Merano Tram

Infobox rail line
name = Merano Tram

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image_width = 270px
caption =
type = passenger
system =
status = abandoned
start = Merano station
end = Piazza Fontana
stations = 8
open = May 9, 1908
close = 1956
owner =
operator =
character =
stock =
linelength = 7,80 km
tracklength =
notrack =
gauge = 1000 mm
el = yes
speed =
elevation = |

The Merano Tram had been build to satisfy the city-traffic in the, at that time, important city for the Austrian monarchy. There was already a tram crossing the city, the Lana-Merano local railway. The new tram line should cross the city perpendicular to the already existing line.

Track

The line started at the just new build station of the Venosta valley railroad, she went on to Piazza Mazzini and Piazza Teatro, where it had a junction with the Lana-Merano local railway. Crossing the Post Bridge the track started to get very slope. After just eight Kilometres the line ended at Piazza Fontana. The garage for the vehicles was at the rear of the cemetery, and is still visible and today the local bus company uses it.

Abandonment

The profit of the company wasn’t very high all the years the tram line operated. So after a few time some of the cars where sold to the Bolzano Tram company. In the fifties, like many other railway lines in the region, the tram was suppressed and substituted by a bus line.

Today

Apart of the garage behind the cemetery, all traces of the line have been erased. In political campaigns of the local politicians sometimes there has been talked of reactivating the tram to reduce air pollution in the city, which today had a lot of traffic.

Literature

* Josef Dultinger: "Vergessene Vergangenheit". Verlag Dr. Rudolf Erhard, Rum 1982
* Josef Dultinger: "Auf schmaler Spur durch Südtirol". Verlag Dr. Rudolf Erhard, Rum 1982