Saturday, December 17, 2005
Switzerland - Public transport to be smoke-free. From 11 December 2005.
Engelberg, Switzerland.
"The decision was taken to do away with smoking compartments on all CFF-SBB-FFS trains! As of 11 December 2005 smoking will no longer be allowed – even if many of the old smoking compartments still have ashtrays. It will be some six months before the final ashtray has been removed."
Switzerland owns one of the most modern, useful, precise railway network. But all their trains have entire smoking wagons, or all the wagons are cut into two parts, smoking and non smoking!
This is really ridiculous... and obsolete!
Here is an example. I was in Engelberg on April 27, 2005. I took the Zentralbahnen train to Luzern. The train was composed of 3 wagons: 2 non smoking wagons and one smoking wagon. The train was really crowded! None exactly, the 2 non smoking wagons were crowded and noisy… the smoking wagon was… empty!
I don’t like crowd! I don’t like smoke either! So I decided to climb up in the smoking wagon because it was empty… I thought it was a chance for me…! Not a chance at all! The smoking wagon was full of a horrible smoke stench!!! Impossible to stay in the wagon like that…
Here is one of the non smoking wagons…
Here is the empty smoking wagon…!
Funimag
« La ficelle » Lausanne-Ouchy at Villar-de-Lans, in France ???!!!
Lausanne, Switzerland, December 16, 2005..
The Lausanne-Ouchy rolling stock could be give up to the Villar-de-Lans Council !
Today, a delegation of the Villar-de-Lans Council met the Transport Lausannois managers to study the transfer of the rolling stock to France.
Villar-de-Lans is located on the top of the Vercors mountain, in France near Grenoble.
The Villar-de-Lans Council has a project to build a new cog wheel train to serve Villar 1300, a new sky ressort, which will be built, end 2008, above Le Balcon de Villar.
Funimag
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Hungerburg - The dismantling started December 14th
Innsbruck, Austria.
The Hungerburg Bahn started to be dismantled on December 14th, 2005!
The cable was sawed and the two carriages were transported onto a truck to a warehouse. One of the two carriages is intended to be exposed in the Eisenbahn Museum in Vienna.Other photos here...
Note, under the carriage, the cable which was just sawed.
Funimag
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Innsbruck – Hungerburg, the new project.
Innsbruck, Austria.
The plans for the new funicular to the Hungerburg are approved by the authorities, but under several conditions (i.e. special fire extinguishing system in the tunnel sections, noise protection for dwellers in the vicinty of the new trace).
The 1,4km long funicular will start at the northern end of Innsbruck congress-center in a first tunnel section to the Loewenhaus station, crossing the Inn river on a suspension bridge, entering a second tunnel, leaving this tunnel east of the Weiherburg (with a station Alpenzoo on a approximatly 20m high tower) leading into the old Hungerburg funiculars trace via a 400m long curved steel bridge.
(Illustration Nordpark)
Unfortunately a direct connection with the towns centre (an the main tram-lines) is not possible due to plannings mistakes of the town. So the bottom station is separated by a 400m long (but nice) footwalk from the public transports main lines.
The funicular has got to stations underway, one near the Loewenhaus station, one near the Alpenzoo station. The halfway bypass it situated in the tunnel, but there is no station.
The longitudinal section of the funicular it remarkable, as there is a short section (in the Tunnel between the bridge and the Weiherburg) with counter-gradient. There special depression pulleys for the rope are needed. The section till the river is almost horizontal.
The funiculars cars are divided in separate cabins that are mounted moveable to the chassis frame. So all of the separate passengers cabins are horizontal at any place of the trace (so the system seems to be compareable to the Fun’ambule in Neuchatel).
All station buildings and the bridge are designed by the famous Iraqui architect Zaha Hadid. Especially the top station is an impressive landmark.
The new funicular is planned to start operation in spring 2007. Together with this venture the ropeways the the Seegrube and the Hafelecar will be modernized.
The cars will be built by Leitner.
(Illustration Nordpark)
The trace alignment ist planned bei ILF ("Ingenieurbüro Lässer -Feizlmair", a large planning bureau near Innsbruck which is also planning sections of the Brenner-tunnel.
The whole project (new funicular and renovation of the two sections of the ropeway) will cost between 51 and 70 million €.
Length of the new funicular line: 1798m
(In orange: the new project, in red: the old Hungerburg Bahn)
Special thank to Martin Schönherr.
Funimag
Hungerburg Bahn – It is finished!!!
Innsbruck, Austria.
The Hungerburg Bahn was stopped on December 8, 2005! It was opened in 1906 to link, with a stop at Alpenzoo, Innsbruck to Hungerburg where it is possible to take the aerial ropeway to Seegrube and Hafelekar (2269 m).
A new project was adopted to replace the old funicular… see the next entry in my blog!
The old funicular could be dismantled till the end of December 2005. The protected monuments of the old steel trestle and the old concrete viaduct might be dismantled in the following years. The builder and operator "Strabag" wants to remove the top station of the old funicular as soon as possible – some citizens believe they want to be sure, that there is no possibility to ever reinstate the old funicular or to keep it in operation till the end of the building phase of the new one in 2006/2007...
(Photo Martin Schönherr)
Funimag
