Meran Tramway

The Meran Tramway was built to satisfy the urban transport requirement in the town of Meran, at that time an important town in the Austrian monarchy. There was already a tramway crossing the town, the Lana-Meran railway. The new tram line was to cross the town at right angles to the existing line.

Meran Tramway
Overview
Typepassenger
Statusabandoned
TerminiMeran railway station
Fountain Square
Stations8
Operation
Opened9 May 1908
Closed1956
Technical
Line length7.80 km
Track gauge1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
Electrificationyes

Track
Tram passing underneath the Vinschgauer Tor (c. 1925)

The line started at the then-new Vinschger Bahn station, it went on to Mazzini Square and Theatre Square, where there was a junction with the Lana-Meran railway. After crossing the Post Bridge the line inclined sharply, and after eight kilometres it terminated at the Fountain Square in the Obermais quarter. The Tram Depot was at the rear of the cemetery, and is used today by the city's bus company.

Abandonment

The profit of the company wasn’t very high during the years the tram line operated. So after some time some of the cars where sold to the Bolzano Tramway company. In the '50s, like many other railway lines in the region, the tram was substituted by a bus line.

Apart from the garage behind the cemetery, all traces of the line have been erased. In political campaigns by local politicians there has been sometimes talk of reactivating the tram to reduce air pollution in the town, which today has 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

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