Freight Tram Rides Again

Dresden’s famous freight tram is back in service.

One of the most under rated tram success stories is the Dresden freight tram, which conveyed car parts between two factories, using the cities tram network.

It is easy to see why freight trams have not been talked about much in North America, because many North American LRT systems are in fact, light-metros and with portions of the line using size restricting subways or weight restricting viaducts. Not to mention trucking companies who pay a lot of money to politicians on all levels of government, to “get their own way” would see it as interference.

The auto lobby should love this idea, by taking large delivery trucks off the road, it would create more road space for cars!

In Vancouver, with UBC at the end of the “Broadway Corridor”, if light rail were to be built, a freight tram service could take many delivery trucks off the roads leading to UBC, by simply having a central receiving depot in Burnaby, where goods are places in ‘cans’, loaded on a freight tram and delivered to UBC.

Certainly the bright sparks in UBC’s engineering dept. should be able devise an economic quick on and off container solution.

Freight tram, under rated, flexible and adaptable, in local parlance, a “no-brainer”.

The epitome of modern light rail's flexibility and adaptability, a freight tram on lawned R-o-W.

 

 

Freight tram to support electric car production

28 Mar 2017

CarGoTram freight services have returned to Dresdenai??i??s tram network (Photo: Volkswagen).

CarGoTram freight services have returned to Dresdenai??i??s tram network (Photo: Volkswagen).

GERMANY: CarGoTram freight services returned to Dresdenai??i??s tram network on March 24, carrying automotive parts between the Friedrichstadt freight terminal and Volkswagenai??i??s car factory at the GroAYen GartenAi??on StraAYburger Platz.

CarGoTram was first launched in 2001 to reduce the need for lorries to pass through the city centre to reach the factory. The two dedicated freight trams were purpose-built by Schalker EisenhA?tte, and are able to carry the same load as three 18Ai??m lorries.

Operations were suspended when the production of Phaeton cars in Dresden ended in April 2016, but have now restarted to support the production of the e-Golf electric car.

One of the two CarGoTram vehicles has been returned to service for the relaunch, and the second is expected to be available by November. The blue-liveried freight trams are operated by city transport company DVB, run up to three times per day and take around 25 min to cover the 5Ai??5Ai??km route which is shared with passenger services on the cityai??i??s 1Ai??450Ai??mm gauge tram network.

 

 

Comments

One Response to “Freight Tram Rides Again”
  1. Haveacow says:

    Actually Ottawa, Kingston, Oshawa, Waterloo (Grand River Railway), Niagara & St. Catherines (Toronto and St. Catherine Railway) London and St. Thomas (Lake Erie and Northern) and until the 1970’s Brockville Street Railway all had freight service in Ontario at one time. It was quite common. One of the main problems, along with declining freight levels that led to their downfall was the lack of larger horsepower, easy to maintain electric locomotives to carry the heavier loads carried by newer diesels at the time.

Leave A Comment