‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest

Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.

The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.

The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.

The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.

In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”

Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.

A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.

Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”

In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.

“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”

In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”

“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.

During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.

“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....

 

www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...

  

民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。

news.mingpao.com/ins/港聞/article/20200101/s00001/15778...

A last look down the valley we came up from our endpoint.

The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.

 

Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.

 

HISTORY

In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.

 

HORSE BUSES

The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.

 

HORSE TRAMS

On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).

 

ELECTRIFICATION

On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.

 

The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-

 

Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.

 

The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.

 

UNDERGROUND TRAMS

On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.

 

GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG

The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.

 

The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).

 

The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).

 

On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.

 

In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.

 

During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.

 

THE NETWORK SINCE 1945

The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.

 

From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.

 

WEST

From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.

 

On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,

 

Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.

 

Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.

 

The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.

 

EAST

Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.

 

However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.

 

Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:

 

AFTER REUNIFICATION

In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)

 

There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.

 

In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.

 

Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.

 

The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian

zone feared by critics has not occurred.

 

In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.

 

Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.

 

On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.

 

Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.

 

M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53

M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt

M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße

M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße

M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20

M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23

M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide

 

In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.

 

In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.

On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.

 

TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF

At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

 

A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.

 

The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.

 

The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.

 

Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.

 

The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.

 

With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.

 

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.

 

After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.

 

After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.

 

BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.

 

Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.

 

FLEET

The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.

 

The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.

 

In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:

 

tram €0.33

coupled set €0.45

bus €0.42

underground train €1.18

 

GT6N

Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.

 

134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.

 

In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.

 

FLEXITY BERLIN

In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.

 

On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.

 

On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.

 

In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.

 

The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.

 

In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.

 

TRAM DEPOTS

Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:

 

Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.

Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.

Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.

Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.

Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.

Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.

Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.

 

Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.

 

GENERAL VIEW

The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany

 

Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:

 

the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)

the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)

the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)

the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)

 

The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Sa Pobla 11.07.2016: Der neue Bahnhof von Sa Pobla. Es ist jetzt der dritte Endpunkt der Strecke.

 

The new station of Sa Pobla. It is now the third endpoint of the Sa Pobla Railway line.

Route 66 Hackberry 04/12/2009 13h31

This gas station combined with trailer park is a bit further down from Hackberry on the way to Kingman. Just another landmark!

 

Route 66 Arizona (recommended site)

 

Route 66

U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year.

The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song (written by Bobby Troup and performed by the Nat King Cole Trio and The Rolling Stones, among others) and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s. More recently, the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars featured U.S. 66.

Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion. One realignment moved the western endpoint farther west from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated "State Route 66", and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs and relevant historic information.

[ Source and more information: Wikipedia - Route 66 ]

Route 66 | Hackberry 04/12/2009 13h10

A place full of Route 66 memorabilia and vintage cars all over the place. The general store has been turned into a Route 66 museum and no gas is sold at the old pumps in front of it. The store is run by John and Kerry Pritchard.

This sign 300 MILES DESERT AHEAD is world famous I think. You will find it in every 'Route 66' book.

 

Route 66 Arizona (recommended site)

 

Route 66

U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year.

The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song (written by Bobby Troup and performed by the Nat King Cole Trio and The Rolling Stones, among others) and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s. More recently, the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars featured U.S. 66.

Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion. One realignment moved the western endpoint farther west from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated "State Route 66", and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs and relevant historic information.

[ Source and more information: Wikipedia - Route 66 ]

Theme Song: New Divide - Linkin Park

 

I remembered each flash

as time began to blur

Like a startling sign

that fate had finally found me

And your voice was all I heard

that I get what I deserve

 

Ioh looked at the stranger on the Den. "Who are you, and why are you here?"

 

"Certainly. Strays. Pack members." Said Linds, speaking with Elise, Fr. Eamon, and Guin at the Den.

 

The stranger frowned. "I was told I was allowed here. I'm Nal's, ah... cuddle friend."

 

"Uptown, downtown, turn the beat around town!!!" sang out Tuna as she danced on the rooftop.

 

Saia Teebrook purred as she wrapped her tail around Never's thigh, inhaling his scent. She chuckled at Tuna, watching her dance all over. She licked her hand quickly, focusing her emerald eyes on Ashur, listening intently.

 

Ioh raised his eyebrow, glaring at the stranger. "You're human right?"

 

The stranger nodded. "Yes. I'd guess I am."

 

Ioh murred, "Who said you could be up here?"

 

The stranger shrugged. "Nal asked someone and they said it was ok."

 

Ashur sighed. "Ah. Just a trip to Hong Kong to pick some things up for the Pride. The most exciting parts were getting on and off this island of course. And I was too busy to see much of the place before returning. I did manage to spend some time on a beach. A clean one too."

 

Fr. Eamon scratched his beard. "Then no. Forgive me. I should have known he wasn't one of yours. But he wants Elise alone. He claims that someone from higher up in the Church wants her. For reasons unknown. But he clearly had no understanding of Church protocol. Elise is part of my Parish. If the Church wanted to speak with her, they'd go through the Bishop of our Diocese, then me."

 

Ioh grumbled, "Where's Nal..."

 

The stranger pointed to the alley.

 

Elise frowned at Fr. Eamon. "Are you sure?"

 

Ioh looked up to Ash. "Since when have we allowed human 'cuddle friends' on the Den?"

 

Nevers grinned at the thought of clean beach and water. "Bet there was some damned good foods out there, hmm?"

 

The stranger squirmed nervously.

 

Ashur sighed at the pleasant memory. "One day I'll retire to the Caribbean. A little island of my own. Sea and sun and surf." She looked down. "What ya mean, Ioh?"

 

Tuna danced her way down the ramp, still laughing to herself. She carelessly swung her body around the rooftop. While this and various other events were going on, the stranger tried to slip away unnoticed. Tuna giggled, "Oh no you don't mister!" She then ran to the human, grabbed his hand and attempted to drag him in to dance.

 

Ioh pointed to the stranger that was then dancing with Tuna. "This human here says he's a 'cuddle friend' of the kitten Nal, and that she got permission from someone for him to be up here."

 

Fr. Eamon nodded. "Positive, love." He smiled wryly. "The Church has had 2000 years to make a rulebook the size of this city itself. But they stick by protocol like a burr. Unfortunately..." He sighed. "There are occasional groups that get formed. Frowned on by true Catholics. Denounced by the Vatican and the Holy Father. But they claim to act in the Church's name. If this rat bastard was telling the truth, and not just up to mischief, then 'tis possible he belongs to one." He then looked at Elise seriously. "But love, I swear on all that's holy, the Church would do ye no harm. Not like that. Maybe once, during the dark times, but that time is long since past."

 

The stranger gacked, stumbling around as he's dragged by Tuna into a dance.

 

Elise looked around again, intensely aware of their surroundings. "You two could have been led into a trap yourselves. You both took a risk coming here."

 

Ashur nodded to Ioh. "Yeah, Nal asked if her friend could come up. I said yes. If they want to cuddle, let them. At least she asked, unlike most other assumptive Kittenwalkers I could name."

 

Eamon smiled gently. "Aye. But we care for ye, Elise. And you're one of our own as well. 'Tis my job to care for our flock."

 

Ioh grred at the new recruit. "If he wants to leave, let him leave..." He looked back up to Ash, confused. "What?"

 

Tuna danced circles around the stranger, laughing and panting heavily. But her cheerful aura could be felt. She then yelped a little, stopping dead in her tracks as she heard the grring. The stranger blinked and nodded quietly.

 

Elise looked at Guin. "He really didn't hurt you, did he? Are you okay?"

