In the Germany city of Stuttgart their trams have an interesting feature – bicycle trailers!
The bicycle trailers are found on the Stuttgart Rack Railway, a 2.2-kilometre electrified railway opened in 1884 to connect Marienplatz in the city centre to Degerloch on the Filder plateau. The line is single track with passing loop at Wielandshöhe, and a maximum gradient of 17.8%, rising to 23.2% on a short branch line to the depot.
Passengers load their own bicycles, positioning them perpendicular to the direction of travel.The bike service only operates in the uphill direction between the two terminus stations, to avoid any delays caused by loading and unloading, so the main users are locals who don’t want to ride back up the hill, and mountain bike riders.
For safety reasons the trailers are coupled onto the uphill end of the train, allowing the driver to see from the cab if any bicycles come loose during the journey; and in times of continuous snow cover, the trailers are taking out of service due to a risk of the lighter vehicles derailing.
Bicycle trailers were introduced in 1983 with the third generation ZT 4 railcars to the railway, with two two-axle trailers being manufactured by Waggon Union Berlin. They were deemed unsuccessful due to their light weight and excessive noise, so the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen built a third trailer to their own design, being 4 meters long and with space for 10 bicycles. After it had been proven, the two earlier vehicles were also rebuilt to the same design – operating numbers being #1980 (built in 1983), #1981 (built in 1983) and #1982 (built in 1986).
These bicycle trailers were replaced in 2022 by the current generation of rolling stock, the ZT 4.2 by Stadler. These new trailers haves four-axle and are 12 meters long, with space for 20 bicycles and one three-wheeled cargo bike. Numbered #1111 to #1113, the trailers also feature headlights, tail lights, brake lights, turn signals, a warning bell, forward facing CCTV system for driver visibility, and a lidar based sensor system to detect obstacles and trigger emergency braking.
Due to the depot transfer table being too short to fit both a rack railway car and the trailer, the trailers of the ZT 4 railcars were stored at the Degerloch terminus overnight. However for the new trailers of the ZT 4.2, they are pushed by hand onto the transfer table and into the depot.
Further reading
- Stuttgart Rack Railway at Wikipedia
- SSB ZT 4 at Wikipedia (German language)
- SSB ZT 4.2 at Wikipedia (German language)
