Zurich tram company
The Zürcher Strassenbahn Gesellschaft (ZStG) was a tram company in Switzerland . It was founded in 1882 and operated a nearly nine-kilometer network of standard-gauge horse - drawn tram lines ( Rösslitram ) in the city of Zurich and three suburban communities that were still independent at the time. The city took over the ZStG in 1897 and integrated it into the Zurich urban tram (today's Zurich public transport company ). The route network was retrained to meter gauge and electrified in 1900 .
history
Together with the Compagnie générale des tramways suisses , the operator of the horse-drawn tram in Geneva , the municipality of Riesbach submitted an application in 1876 for the construction of a line between the main train station and Tiefenbrunnen . Cantonal and municipal authorities were convinced that a tram did not fall under the Railway Act and therefore did not require a federal license. The federal authorities disagreed with this view, and discussions dragged on for years. Finally, in 1881 , the Federal Council reserved the right to ultimately award the concessions, but otherwise largely left the issues of local transport to the cantons.
The municipalities of Zurich, Aussersihl , Enge and Riesbach formed a tram association in the same year, with the Zurich urban engineer Arnold Bürkli as chairman of the management. The association put the construction and operation of a horse-drawn railway network out to tender, whereupon seven companies submitted offers. The contract, the company received Meston & Co. in London . After the license was granted on January 31, 1882, the Zürcher Strassenbahn Gesellschaft was founded on March 25. The groundbreaking took place on May 16, the first line was opened on September 5, 1882. It was 4.3 km long and led from Paradeplatz via Hauptbahnhof, Helmhaus and Bellevue to Tiefenbrunnen (near today's Wildbachstrasse stop). In the same month two more routes were added: on September 24th the 1.7 km long link Paradeplatz – Stockgasse (today's Brunaustrasse) and on September 28th the 2.6 km long section Helmhaus – Paradeplatz – Zentralfriedhof .
While horse trams usually had a ratio of five to seven horses per carriage, people in Zurich were content with an average of three to four horses per carriage. The ZStG therefore had to put up with the accusation that they flay their animals to death. The tram increased the attractiveness of the city center and the affluent suburbs of Enge and Riesbach. Although a line ran through Aussersihl to the central cemetery, tram travel was a luxury for most of the inhabitants of this proletarian community: the average fare to the center (15 cents) was around a third of the hourly wage of a skilled worker. The only expansion of the route network took place on March 15, 1894, when a 300-meter-long section to the newly opened Tiefenbrunnen station of the right bank of the Zürichseebahn was opened.
In 1893 twelve parishes merged with Zurich. Those entitled to vote in the city, which had grown significantly, accepted the municipalization of the ZStG on December 23, 1894 with 9228 votes in favor against 4694 against. Due to the 15-year blocking period, which was stipulated in the concession, the takeover could only be completed on January 1, 1897. Six months earlier, the Zurich electric tram passed into municipal ownership. From these two companies, the urban tram Zurich (StStZ, today's Zurich Transport Company ) emerged. For more than three years, the Zurich tram operated in two parts, as the electric tram lines that had opened in the meantime had been built with meter-gauge tracks. The horse tram lines should be electrified and re-gauged as soon as possible. The building project was politically largely undisputed and was approved in a vote on March 19, 1899 with 12,790 votes to 3,368. The conversion of the former ZStG route network began on June 18, 1900 and was completed on October 1. The last Zurich Rösslitram operated on August 5, 1900.
The stable and coach house at Seefeldstrasse 175 had become superfluous with the renovation. For several decades the property served as a domicile for a farrier and wagon smithy, and in the 1950s as a bicycle and motorcycle workshop. In 1960 the building was demolished.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ 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. 34-35 .
- ↑ Galliker: Tram city. Pp. 36-37.
- ↑ a b c The Zurich Strassenbahn Gesellschaft (ZStG), 1882–1896. Tram Museum Zurich, October 12, 2003, archived from the original on September 1, 2011 ; accessed on May 12, 2014 .
- ↑ Galliker: Tram city. P. 39.
- ↑ Galliker: Tram city. Pp. 49-52.
- ↑ Galliker: Tram city. Pp. 82-83.
- ↑ Galliker: Tram city. Pp. 98-99.
- ^ Rösslitram stable and coach house building. alt-zueri.ch, accessed on May 12, 2014 .