Trondheim Tramway
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Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, is the world's most northerly
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
way system, following the closure and dismantling of the Arkhangelsk tramways in
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. It consists of one line, the Gråkallen Line, running from St. Olav's Gate in the city centre through Byåsen to Lian Station in Bymarka.


Background

Numbered Line 9, it is operated by Boreal Bane, a subsidiary of Boreal Norge and is often simply called the Gråkallen Line (Gråkallbanen). Gråkallbanen operates six tram cars, out of a total rolling stock of seven articulated tram cars built by Linke-Hofmann-Busch in 1984. In addition heritage cars from the Trondheim Tramway Museum are available for chartered tours. The tram operates at 15 minute
headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...
in the daytime on weekdays, and partly on Saturdays, otherwise at 30 minutes headway. The line has 20 stations remaining in use. The tram service is integrated into the city bus system with free transfers. The overall responsibility for public transport in Trondheim is managed by Sør-Trøndelag county municipality, who subsidize the operations. Previously there were three lines in Trondheim, including Ladelinjen to Lade and Singsakerlinjen to Singsaker in addition to tracks to Ila, Elgeseter, Trondheim Central Station and Lademoen. The line to Singsaker was closed in 1968 while the rest of the network was closed in 1983 and 1988, though the line to Lian was reopened in 1990. Since 2004, the tramway has been the most northern in the world, following the closure of the
Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...
tram system on 21 July 2004. Trondheim is also unique in that it is one of two rail lines in Norway built to
metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...
(along with the
heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...
Thamshavnbanen), and since the closure of the Cairo tramways in 2019 is the only tramway in the world to use cars in combination with metre gauge.


History


Establishment

Trondheim got its first horse coach service in 1893, operated by Trondhjems Omnibus Aktieselskab. The horses trotted between Buran and Ila via the city center until 1901, and transported more than 400,000 passengers in the peak year. Unlike
Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...
and
Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...
, Trondheim never had
horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...
s. In 1900, the city council decided to establish a municipally-owned power and tramway company, Trondhjems Elektricitetsværk og Sporvei. It took over the concession for the Ila–Lademoen route, and opened the Ila Line and Lademoen Line on 2 December 1901. The coach company went bankrupt the year after, failing to make money on a route to Øya. While initial plans had called for
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
, NOK 10 000 could be saved if
metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...
was used, resulting in the narrower gauge being chosen. To begin with, the whole line was single track, with passing loops in Wessels gate, Bakkegaten, Kjøpmannsgaten, Nordre gate, Torvet, Tordenskjolds gate and Skansen. The Hospitalløkkan Depot on the Ila Line had space for sixteen trams. Eleven Class 1 trams were delivered by
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
, with another delivered in 1903. The line opened with a six-minute headway, but this was soon reduced to five minutes, and four minutes in 1908. Four trailers were delivered in 1904. In the first full year, 1.6 million passengers took the tram, and by 1913 it had reached 4.3 million per year.


Expansion

In 1909 the city council decided to upgrade the network. Completed in 1913, the city rebuilt the line to
double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...
, supplementing it with the new Elgeseter Line between Elgeseter and the railway station. The Lademoen line was extended from to Voldsminde, where was built. The four Class 2 trams were delivered to meet the increased total route length, while older trams were put into service on the Elgeseter Line. Ridership continued to grow, especially after World War I started, and there was more money around. In 1915, five additional Class 2 trams were bought. In 1919, the company had 13.9 million passengers. In 1918, eight used horse-cars were bought from Oslo Sporveier and rebuilt to electric trailers and to metre gauge. Ten new trams of Class 3 were delivered in 1922. To create enough overnight space for all the new trams, a third depot was built at Dalsenget, and the Elgeseter Line extended there in 1923. New turning loops were also built at Ilevolden and Voldsminde in 1921. The passing loops at the railway station was built in 1928, and at Dalsenget in 1949. was rebuilt in 1928 so the last part of the Lademoen Line had double track. After a study trip to the United States in 1916, Director Fredrik Kleven made the observation that wider vehicles were in use there. He brought the idea back to Trondheim, and the company made a policy to increase the distance between the tracks of a double line to allow wider cars to be put into service. This would allow four-abreast seating, and much higher capacity than with the existing stock. Five new Class 4 wide trams were delivered in 1930, after the Ila and Lademoen Lines had been rebuilt. Graakalbanen had taken trams of this width into use in 1924 along the Ila Line.Aspenberg, 1995: 9–10 By 1927 a new Singsaker Line was constructed, leaving the Elgeseter Line at Studentersamfundet and heading to Ankers Gate in Singsaker. A further expansion to Asbjørnsens Gate was completed in 1935.


