World's shortest streetcar (tram) line.
I grew in a big city that has several tram lines. Though it takes some time to get used to their noise if you live near a tram line, this kind of transport is absolutely lovely. Surprizingly, trams are in use in the places and countries where you least expect to see them. I saw them in Dallas and in Toronto. Who said that North America doesn't know what public transport is?On our recent short trip to Austria, on our way back from Dachstein mountain massif, we made a short stop in the resort town of Gmunden, on the lake Traunsee. We've read in a small guide that the town has the world's shortest tram line and there was a picture of a cute antique tram. Having parked our car, on our way to the lake shore, we observed that cuteness driving away. Well, we could have another chance, so we went to find the tram stop. And here is was, with the sign made of heavy cast iron:
(Note: those are not original signs but replicas).
Well, we checked the schedule then and were able to catch the tram on the terminus. We were quite lucky because it was going to be its last trip for the day.
There were two trams on the line actually, one is a normal modern one, interesting but not as exciting as this, called GM 100 and built in 1898:
There is an excellent page at Wikipedia telling about the tram system of Gmunden, unfortunately only in German (English version is quite short). The Gmunden Strassenbahn was opened in 1894. The distance between end stations is just 2.3 km. It was slightly longer (2.5 km) but two stations were cut off in 1975.
Below is the tram line map I have created on Google Maps:
View the Map at Google
The GM 100 we were riding is leased from some other tram line operating in the city of Linz ("Pöstlingbergbahn", Europe's steepest tram line). Around the 100 year anniversary of the tram line opening, the city of Gmunden signed a long term lease for GM 100 and gave it is special name.
The tram (as all others operating in Gmunden) has controls on both ends. Personally, I'm used to trams that can travel in one direction only and therefore use roundabouts on terminus and have only one control compartment.
GM 100 weighs 8.8 ton, has the engine of 40.8 kW and can "accelerate" up to 14 km/h.
We were following the newer tram:
Some streets where the tram line runs are pretty narrow. Because of that, the line has just one track, with a crossing loop on one intermediate station.
Being operated only in warm seasons, the GM 100 is completely open on its sides so that you can really appreciate the short ride through the town:
We rode back on the newer tram that looks pretty standard (of course if you are used to how do they look like):
What's so special about the tram in Gmunden? Is it really the world's shortest tram line? Yes, if you count the lines open to public. Of course you can build your own line in your garden and claim a record, but who cares? This is what a four star hotel "Rifferalp" in Switzerland did. To bring their guests from the public train station, they built a tram line of just 700 meter long (see it on the photo here). You have a chance to enjoy the ride if you book a room starting from just 138 Euro a night! But if you are interested more in real things, not expensive toys, go to Gmunden.
