Ãœberetsch Railway

46.41777777777811.251111111111Koordinaten: 46 ° 25 '4 " N, 11 ° 15 ' 4" O

The Überetscher train was a total of more than 13 km long, single-track, electrified, standard gauge railway line in South Tyrol, which drove Sigmundskron to Kaltern and on to the valley station of the Mendola funicular in St. Anton. From Bolzano to Sigmundskron used the train the tracks of the former route of the Bolzano - Merano train.

Route

The route branched originally from just after the Bolzano train station where she used the route of the Bolzano - Merano train along the Eisack. In the Bolzano city center there were four level crossings, a bridge over the Talfer, and the two stops Rome and Reschenbrücke. At km 3, separated the route of the course of the Eisack and leads to a right turn straight through the orchards of Kaiserau towards Sigmundskron. Shortly before the Sigmundskron station was located at KM 4,171, the softness of the fork where the actual Überetscherbahn began. Then, the track led a few hundred meters parallel to the Bolzano - Merano train, where it then but removed in a tight left turn shortly after the stop " Kaiserau " and a railway crossing. After the branch and an iron bridge over the Adige River, there was the stop " Sigmundskron - Überetsch ". Then the train snuggled in Frangart by two shorter tunnels along the slope to eventually reach the plateau. The first stop there was in St. Pauls. After about one and a half kilometers, was the station of Appiano Girlan, shortly after the breakpoint Montiggl and finally the terminus Kaltern. Shortly before the Kaltern station there was also a switch which guaranteed a connection to the valley station of the Mendola funicular. This strange route meant that the first trains pulled into the station Kaltern and reset after the stop had to continue on to St. Anton.

History

The railway was built in only two and a half years and was finally opened on 15 December 1898 to allow connection to the Überetsch. On one hand, it was through the web easier to transport goods, on the other hand, tourism was easier to get into places. In the first year took a drive from Bolzano Kaltern to 1 hour and 1 minute in the opposite direction took the fastest train in 1 hour and 8 minutes.

One particular aspect of this course was that it. Few years after its construction, in 1911, was converted from steam to electric operation There is this in the old Austrian railway history, very few parallels. Most electrically powered Lokalbahnen these were since they were built, " preliminary stages " with steam operation, there were only rarely.

In 1913, the Überetscherbahn of the Bolzano - Merano train stop was the Kaiserau built at the request of residents of the area at the junction.

As of 1935, the power supply between Bolzano and Sigmundskron rather than an overhead line with a laterally extending busbar, as the Italian state railway in equipping the route to Merano with another stream system.

The passenger service ended on August 1, 1963, the total decommissioning took place on May 1, 1971.

Freight traffic

Freight transport has played an important role on the Überetscher web. Finally, they wanted to export the local fruit and wine export goods without bringing the goods with carts to Bolzano and transship there. Through the wine transports the sheet was joking half also called " Lepsbahnl " in the vernacular.

Plans to reactivate the line

After the route for many years had been left to decay, the entire route has been converted into a bike path recently. Today is enjoying this a great response from local people and tourists. At the same time, but also voices have been raised that reclaim the web in order to reduce the daily commuter traffic jam in the city of Bolzano. On the basis of these voices was commissioned by the municipalities Appiano, Caldaro, and Bolzano in collaboration with the South Tyrol a feasibility study that evaluated a tram from Bolzano to Kaltern at a cost 230-250 million euros as feasible. Would the train run every fifteen minutes on the just over 15 km long route, commuter congestion could be greatly reduced.

Leitner AG struck in March 2010, the concept of a cable-driven rubber tires Mini Metro with two sections, as already implemented in Perugia. This is the seven- minute intervals from Kaltern to Bolzano ( Sigmundskron ) run on a 9.6 km long and partially underground route. The first section would connect Caldaro with Sigmundskron, the second section would go from there to the Verdi Square ( about 5 km). Overall, it would be about 36 minutes ( 20 minutes Kaltern - Sigmundskron 16 minutes Sigmundskron - Verdi Square) go. The project would Leitner SpA (including an orbit of the EURAC to the cable car Genesio ) cost a total of about 196 million euros. The annual operating cost amounts approximately 9.5 million euros.

These projects were put on hold because the state government, a concept with express buses (working title: Metrobus ) preferred

Vehicles received

The Vienna Technical Museum has an original steam locomotive Überetscher train - but in a later conversion state as studs with reduced locomotive cab. The locomotive is currently in Graz, where it is being restored for public display in Baernbach.

Gallery

Station Kaltern the Überetscher web

Detail canopy at Appiano station

Remise in Kaltern with remnants of the track