Virtual Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Thursday - Zurich Trams


Fondue Tram in Zurich, Switzerland. This is a two hour run around the streetcar system where patrons are served fondue in an old tram. There is a good collection of older trams in the Zurich Tram Museum which we will look at later

Here are some pictures of trams for the Zurich VBZ all provided by Paul Churcher. Zurich use two types:
1) Tram 2000 which were built in the 1970s-80s by Swiss Railcar and Lift Factory Corporation which became Stadler.
2) Cobra built in the 2000s by Bombardier
There are also new 2019 Bombardier Flexity trams but we've never seen any - next time.
A Tram 2000 runs along the Limmat river in Zurich's Old town

VBZ Tram 2000 at Zurich Burgweis  station

A Tram 2000

Bombardier on the left and a Tram 2000

Bombardier Cobra tram at Zurich Kirche Fluntern tram station

Bombardier Cobra at the Zoo

Uncommon to see advertising livery in Zurich

Major tram route to the main station runs across the Limmat river bridge.
It is impossible to take a picture without seeing a tram on the bridge

Zurich Central tram station is a major tram interchange

Interior of a Cobra
With all these trams, vehicles and pedestrians to control the traffic flow to Central station 
is controlled by a policewoman who is kept very busy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Wednesday - Zurich Hauptbahnhof Part One

Image
Zurich Hauptbahnhof  Paul has prepared some extensive notes and photos of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.  This will be in several parts.  The busiest station in Switzerland is Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) which is used primarily by the SBB. It has 26 tracks serving almost 3000 trains daily and it is one of the busiest stations in the world. It was built in the 1870s and is a main shopping destination as well as a transport hub. There are three levels for platforms and the "Shopville" shopping plaza.  The river Sihl river passes right through the station with platforms passing above and below the river. This shows the general layout of the station with the surrounding tram tracks shown in purple Tracks 3 to 18 are terminal tracks located at ground level, served by two side platforms and seven island platforms. These are used by long-distance trains from throughout Switzerland, and by international trains. Tracks 21 and 22 are underground terminal tracks, served by a single island
Read more

Journey to Zurich Hauptbahnhof, Dolderbahn, Wiedikon and Wallace Fountain

Image
 Tuesday 23 August Paul and I travelled to Zurich on Air Canada via Toronto. The flight from Ottawa was over an hour late - luckily we planned for this with a three hour connection in Toronto. Toronto airport was disgusting. It was overcrowded and there was nowhere for people to stand while waiting to board their flights. Obviously the Toronto airport focusses on relieving passengers of their money. Once aboard the plane things went well. There was plenty of space for carry on and the flight was excellent. It seems that the problem with airline travel is the airports rather than the flights. Our flight landed four minutes ahead of schedule (Wednesday) which was 0800. By 0820 we had cleared passport control and by 0840 we had taken a connecting internal tram and found the tram to downtown. We could have taken the SBB trains but we were in no great hurry and we enjoyed the 35 minute tram ride to close to the hotel. At Gladbrugge we passed two SBB 6/6 locomotives on the main line close by
Read more

Sunday 3 September - Hochdorf Open Day and the Swiss Museum of Transport

Image
We had two objectives today :- Visit the open day at Hochdorf, on the Seethalbahn, which is now a country branch operated by the SBB.  From there we planned to go to Lucerne and visit the Transport Museum.  From Zurich we took a local train to Brugg where we changed to another local train to Lenzburg. The Seethalbahn starts from a platform across the road from the main station. Leaving Lenzburg one has the impression that this is just a local town run. But very quickly we leave the houses behind, the land turns green and a church on a green treed hill indicates the real nature of this branch line which is to serve the local farming communities. The small villages are built around a typical church with its clock and spire, and many of the larger backyards contain apple trees. Farming is mixed with some arable, particularly corn and sunflowers but also there are cattle and presumably pigs in the farms as well. The train service is quite good there being at least two an hour in each direc
Read more