budapest
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lost rails
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Lausanne, Montreux, Bern
Our main goal this time was to see the cogwheel metro of Lausanne before it's closed to be rebuilt into a rubber-tyred metro. To be exact, we already stopped here on our way from Basel to Geneva, but I'll mix the photos of that short stay with our longer visit here on our return trip back from Geneva.
If you arrive with the train, leave the railway station, and cross the square in front of it, you would see this: the two-track metro station Gare. I did not now what to expect, so I was surprised to see two tracks.
But within a few moments we saw what this was all about. The track laying deeper is for the service between Ouchy (down at the Lake Geneva shore) and Flon (located up in the inner city), while...
... the other one is used by the shuttle service between Gare and Flon. The latter was operated with 2-axle single cars, while the long route...
... featured loco+passenger car+passenger car units. As you can see here, there's a surface-running section, too,...
... with a passing loop at Montriond.
Down, almost at Ouchy, running in a cutting. By the way, these vehicles won't be scrapped due to the reshaping of the line: AFAIK they will be sold to France.
Up at Flon everything was a mess due to construction works. Below you can even see a new tunnel being built for the extension of the metro (okay, may I say "Metro 2", because there's also a "Metro 1" service, resembling more of a normal LRT operation, also starting at Flon).
Another strange sight for us were the trolleybuses...
... with trailers (Budapest abandoned trailer usage in bus and trolleybus operation in the sixties).
A train of the Lausanne-Échallens-Bercher interurban, having it's private right-of-way in the countryside, running in the streets in the city, and having an underground terminus at Flon.
Oh yes, we also visited Montreaux, but my main
aim of interest was not public transit here. However, I still took some
pictures of the Villeneuve-Vevey trolleybus service
running through the town.
We stopped in Switzerland's federal capital quite spontaneously...
... just to take a quick look (again) at how well a historic city...
... and modern public transportation can live together!
Unfortunately the lighting conditions were unfavorable...
... and we did not manage to ride this white tram, which I believe is the first here that was rebuilt after the "Combino fiasco". As you may remember, two years ago most of the Combino tramcars were temorarily "grounded" because small cracks started to appear on the car body. The rebuilt Combinos should not have this flaw anymore.
An interurban tram of the RBS waiting for departure near Zytglogge.
Our stay was very short this time, but I was happy to be here again. A remarkable place, and not (just) because of its trams!
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