Zurich – Höngg tram

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The tramway Zurich – Höngg (ZH) was a tram company in Switzerland that operated in what is now the city of Zurich . It was founded in 1898 and was one of eight predecessor companies of today's Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich (VBZ). The ZH connected Zurich with the then independent suburb of Höngg . Its infrastructure gradually merged with the Zurich tram network by 1923 .

history

As early as 1894, the municipalization of the tram companies was decided in a referendum and carried out two years later, but private tram companies were also established after that. They opened up areas in which the Zurich urban tram (StStZ, today's VBZ) initially showed no interest in view of limited financial resources. In contrast to other suburbs, the wine-growing village of Höngg , located on the edge of the Limmattal , showed little growth, as only two stagecoaches ran there a day from the city . Strassenbahn Zürich – Höngg AG was set up to stimulate residential construction. Their single-track line with a gauge of 1000 mm was opened on August 27, 1898. It began at today's Escher-Wyss-Platz , crossed the Limmat on a temporary footbridge and ended after 3.1 kilometers at the Wartau.

Former Wartau depot

The ZH route connected to that of the Industriequartier tram (IStB) to the main train station, which had opened four months earlier . Initially, the ZH worked closely with the ICTB and left the management of the company to it; there were shared tickets and through trains. After two years, the partners fell out after the ICTB changed the timetable without consulting. The ZH terminated the operating contract, so that from September 29, 1900, passengers had to change and buy separate tickets. Both companies paid attention to the poorest possible connections to the trams of the competition. This had a negative effect on the earnings situation of ZH, as the dominant excursion traffic on Sundays fell sharply and there was still little demand from workers. The situation improved again in 1903 after the city of Zurich took over the IStB. In the same year the footbridge over the Limmat was replaced by the Wipkingerbrücke.

The ZH was increasingly no longer able to finance the maintenance and renewal of the facilities, which is why sales negotiations with the city came about in 1911. On January 1, 1913, the Zurich City Tram (StStZ) took over the section up to the Höngg municipality border, as well as the entire rolling stock. The remaining section up to the Wartau became the property of the StStZ on January 1, 1924. The former ZH depot at the Wartau terminus was then available to various businesses and the road inspectorate. From 1989 to 2007, the Tram Museum Zurich presented its collection of historic tram vehicles there.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Rudolf Galliker: Tramstadt - local public transport and urban development using the example of Zurich . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-905312-02-6 , p. 101 .
  2. ↑ Galliker: Tram city. P. 112.
  3. ↑ a b c The Zurich – Höngg tram (ZH), 1898–1924. Tram Museum Zurich, October 11, 2003, archived from the original on September 1, 2011 ; accessed on May 15, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Galliker: Tram city. Pp. 106-107.
  5. ↑ Galliker: Tram city. P. 113.