Linz Tramways

Tramscape Tramway Photographs

Linz, Austria : 28th, 31st August and 1st September, 2003


Linz is now taking delivery of a fleet of low-floor "Cityrunner" trams from Bombardier. 001 is seen here at Hauptplatz.	The most recent extension to Ebelsberg terminates at Hillerstrasse - but will be further extended to the outlying "Solar City" development shortly.	The Postlingbergbahn runs some of the oldest trams in regular service on what is claimed to be the world's steepest adhesion line.

The Linz Tramways are operated by Linz AG, the city-owned holding company responsible for many of the Upper Austrian capital's public services and marketed as "Linz Linien". Linz has a population of around 250,000 in the city itself and surrounding areas, of which around 100,000 are within the areas served by the tramway. Not enough for Linz to be considering expensive Stadtbahn-type developments, but sufficient for the city to be committed to developing a highly efficient and modern street tramway system.

The network is built to the unusual narrow gauge of 900 mm, but there are no plans to re-gauge and a recent investigation conculded that the benefits of such a change would be minimal in comparison with the costs. Instead, LinzLinien have now taken delivery of the first batch of 40 metre-long seven-sectioned "Cityrunner" low floor trams built by Bombardier, have extended the line south through Ebelsberg, introduced computer monitoring of the entire network with real-time passenger information systems, and have now embarked on a major redevelopment of the transport interchange at the main railway station.

The main service runs north-south, from Universitat, through the northern suburbs, across the River Danube on the Nibelungenbrucke, through Hauptplatz and along the main commercial street, Landstrasse. Lines 1 and 2 continue south from Blumauerplatz along Wiener Strasse to Simonystrasse, from where line 1 branches westwards to terminate at Auwiesen. Line 2 is the new extension to Ebelsberg, with a provisional terminus at Hillerstrasse in 2002. This line not only restores trams to the southern part of Linz, where an independent "Lokalbahn" ran until 1974, but gives hope that trams may eventually meet up with what still remains of that tramway - the 4.6 km stretch from St Florian to Pichlingsee which is operated by a museum society.

Line 3 runs from the terminus of the Postlingbergbahn, close to the northern bank of the Danube at Urfahr, through the city centre and at Blumauerplatz branches off to the main railway station (Hauptbahnhof). The staion is, therefore, only directly accessible by tram from the city centre and this means that most city residents are required change trams to reach it. A major redevelopment at the station, in progress in 2003, will remedy the situation by diverting the main north-south line, in tunnel, via Hauptbahnhof. Ramps are under contruction alongside the Volksgarten at Blumauerplatz and to the north of Bulgariplatz. Along Wienerstrasse, the new tramstop at Herz-Jesu-Kirche will be below street level, but open to free light. and the new station at Unionkreuzung will be underground. At Hauptbahnhof, two underground turning loops will be provided to assist in service flexibility. The new aligned is planned to be in service from December 2004.

Linz's fleet, until the arrival of the first Cityrunners in 2001 consisted of traditionally German Duewag-type trams, built under licence in Austria - in 8-axle form dating from 1970-71 and 10-axle form dating from 1977. Between 1984 and 1988, 16 "Stadtbahn-M" type trams were purchased in 10-axle format (one bogie set longer than normally bought by German tram operators of this widely used type).

In addition to the 18.9 km of street tramway, Linz is also the home of the Postlingbergbahn and the terminus for the Linzer Lokalbahn, a privately operated light railway linking the city with villages in the outlying region to the west. The Lokalbahn operators, Stern & Hafferl run a number of other light railways in Austria, including the Gmunden tramway. The Linzer Lokalbahn is 56% owned by the city.

The city's own Postlingbergbahn is claimed to be the steepest tramway in the world using purely wheel/rail adhesion. The Postlingberg towers over Linz on the northern bank of the Danube giving magnificent views of the city and is a popular destination for tourists and trippers. The line is 2.9 km long , climbing 255 metres, with a gradient of 10.5% and was opened in 1898. A special fare is charged for the journey up the hillside and through pleasant woodlands to the 18th century pilgrimage church, restaurants and the Grottenbahn themed attraction. Two out of the 13-strong fleet of trams are normally in service on the 20-minute run and the heritage 2-axle trams themselves are all part of the tourist experience.

The new underground link via Hauptbahnhof was opened on 1st September, 2004.
The line to Ebelsberg and Hillerstrasse was extended in to Solar City in September 2005.
Proposals were also published to re-equip the Postlingbergbahn with modern equipment and re-gauge it so that cars could be run to the city centre to increase its accessibility. These proposals have proved to be highly controversial.

Linz 2003 1.jpg

Linz 2003 2.jpg

Date

28/08/03

31/08/03

01/09/03

01/09/03

01/09/03

01/09/03

Location

Landstrasse

Burgerstrasse

Mozartkreuzung

Taubenmarkt

Schmidtorstrasse

Hauptplatz

Schmidtorstrasse

Hauptplatz

Schmidtorstrasse

Hillerstrasse

Kaserne

Ennsfeld

Hartheimer Strasse

Edmund-Aigner-Strasse

Hauderweg

Wiener Strasse

Ebelsberg

Ebelsberg

Saporoshje Strasse

Durerstrasse

Dauphinestrasse

Radlerweg

Auwiesen

Remise Kleinmonchen

Wahringer Strasse

WIFI

Bulgariplatz

Herz Jesu Kirche

Wiener Strasse

Unionkreuzung

Blumauerplatz

Karntner Strasse / Hbf

Rudolfstrasse

Ferihumerstrasse

Peuerbachstrasse

Linke Bruckenstrasse

Harbach

Grundberg

St Magdalena

Glaser Strasse

Dornach

Universitat

Biegung (Hauptstrasse)

Postlingbergbahn Talbahnhof

Postlingberg

Postlingberg-Oberschableder

Postlingberg

Postlingberg-Schableder

Postlingberg-Tiergarten

View

Out

In

Out

Out

Dir

Out

Out

In

Out

Tram

001

002

004

001

011

008

007

54

.

007

002

004

008

004

007

XIV

XVII

XIV

Notes

At Scharitzerstrasse. Construction of ramp at Volksgarten

At Volksgarten

At Goethestrasse

At Burgerstrasse

At Terminus on Monday 1/9

At terminus

View to Wildbergstrasse

Peuerbachstrasse

XIV heading to the summit - XVII downbound

Photographs by Gordon Stewart

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