Gråkallen Line

The first steps to building a tramway in Byåsen were taken in 1916 when A/S Graakalbanen was founded to build a tramway from the
City Centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...
via Byåsen to the mountain Gråkallen. The first stretch to be opened was from St. Olav's gate to Munkvoll on 18 July 1924, after construction work lasting seven years. The line was extended to on 30 May 1925 and in 1933 to the present terminus at Lian. The financing of the first two stretches of the line was done through the company purchasing land from along the line and selling it for housing. The last stretch was financed through a separate company, A/S Ugla-Lian, that built the line and received 5
øre Øre (plural ''øre'', , ) is the centesimal subdivision of the Danish and Norwegian krone. The Faroese division is called the ''oyra'', but is equal in value to the Danish coin. Before their discontinuation, the corresponding divisions of the ...
per rider on the line. The peak of Gråkallbanen was during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
when the line had 2 million passenger annually - the trams were the only transport system operational during the war. After the war new investments were made, including loops in the city (1946) and at Lian (1947), double track from Breidablikk to Nordre Hoem (1948) and a new depot and workshop at Munkvoll in 1953. A/S Graakallbanen was bought by the city in 1966.


Steady growth

The depression caused a reduction in ridership, but during the 1930s it started increasing again. In 1936, the Voldsminde Loop was built at the end of the Lademoen Line. In 1937, four Class 5 trams were put into service. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the passenger numbers peaked at 35.5 million annually. During the war, all trams and trailers which had been put aside were taken back into service. Five trailers were delivered in 1942, but the following year the German occupation forces confiscated three trams with trailers, and transferred them to the Mannheim Tramway in Germany. After the war ended, the trams were bought back from Mannheim. Ten Class 6 trams were delivered in 1948–49, while an additional, slightly different vehicles were delivered in 1955. Between 1949 and 1955, all the Class 2 and 3 trams were retired — Trondheim became one of the first cities in Europe to completely abandon two-axle trams, though the older trailers remained in service. In 1955, three second-hand trailers were bought from Belgium. In 1949, a new bridge was built between Søndre gate and the railway station, and for a short period line 2 and 3 terminated at . The Elgeseter Bridge on the Elgeseter Line was rebuilt to six road lanes in 1951. The Singsaker Line was extended in 1955 with the Rosenborg Loop, that ran to Rosenborg. Three years later, in 1958, the Lade Line was built from Lademoen to Lade. The second half of this stretch was the only part of the tramway system built as single track and to be not located in the street.


Fire

At night on 10 October 1956, the Dalsenget Depot caught fire, destroying almost all of the modern tram fleet. 26 trams, 16 trailers and one working tram were destroyed, and three cleaners lost their lives. It was the then-largest fire in Trondheim after World War II. One tram and trailer survived from within the fire-proof paint shop. Trondheim Sporvei had never discarded its old trams - they were stored at Voldsminde Depot - and eleven old trams were in service within the day. In addition, eight buses were borrowed from Oslo within the week. Damage was at NOK 9 million, of which 8 million was for the rolling stock. A proposal to replace the tramway with trolleybuses was discarded by the city council. The depot was rebuilt, and 28 new Class 7 trams were ordered, in addition to 15 trailers. The bogies and motors were salvaged, and reused in the new trams. The new stock was delivered in 1957 and 1958.


