Tram Wiesbaden

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Electric tram in Wiesbaden around 1900

The Wiesbaden tram is a former tram company in the city of Wiesbaden . It existed between August 16, 1875 and April 30, 1955, from 1888 as a meter- gauge narrow - gauge tram. Until 1958, however, there was still a tram connection operated by Stadtwerke Mainz from Mainz over the Theodor Heuss Bridge to the former Mainz districts of Kastel and Kostheim, which had been incorporated into Wiesbaden 13 years earlier . Since 1998 there have been plans under the title Stadtbahn Wiesbaden for the construction of a route for tram trains in the city center. The reactivation of tram line 6 for local traffic in Wiesbaden is also being discussed.

history

Wiesbaden's first horse-drawn tram line, around three kilometers long , was built by the English Wiesbaden Tramways Company and opened on August 16, 1875. It initially led from the stations on Rheinstrasse ( Rheinbahnhof , Taunusbahnhof , Ludwigsbahnhof ) via Wilhelmstrasse and the Kochbrunnen via Taunusstrasse into the Nero Valley ( Nerobergstrasse , then "Grubweg"). The route was extended on September 1st to the Beau-Site excursion restaurant in the Nerotal and in January 1877 - at the other end - via Rheinstrasse and Schwalbacher Strasse to Faulbrunnen on Bleichstrasse.

On September 25, 1889, a second horse-drawn tram line was opened. It led from the Rheinstrasse train stations through Kirchgasse and Langgasse to Kochbrunnen and from there parallel to the existing track through Taunusstrasse to Röderstrasse.

On November 1, 1888, the Central Administration for Secundairbahnen Herrmann Bachstein acquired the horse-drawn tram lines in order to convert them for steam train operations. From the end of the year traffic stopped until spring 1889. On April 3, the new meter-gauge network was opened. In the meantime, Bachstein's company had put another steam train line into operation, which ran from the banks of the Rhine in Biebrich via Biebricher Allee , Adolfsallee and Adolfstrasse to the train stations. At Luisenplatz it was connected to the Rheinstraße – Wilhelmstraße – Nerotal route.

In this section, the Rheinstraße – Kochbrunnen – Röderstraße route was relocated to another parallel track that ended in front of the train stations. The Schwalbacher Straße – Faulbrunnen branch was abandoned in favor of the plug-in route through Kirchgasse.

After the initiative Herrmann brook stone in the February 11, 1895 Darmstadt , the SEG was founded, the Wiesbaden tram went into their possession.

On May 16, 1896, the first electric tram went into operation between the stations on Rheinstrasse and the Walkmühle brewery. Due to the success of the railway, the city and the SEG signed a contract on April 4, 1899 to electrify the other railways. On August 14, 1900, after a quarter of a century, the horse tram era in Wiesbaden came to an end. The steam tram ran until August 27th. At the end of the year, Wiesbaden had a network of around eleven kilometers with three tram lines:

route
Nerotal - Wilhelmstrasse - Rheinstrasse - Biebrich
Rheinstrasse – under the oaks
Rheinstrasse – Kochbrunnen – Röderstrasse

Little by little, the suburbs were also opened up. The tram reached Sonnenberg in 1901 , Schierstein and Biebrich in 1904 and Erbenheim and the main train station in 1906 . After two extensions in Biebrich in 1907 and in Erbenheim in 1907, the network had a total length of 42 kilometers. In Biebrich there was also a connection to lines 6 and 9 in the direction of Amöneburg , Kastel and Mainz . The greatest expansion was achieved in 1914 after a few smaller extensions. A total of 9 lines were operated, of which line 7 was owned by the city, which were marked with numbers and colors:

number colour course
1 yellow Nerotal - Kurhaus - Central Station - Biebrich - Rhine bank
2 red Sonnenberg - Kochbrunnen –Kirchgasse – Hauptbahnhof
3 blue Under the oaks - Dürerplatz - town hall - main station
4th green Dürerplatz - Ringkirche - Central Station
5 White Barracks –Ringkirche – Rheinstrasse – Südfriedhof / Erbenheim
6th Blue yellow Kurhaus – Hauptbahnhof – Biebrich– Amöneburg - Kastel - ( Kaiserbrücke ) - Mainz Hauptbahnhof
7th Blue green Dotzheim - Boseplatz - Bierstadt
8th White-red Biebrich-Bahnhof-Biebrich-Rheinufer
9 White yellow Schierstein – Biebrich – Amöneburg – Kastel- ( Rhine bridge ) - Mainz-Stadthalle

In the years after the First World War there were repeated disagreements between the city and the SEG. These mainly revolved around the repair and modernization of the tram, which was neglected by the SEG. In addition, the city aimed to take over the tram after the concession expired on April 1, 1929. However, this failed due to the inflated price expectations of the SEG. So after April 1st, the city decided to use buses on routes 1, 2, 3 and 4 and on sections of route 5. At the same time, work began on removing the track systems or pouring them with asphalt . The network thus shrank by almost 25 kilometers in one fell swoop. The remaining routes had previously received an extension of the concession to December 31, 1949 from the regional council.

