Former Basel Railway starts regular service
YouTube name: Oscar am Freitag-TV.
Language: German.
Date: December 7, 2021.
City: Gotha (Germany).
The video shows
Thüringerwaldbahn und Straßenbahn Gotha
Operational
Gotha regional line 4 Thüringerwaldbahn: Hauptbahnhof - Tabarz
Operational
Gotha tram line 1: Hauptbahnhof - Kreiskrankenhaus
Operational
Description
Gotha (red, December 7th). At 1:07 p.m. sharp, Tim Maiwald started his journey on line 4 to Bad Tabarz from the Gotha local transport terminal. What was special about it was that it was his first regular journey on tram #222 - and also the first official journey of the former Basler Bahn.
A blue ribbon was rolled out beforehand: not for the fastest Atlantic crossing, but because cutting up such a ribbon is part of the ritual of a handover. So the supervisory board members of the Thüringerwaldbahn und Straßenbahn GmbH (TWSB) Matthias Wenzel, Emanuel Cron and supervisory board chairman Michael Brychcy as well as his predecessor and ex-district administrator Konrad Gießmann and the TWSB managing director were given scissors. They did what sharp scissors should do and cut the ribbon after the countdown, which was counted down by supervisory board chairman Michael Brychcy.
In August 2018, the first two of six vehicles arrived in Gotha. They were Be 4/8 trains that the Swiss company "Schindler Waggon" had built between 1978 and 1981 on behalf of Baselland Transport AG.
Their conversion to German standards proved to be much more complex than initially expected and was peppered with new surprises. Last but not least, the pandemic played its part with delivery bottlenecks and delays.
The #221 is in the works and already bears the TWSB colors. Managing Director Koch assumes that it can be put into service next spring. Half a year must be planned for the complex conversion - which means that the sixth and last ex-Basel train will probably not be approved until spring 2024.
Transcription
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