Neuchâtel tram

Neuchâtel Place Pury – Boudry
Final stop Neuchâtel Place Pury
Timetable field :	215, up to 2013: 213 30d (before 1982)
Route length:	8.85 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system :	600 volts  =
Legend 8.86 Neuchâtel Place Pury Neuchâtel Evole Neuchâtel Champ-Bougin 6.96 Neuchâtel Port-de-Serrières Neuchâtel Serrières Ruau 4.57 Auvernier Error profile (+0.04) Colombier Allées 3.14 Colombier Colombier Les Chézards 1.46 Areuse Cortaillod Chantier Cortaillod Boudry Les Isles Boudry Tuilière 0.00 Boudry

The meter-gauge Neuchâtel tram is the tram operator of the Swiss city ​​of Neuchâtel (French: Neuchâtel) in the French-speaking canton of Neuchâtel . It exists today only of a 8.85 km long overland route , which Auvernier and Colombier to Boudry leads and the line is operated 215th The three-digit line number was introduced when the timetable changed in December 2013, before that the line was numbered "5". At the same time, the timetable field in the national timetable was changed to 215.

The railway has been part of the transport company Transports Publics Neuchâtelois SA (transN) since 2012 , in which the previous owner Transports en commun de Neuchâtel et environs (TN), originally Compagnie des Tramways de Neuchâtel (TN), was merged. In addition to the tram, transN includes two other narrow-gauge railways , a standard-gauge line , two funicular railways , the Neuchâtel trolleybus and the La Chaux-de-Fonds trolleybus, as well as numerous bus routes .

history

Overland route

Tram locomotive for adhesion and cogwheel operation No. 2 "Cortaillod"

Railcars 42 and 44 in the former end loop Place Pury

Railcar 44 from 1902 in the former Endschleife Boudry, 1979

Branch to Cortaillod with bi-directional car 83, one of three Swiss standard cars in Neuchâtel

Boudry end point, on the left the new wagon hall, 2009

The line to Boudry including an approximately 800 meter long branch from Areuse to Cortaillod was opened on September 16, 1892 by the former company Régional Neuchâtel-Cortaillod-Boudry (NCB) . Originally it was a steam tram . The section from the port to the Neuchâtel train station, which was put into operation on December 24, 1892 and rises up to 89 per thousand, was provided with a rack from the Riggenbach system. It could be used by the tram locomotives for mixed gear and adhesion operation, which were delivered in 1892 by Krauss (No. 1 "Neuchâtel", No. 2 "Cortaillod") and in 1895 by Jung (No. 4 "Colombier"). A Krauss tender locomotive No. 3 (“Boudry”) from 1892 and No. 5 (“Auvernier”) from 1898 also operated as pure adhesion machines . Locomotive 4 was converted to pure adhesion operation in 1898 and received a new boiler from SLM. In 1901 it was sold to the Chemins de fer Électriques de la Gruyère, where it was initially used as a construction locomotive and until 1929 as a thermal reserve. The remaining locomotives were also sold as construction locomotives in 1903. All cars that were no longer needed found a buyer.

From 1898, three electric tram cars operated on the steep stretch. In 1902 the rest of the route was electrified with 600 volts direct current . After the merger of the two tram companies, the route to the train station continued to operate as line 6 of the city network. In contrast to the city lines, which from 1910 onwards all of the inner city loop "Tour-de-Ville", the overland line at Place Pury was given a separate end loop with a siding and a connecting track to the city network. The branch line to Cortaillod was operated from Areuse in connection traffic, line 5b was the only one that did not reach the center of Neuchâtel. On June 2, 1984 it was converted to bus service and is now served by line 613.

On June 28, 1945, two trams collided in a curve on the single-track route between Colombier and Auvernier . The tram coming from Boudry had not waited in Colombier to cross the late opposite course, which was mainly occupied by students. The two front platforms were dented in the collision and forty people were injured, some seriously. Already on March 30, 1925, a similar, albeit less serious, accident had occurred at almost exactly the same point.

Since the modernization that took place in the early 1980s, the line has mostly been called Littorail . This is a combination of the terms littoral (French for coastal strip in general, or for the coastal region on Lake Neuchâtel in particular) and rail (French for rail , also used in the sense of rail).

