The Gmunden Tramway is part of the

tram-train A tram-train is a type of light rail vehicle that meets the standards of a light rail system (usually an urban street running tramway), but which also meets national mainline standards permitting operation alongside mainline trains. This all ...

-system ''Traunsee Tram'', that opened in 2018 and is located in

Upper Austria Upper Austria (german: Oberösterreich ; bar, Obaöstareich) is one of the nine states or of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, an ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The ''Traunsee Tram'' connects the shortest and oldest

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

system in Austria with the Traunseebahn.Buckley, Richard (2000). ''Tramways and Light Railways of Switzerland and Austria'' (2nd edition), p. 129. Gloucester, UK: Light Rail Transit Association. . It is operated by Stern & Hafferl, which was founded in 1893. The tramway was opened on 13 August 1894. It is 2.3 km long. The line's maximum

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p is the "direction and rate of fastest increase". If the gr ...

of 9.6% makes it one of the world's steepest surviving

adhesion Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces to cling to one another ( cohesion refers to the tendency of similar or identical particles/surfaces to cling to one another). The forces that cause adhesion and cohesion can b ...

-only tram lines.Taplin, Michael; and Russell, Michael (2002). ''Trams in Western Europe'', p. 8. Harrow Weald, Middlesex (UK): Capital Transport Publishing. .

History

The works, directed by the engineers Josef Stern and Franz Hafferl, began on 25 February 1894. It took five months to build the entire tramway, one depot, one power plant and two buildings for employees. The original route ran from the railway station (named ''Rudolfsbahnhof'' at that time) to "Rathausplatz" (i.e. ''Town Hall Square''). In 1975 the route was shortened to Franz-Josef-Platz. There were several renovations in the late 1990s and the following decade, including the renewal of "Keramik" station and of the Tennisplatz – Franz-Josef-Platz route. In February 2013, the municipal council of Gmunden decided to link the tram to the Traunseebahn and this opened in 2018.

Traunsee Tram

The tram-train system opened in 2018. The former route to Rathausplatz has been reactivated and a new route links to the new terminus of the Traunseebahn at Klosterplatz. The tram-train has its terminus in

Vorchdorf Vorchdorf is a market town in the district of Gmunden in Upper Austria, Austria, as well as the name of the municipal area ("Gemeinde") that the town and others occupy. As of the 2005 census, the town of Vorchdorf had a population of 7,287 inhabit ...

. In Gmunden the tramway route runs entirely in the town, from the

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

to the central Franz-Josef-Platz on the

Traunsee Traunsee () is a lake in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, Austria. Its surface is approximately 24.5 km2 and its maximum depth of 191 metres makes it the deepest and by volume largest lake located entirely within Austrian territory; only Lake ...

lake. It includes eight stations, with two closed and one replaced. A planned extension to the Seebahnhof, terminal station of the Traunsee Railway Gmunden-

has been partially built. This includes three stations and uses the route "Franz-Josef-Platz" - "Rathausplatz". The reopening of ''Postgebäude'' is not planned. The line is unusual in that all platforms are on one side of this single track line. In view of this, the cars that run on it only have doors on one side but have driving positions at both ends.

Rolling stock

List of all earlier trams, built between 1893 and 1907:

Notes

References

External links