 

Ashur looked at Ioh with a frown. "You heard what I said."

 

Guin smiled, touched at Elise's concern. "No, he didn't come anywhere near me. I'm perfectly fine. But please, do listen to the Father and be careful... the man is nothing if not persistent."

 

Saia kept quiet as she nuzzled Nevers. She looked over her shoulder as a strange smell hit her and whispered,"Who's that?'

 

Tuna's ears dropped slightly as she stood, tail between her legs. She looked sorry for herself.

 

Linds was heard growling on the other side of the Den.

 

"I'll be okay," said Elise. She smiled at Linds' growl. "I have good friends all over this city, including you two."

 

Ioh nodded to Ashur, still grumbling with a frown. "Yeah, I heard ya." He stared at the human, "You're in luck, this time... boy." He then walked toward the edge of the Den, and sighed, "I have... business to tend to, I'll be out..."

 

"If he touches one under my protection," said Linds, "he'll learn one of the endpoints of persistence."

 

Fr. Eamon glanced at Linds with a twisted smile. "And a damned fool too, if ye ask me."

 

Nevers looked over his shoulder.

 

Linds, her claws extended, she snarled a bit by reflex. She then relented, realizing she may have frightened the priest.

 

Elise frowned a little at Father Eamon. "So, what do you make of Zelenski, then? I haven't seen him in a long time. Could the bounty hunter be right about him? That he wants me for reasons that aren't honorable?"

 

Fr. Eamon offered Linds a crooked smile. He didn't frighten easily. But there's no doubt he was impressed.

 

Tuna held out her hand for Ioh, "Hi there!" She attempted to put on a cheerful face, "I'm Tuna!" She bit her bottom lip, still maintaining an uncertain grin, not sure of how he would react.

 

Ashur yawned and mewed involuntarily as she did so. Saia yawned too, as it was contagious. She placed a dainty hand over her mouth and chuckled as she eyed Ashur, "Thanks." Saia whispered while giggling.

 

Ioh looked at Tuna for a moment, then gave a tail wave before walking off down the catwalks, "Hi. See you later..."

 

Nevers yelled down to Tuna "Ioh there is one of your trainers!"

 

Day 10 - Seventh Dream: The Great Division

 

I just knew it was coming. The meeting with my seventh Felix. My first and only Queen. The one who took me in as husband. And I her as wife. She would be the final ghost to meet me in my Purgatory. The last I had let go of so I could step into the flame and burn it all away. My Beatrice, my Black Rose, she showed me that in the last dream. Or at least that is what I came to assume her appearance in such a celestial vision had to mean. I had to face my final fear, take that last pennance so that I may move forward and out of my prison.

 

You fool...

 

I heard a strange whisper in the shadows. Familiar, in some way, but still strange - creepy even. Like some ominous voice of warning. I know I heard it somewhere before, but my memory could not place it anywhere.

 

Go back...

 

The whisper spoke again. Though it bristled the hairs on my neck, I knew I could not heed its warning. All that was behind me was the darkness of my prision. I don't want darkness any more. I want to find that light that I saw in my last dream. I want to go there. Burn away these things of my life that hinder me from it. Let my soul be freed from the torments. To finally find happiness.

 

And so it began.

 

"Bailsie Kitten?"

 

I found myself back at the Church. Father Eamon was there, and so was Bails. If I indeed said something, she didn't hear me. They were talking. I couldn't hear them. There was something preventing it. This was not like any of the other dreams. Something was off.

 

All I could do was watch them, as if playing Pictionary, or watching mimes, or some silent movie. Father had papers in his hand, and Bails had a pen out to sign them. I realized what they were. They were for getting an anullment.

 

"No..."

 

My hands were up in the air, pressed against it like some glass or invisible forcefield. It's not like I didn't know she did this. It's not like I blamed her either. No. I wasn't going to lay blame on her. I already left her. This was the end result. Hard, cold logic dictated this so. My heart was already turned against her by then. Hardened. Mind stubborn and dead set against any more attempts to try and mend what I considered already lost months before. Her heart was in the city. Her love was only for position in the Pride. Her desires set on claiming what her mind was set on - to take hold of the Catwalkers and become Matron. And she got what she wanted.

 

I left it all behind. I created the great divide. I wanted nothing to do with the Matronage, and no longer wanting back in the Catwalkers. I had lost my love, in more ways than one.

 

It was never something I planned for, nor expected. But I slowly put the pieces together, one by one. How Bails became like a chameleon, changing her identity to suit what she wanted. When she wanted me, she sought out to gain spots and become a leopard like me. When she sought out Elise, she began participating in the Parish, joining the Watch as Elise had. She then also sought out to be a Ghost, just as Elise was before becoming Matron. And hindsight has me wonder if part of the real reason she married me was to be able to mimic Elise's relationship and marriage to Father Eamon. Then, towards the end, she costumed herself up to look like Dazy, to which ultimately led to her taking Dazy's place as Wrath, culminating in Bails also following in the similar footsteps of Elise, who was a Wrath before being made Matron.

 

It was all there, being constructed before my very eyes. Hell, I even wound up as Deacon, and played into the role to mimic Eamon. But that was not my intention. A part of me kind of liked the similarities. And I wanted to think that maybe, connections were being made that would mean strong ties in which Eamon would indeed be like a fatherly figure to me, as I already had looked at Elise as a motherly figure, and not just because she was Matron. But I had respect for her.

 

Yet I failed to keep things from falling apart...

 

For you see, before I met Bails, Elise allowed me back into the Catwalkers again. And I sought to take my place again as a protector of the cats on the rooftop. For as Tormentor, that was the very essence of what I did. At least, in my mind, the Tormentor was to be like the Grand Inquisitor, or later, as the office became in the Catholic Church, that of the defender of the Traditions as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In other words, not only had I looked to protect the Pride from the enemies outside of it, but also within. I wanted to maintain and preserve the Pride's integrity - to see to it that the history of the Catwalkers would come to be known, and its lessons to be taught, so that both the new recruits and veterans would fully understand what it means to be a Catwalker, and what it takes to defend the Pride from its enemies. And, if necessary, protect the Pride from itself, and any enemies within.

 

That was always in the back of my mind since the first time I left. As strange as it sounds. I left the first time because I didn't want to be part of the rebellion. I was also becoming uncertain about what the real principles of the Catwalkers were. For, after talking with Sekhmet, I realized that the Catwalkers were not true to their original instincts. They had become too militant under Rith. Yet, the Matronage was something that intrigued me, even while actually being in the alternate role of Patron was never something I ever really wanted. My original instincts were as a teacher, even though I was often too distracted to do so. But hey, I suppose I took after my mentor, Dejon Coffee on that one. For I was never formally taught by him, though I suppose he facilitated more than anything, if that was what it was. But regardless, I made it out of the Kittenwalkers and became a full fledged Catwalker under Rith's Matronage.

 

I still remember meeting her by what once was the bridge to nowhere. She asked for the meeting, and I came to her, nervous. She asked me various things, but what I remember most was when she spoke about the various sorts of characters in the city, how some dealt sneakily and without honor, were enhanced in ways that could give unfair advantages in combat, and that many enemies are nearly unbeatable. And then she asked, "Are you sure you want to be a Catwalker, knowing all this?"

 

I responded with a firm yes. And so, Rith made me a Catwalker nearly three years ago from the year I last was alive. Towards the end of October, I had hardened up and became better in my abilities to fight and find out information for the Pride. I also met Beast, and for the next two months, she was my first Felix, and things were set in motion for the revolution. I left towards the middle to end of December, and then in January of the next year, Tobers and Linds brought me back in.

