Innsbruck: the hush before the storm 3.

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Innsbruck-Igls: tram line 6

Today line 6 is the other mountain tramway route beside Stubaitalbahn. Operation began in summer 1900 with steam railways, after only a half year of construction, to bring people to the Igls area resting-places. The "Igler" railway departs at Bergisel, it is 8,362 kms long, and reaches a plateau via serpentine track in a forest, with a highest gradient of 4,6 percents. On the plateau it reaches Igls gently. There had been plans for lengthening the track, but they never accomplished. In addition, due to the steam operation, it has always been profitless. Operation was taken over by the earlier mentioned L.B.I.H.i.T. company (Localbahn Innsbruck - Hall in Tirol) in 1927 which also operated the local tramway to Hall (the predecessor of today's bus line 4), which electrified the line in 1936. From that time, cars of the Hall local tramway usually appeared here (Bergisel was their common terminus), and that was also the time it was integrated into the local line number system, it became line 6. The electric system of 1000 V DC have been modified three times between 1941 and 1977, since then the tramcars have been operated by 600 V DC. Today's Hagener cars of the Stubaitalbahn have made their first appearances in Innsbruck on this line, then they constructed a loop track on the Igls terminus in 1985 to accomodate the one-directional Bielefeld cars, which have been running here since.

During our stay in 2003, line 6 was operating all the way into the city at Maria-Theresien-Strasse because of the summer schedule. Our vehicle is the eight-axle ex-Bielefeld DÜWAG tramcar no. 51 which was built in 1963 as a six-axle car.

Going out of the city, we catched the historic tram for a blink of an eye: a train consisting of a motor car and trailers of the Hall local tramway (but the same trailers had been used as early as the steam operation). Interesting to think of it: there had been tramways like these running on the streets in 1964 when one of the Winter Olympics were held here.

This picture was taken in April 2004 during another tour of ours, this time line 6 operated only from/to its original terminus, likely because of the winter schedule. We reached Bergisel by a tram on line 1 instead. Car no. 75 has the looks of the old IVB livery (built by Lohner in 1966).

Car no. 51 runs here today again (it leaves in a 50-60 minute rhythm so this is the only car today) with the same advertisment as it had a year before.

Adventures begin shortly: we disappear in the forest, rounding about columns of motorway bridges, then just before Schönruh stop...

...we pass a tunnel. Not a bad photo position, is it? :-)

Conditional halt: no one gets off, we don't stop. That's why the photo is not sharp.

A bit higher in the forest: the DÜWAG car runs downhill.

The forest suddently ends just before Mühlsee stop.

Track maintenance tools, laid down beside the tracks.

Further up the line, looking in the Innsbruck direction.

It is a left turn really, but I'm walking along the line in the other direction.

This is the plateau I mentioned earlier, looking towards Innsbruck and Igls respectively.

And here we are at the Igls terminus loop.

The so-called "PCC-head", a characteristic feature of the rounded DÜWAG cars. Note the windscreen-viper has an interesting construction: its shaft is bored through the windscreen.

Back again to the 2003 pictures: at least it was shining that time! :-)

A real summer picture: tram on line 6 at the city terminus. They come here only in summer time, it is likely to achieve lower running performance of the old cars, in kilometres. I think they have to remain in service with the rarest maintenance until the new low floor cars arrive. Now this is what I call the hush before the storm, the new cars will bring a brand new tramway network hopefully, but until then nothing really happens, I believe...


And if we are here, let's make some tramway photos. This is car no. 76 which was built by Lohner in 1966.

No. 38 is still looking for the people.

We're waiting for a bus this time for a change. Line J is very interesting: it departs farther than the Igls terminus of the tram line 6, descends into the city, goes through it, then it climbs on the other hillside on the other side of the town. Namely to the top terminus of the Hungerburgbahn funicular, Hamster tempted me to ride the higher cableways.

Now what is so interesting in this narrow street?

The Höttingergasse is a public transport road! Bus lines A, J and at night the NL3 lines use this way.

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Text and photos by András Báti, except where otherwise mentioned (C) 2003-2007