The last and most unusual Tatra T4! Lack of Tatra spare parts is normally
far from an issue, but maybe the Germans throw away their Tatra parts.
Tony P
On Thursday, 21 January 2021 at 08:11:14 UTC+11gregsut...@...
wrote:
>
> End of an era. Chased this unusual operation on two occasions (on foot
> and by regular tram service). Sad to see it fall by the wayside.
>
> Jack
>
>
> https://www.railwaygazette.com/light-rail-and-tram/cargotram-freight-tram-service-comes-to-an-end/58270.article?utm_source=MRnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Story%203%20Link&utm_campaign=MRnewsletter-%2020210120
> CarGoTram freight tram service comes to an end
>
> 19 January 2021
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> - Save article
> https://www.railwaygazette.com/light-rail-and-tram/cargotram-freight-tram-service-comes-to-an-end/58270.article?sm=58270
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> SHOW FULLSCREEN
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> [image: Dresden CarGoTram (Photo: DVB)]
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> Photos: DVB
>
> GERMANY: The CarGoTram freight tram service which carried automotive parts
> to a Volkswagen factory in Dresden has ended, following the car
> manufacturer’s adoption of a revised logistics approach with the switch
> from production of the e-Golf car to the all-electric ID.3.
>
> The final CarGoTram service on the 5·5 km route from
> Dresden-Friedrichstadt station to the factory had been scheduled for
> December 23 2020, however operations were brought to a premature end by a
> collision with a van on December 10.
>
> The freight tram was first proposed when the Dresden car factory was being
> planned, to avoid the need for to transport components through the city by
> lorry.
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> A total of five cab cars and seven trailers were ordered from Schalke
> Eisenhütte, and operated as two 59·4 m long five-section trams with a
> capacity of 60 tonnes or 214 m3. The trams used Dresden’s unusual 1 450
> mm gauge.
> SHOW FULLSCREEN
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> [image: Dresden CarGoTram (Photo DVB) (2)]
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> Operation began in 2001. The initial plan had been to run 30 CarGoTram
> services per day, however in 2003 there were 10 per day, and in 2015 just
> three per day. Operations were further reduced when the factory changed its
> production programme in March 2016, with trams operating occasionally to
> transport parts for e–Golf cars.
>
> The switch to the production of the ID.3 brought a change in factory’s
> logistics. Components sourced from across Europe are now consolidated at
> Volkswagen’s Zwickau plant, with the Dresden site’s requirements met by the
> despatch of fully loaded lorries from Zwickau directly to the factory. This
> reduces the number of daily lorry deliveries to Dresden from 25 to four,
> and Volkswagen also plans to start using fuel cell trucks between Zwickau
> and Dresden in Q2 2021.
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> The trams were also proving costly to maintain owing to a lack of spare
> parts, and breakdowns were occurring increasingly regularly. ‘The blue
> trams thus made little sense economically or in terms of climate policy’, a
> spokesperson for Volkswagen told *Metro Report International*, and so it
> did not renew its contract with city transport operator DVB.
>
> DVB told *Metro Report International* that it has offered to buy the
> CarGoTrams, and envisages they could be used for postal and parcel traffic,
> as works cars, or could be converted into rail grinders.
>
> A freight tram service in Zürich is now thought to be the last in western
> Europe.
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