 

Linds was the original Catwalker to help bring me into the Pride. We met at a time when I was looking for an old friend, Remamian, or Remmy, as I called her. Remmy initially brought me into the Strays, but at a time I yet really understood the whole nature of RP. The second time in the city, I was drawn in, and somehow met Linds on my adventures looking around for my missing friend. She claimed to know Remmy as a good friend, and so, I guess that is how friendship grew with Linds.

 

Ashur, I believe, was a Kittenwalker somewhere around the time that I was in the group. Dui too was in the group around that time, and when I first was promoted to Catwalker. I think I remember Tobers also being around at that time as well. And these were the cats I remember from my generation of the Catwalkers. Others, that I came to know were Myca, Sedira, Landen, Dejon, Kojhi, Chai, Mari, and Golyth. There were more, but these were the most notable from when I started.

 

But as it was, I never sought to be Patron. I didn't want to lead in that fashion, if I had to lead at all. And maybe that was partly what I was running away from as well. I liked being Deacon. It suited the direction I was intending to go. But old habits die hard. And there was the constant battle between whether I had grown soft - lost myself in the woods, as the phrase went from everyone's favorite Colonel to hate from Avatar. But no, if I was lost to anything, it was in finding a way to not have to deal with upstarts in the Catwalkers. I hated all the jockeying for positions with a passion. And the Pride I once saw as family was more and more looking like a college sorority instead. How is it a family if things are so unbalanced in that way, that isolated all but the chosen who are too prissy and finicky, and so egocentric that they could hardly give a damn about anyone but themselves? Then add the pressure of being one of few male cats in the group, as well as being called a high profile member by the Matron herself.

 

I didn't want that. I didn't want people dictating who I was supposed to be. I wanted to be Ioh. Fun-loving, cool, calm, and sometimes serious and passionate Ioh. And each day, as I had to more and more play roles to suit what others wanted me to be, I found myself fighting it. Even while, I guess, I had put Bails in a role she did not really want. It became pretty obvious to me that this was true when it appeared she could remember, or get Dazy or someone to remind her of the important dates that centered around persons, like Elise and Eamon, and others that had she could rub elbows and hob nob with like an elite social snob. But when it came to intimate things, like when my rez day was, or when my birthday in the real world was, she conveniently forgot. Even now, I can at least remember that her birth date was in November. I had even begun plans for the date, until all hell broke loose.

 

But what does any of that matter now? What do days and months mean in a place where time is no more? What matters right now is understanding my failures. To see the end result of them. And then to let them go. Yes, I failed my Queen. Maybe we failed each other. She mentioned in her blog that I had read, about how she was unhappy with my calling her at three in the morning her time. Mentioning her worries only then, on that blog, several months after the fact, and with plenty of time to PR it to fit her more prim and proper, reasoned and rationalized account, claiming that she found it unsettling because it could have been an emergency call from her parents.

 

Maybe she didn't realize it was indeed an emergency call, from me. Or maybe she didn't care if it was...

 

That night that I called her, I was looking for someone that I thought loved me to assure me that she still did. Ever since I had broke down at the hight of my anxieties and depression, to which I jumped ship and dropped out of the city groups, including the Catwalkers, I had been trying to find that Bails that I had once fallen in love with. The kind, caring, and compassionate Bails that was supposedly there for me, and cared for me in both the real world, and in the metaverse. All I got, was no one on the end of the line wanting to bother to pick up.

 

And then my father came. He found me sobbing, and we talked about a lot of things. But ultimately, he brought me to what I believed was reality.

 

"She doesn't care for you." Said my father.

 

"But we're mates, we're married in Another World. We have this life and family together." I replied back.

 

"It's all fantasy, son. Hell, besides her age, and avatar name, what do you really know about her?"

 

"I know her real life name, Dad."

 

"How do you know she's giving you her real name? How do you even know she's a female in the real world? Have you seen real life pictures of her, have you met her yet?"

 

"I know she's given me her real life name. I know it. I'm certain she's female, I've heard her voice before. And we're looking to meet in real life, as soon as we can."

 

"When? Is she from here?"

 

"I don't know, when it's possible. No. She's on the other side of the country."

 

"Well, there you go, son. She's jockeying you around. She likely has no intentions of ever really seeing you. Especially now. You probably at least got her cranky, or scared of you now by those phone calls."

 

"We will, Dad. She wouldn't do that to me. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't. She loves me. We will meet. But... I guess, maybe I did screw up tonight... I don't know."

 

"Son, if she really, truly loved you, she would have picked up the phone and answered. She didn't. She's just jockeying you around. If she really did care, she would have called back. But you know this. In your heart, you know this. And if you have any sense, you will end it with her soon. Before things get more out of hand."

 

I sighed. I couldn't argue with Dad's logic. Even if I wanted to deny any truth to it. But, the truth seemed to be there, as, he was right. Bails was mad at me for calling her, and her PM to me in the morning indicated what my Dad was telling me during our talk that night was right.

 

"You see son? She doesn't care for you. That PM shows you how little she cares and what she really thinks of you. I suggest you end things soon. Leave her. Don't try to talk with her, because it will just lead to more heart ache and uneccesary pain. Just send a short and simple letter, to tell her that it's over."

 

And so I did. As much as it hurt, I couldn't deny that Dad was right. She didn't care. She just jockeyed me around, and used me for her advantage. And now that I am useless to her, she just didn't care for me any more.

 

Did she ever really care for you?

 

I heard that familiar, ominous whisper again.

 

"Yes... No. I don't know...."

 

You are a fool.

 

I heard the voice louder, and began to see a shadowy figure appear and approach me in the Church aisle. He then clapped slowly, deliberately. It was like in the movies when the villain shows himself and gives a mock cheer to a well-played hand by the hero. Almost like the Joker in Dark Knight as he sat there in the jail cell.

 

But, you sure know how to put on a good show. Don't you Ioh?

 

"W-what do you mean? Who are you?"

 

He gave a smirk of a smile, then looked in my eyes, as if trying to pierce through me. I knew that look...

 

"I am Sennahoi. But you can call me Sen... like 'sin'."

 

I blinked at his introduction of himself. It was way to eerily mocking of my own introductions of myself in RP not to rattle my nerves.

 

"Why have you come?"

 

"Ioh, Ioh, Ioh... Look into your heart. Think. If you have any brains left, you should begin to understand why I am here."

 

"You. You are my personal tormentor, are you not?" I asked him.

 

"I'm that, and much, much more."

 

He gave a grin with eyes glimmering. I couldn't stand his look. It was like he was hungry for something. Like he wanted to devour something. I didn't know what. At least, I didn't want to know. I just wanted to get away from him. But, something kept on giving me this impression that I couldn't. Not at this moment. So, mrring, I finally asked in frustration.

 

"What do you want from me?"

 

In every loss,

in every lie,

in every truth that you'd deny

And each regret

and each goodbye

was a mistake too great to hide

 

So give me reason to prove me wrong,

to wash this memory clean

 

Give me reason to fill this hole,

 

Let it be enough to reach the truth

that lies across this new divide

Robert, Martina and Kody at the endpoint.

The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.

 

Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.

 

HISTORY

In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.

 

HORSE BUSES

The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.

 

HORSE TRAMS

On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).

 

ELECTRIFICATION

On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.

 

The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-

 

Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.

 

The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.

 

UNDERGROUND TRAMS

On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.

 

GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG

The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.

 

The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).

 

The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).

 

On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.

 

In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.

 

During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.

 

THE NETWORK SINCE 1945

The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.

 

From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.

 

WEST

From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.

 

On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,

 

Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.

 

Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.

 

The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.

 

EAST

Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.

 

However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.

 

Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:

 

AFTER REUNIFICATION

In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)

 

There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.

 

In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.

 

Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.

 

The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian

zone feared by critics has not occurred.

 

In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.

 

Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.

 

On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.

 

Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.

 

M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53

M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt

M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße

M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße

M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20

M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23

M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide

 

In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.

 

In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.

On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.

 

TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF

At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

 

A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.

 

The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.

 

The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.

 

Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.

 

The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.

 

With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.

 

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.

 

After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.

 

After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.

 

BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.

 

Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.

 

FLEET

The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.

 

The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.

 

In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:

 

tram €0.33

coupled set €0.45

bus €0.42

underground train €1.18

 

GT6N

Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.

 

134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.

 

In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.

 

FLEXITY BERLIN

In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.

 

On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.

 

On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.

 

In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.

 

The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.

 

In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.

 

TRAM DEPOTS

Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:

 

Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.

Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.

Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.

Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.

Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.

Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.

Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.

 

Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.

 

GENERAL VIEW

The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany

 

Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:

 

the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)

the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)

the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)

the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)

 

The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.

 

Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.

 

HISTORY

In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.

 

HORSE BUSES

The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.

 

HORSE TRAMS

On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).

 

ELECTRIFICATION

On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.

 

The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-

 

Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.

 

The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.

 

UNDERGROUND TRAMS

On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.

 

GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG

The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.

 

The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).

 

The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).

 

On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.

 

In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.

 

During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.

 

THE NETWORK SINCE 1945

The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.

 

From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.

 

WEST

From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.

 

On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,

 

Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.

 

Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.

 

The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.

 

EAST

Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.

 

However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.

 

Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:

 

AFTER REUNIFICATION

In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)

 

There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.

 

In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.

 

Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.

 

The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian

zone feared by critics has not occurred.

 

In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.

 

Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.

 

On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.

 

Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.

 

M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53

M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt

M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße

M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße

M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20

M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23

M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide

 

In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.

 

In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.

On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.

 

TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF

At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

 

A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.

 

The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.

 

The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.

 

Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.

 

The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.

 

With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.

 

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.

 

After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.

 

After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.

 

BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.

 

Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.

 

FLEET

The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.

 

The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.

 

In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:

 

tram €0.33

coupled set €0.45

bus €0.42

underground train €1.18

 

GT6N

Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.

 

134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.

 

In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.

 

FLEXITY BERLIN

In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.

 

On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.

 

On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.

 

In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.

 

The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.

 

In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.

 

TRAM DEPOTS

Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:

 

Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.

Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.

Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.

Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.

Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.

Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.

Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.

 

Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.

 

GENERAL VIEW

The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany

 

Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:

 

the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)

the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)

the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)

the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)

 

The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.

 

Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.

 

HISTORY

In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.

 

HORSE BUSES

The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.

 

HORSE TRAMS

On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).

 

ELECTRIFICATION

On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.

 

The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-

 

Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.

 

The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.

 

UNDERGROUND TRAMS

On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.

 

GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG

The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.

 

The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).

 

The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).

 

On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.

 

In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.

 

During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.

 

THE NETWORK SINCE 1945

The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.

 

From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.

 

WEST

From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.

 

On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,

 

Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.

 

Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.

 

The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.

 

EAST

Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.

 

However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.

 

Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:

 

AFTER REUNIFICATION

In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)

 

There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.

 

In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.

 

Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.

 

The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian

zone feared by critics has not occurred.

 

In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.

 

Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.

 

On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.

 

Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.

 

M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53

M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt

M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße

M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße

M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20

M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23

M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide

 

In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.

 

In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.

On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.

 

TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF

At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

 

A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.

 

The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.

 

The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.

 

Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.

 

The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.

 

With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.

 

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.

 

After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.

 

After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.

 

BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.

 

Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.

 

FLEET

The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.

 

The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.

 

In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:

 

tram €0.33

coupled set €0.45

bus €0.42

underground train €1.18

 

GT6N

Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.

 

134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.

 

In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.

 

FLEXITY BERLIN

In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.

 

On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.

 

On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.

 

In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.

 

The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.

 

In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.

 

TRAM DEPOTS

Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:

 

Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.

Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.

Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.

Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.

Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.

Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.

Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.

 

Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.

 

GENERAL VIEW

The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany

 

Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:

 

the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)

the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)

the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)

the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)

 

The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Fonte Avatar official FB Page:

A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.

Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.

Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.

“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”

“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”

Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.

Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”

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Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.

Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.

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Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”

“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”

The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.

The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”

The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.

“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”

Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 634

 

Original caption: The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is renowned for its breathtaking images and this snapshot of NGC 634 is definitely that — the fine detail and exceptionally perfect spiral structure of the galaxy make it hard to believe that this is a real observation and not an artist’s impression or a screenshot taken straight from Star Wars. This spiral galaxy was discovered back in the nineteenth century by French astronomer Édouard Jean-Marie Stephan, but in 2008 it became a prime target for observations thanks to the violent demise of a white dwarf star. The type Ia supernova known as SN2008a was spotted in the galaxy and briefly rivalled the brilliance of its entire host galaxy but, despite the energy of the explosion, it can no longer be seen this Hubble image, which was taken around a year and a half later. White dwarfs are thought to be the endpoint of evolution for stars between 0.07 to 8 solar masses, which equates to 97% of the stars in the Milky Way. However, there are exceptions to the rule; in a binary system it is possible for a white dwarf to accrete material from the companion star and gradually put on weight. Like a person gorging on junk food, the star can eventually grow too full — when it exceeds 1.38 solar masses nuclear reactions ignite that produce enormous amounts of energy and the star explodes as a type Ia supernova. This picture was created from images taken with the Wide Field Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images through a yellow filter (F555W, coloured blue) have been combined with images through red (F625W, coloured green) and near-infrared (F775W, coloured red) filters. The total exposure times per filter were 3750 s, 3530 s and 2484 s, respectively and the field of view is 2.5 x 1.5 arcminutes.

Fonte Avatar official FB Page:

A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.

Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.

Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.

“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”

“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”

Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.

Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”

Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”

Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.

Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.

While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.

Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”

“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”

The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.

The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”

The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.

“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”

The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.

 

Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.

 

HISTORY

In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.

 

HORSE BUSES

The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.

 

HORSE TRAMS

On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).

 

ELECTRIFICATION

On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.

 

The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-

 

Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.

 

The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.

 

UNDERGROUND TRAMS

On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.

 

GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG

The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.

 

The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).

 

The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).

 

On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.

 

In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.

 

During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.

 

THE NETWORK SINCE 1945

The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.

 

From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.

 

WEST

From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.

 

On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,

 

Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.

 

Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.

 

The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.

 

EAST

Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.

 

However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.

 

Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:

 

AFTER REUNIFICATION

In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)

 

There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.

 

In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.

 

Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.

 

The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian

zone feared by critics has not occurred.

 

In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.

 

Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.

 

On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.

 

Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.

 

M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53

M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt

M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt

M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße

M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße

M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20

M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23

M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide

 

In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.

 

In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.

On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.

 

TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF

At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

 

A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.

 

The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.

 

The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.

 

Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.

 

The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.

 

With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.

 

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.

 

After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.

 

After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.

 

BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.

 

Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.

 

FLEET

The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.

 

The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.

 

In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:

 

tram €0.33

coupled set €0.45

bus €0.42

underground train €1.18

 

GT6N

Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.

 

134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.

 

In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.

 

FLEXITY BERLIN

In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.

 

On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.

 

On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.

 

In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.

 

The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.

 

In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.

 

TRAM DEPOTS

Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:

 

Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.

Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.

Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.

Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.

Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.

Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.

Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.

 

Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.

 

GENERAL VIEW

The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany

 

Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:

 

the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)

the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)

the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)

the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)

 

The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.

 

WIKIPEDIA

★Rear Perspective Shot Version★

 

Red Eagle Premium Italian Midi Gamma nearing endpoint

 

Agila Bus Transport Corp. | 302508-G | SR IVECO CC150 Euromidi fleet by CMC/Santarosa Motor Works, Inc. (SRWMI - Philippines)

 

🚏 Authorized Franchise Route: Angat, Bulacan - Divisoria, Manila via Norzagaray and Vice Versa

 

🕚 Date Taken on January 2023

📍 Photo Shot Location @ Fugoso St. cor. Rizal Ave. / Oroquieta St., Sta. Cruz, Manila

️ Landmark: LRT 1 Doroteo Jose Station

Map by AAA. Of the US Highways shown on this map, only one - 101 - is still signed. 101 originally ended at the Mexican border, in San Ysidro, but was truncated to its' current southern end in Downtown Los Angeles.

 

US Route 66 was decommissioned in the mid-1980s; it originally ran from Santa Monica to Chicago. Remnant sections of 66 still exist, and long portions of the original route are still in existance, and in some states (Arizona, Oklahoma, and Illinois) are signed as State Route 66.

 

US Route 99, which originally ran from Calexico, CA (on the Mexican border, in the Imperial Valley) to the Canadian border northwest of Bellingham, WA. 99 was first truncated to a southern endpoint just north of the "Grapevine" on the new I-5 freeway. 99 was later decommissioned entirely (in 1964) as I-5 was completed northward through California, Oregon, and Washington. Remnants of it still exist as State Route 99, in disconnected segments in each of those states.

 

US Route 6 was also altered - it originally ran from Long Beach, CA to Provincetown, MA. It's western endpoint was truncated to a junction with US Route 395, more than 200 miles north of L.A., and just north of the Mammoth Lakes area of California.

 

Likewise, US Route 70, which originally ran from Los Angeles to Cedar Island, North Carolina, was truncated - its' current western endpoint is Phoenix, Arizona.

Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year.The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song and a television show in the 50s and 60s.

 

Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion. One realignment moved the western endpoint further west from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

 

Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

 

US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated "State Route 66", and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs and relevant historic information

Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin (recitation: Eduard Doduel) and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he is completely away from the need to acquire a profession and gives himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.

 

In 1801, he traveled with Ionian islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he traveled to Central Greece with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) he created was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.

 

Being a prolific writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, consisting of a sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for his age. For the first time in his work, we witness the real discovery of a "place": While the phenomenon of walking becomes a form of discovering and recognizing (reading) the view, on the other hand, information based on monuments, history, contemporary people and documents all join together in this phenomenon.

 

The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and offers rich data in archeology and topography, constitutes a valuable treasure of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks before the rebellion (before 1821). Dodwell sets off from Venice by taking an intelligent and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he had met in Italy in late April 1801, as an interpreter. He crosses the Adriatic sea and arrives in Corfu under Russian-Ottoman occupation with his travel companions within a month. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Lefkada (Santa Mavra). Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to Greece with William Gell.

 

In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrived in Zakinthos (Zante) from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago.

 

After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's trip to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, he writes in an easy-to-understand manner both about the architectural order of the city ("The houses of the Greeks are lime and the houses of the Turks are painted in red") and its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring (blessed water source / fountain). He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Patra ' Noting that many black slaves were found in Dodwell, Dodwell also made efforts to obtain some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. On the Dodwell route, it documents scientifically its own knowledge as well as the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece and previous travel testimonies.

 

Due to an epidemic in Dodwell Peloponnese, he chose to go to Athens in another way, passing through Nafpaktos (Inebahtı), Galaksidi (watching the carnival shows here) and passing through Amfisa (here he is a guest at the house of a Kefalonian doctor and visits the voivodeship), climbs to Parnasos mountain, Hriso and stops in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through the villages of Arahova and Distomo and takes him to the ancient site of the Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there he continues to other Viotia (Boeotia) villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Passing through the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the relief of the Acropolis relief (relief) marbles.

 

Dodwell will stay here until September and visit almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and the Egina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he writes about the folk dances, music and games of the Greeks, even about baths, even insects and birds.

 

After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come and are highly affected by the high level of living, cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Viotia (Boeotia) and stops by Chalkida and Marathon.

 

He stays in Athens all summer. In December of 1805, we find him touring the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, Acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mikene and Atreus, The ruins of Tiryns and Nauplion, Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are the places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia.

 

In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavrita, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.

 

Dodwell (who has drafted about 400 places and monuments) has been aiming to combine the scientific look with art by adding the engravings to them after using the camera obscura technique and documenting the archaeological ruins he has visited recently. The four volumes of his work, published after Dodwell, are a basic handbook for all travelers traveling around Greece and are still considered a very useful resource for archaeological research today.

 

The work was published 2 years after Dodwell's death in 1834. Publishers received the material to create the book and detailed instructions about the publication from Dodwell himself. Paintings with stone prints and based on Dodwell's own drawings show magnificent relic images from Greece and Italy. These include, in particular, wall forms, acropolis (city hills or endpoints), fortifications, and domed tombs. Engravings showing monuments in Greece are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory texts; the same is not true for monuments in Italy, however, because Dodwell was unable to write his explanations about them. Publishers have not been able to fill this gap. The embroidery of the paintings on stone was made by the well-known engraver C. Hullmandel.

 

Despite the misrepresentation of naming and identification in some of the architectural remains, Dodwell's work remains a pioneer in terms of both its subject and less-known archaeological sites. The aim of the author was to add this book to his two volume volume "Classical and Topographical Tour in Greece", published in 1819.

 

Written By: İoli Vingopoulou

about 50 Hong Kong Protestors gathered in the Victoria Park before the rally , each wearing a different head mask representing a different message of the Hong Kong Protest movement.

raising of the hands with 5 fingers representing "5 demands not one less"

The bullet shot on the goggle reminds of the incident on 11 august 2019 , when:

"a young woman outside Tsim Sha Tsui police station was appeared to have been shot by police with a bean bag round, causing her eye shield to crack.

She was hospitalised after emergency treatment on the scene. Ming Pao cited hospital sources as saying that her right eyeball was ruptured, and her right eyelid and maxilla were also broken. She received an emergency operation.

According to police rules, bean bag rounds should not be shot towards someone’s head – only at the body or limbs."

www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/12/hong-kong-police-shoot-proj...

 

******

‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest

Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.

The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.

The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.

The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.

In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”

Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.

A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.

Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”

In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.

“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”

In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”

“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.

During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.

“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....

 

www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...

  

民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。

news.mingpao.com/ins/港聞/article/20200101/s00001/15778...

Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin (recitation: Eduard Doduel) and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he is completely away from the need to acquire a profession and gives himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.

 

In 1801, he traveled with Ionian islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he traveled to Central Greece with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) he created was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.

 

Being a prolific writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, consisting of a sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for his age. For the first time in his work, we witness the real discovery of a "place": While the phenomenon of walking becomes a form of discovering and recognizing (reading) the view, on the other hand, information based on monuments, history, contemporary people and documents all join together in this phenomenon.

 

The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and offers rich data in archeology and topography, constitutes a valuable treasure of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks before the rebellion (before 1821). Dodwell sets off from Venice by taking an intelligent and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he had met in Italy in late April 1801, as an interpreter. He crosses the Adriatic sea and arrives in Corfu under Russian-Ottoman occupation with his travel companions within a month. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Lefkada (Santa Mavra). Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to Greece with William Gell.

 

In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrived in Zakinthos (Zante) from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago.

