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The CarGoTram was a
The idea of building a "transparent factory" for Volkswagen automobile production in Dresden arose in 1997. In March 2000, Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB AG, ''Dresden Public Transport Co.'') and Volkswagen Automobil-Manufaktur Dresden GmbH signed a contract for the CarGoTram. Car parts were to be transported from the logistics centre in Friedrichstadt, Dresden to the new factory, using infrastructure normally used for passenger trams. Since the long route from the logistics centre to the factory ran through Dresden's inner city of Dresden, the tram caused less traffic congestion than trucks.
Two CarGoTrams were built by Schalker Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik GmbH
freight
In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...
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 ...
in Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
that operated between 2001 and 2020. It supplied Volkswagen
Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...
's " Transparent Factory" with parts for car assembly.
History
The idea of building a "transparent factory" for Volkswagen automobile production in Dresden arose in 1997. In March 2000, Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG (DVB AG, ''Dresden Public Transport Co.'') and Volkswagen Automobil-Manufaktur Dresden GmbH signed a contract for the CarGoTram. Car parts were to be transported from the logistics centre in Friedrichstadt, Dresden to the new factory, using infrastructure normally used for passenger trams. Since the long route from the logistics centre to the factory ran through Dresden's inner city of Dresden, the tram caused less traffic congestion than trucks.
Two CarGoTrams were built by Schalker Eisenhütte Maschinenfabrik GmbH Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...
, at a cost of 6.5 million
1,000,000 (one million), or one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999,999 and preceding 1,000,001. The word is derived from the early Italian ''millione'' (''milione'' in modern Italian), from ''mille'', "thousand", plus the ...
Deutsche Mark
The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...
(3.3 million euro
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
) each.
The tram was officially introduced in Dresden on 16 November 2000 and had its first test run on 3 January 2001.
Production of the '' VW Phaeton'' in Dresden ended in March 2016, when the service was suspended. It restarted for production of the VW e-Golf in March 2017.
Volkswagen announced in October 2020 that the CarGoTram would stay in service only until late December 2020, when production of the VW e-Golf would end and a new logistics concept would start for VW ID.3 production. The last service was planned for 23 December 2020.
On 10 December 2020, a van crashed into one of the CarGoTrams as it was turning right to the entrance to the Gläserne Manufaktur ("Transparent Factory" of Volkswagen). According to Falk Lösch, spokesman of DVB AG, the van probably passed a red traffic light. Both vehicles were damaged. As the other CarGoTram was not in service at that time, the accident ended the service.
, both trams were still parked in the tram depot.
Route
CarGoTram ran every hour. If necessary, it could run every 40 minutes. Several different routes were used. The main route went from the logistics center in Friedrichstadt via Postplatz and Grunaer Straße to Straßburger Platz and finally on to the factory. If there was heavy traffic, the tram could also take route via the main station or other routes.Technology
The CarGoTram is a bidirectional vehicle consisting of 5 segments in a standard formation of three all-freight units and two combination freight-and-control units. The control cars have less capacity () than the middle cars () because of space devoted to the driver’s cab. Total capacity is the equivalent of three trucks (). The running gear was recycled from out-of-service Tatra trams, mostly Tatra T4. The bodies were newly built. All axles were driven.See also
* Cargo trams, trams for freight in general * Trams in DresdenReferences
External links
*{{citation, url =http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/de/trams/Dresden/CarGoTram/pix.html, title = CarGoTram photos, work = www.railfaneurope.net Tram vehicles of Germany Non-passenger multiple units Transport in Dresden Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe