Independent
transport videos welcome
you to this DVD featuring the trams and trolleybuses in the Austrian cities of
Linz and Salzburg. We begin at Linz, an
industrial and commercial city in Upper Austria. Electric trams began operating in 1887 and
today there are five lines including the Pöstlingbergbahn
mountain tramway. They are operated by Linz Linien a division of Linz AG owned by the city and run on an
unusual track gauge of 900mm. At the
time of filming in September 2016 the tramway fleet consisted of three types of
Bombardier trams, the Flexity Outlook
Cityrunner, Flexity Outlook Cityrunner II and the Flexity Outlook
Mountainrunner. The latter are used
on the steep gradient Pöstlingbergbahn
line and are painted in a smart cream and dark green livery. Linz
Linien also operate the trolleybuses in the city of which there are four
routes using a fleet of Volvo/Kiepe 18m
articulated vehicles. Our filming begins
in Landstraße where we follow the tramlines along this busy street towards
Hauptplatz, pausing at the busy crossroads to film the trolleybuses passing through. More filming continues above the river Danube
on Nibelungenbrücke as we see the trams heading in and out of the city. We take a ride on the Pöstlingbergbahn line onboard tram 502 on the picturesque journey
to Pöstlingberg and returning to Hauptplatz.
We now experience a ride on the new Flexity
Outlook Cityrunner II trams as we ride out on Line 3 to Meixnerkreuzung on
tram 085 and return to Linz Hauptbahnhof on tram 086. At the Hauptbahnhof we briefly film the
trolleybuses as they arrive at the station terminus.
We now move to the
beautiful city of Salzburg, made famous by the film, “The Sound of Music”. Salzburg is the capital of the federal state
of Salzburg in Austria, although there are no trams here, there is a large
modern fleet of trolleybuses! The system
is the largest in Western Europe and is operated by Salzburg AG, with the trolleybuses being branded OBusSLB.
Trolleybuses began operating in 1940 and today there are eleven
routes. At the time of filming (September
2016) the fleet consisted of ÖAF Graf
& Stift/Kiepe, Van Hool NV/Kiepe
and Solaris/Cegelec Trollino and Trollino Metrostyle vehicles, the later
being the very latest in trolleybus design.
Filming begins at the busy Hauptbahnhof terminus where we see all types
of trolleybuses in service. We then ride
on Trollino Metrostyle number 322 to
Makartplatz on route 1. With more
filming completed here and at Mirabellplatz we ride similar vehicle, number 314
to Rathaus. We film along the streets in
the city centre and then travel to Salzburg Süd onboard 220 an ÖAF Graf & Stift/Kiepe high floor
vehicle which still has its ‘conductors seat’ in the rear portion, though no
longer used. From the Salzburg Süd
terminus we return to Hanuschplatz on a Van
Hool NV/Kiepe trolleybus number 287 for comparison. Our cameras now head on back to the
Hauptbahnhof to complete our filming, travelling there on trolleybuses 348 via
Mirabellplatz on route 4, and then board on trolleybus 236 and later change to
336 on route 1 to our destination.
Salzburg is a very beautiful city with commanding views of the
mountains. Unfortunately we had rain on
our visit but it did not spoil the views of the trolleybuses! We hope you enjoy them.