 

After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's trip to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, he writes in an easy-to-understand manner both about the architectural order of the city ("The houses of the Greeks are lime and the houses of the Turks are painted in red") and its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring (blessed water source / fountain). He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Patra ' Noting that many black slaves were found in Dodwell, Dodwell also made efforts to obtain some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. On the Dodwell route, it documents scientifically its own knowledge as well as the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece and previous travel testimonies.

 

Due to an epidemic in Dodwell Peloponnese, he chose to go to Athens in another way, passing through Nafpaktos (Inebahtı), Galaksidi (watching the carnival shows here) and passing through Amfisa (here he is a guest at the house of a Kefalonian doctor and visits the voivodeship), climbs to Parnasos mountain, Hriso and stops in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through the villages of Arahova and Distomo and takes him to the ancient site of the Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there he continues to other Viotia (Boeotia) villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Passing through the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the relief of the Acropolis relief (relief) marbles.

 

Dodwell will stay here until September and visit almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and the Egina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he writes about the folk dances, music and games of the Greeks, even about baths, even insects and birds.

 

After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come and are highly affected by the high level of living, cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Viotia (Boeotia) and stops by Chalkida and Marathon.

 

He stays in Athens all summer. In December of 1805, we find him touring the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, Acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mikene and Atreus, The ruins of Tiryns and Nauplion, Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are the places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia.

 

In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavrita, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.

 

Dodwell (who has drafted about 400 places and monuments) has been aiming to combine the scientific look with art by adding the engravings to them after using the camera obscura technique and documenting the archaeological ruins he has visited recently. The four volumes of his work, published after Dodwell, are a basic handbook for all travelers traveling around Greece and are still considered a very useful resource for archaeological research today.

 

The work was published 2 years after Dodwell's death in 1834. Publishers received the material to create the book and detailed instructions about the publication from Dodwell himself. Paintings with stone prints and based on Dodwell's own drawings show magnificent relic images from Greece and Italy. These include, in particular, wall forms, acropolis (city hills or endpoints), fortifications, and domed tombs. Engravings showing monuments in Greece are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory texts; the same is not true for monuments in Italy, however, because Dodwell was unable to write his explanations about them. Publishers have not been able to fill this gap. The embroidery of the paintings on stone was made by the well-known engraver C. Hullmandel.

 

Despite the misrepresentation of naming and identification in some of the architectural remains, Dodwell's work remains a pioneer in terms of both its subject and less-known archaeological sites. The aim of the author was to add this book to his two volume volume "Classical and Topographical Tour in Greece", published in 1819.

 

Written By: İoli Vingopoulou

Routing 30,000 randomly-chosen trips through the paths suggested by 10,000 randomly-chosen geotags. These are perhaps the most interesting routes between the endpoints of the trips, even if not necessarily the most likely.

 

Data from the Twitter streaming API, August, 2011. Base map from OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA.

52 Weeks Project

 

Since one year this building is standing proudly along the A10 East at Science Park. No windows, no residents, no offices, nobody works in this building but the whole digital world passes by here...

Location: Science Park, Watergraafsmeer, Amsterdam

Coordinates: 32°35'34" N 4°95'91" E

Reason: I am fascinated by this building without people. Without windows, without permanent workstations. It is a building filled with servers and huge digital data banks.

Equinix Data Centre: Data growth is increasing so rapidly, traditional centralized storage management methods are no longer feasible. Harvesting data from so many endpoints and aggregating it all in one location is becoming an insurmountable challenge, pointing to the need to store and process data at the edge, where it is collected. A critical component of an Interconnection Oriented Architecture™, Data Hub enables a whole new level of control over business-critical data with direct, secure, high-speed interconnectivity. [ www.equinix.nl ]

Space Invaders: Yes, just one!

To Listen: Jean-Michel Jarre, Armin van Buuren - Stardust (Youtube)

Weather: 23° C, clear skies

Self-portrait technics: Camera on a Sirui carbon tripod with selftimer on 10 seconds.

 

From the AO Venture Summit today (live webcast), with panelists from left to right:

 

* Dan'l Lewin, Corporate VP, Microsoft

* Claudia Fan Munce, Managing Director, IBM Venture Capital Group

* Brian Moriarty, VP, Corporate Affairs, Sun Microsystems

* David Lawee, VP Corporate Development, Google (buys one company/month)

* Jeff Russakow, VP, Global Strategies & Solutions, Symantec

 

Question: What areas are you scouting out for 2009 corporate acquisitions?

 

Microsoft: We do not comment on future plans.

 

IBM: Do your homework on what you can do for a big company.

 

Sun: Cloud computing. We have been enamored with grid computing for years. There are two opportunities for us. First, it’s a demanding environment for systems. Second, we will launch a cloud service ourselves in the coming months. We are interested in more power sensitive data centers as well.

 

Google: Many exciting areas. Instead of 90-day product push cycles, a slower market allows for more fully baked products. We are looking at audio, video codecs, SaaS. One million businesses on our cloud. It’s addicting.

 

Symantec: SaaS, virtualization, cloud-based services based on the consumer, how to repurpose and make existing apps digestible in this new model. Security, malware, keeping good in and bad out. Backup. 6x explosion of data over next three years, and the mix moves from 25% unstructured data to 63%. 75% of corporate IP is in the email inbox. It has become the file system. Greater opportunity there than virtualization. How to backup and store things that are not virtualized? Make it work through the ecosystem. Seachange: cloud and SaaS, proliferation of endpoints, and the endpoint is access point, not the computing center. Challenge for Symantec: how to I protect the data, not the laptop? Many hot trends around that. Archive and backup converge. De-dup, storage and retrieval in the cloud.

Fonte Avatar official FB Page:

A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.

Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.

Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.

“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”

“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”

Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.

Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”

Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”

Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.

Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.

While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.

Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”

“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”

The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.

The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”

The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.

“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”

Fonte Avatar official FB Page:

A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.

Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.

Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.

“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”

“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”

Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.

Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”

Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”

Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.

Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.

While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.

Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”

“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”

The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.

The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”

The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.

“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”

The John F. Kennedy Expressway is a 17.8-mile (28.65 km) long freeway that travels northwest from the Chicago Loop to O'Hare International Airport. The highway is named for the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, and conforms to the Chicago-area convention of using the somewhat misleading suffix Expressway. The Interstate 90 portion of the Kennedy is a part of the much longer I-90 (which runs 3,111.52 miles (5,007.51 km) from Boston, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington). The Kennedy's official endpoints are the Circle Interchange with Interstate 290 (Eisenhower Expressway/Congress Parkway) and the Dan Ryan Expressway (also I-90/94) at the east end, and the O'Hare Airport terminals at the west end. The Interstate 190 portion of the Kennedy is 3.07 miles (4.94 km) long and is meant to serve airport traffic. Interstate 90 picks up the Kennedy destination and runs a further 6.29 miles (10.12 km), before joining with I-94 for the final 8.44 miles (13.58 km).[1]

 

Traveling eastbound from O'Hare, the Kennedy interchanges with the eastern terminus of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Interstate 90) and with the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294) at a complex junction just west of Illinois Route 171 (Cumberland Avenue). The Kennedy later merges with the southern end of the Edens Expressway (Interstate 94) at Montrose Avenue; the Kennedy (at this point both I-90 and I-94) then turns south to its junction with the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways and Congress Parkway at the Circle Interchange in downtown Chicago.

 

With up to 327,000 vehicles traveling on some portions of the Kennedy daily, the Kennedy and its South Side extension, the Dan Ryan, are the busiest roads in Illinois.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Expressway

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

 

OLD CRANE

The Old Crane is a historic harbour crane at the former Ilmenau-Harbour in Lüneburg. The 1797 built crane was at that time the most powerful crane in the northern part of Germany and is still one of the main-sights in Lüneburg.

