Trolleybus Bern

Trolleybus network from December 15, 2019

Route length:

21.7 km

Power system :

600 V =

Operator:

Municipal Transport Company Bern (SVB)

Opening:

October 29, 1940

Lines:

3

Stops:

35

Vehicles:

20th

Legend


		20 Wankdorf train station

		Wyler
		Morgartenstrasse
		St. Mark's Church
		Breitfeld
		18 Wyleregg
		Lorraine
		Trade school
		Sweeping loop Neufeld
		11 Neufeld P + R
		Brückfeld
		Engeried
		Bierhübeli
		Henkerbrünnli



		Bulwark
		Sweeping loop at the Paul Klee Center
		12 Paul Klee Center
		Bitziusstrasse
		Schosshalde
		Tavelweg
		seminar
		Liebegg
		Bear pit
		Nydegg
		town hall
		Zytglogge
		Bear Square

		11 18 Bern train station
		Kehrschlaufe Bahnhof

		Hirschengraben
		Island square
		Inselspital
		12 Holligen
		Sweeping loop Holligen
		Schanzenstrasse
		university
		Mittelstrasse
		Unitobler
		20 Länggasse
		Sweeping loop in Länggasse
		Kocherpark
		Commercial association
		Loryplatz
		Lock mat
		Steigerhubel
		Europaplatz train station
		Bümpliz underpass

		Bümpliz height
		Bümpliz Post
		Bachmätteli
		Statthalterstrasse
		Bümpliz
		Bümpliz sweeping loop
		Stockacker
		Bethlehem saw
		Bethlehem Church
		Tscharnergut
		Holenacker
		Gäbelbach
		Sweeping loop in Gäbelbach

The Trolleybus Bern is the trolleybus system of the Swiss federal city of Bern . It is operated by the public transport company Städtische Verkehrsbetriebe Bern , or SVB for short , which has mostly been marketed under the marketing name Bernmobil since 2000 . This also operates the Bern tram , which has been in existence since 1890, and a large part of the urban bus service that began in 1924 . The trolleybus went into operation in 1940 and today consists of three lines with a cumulative length of 21.7 kilometers that serve a total of 35 stops . Like the other means of transport in the region, the Bern trolleybus is also integrated into the Bern-Solothurn fare network.

Lines

The line network has been in this form since December 15, 2019. The lines have been regrouped for this purpose.

Line icon	Route	Line style	Stops	Monday-Friday
11	Bern train station - Bollwerk - Brückfeld - Neufeld P + R	Radial line	7th	7.5 to 10 minutes
12	Holligen - Inselspital - Bern train station - Schosshalde - Paul Klee Center	Diameter line	16	5 to 6 minutes
20th	Länggasse - Bern train station - Bollwerk - Wyleregg - Wankdorf train station	Diameter line	15th	4 to 6 minutes

The repeaters of line 20, which were already used by gas or diesel buses before the timetable change, were outsourced for the timetable change. You are now taking bus line 18 from Bern train station to Wyleregg.

Traffic performance

In 2010, the Bern trolleybus provided the following transport services:

Kilometers driven: 1,439,000, this corresponds to 15 percent of the total transport volume of Bernmobil
Passengers transported: 21,762,000, this corresponds to 23 percent of the total transport performance of Bernmobil
Passenger- kilometers: 29,376,000, this corresponds to 16 percent of the total transport performance of Bernmobil

history

On December 2nd and 3rd, 1939, the citizens of Bern decided to introduce the trolleybus as the third means of urban transport. On October 29, 1940, it began operating on line S - which was later renamed line 12 - between Bärengraben and Schosshalde and initially only served as a tram feeder. In the beginning, the municipal trams Bern (SSB) was responsible, while the company Stadt-Omnibus Bern (SOB) was responsible for bus traffic . It was not until September 1, 1947 that the two companies merged to form the Bern Municipal Transport Authority.

On January 22, 1941, the 4.22 kilometer long trolleybus line 12 finally took over the section Bern Bahnhof – Bärengraben from tram line 8. Due to a lack of fuel, the 3.7 kilometer long bus route to Bümpliz was switched to a trolleybus on July 5, 1941 . In order to avoid crossings with the tram, passengers had to change trains to and from the city center at the Insel stop. On May 9, 1948, the Bümplizer line was switched back to bus service.

In 1961 the bus line Bern Bahnhof – Länggasse was electrified, until 1959 the tram operated there and connected with the trolley bus line 12 to Schosshalde. On September 24, 1972, the voters approved the proposal for the electrification of three further bus routes, these concerned:

line 14 Bern station – Bümpliz underpass – Gäbelbach on October 27, 1974
line 20 Bern Bahnhof – Wyler on April 15, 1975
line 13 Bern station – Bümpliz underpass – Bümpliz on July 28, 1975

Lines 13 and 14 were also extended in the course of electrification. In addition, on May 18, 1977, line 11 followed from the freight yard to Brückfeld. This in turn was extended on May 5, 1992 by almost half a kilometer to the new park-and-ride car park in Neufeld.

On June 20, 2005, line 12 was extended by around 650 meters from Schosshalde to Zentrum Paul Klee. As early as July 1 of the same year, the trolleybus network shrank again when lines 13 and 14 were temporarily switched to bus operation as part of the Tram Bern-West project before the tram took over the service of these two western branches in 2010.

Since December 13, 2015, line 11 no longer runs to the freight yard, but instead on Freiburgstrasse via Inselspital to Holligen . The former Inselspital stop, which is about 200 meters from the main hospital building, has been renamed Inselplatz and the Güterbahnhof stop is now served by the PostBus line 101.

With the timetable change on December 15, 2019, the line branches west of the station were swapped: Line 11 was shortened from Holligen to the station, line 12 was relocated from Länggasse to Holligen and line 20 was extended from the station to Länggasse. Since then, the amplifiers on line 20 (which run on gas or diesel buses) have been running as their own line 18 (station - Wyleregg).

vehicles

Current inventory

By 2017, 20 wagons were available, exclusively low-floor articulated wagons of the type BGT-N2 with electrical equipment from Kiepe , also known as Swistrolley 2. They were obtained as follows:

First delivery lot:
- 1997: 1 ^II to 4 ^II
- 1998: 5 ^II to 8 ^II
Second delivery lot:
- 1999: 9 ^II to 16 ^II
- 2000: 17 ^II , 18 to 20

These cars were decommissioned between December 2017 (car 8 after the accident on August 19, 2017) and November 12, 2018 (car 3 and 10)

In order to replace the Swistrolley 2 and to create greater transport capacity, Bern received the following trolleys between 2017 and 2019:

Articulated trolleybuses 21 ^II to 28 ^II 2017 (Swisstrolley 5)
Articulated trolleybuses 31 ^II to 36 ^II 2018 (Swisstrolley 5)

Double articulated trolleybuses 41 ^II to 47 ^II 2018 ( Hess lighTram 5 )
Double articulated trolleybuses 48 ^II to 54 ^II 2019 ( Hess lighTram 5 )

Originally, Swisstrolley 5 to number 39 were intended. Instead, three were canceled and seven more double-articulated trolleybuses were ordered. For reasons not known, numbers 29 and 30 are unoccupied. Blickpunkt Strassenbahn wrote about this: "Due to changes compared to cars 21-28, a new series with the number 31 began, so 29 and 30 remain free."

Former inventory

Numbers	piece	Years of construction	Years of use	Manufacturer	Electrics	Type	Remarks
1, 2, 9-12	06th	1940-1941	1940-1966	FBW / Ramseier & Jenzer / Gangloff	BBC / MFO	1	solo
3-8	06th	1940-1941	1940-1965	Saurer / Gangloff	MFO	4 TP	solo
13-16	04th	1942	1942-1966	FBW / Gangloff	BBC	2	solo
17th	01	1942	1942-1967	Saurer / Ramseier & Jenzer	MFO	4 TP	solo
21-29	09	1961	1961-1998	FBW / Ramseier & Jenzer	MFO	GTr51	Joint, nickname pinball machine
30-55	26th	1974	1974-2006	FBW / Hess / Ramseier & Jenzer / Gangloff	SAAS	91 GTL	Joint, from number 46 with VST standard painting (1)
56-61	06th	1977	1977-2006	FBW / Hess	SAAS	91 GTL	Joint, VST standard painting
62-66	05	1985	1985-2009	Volvo / Ramseier & Jenzer	BBC Sécheron	B10M-55	Articulated (4)
67-69	03	1974	1992-1994	FBW / Hess	SAAS	91 GTS	Articulated (2)
1 to 20	020th	1997-2000	1997-2018	Hess	Box	BGT-N2 (Swisstrolley 2)	joint
no	01	1991	1991	NAW / Hess	FIG	BGT-N	Articulated, low floor (3)

(1) = Car 30 was a demonstration car for Swiss industry before it was commissioned in Bern and was used as a demonstration vehicle in Switzerland and abroad, for example in Vancouver . After a heating defect it burned out in 1976, but was rebuilt in 1977 in its own workshop. Car 55 was later used as a demonstration vehicle in Solingen and Arnhem, among others .

(2) = Rental car from the Neuchâtel trolleybus , used during the winter of 1992/93 and 1993/94. The planned takeover did not materialize. 67 formerly Neuchâtel 156, 68 formerly Neuchâtel 158, 69 formerly Neuchâtel 160.

(3) = Demonstration car of the type BGT-N , this was then used by all Swiss trolleybus companies except the Lugano trolleybus .

(4) = Joint order with articulated trolleys 61-66 of the Biel / Bienne trolleybus .

In addition, a type 4R trailer manufactured by Saurer or Gangloff was available from 1943 to 1960 . It was procured by the Stadt-Omnibus Bern, initially had the number 101 and was renumbered 201 in 1956. The trailer was used in both trolleybus and bus transport; trolleybus 6 and buses 54 and 55 were equipped to take along.

Whereabouts

The eleven cars with the numbers 33, 34, 46, 53, 54 and 56 to 61 were handed over to the Romanian city of Brașov in 2006 , where they are still in use. The former carriages 13, 28 and 59 are in the care of the Tramverein Bern ( TVB ), the trolleybus 38 is owned by the Trolleybusverein Schweiz ( TVS ). Car 55 came to the Obus-Museum Solingen e. V. and is the only one of the five Bernese trolleybuses preserved for museum purposes to be operational. Cars 3, 11 and 16 to 20 (Swisstrolley 2) were sold to the Sarajevo trolleybus in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2019 , where they will continue to be used and renew the vehicle fleet.

GTr51 number 26, taken in 1992 at Bern train station
VST unit trolley FBW 91 GTL number 54 in the old orange and 48 in the newer green paint (1992 Bern station)
Articulated trolley 54, taken in 2006 after it was sold in Brașov
Articulated trolley 63, here in 2007 on the only briefly operated double line 11/12 Güterbahnhof – Länggasse
Articulated trolley 8 in 2007