In 1988 the end loop at Place Pury was replaced by a double-track stump end point . In Boudry, too, where the trains had bypassed the terminal building, the layout was changed accordingly in the mid-1980s. The coach house there was demolished in 1983, and a larger car shed was built not far from it.

The tram runs to Boudry today during the day in the rigid 20-minute clock and serves a total of twelve stops , the average distance between stops is 805 meters. The route is traced out continuously regardless of the road and mostly single track, dodging exist in the stations Port de Serrières, Auvernier, Colombier and Areuse. Similar to a classic railway line , it is operated using the automatic route block method and is equipped with push-button interlockings. The railway is operated with bidirectional vehicles , the official travel time is 16 or 18 minutes depending on the direction of travel.

City routes

Train on line 3 in front of the valley station of the Ecluse-Plan funicular, 1976

The first urban line in Neuchâtel - it led to Saint-Blaise - went into operation on September 16, 1893 and was powered by gas. Due to technical problems with the gas-powered car, it was converted into a horse-drawn tram ( Rösslitram ) on December 22, 1894 . For this purpose, six small, light wagons were procured, each with a horse harnessed to it. Electrification finally took place in 1897. This first route was built by the company Tramway Neuchâtel-Saint-Blaise ( NSB ), which was then merged with the NCB in 1901 to form the Compagnie des Tramways de Neuchâtel .

The city network was then expanded further and in 1926 reached its greatest expansion with a route length of 27 kilometers. At times there were six city lines, they were numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7. Between 1940 and 1976 they were gradually replaced by trolley buses .

vehicles

Railcar and control car Be 4/4 of the first delivery with round headlights on the cross-country route, 1981

Articulated multiple units taken over from Genoa at the Auvernier crossing station , 1970s

The historic Ce 2/2 76 motor car, here in 2011 on the Blonay – Chamby museum railway

The Neuchâtel tram now has ten exclusively high-floor vehicles at its disposal: six four-axle Be 4/4 railcars with the numbers 501–504 (built in 1981; initially round headlights) and 505–506 (built in 1988; rectangular headlights) as well as four control cars ( Bt) with the numbers 551 to 554 (built in 1981). These two vehicle types are derived from the FB 2000 generation from Forchbahn and from the “Tram 2000” from the Zurich transport company . The car bodies come from Schindler , the bogies from SIG and the electrical equipment from ABB - Sécheron .

A separate fleet of vehicles was always available for the remaining route to Boudry, including four articulated railcars taken over from Genoa in 1962 , which were discarded when the current generation of vehicles was acquired.

literature

• Peter Willen: Trams in Switzerland. Railcar . Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-280-00998-7
• Sébastien Jacobi: Neuchâtel en Tram 1890–1990 . Self-published by Sébastien Jacobi, Neuchâtel 1989
• Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel . Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen AG, 1991, ISBN 3-85649-054-X
• Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel II . Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen AG, 1992, ISBN 3-85649-060-4

Web links

Commons : Trams in Neuchâtel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the TN
• History of line 5 on www.anat.ch
• Picture gallery on www.railfaneurope.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans E. Wägli, Schienennetz Schweiz , 3rd edition, 2010, page 93
2. ^ Transports publics du littoral Neuchâtelois (TN). Areuse - Cortaillod In: discontinued-bahnen.ch by Jürg Ehrbar, accessed on June 13, 2020
3. ↑ Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel , p. 65 ff
4. ↑ Michel Grandguillaume, Gérald Hadorn, Sébastien Jarne, Jean-Louis Rochaix: Voies étroites de Veveyse et de Gruyère. BVA, Lausanne 1984, ISBN 2-88125-003-3 , page 214
5. ^ Alfred Moser: The steam operation of the Swiss railways 1847-1966. Birkhäuser Verlag Basel and Stuttgart 1967, pages 405 and 407.
6. ↑ Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel II , p 123
7. ↑ Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel II , p 92
8. ↑ Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel II , p 90
9. ↑ Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel II , p 83
10. ↑ Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel , p 143
11. ↑ The Neuchâtel tram at www.eisenbahn-bilder.com
12. ↑ ^{a b} Changes in participants in Neuchâtel in: Stadtverkehr10/89, p. 28 ff.
13. ↑ Claude Jeanmaire, Yves Merminod: Les Tramways de Neuchâtel II , page 14