A crane at this part of Lüneburg harbour is officially mentioned in the history of Lüneburg in the year 1330. At that time Lüneburg was already important, because of its saline. So the main use of this crane was to load the ships with salt from the salines. The ships had to ship the salt mainly to the Hanseatic Town of Lübeck, where the salt was stored in the historic - and still existing - Salt Warehouses (Lübecker Salzspeicher).

And also the huge amount of fire wood was landed from ships with this crane. This fire wood was necessary to boil out the salt from the brine.

 

TECHNIC

This crane is a typical medieval treadwheel crane. It is powered by a man-powered double-treadwheel with a diameter of the lower wheel of 5 meter.

Over the centuries that Lüneburg crane was reconstructed many times. In winter 1795 a flooding with ice caused many damage in Lüneburg. In summer 1797 the crane was repaired by carpenter G. P. Hintze. The present crane is untouched since 1797.

In August 1840 the crane raised his haviest load: a steam locomotive built by Englands George Forrester & Company and transported by sea to Germany. The estimated weight of that locomotive was 9,3 tons. To rotate the treadwheel of the crane they needed 38 men. To ensure the crane has enough power they tested it with the 10 tons of 80 railway rails.

In 1838 the crane already managed to raise a steam locomotive with 14.000 pounds.

With the building of the railroad track Hamburg-Hannover Lüneburg was attached to railroad in 1847. In short time the transport moved from the waterways to rail. So Lüneburg harbour and the crane lost its importance and in 1860 the crane had to stop the business - even it was still intact!

_______________________________________

 

HISTORY OF TREADWHEELS

A treadwheel, or treadmill, is a form of engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference (treadmill), or by a human or animal standing inside it (treadwheel). These devices are no longer used for power or punishment, and the term "treadmill" has come to mean an exercise machine for running or walking in place.

Uses of treadwheels included raising water, to power cranes, or grind grain. They were used extensively in the Greek and Roman world, such as in the reverse overshot water-wheel used for dewatering purposes. They were widely used in the Middle ages to lift the stones in the soaring Gothic cathedrals. There is a literary reference to one in 1225, and one treadwheel crane survives at Chesterfield, Derbyshire and is housed in the Museum. It has been dated to the early 14th century and was housed in the top of the church tower until its removal in 1947. They were used extensively in the Renaissance famously by Brunelleschi during the construction of Florence cathedral.Penal treadmills were used in prisons during the early-Victorian period in the UK as a form of punishment. According to The Times in 1827, and reprinted in William Hone's Table-Book in 1838, the amount prisoners walked per day on average varied, from the equivalent of 6,600 vertical feet at Lewes to as much as 17,000 vertical feet in ten hours during the summertime at Warwick gaol. In 1902, the British government banned the use of the treadwheel as a form of punishment.

_______________________________________

 

STECKNITZ CANAL

The Stecknitz Canal (German: Stecknitzfahrt) was an artificial waterway in northern Germany which connected Lauenburg and Lübeck on the Old Salt Route by linking the tiny rivers Stecknitz (a tributary of the Trave) and Delvenau (a tributary of the Elbe), thus establishing an inland water route across the drainage divide from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. Built between 1391 and 1398, the Stecknitz Canal was the first European summit-level canal and one of the earliest artificial waterways in Europe. In the 1890s the canal was replaced by an enlarged and straightened waterway called the Elbe–Lübeck Canal, which includes some of the Stecknitz Canal's watercourse.

The original artificial canal was 0.85 metres deep and 7.5 metres wide; the man-made segment ran for 11.5 kilometres, with a total length of 97 kilometres including the rivers it linked. The canal included seventeen wooden locks (of which the Palmschleuse at Lauenburg still exists) that managed the 13-metre elevation difference between its endpoints and the highest central part, the Delvenaugraben.

 

HISTORY

In the Middle Ages the trade between the North Sea and Baltic Sea grew dramatically, but the sea journey through Øresund, increasingly important to commercial shipping since the thirteenth century, was time-consuming and dangerous. Therefore, the emerging Hanseatic city of Lübeck and Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg agreed in 1390 to cooperate in the construction of an artificial canal between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea. Construction on the canal began in 1391; thirty barges carrying the first load of salt from Lüneburg reached Lübeck on 22 July 1398.

The Stecknitz Canal soon replaced the existing overland cart road as the main transport mode for Lüneburg salt on the Old Salt Route. In Lübeck the salt was stored in vast salt warehouses and then transferred to ocean-going vessels for export throughout the Baltic region. In the reverse direction the Stecknitz barges transported cereals, furs, herring, ash, timber and other goods from Lübeck, which were reloaded in Lauenburg and transported down the Elbe to Hamburg. Later coal, peat, brick, limestone and gravel were added to the cargo. The importance of the canal was greatest in years in which Øresund was closed to merchant ships because of disputes over the Sound Dues and foreign shipping.

In the fifteenth century traffic peaked, with more than 3,000 shipments of more than 30,000 tons of salt moving on the canal each year. This number declined by the seventeenth century to 400 to 600 shipments (5,000 to 7,000 tons). In 1789 there were still sixty-four shipments carrying approximately 680 tons of salt. Plans for a new Baltic–North Sea canal were proposed as early as the seventeenth century, but none was implemented until the end of the nineteenth century, when the new Elbe–Lübeck Canal was built using parts of the old route of the Stecknitz Canal. For five hundred years the canal was used to transport the "white gold" and other goods; today the Palmschleuse lock in Lauenburg is one of the last remaining parts of the former canal, preserved as an historical monument.

 

TECHNOLOGY

The Stecknitz Canal consisted of an 11.5-kilometre artificial waterway (the Delvenaugraben) linking two minor rivers, the north-flowing Stecknitz and south-flowing Delvenau. The man-made trench itself was about 85 centimetres deep and 7.5 metres wide, though it was enlarged between 1821 and 1823 to a depth of 144 centimetres and a width of 12 metres. Outside the artificial segment the canal followed the tortuous natural watercourses of the two rivers; as a result, the full journey from Lauenburg to Lübeck stretched to a distance of 97 kilometres, even though the straight-line separation between the two cities is only 55 kilometres. The journey along the canal often lasted two weeks or longer due to the number and primitive design of the locks and the difficulty of towing.

The canal's course originally included thirteen locks, which later renovations increased to seventeen. Initially most were one-gate flash locks built into weirs (usually set below the mouth of a tributary creek), where water was dammed until a barge was ready to pass downriver. In Lauenburg the initial course included one chamber lock (the Palmschleuse) because of a watermill whose operation would have been made impossible by a flash lock. Over the course of the canal's lifetime further flash locks were progressively converted to chamber locks until the 17th century.

The canal overcame the drainage divide between the North and Baltic Seas, with a summit height of 17 metres above sea level. In order to supply the top portion of the canal with water, flow was diverted from Hornbeker Mühlenbach. To the north the canal descended to the Ziegelsee by the town of Mölln and then connected to the Stecknitz by a series of eight locks. The southern end of the artificial canal descended to the Delvenau through a staircase of nine locks.

 

BARGES AND DRIVERS

The original salt barges measured roughly 12 metres by 2.5 metres, with a 40-centimetre draft when loaded to capacity with around 7.5 tons of salt, and required at least ten days to make the journey one way. When traveling uphill or through chamber locks the barges had to be hauled by laborers or animals walking the towpath on the banks of the channel. By the nineteenth century newer vessel designs included rigging that eliminated the need for towing (with sufficient wind).

