Vevey – Villeneuve trolleybus

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Vevey – Villeneuve trolleybus
Route overview
Route overview
Timetable field : 10,201
Route length: 12.75 km
Power system : 600 volts  =
Top speed: 60 km / h

The trolleybus Vevey-Villeneuve is a trolleybus - overland route in the Swiss canton of Vaud . The 12.75-kilometer route is integrated as line 201 - until December 11, 2010, line 1 - in the local bus network of the operating company Transports publics Vevey – Montreux – Chillon – Villeneuve (VMCV). The line runs through the municipalities of Vevey , La Tour-de-Peilz , Montreux , Veytaux and Villeneuve and serves a total of 41 stops . The route runs completely along the north bank of Lake Geneva and largely follows main road 9 .

The Vevey – Villeneuve trolleybus is the last of the five overland trolleybuses in Switzerland. In addition to the trolleybus line, VMCV also operates eight bus lines. With 5,204,000 passengers annually, which corresponds to 74 percent of the total, the trolleybus connection is by far the company's busiest line.

history

Initial plans to replace the 13.0 kilometer long tram along the Vaudois Riviera were made as early as 1938, but construction work on the trolleybus did not begin until 1955. The line went into operation in four stages:

April 18, 1957 Montreux Marché – Territet Gare
July 8, 1957 Dépôt VMCV – Montreux Marché
January 19, 1958 Vevey Funiculaire – Dépôt VMCV and Territet Gare – Villeneuve Gare

The latter date finally marked the final suspension of the tram. Initially, the trolleybus ran every 7.5 minutes, previously the tram ran every eight minutes. For the rush hours the trolleybus were additionally since 1963 nine trailers available.

In the second half of the 1990s, the overhead line from 1957/58 and the depot were completely renewed.

Operation and planned extension

The journey time is 37 minutes in the direction of Villeneuve Gare and 38 minutes in the opposite direction. Nine courses are required for the all-day ten-minute cycle , with turning time in Vevey seven minutes and in Villeneuve eight minutes. Only during the Montreux Jazz Festival , which always takes place in July, are twelve cars in operation. In the evening from around 8:00 p.m., however, they only drive every 20 minutes.

In addition, during rush hour between Vevey Funiculaire and Montreux Marché, the VMCV offered express buses every twenty minutes on what was then Line 1; they only served a few selected intermediate stops. These three extra courses were served by solo buses; this was the only way to overhaul the regular trolleybus courses en route. As part of the integration into the Waadt tariff association on December 12, 2010 , these express buses were discontinued, not least because from then on the trains on the Simplon line running parallel can also be used with the same tickets.

A 2.5 kilometer extension to Rennaz is planned for 2018 at the eastern end of the line . At this time a large regional hospital will be built there, from which a corresponding passenger potential for the trolleybus is expected. However, this route should be covered without overhead lines with the help of batteries with newly purchased vehicles.

vehicles

Van Hool trolleybus number 7 in Villeneuve, 2018

VMCV currently has 16 low-floor articulated wagons with road numbers 1, 3-14 and 16-18 for the nine round trips on line 201 . They were produced by the Belgian company Van Hool and the electrical equipment was supplied by Kiepe . The cars went into operation between 1994 and 1996 and are to be used by around 2020.

Seven cars serve as a reserve, two more vehicles from this series (2 and 15) were sold to the Salzburg trolleybus in 2008 due to a lack of demand . After a refurbishment, they were in operation there for a while with the new company numbers 259 and 260, but have now been removed from the inventory. In addition, between 2005 and 2007 the VMCV lent three cars from the reserve stock to the neighboring Lausanne trolleybus .

The Van Hool wagons were specially designed for the VMCV; similar wagons with the type designation AG 300 T later also went to the trolleybus Esslingen am Neckar , the trolleybus Salzburg, the trolleybus Solingen and the trolleybus Arnhem .

The current generation of vehicles replaced the 18 solo cars from the opening year. They were built jointly by Berna and the Ateliers de constructions mécaniques de Vevey (ACMV), the electrical equipment was supplied by the Société Anonyme des Ateliers de Sécheron (SAAS). Their company numbers were also 1 to 18. After their retirement, Vevey-Villeneuve was the first Swiss trolleybus operator to have a completely low-floor fleet. A fleet renewal is to take place in 2018 in order to guarantee the extension to Rennaz with a battery drive.

There were also six trailers with the numbers 51 to 56 available for the solo cars . They were made in 1966 by the manufacturers Rochat and Moser.

  • Berna trolleybus number 1 in Montreux, 1985

  • Van Hool trolleybus 11 in front of Chillon Castle

  • The former car 2 in use in Salzburg

See also

literature

  • Jean-Philippe Coppex, Die Schweizer Überlandtrolleybusse , (Bilingual: French and German), Verlag Endstation Ostring, Geneva 2008, ISBN 978-3-9522545-3-0

Web links

Commons : Trolleybus Vevey – Villeneuve  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

polier.ch:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Schaffhauser Bock: Elegant mobility with electricity ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2008 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bockonline.ch
  2. ↑ a b Extension planned on the Swiss Riviera ( memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . April 5, 2010. Trolleymotion. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.trolleymotion.eu
  3. ↑ Trailer 53 on retrobus.ch