Since the railway incurred losses in the following years, the SEG tried to cede the remaining lines to the city. Only on line 8 was it possible to agree. This was discontinued shortly after the city took over. With the beginning of the Second World War , the bus routes began to be converted to town gas due to the rationing of gasoline. On December 31, 1939, the regional council ordered the reopening of line 8. On April 1, 1943, after the SEG had decided to withdraw, the remaining lines became the property of the cities of Mainz and Wiesbaden.

Due to the war, tram operations were stopped at the beginning of 1945. From August 2nd of the same year, lines 6, 7, 8 and 9 were gradually put back into operation. Since the tram had suffered great damage from the war, Mainz and Wiesbaden decided, after the renovation costs were estimated at 7.5 million marks, to close the lines. The first part of line 7 Booseplatz - Dotzheim was discontinued on November 2nd, 1948, the rest of the route to Bierstadt disappeared on March 31st, 1952. The network looked as follows on November 2nd, 1952:

number course
6th Main Post Office– Central Station –Mainzer Straße – Kastel – Mainz Central Station
8th Main Post Office– Central Station –Mainzer Strasse – Bunsenstrasse – Armenruhstrasse
9 Schierstein – Rheinufer – Amöneburg – Kastel – Mainz main station

The three remaining lines were finally closed on April 30, 1955.

Trolleybus

From 1948 to 1961, 13 trolleybuses also ran on 2 lines in Wiesbaden.

Relics

Today there are hardly any recognizable relics of the Wiesbaden tram. However, one or the other overhead line rosette still exists here and there in Marktstrasse and in Biebrich.

The routes of lines 6 and 9 can still be guessed at in the Amöneburg / Kastel area. The "Christof-Ruthof-Weg" is the former route of line 6, which met line 9 at the "fork" (today "At the fork") ( 50 ° 1 ′ 35.2 ″  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 14.4 "  O ). Both lines continued on today's "Eisenbahnweg" in the direction of Mainz.

Furthermore, there are still tram tracks under the pavement of Biebricher Allee.

Reception in the population

In connection with the planning for a Wiesbaden urban railway , the perception of the tram in Wiesbaden was remembered. When the steam train was replaced by the first electric tram in 1896, the "electric" was described as a "monster" that was "racing" through the Langgasse, and when the tram operation began, "great jubilation" broke out.

future

In 1998 there were plans to reactivate a section of the Aartalbahn between Bad Schwalbach and Wiesbaden as the Wiesbaden Stadtbahn . The first line would have run from the Chausseehaus stop on a new route through Wiesbaden city center to the main train station. Three years later, the plans were stopped due to changed majorities in the city parliament. In a newly initiated planning procedure (June 2011), the cost-effectiveness of the construction of a pure “city link” from Wiesbaden main station to the center is being examined.

Another discussion is currently about the reactivation of the former tram line 6. Today it runs as a bus line from Wiesbaden's Nordfriedhof via the main station, Ostbahnhof, Mainz-Amöneburg, Mainz-Kastel, Mainz Hbf, Mainz-Bretzenheim to Mainz-Marienborn. The Mainz section was gradually replaced under the name Mainzelbahn by a new tram line, which is connected to the meter-gauge network of the Mainz tram . The Wiesbaden branch is busy today, but the use of double articulated buses is ruled out due to the inclines in Wiesbaden. The meter-gauge tram is not compatible with the proposed light rail on standard gauge due to the different gauge . The Wiesbaden traffic development plan contains the concept of a new urban rail link under the title Target scenario 2015 Plus .

literature

  • Klaus Kopp 100 years of Wiesbaden public transport 1875 - 1975 , publisher: Stadtwerke Wiesbaden Aktiengesellschaft, no ISBN
  • Klaus Kopp 125 years of Wiesbadener Verkehrsbetriebe 1875 - 2000 , publisher: Stadtwerke Wiesbaden Aktiengesellschaft, no ISBN

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Map of Wiesbaden in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1885–90)
  2. ^ Map of Wiesbaden in the Brockhaus, 14th edition. Archived from the original on April 26, 2014 ; Retrieved May 30, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Turntable Online: The trolleybus, not the Wiesbaden residents' favorite child , accessed on July 7, 2011
  4. ↑ Isabel Mittler: The FDP brought the end in 2001. In: Wiesbadener Tagblatt . July 7, 2011, archived from the original on February 12, 2013 ; Retrieved July 7, 2011 .
  5. ↑ Route. In: mvg-mainzelbahn.de. Archived from the original on October 17, 2011 ; Retrieved July 6, 2011 .
  6. ↑ wiesbaden.de: Traffic Development Plan , Section 6.2