Trolleybus Altstätten – Berneck

Altstätten – Berneck
Route length:	10.3 km
Power system :	1000 volts  =
Legend 0.0 Altstätten city 467 m 0.4 Altstätten Town Hall 464 m Altstätten depot 450 m Lüchingen boiler bridge 1.8 Lüchingen Post 438 m Marbach Gehren 3.1 Marbach village 431 m Marbach Ranft Rebstein beds 4.4 Rebstein village 423 m Rebstein Ausserdorf Rebstein Steinacker Balgach bath 6.6 Balgach town hall 411 m Balgach village Balgach countries Balgach optics Heerbrugg Castle 8.1 Heerbrugg train station 408 m Heerbrugg secondary school Heerbrugg Waldegg Berneck Rosenberg Berneck Castle Bridge Berneck Post 10.3 Berneck Town Hall 429 m

The trolleybus Altstätten-Berneck was a trolleybus - overland route in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen . The 10.3 kilometer long connection in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley existed from 1940 to 1977 and led from Altstätten via Marbach , Rebstein , Balgach and Heerbrugg to Berneck . The trolleybus replaced the Altstätten – Berneck tram that opened in 1897 and was in turn replaced by buses . The responsible transport company was - as before with the tram - the Rheintalische Strassenbahnen ( RhSt ), which from 1958 were called Rheintalische Verkehrsbetriebe ( RhV ). After the separation of public transport and electricity business, the new company RTB Rheintal Bus was created , which still exists today, but now under the name Bus Ostschweiz AG (BOS). This company is responsible for the operation of the former trolleybus line to the present day.

history

After 1936/37 the conversion of the Altstätten Rathaus – Berneck tram line to bus operation failed - the line of the railway was needed to widen the road - it was decided to switch to trolley bus operation as an alternative. This was opened on September 8, 1940 and ran in Altstätten - like individual tram courses - from the Altstätten Stadt station. There was a transition from and to the Altstätten – Gais railway line . At Heerbrugg train station, trolleybus passengers had a connection to the tram branch to Diepoldsau , which was finally converted directly to a bus in 1954.

A local peculiarity was the high voltage of 1000 volts DC voltage , which was taken over from the tram along with the associated infrastructure. Altstätten – Berneck was the world's first trolleybus operation with such high tension. Another special feature was the single-lane operation between Heerbrugg and Berneck.

For economic and operational reasons, the Altstätten trolleybus operation was finally given up on May 21, 1977. At the end point in Berneck, the two-tier depot from 1897 is reminiscent of the tram and trolleybus; it was also closed in 1977. Today there is only broken traffic on the former trolleybus route, the bus route 301 runs between Altstätten Stadt and Heerbrugg train station, the line 302 then runs between Heerbrugg train station and Berneck town hall.

vehicles

The former trolleybus number 6, here in 1994 with the new number 126 in use in Lugano

A total of seven motor vehicles were available for the Altstätten – Berneck trolleybus. At the opening, the Rheintalische Trassenbahnen purchased five short two-axle vehicles with the road numbers 1 to 5 from FBW and SIG. In 1966 they were supplemented by the two somewhat larger solo cars 6 and 7. The latter came from FBW and Hess and had electrical equipment from SAAS . After the cessation of operation, they were sold to the Lugano trolleybus - which also had a voltage of 1000 volts - and added to the inventory there under the new numbers 126 and 127. Car 126 is now owned by the Swiss Trolleybus Association ( TVS ).

The motor vehicles were supplemented by various trailers . In addition, single-axle luggage trailers from FBW were available, with these three-car trains were also formed.

literature

• Martin Schweizer: Local electrical traffic in the Rhine Valley . Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 2003. ISBN 3-907579-15-1
• Jean-Philippe Coppex, Die Schweizer Überlandtrolleybusse , (bilingual: French and German), Verlag Endstation Ostring, Geneva 2008, ISBN 978-3-9522545-3-0

Web links

• Picture gallery on www.polier.ch, part 1
• Picture gallery on www.polier.ch, part 2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ History of Rheintal Bus AG  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ St. Galler Tagblatt of November 26, 2010: A memorial before the demolition?
3. ↑ Bus specialties from FBW ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.