with the market square of the old town, which lies across the Warta. From the Stern, the center of the new town, branch lines branched off to the east to the infantry barracks and to the north to the city forest. The railway was well received, but after the First World War it was no longer able to hold its own in the long run due to the economic crisis and the increased demands on speed and convenience. In 1923, the city council decided to close it down .

Electric tram

Because of the long distances in the city, attempts were made to find a means of transport that would also use the remaining tracks. For this purpose, an electric tram was offered, which was reopened on May 16, 1925 at a time when small and larger tram companies were shut down elsewhere. It used the previous horse-drawn tram network, although it is unclear whether the extension from the market to the Altstadt train station on the left bank of the Oder was added or had already been built during the horse-drawn tram era. There were no numbers or colors to differentiate the lines.

For the initially 5.3 kilometers long, single-track, meter-gauge network, six railcars and two trailer cars were procured from Christoph & Unmack in Niesky . The expansion carried out in 1934 across the Odervorflutbrücke to the west was intended to open up the Kietz district . However, since it ended 800 meters from this district, it was not well received by the passengers. Therefore, on April 1, 1937, the city also opened a bus service, which was also operated in the Kietz district and beyond. In total there were two bus routes with a total length of 6.3 kilometers with five vehicles. At the same time, the tram was shortened. It now ended at the middle school in Berliner Strasse on the right bank of the Oder. The network was only four kilometers long.

When the number of passengers had risen considerably during World War II, a railcar was procured from Celler Straßenbahn GmbH in 1943 . This originally came from Karlsruhe , where it was converted from a sidecar built in 1912. The two sidecars had been handed over to Łódź .

The electric train did not even operate for twenty years. When the eastern front moved closer to the city towards the end of the Second World War , operations were finally stopped on January 30, 1945. The depot was destroyed by bombardment with heavy weapons in February 1945, as were all vehicles in it. Only railcar no. 5, which was jacked up in an adjoining hall at the time, was only slightly damaged and after the end of the war was brought to Gorzów Wielkopolski , 40 kilometers away , where it was switched from meter to standard gauge again.

The hard-fought and largely destroyed city was divided along the Oder after the end of the war, with the greater part being renamed Polish and Kostrzyn . A resumption of tram traffic on the routes that are now exclusively on Polish territory did not take place. Remnants of the track systems can still be found in the old town that has not been rebuilt.

Web links

literature

  • Wolfgang Krüger: The former tram in Küstrin . Tram magazine issue 51 from February 1984
  • Frank Lammers: Küstrin city history and city traffic . Verlag GVE, Berlin 2005. ISBN 3-89218-091-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ StrassenbahnMagazin 5/2016, p. 62 ff