Closing and reopening

Between 1958 and 1968 the tram network of Trondheim was at its peak, and had four lines: * Line 1: Ilevolden – Torvet – Lademoen * Line 2: Elgeseter – Torvet – Lade * Line 3: Singsaker – Torvet – Jernbanen * Graakalbanen: Lian – St. Olavs Gate In 1968, the Singsaker Line and the branch line from Søndre Gate to Trondheim Central Station, was closed and replaced by buses (Line 63). The main argument at the time was that a tram required both a driver and a conductor, while a bus only required a driver, thus lowering the operational costs. This development was partially driven by the removal of regulations on car ownership in Norway in 1960, resulting in an explosion in the use of cars in Trondheim and thus falling passenger numbers on the trams. The tracks were simply paved over, and still exist under the streets. At the time of the closure Line 3 was operating at a 5-minute headway with 2.3 million passengers. One year after the buses had taken over the passenger numbers had dropped 30%, and the consequence was fewer and fewer bus departures resulting in fewer passengers. In the end the headway was reduced to 45 minutes.Aspenberg, 1995: 19 In 1974 the three public transport companies in Trondheim, all three owned by the city, were
merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
to create Trondheim Trafikkselskap (now Team Trafikk, part of Nettbuss). But the most troubled era for the tram service in Trondheim was in the 1980s, when the future of the tram was one of the hottest political issues in Trondheim, resulting in several
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
s having to leave office. The debate about the future of the trams had been going on through the late 1970s, in general with the left side of the city council supporting the tram while the right side wanted to close it down. After the city council election in 1979 the Progress Party got its first representative in the city council, Hildur Karstensen, who was a tram driver for TT. Though the
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
mayor, Axel Buch, was expected to be re-elected, Kristiansen chose to support the Labour candidate Olav Gjærevoll, in the hope that a socialist majority would ensure the future of the trams, and thus making Gjærevoll mayor. Two years later though, the Labour Party had definitively changed its side in the tram debate, and chose an alliance with the Conservatives, creating a Labour-Conservative alliance with Anne-Kath. Parow (Labour) as mayor and Axel Bush as vice-mayor. In 1982, the future of the tram line was again taken up in the city council, and this time the Socialist Left Party (SV) chose to support closure of the tram lines. The first time the decision was taken in the council, SV chose to support the closure, preventing two of its members from voting against. But then the tram's future was the subject of a second vote, and the two disagreeing members of SV chose to vote against the closure of the tram line, and thus the city council voted to keep the trams, with 44 vs. 41 votes. The city council decided at the same time to build a new depot at Munkvoll and purchase 11 new trams, at a cost of
NOK Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...
100 million. The opposition claimed that it would be cheaper to operate the line with diesel buses. But the compromise also meant that the least robust part of the tramway was to be discontinued, thus the only line to survive was Lian-Lade. The line to Elgeseter was closed in 1983. But by 1987, the tramway's existence was threatened again, despite a new party, , having been established to fight for the existence of the tram. Before the 1987 election, the city council chose to close down the entire tramway network in the city in 1988. The entire network was removed in the city core and to Elgeseter and Lademoen. The tram lines to Lian and Lade (which were not in the streets) were not removed. In 1989 there was another mayoral election for the city council, and Bylista chose not to support the present mayor (Labour) and instead chose to support the Conservative candidate Marvin Wiseth, who was willing to allow a private company to operate the trams. After the political deal securing the tramway's operation, a new company, AS Gråkallbanen, was established to operate the tram line from St. Olav's Gate to Lian. The company was owned by 1400 local idealists who wanted the tram to survive. AS Gråkallbanen only operated the one line. In 2005 the company was bought by Veolia Transport Norge.


Future expansion

Advocates of the trams have suggested expanding the tramway from its present terminus at St. Olav's Gate through the city core to Trondheim Central Station or Nedre Elvehavn onwards to Brattøra and . This has been supported by the city council, but no definite decision has been made. Estimates of costs lay between , with completion in 2009 at the same time as . A plan to extend the network by building a line from Munkvoll to the new Byåsen Upper Secondary School was dropped in 2004 after heated political debate.


References


Notes


Bibliography

* *


External links


Gråkallbanen

History of Gråkallbanen
(official site).


Tram Travels: Gråkallbanen (GB)

Track plan of the Trondheim tram system

Pics of Trondheim's tramway
at ''public-transport.net'' {{Coord, 63, 24, 51, N, 10, 22, 38, E, region:NO-16_type:adm3rd_source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title Tram transport in Norway Metre-gauge railways in Norway Rail transport in Trøndelag Public transport in Trøndelag 1901 establishments in Norway
Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...