Luxembourg tram
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|---|---|
| Basic information | |
| Country | Luxembourg |
| city | Luxembourg |
| opening | February 21, 1875 |
| Shutdown | 5th September 1964 |
| operator | Société Anonyme des Tramways Luxembourgeoises, AVL |
| Infrastructure | |
| Gauge | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
The Luxembourg tram was a tram that operated in the Luxembourg capital, Luxembourg , from 1875 to 1964 . Horse trams ran until 1908, and electric trams since then. From 1904 the line of the narrow-gauge railway Luxembourg – Echternach was also used.
The re-establishment of a tram line in Luxembourg for 550 million euros was decided by parliament in June 2014. On December 10, 2017, the "new" tram started public service on its first section (see main article: Stater Tram ).
history
Horse tram
In 1873, at the request of the Luxembourg City Council, two Belgian engineers put forward proposals to build a horse-drawn tramway between the train station and Upper Town in Luxembourg . However, the engineer Défacqs left for cost reasons, so that on June 3, 1874 the decision was made on Charles de Féral's offer, who was commissioned with the construction on June 3, 1874. As early as September 20, 1874, Féral submitted a track plan for the new tram. The horse-drawn tram was designed for standard gauge, as Féral hoped to connect the train to rail traffic or other industrial traffic one day .
Construction began immediately, so that on February 21, 1875 the railway station – Athenaeum could be opened. The first timetable was finally published on May 6, 1874: Since then, the horse-drawn trams have offered connections to trains between 6 am and 9 am; from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. they drove in both directions every 15 minutes. Just a few months later, on August 24, 1875, the horse-drawn tram to Glacis drove right on time for the opening of the Schobermesse .
The rides were quite cheap. The wagons drove both as a team or two-way team. The animals were housed in the old artillery barracks on the Piquet. A veterinarian kept an eye on the horses there. If an animal was sick, it was immediately put on sick leave until it recovered.
Féral finally also opened a cab taxi for journeys over the Päerdstram rail network and evening traffic service. While the cab taxi cost 1.25 francs per trip within the city, 2.25 francs were due for trips to neighboring communities.
Soon, however, the horse-drawn tram could no longer meet the increasing demand and advancing industrialization , so that in 1908 it was converted to electrical operation.
Electric
After it had been decided on November 24th, 1906 that a power station would be built for city street lighting in Luxembourg, nothing stood in the way of building an electric tram. In 1907 Charles Petermann became the new electrical engineer in Luxembourg City. Under his leadership, Siemens-Schuckertwerke in Berlin was asked for a cost estimate, which the city approved on May 6th. Finally, the construction of the power station and tram depot began on an area on Victor Hugo Avenue in Limpertsberg . The depot, also called Tramschapp , was finally opened in early 1908. The Tramsschapp lasted until 1999.
On March 2, 1907, the Société Anonyme des Tramways Luxembourgeoises dissolved; The tracks and wagons became the property of the City of Luxembourg for a fee of 130,000 francs . The end of the horse-drawn tram came on August 24, 1908, when all the horses were auctioned for 16,000 francs. However, the first electric line had already run on August 8th, so horse trams have not been used since then. In contrast to the horse-drawn tram, the electric tram ran on meter gauge .
At the beginning of 1911 Charles Petermann left his office. Romain Schroeder took his place. In 1915, under Schroeder's leadership, the six-year-old vehicle was completely overhauled for the first time. Large parts of the overhead contact line and tracks have to be renewed because the derailments are increasing. The expansion in the direction of Eich on December 26, 1913 only worsened the desolate situation. After the repair work, the number of passengers doubled. While in 1916 2,778,873 passengers took the tram, in 1917 there were already 4,125,711.
But the tram still seemed to suffer from its success, because as the number of passengers increased, so did the tracks and overhead lines . Finally, the Tramsschapp was too small, so it was expanded. It had its largest expansion in 1933. The first bus routes were built in the 1920s.
When the Grand Duchy was invaded on May 10, 1940 during the Second World War , the city was evacuated by bus. Local passenger transport was non-existent until May 17, when replacement rail services began. On August 1st, all clubs and societies in the country, including the tram company, were dissolved by the newly appointed Gauleiter Gustav Simon . The tram drivers should all be retrained in the Traben-Trarbach training center .
In 1940, during the bombing of Luxembourg and the subsequent overrun of the Germans, part of the city was destroyed, which also affected the tram.
When the Americans marched into Luxembourg on September 10, 1944, buses were provided for them to take them to Sandweiler . On May 20, the Luxembourg concentration camp prisoners were brought home by bus from Dachau.
In the meantime, Léon Brasseur was head of industrial services in Luxembourg and informed aldermen and city councilors about the condition of the tram cars, which were then replaced. He also found that the number of tram passengers had increased by 35 percent since the pre-war period. When Brasseur retired in 1957 , Emile Ziger became his successor. On April 14, 1958, he stipulated that the tram lines should be gradually shut down in order to replace them with omnibuses . On November 25, 1958, the city approved a loan of 1,350,000 francs for the construction of boxes for buses in Tramschapp .
In 1958 the company had 48 trams, 29 of which were railcars and 19 sidecars . Since 1908, they had covered 56,770,000 kilometers and carried 365,063,000 passengers.
89 years after it opened in 1875, the Luxembourg tram was shut down on Saturday, September 5, 1964. The last tram number 34 still exists today. Along line 10 from Beggen, via Eich and Theaterplatz, past the Neutor and up to Tramschapp , thousands of people said goodbye to the tram. On the last day, under the leadership of Jean Theis, a horse-drawn tram, carriage no.103, drove again on his initiative.
Local train to Echternach
The tram tracks were shared between 1904 and 1954 by the steam-powered local train from Luxembourg to Echternach, the so-called Charli . Like the tram, the local railway used the 1,000 mm gauge and was consequently a narrow-gauge railway . In the meantime, the former route has become a popular bike path that leads past small train stations and tunnels that are still preserved.
Line network
The route length of the first Luxembourg tram was 24.19 kilometers, of which 13.15 kilometers were single-track and 5.52 kilometers were double-track. There were a total of up to ten lines, of which line 10 was the last to be shut down.
The route network of the new tram is expected to be 16 km long in the final stage. On December 10, 2017, the first 4.6-kilometer section of the Stater Tram went into operation.
Hollerich Tram Museum
Since April 1, 1991, car no. 34 has been presented as an exhibit in the Hollerich Tram Museum . There is also an old horse-drawn tram and models of all the buses and trams that have ever operated in Luxembourg.
A track 80 meters long was laid in front of the museum. This means that tram No. 34 can leave the depot in summer and the visitor can experience a bit of old Luxembourg tram flair. However, it is planned to set up a museum in the vicinity of the museum.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Parliament takes the tram. In: Tageblatt Luxembourg. Retrieved May 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Adolphe Kaufhold: Onsen Tramsschapp, A chronicle around the Limpertsberger tram depot. in ons Stad booklet 72 Ville de Luxembourg 2003 pp. 2–13.
- ↑ Tram magazine 4/2018, p. 13.