In Lauenburg and Lübeck the barges were unloaded and their contents transferred to ships for export down the Elbe and Trave. Stecknitz barge drivers were only permitted to own one barge each, so they could not acquire great wealth in the trade; in the long run this ensured their dependence upon the Lübeck salt merchants, who were not bound by any such limitations and amassed great fortunes. The guild of the Stecknitzfahrer (Stecknitz barge drivers) still exists today in Lübeck and meets annually at the Kringelhöge to celebrate the guild's history.

_________________________________

 

Der Alte Kran (Schreibweise früher auch Krahn) ist ein historischer Hafenkran am ehemaligen Ilmenau-Hafen in Lüneburg. Der 1797 erbaute Kran, der damals zu den leistungsfähigsten in ganz Norddeutschland gehörte, prägt bis heute das Bild des Wasserviertels und gilt als eines der Wahrzeichen der Stadt.

 

TECHNIK

Der Kran ist aus tragendem Holzfachwerk gebaut, welches als Wetterschutz mit einer Bretterverkleidung versehen wurde; die Dachflächen sind mit Kupferplatten gedeckt. Der Unterteil mit kreisförmigem Grundriss (Durchmesser: acht Meter) ist feststehend. Der Oberteil mit dem Kranausleger ist drehbar gelagert (ähnlich einer Holländerwindmühle). Vier Sandsteinblöcke von je etwa 200 kg dienen als Gegengewicht zur Last. Die Kettenwinde im Oberteil wird angetrieben über eine 9 m hohe Königswelle, diese wiederum durch ein doppeltes Tretrad mit 5 m Durchmesser im Unterteil.

 

In Stade wurde 1977 ein Nachbau am Hansehafen errichtet, der heute als Informationszentrum für Stader Stadtgeschichte dient; ein zweiter, funktionstüchtiger Nachbau befindet sich im Hebezeug-Museum in Witten in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

 

GESCHICHTE

Ein Kran am Standort des heutigen Kranes am Lüneburger Hafen wird erstmals 1330 urkundlich erwähnt. Er diente neben dem Heben anderer Waren vor allem dem Betrieb der Lüneburger Saline, nämlich einerseits zum Verschiffen des dort produzierten Salzes (insbesondere über den Stecknitzkanal nach Lübeck, aber auch in andere Städte) und andererseits zum Anlanden des Brennholzes, welches für den Betrieb der Sudhäuser benötigt wurde. Der Kran teile sich die Arbeit mit den kleineren Winden des benachbarten Lagerhauses (damals Heringshaus, heute Altes Kaufhaus genannt). In einer Verordnung des Lüneburger Stadtrates war festgelegt, welche Waren von welchem Kran zu heben waren und welche Gebühren („Krangeld“) dafür zu entrichten waren.

 

Der ursprüngliche Kran wurde über die Jahrhunderte immer wieder um- und ausgebaut. In seiner heutigen Form besteht der Kran fast unverändert seit 1797. Im Winter 1795 wurden viele Bauwerke im Hafen durch ein Hochwasser mit Eisgang stark beschädigt, darunter auch der Kran und die benachbarte Brücke. Der Kran wurde im Sommer 1797 vom Zimmermann G. P. Hintze unter der Leitung des Landbauverwalters Kruse in neuer Form wieder aufgebaut.

 

Am 13. August 1840 hob der Kran seine schwerste Last an Land: eine Dampflokomotive für die Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn, die in England von George Forrester & Company gebaut und auf dem Wasserweg nach Deutschland transportiert worden war. Das Gewicht der Lok wurde auf bis zu 60 Schiffspfund (ca. 9,3 Tonnen) geschätzt. Zum Drehen des Tretrades wurde dabei die Kraft von 38 Menschen benötigt. Als Belastungstest wurde vorher ein Paket mit 80 Eisenbahnschienen mit etwa 20.000 Pfund Gewicht angehoben. Zwei Jahre zuvor hatte der Kran bereits eine leichtere Lok mit etwa 14.000 Pfund gehoben.

 

Mit dem Bau der Eisenbahnlinie Hamburg-Hannover, die 1847 Lüneburg erreichte, verlagerte sich der Warentransport von und nach Lüneburg binnen kurzer Zeit vom Binnenwasserweg auf die Schiene. In der Folge verlor der Hafen und somit auch der Kran rapide an Bedeutung. Im Jahre 1860 stellte der Kran aus wirtschaftlichen Gründen seinen Betrieb ein (obwohl er technisch weiterhin intakt war).

__________________________

 

GESCHICHTE DER TRETMÜHLE

Eine Tretmühle (auch Tretrad oder Laufrad) ist ein seit dem Römischen Reich bis in die Moderne benutzter Antrieb für Mühlen und insbesondere für Hebe-Vorrichtungen (Krane). Sie arbeitet nach dem Prinzip des Wellrads und nutzt die Körperkraft von Menschen oder Tieren.

 

Heute wird das Wort Tretmühle im übertragenen Sinne für eine monotone Tätigkeit oder Tagesablauf benutzt.

 

KONSTRUKTION UND BETRIEB

Kernstück einer Tretmühle sind ein oder mehrere (meist zwei), übermannshohe hölzerne Treträder („Fabricae pedales“, Fußwerke, Laufräder, Durchmesser von 3 m bis 5 m) mit meist acht Holz-Speichen auf jeder Seite. Die Räder waren auf einer schweren, horizontalen Holzwelle angebracht, die bei mittelalterlichen Tretkränen mit Drehdach in einer quadratischen Holzkonstruktion als Rad-„Träger“ oder auf freistehenden Radlagern ruhte (bei römischen Kränen und als festmontierte Hebevorrichtung). Bei Mühlen (Kornmühlen, Pumpmühlen etc.) war die horizontale Antriebsachse mit dem Mahlwerk oder Pumpwerk verbunden, bei den Hebevorrichtungen saß eine Tretvorrichtung auf der Achse, entweder in deren Verlängerung oder auch zwischen den Treträdern. Im einfachsten Fall war die Tretvorrichtung ein Abschnitt auf der Achse mit Begrenzungsringen. Die Tretvorrichtung nahm Seil oder Kette auf. In den Treträdern, deren Innenfläche (Lauffläche) mit rutschmindernden Trittleisten versehen war, liefen die Radläufer, Tret- oder Windenknechte (auch Windenfahrer genannt, bei Kranen auch Kranenknechte) und setzten damit den Mechanismus in die gewünschte Richtung in Gang. Es gab auch Ausführungen ähnlich einem Wasserrad, bei dem die Menschen außen auf schaufelartigen Trittbrettern liefen. Auf mittelalterlichen Baustellen galten die Windenknechte (bis ins 18. Jahrhundert waren Tretradantriebe stark verbreitet) als hoch- bis höchstbezahlte Arbeitskräfte. Die Tätigkeit war mühsam, extrem anstrengend und in Hebevorrichtungen auch gefährlich. Das Halten der Lasten war schwierig, weil die Laufräder nicht gesichert werden konnten, um die Last während des Drehvorganges auf Höhe zu halten. Auch das Ablassen der Lasten barg Gefahr, weil sich die Last durch ihre Eigenmasse selbständig machen und die Männer in den Treträdern ins „Rotieren“ und „Schleudern“ (Redewendung) bringen konnte: es gab zum Teil schwere und tödliche Unfälle. Zum Heben einer Last auf eine Höhe von 4 m mussten die Windenknechte in den Laufrädern etwa 56 m an Laufstrecke zurücklegen (vom Achs- und Raddurchmesser abhängig: bei 4 m Raddurchmesser und 0,4 m Achsdurchmesser entspricht eine Radumdrehung 12,56 m Laufstrecke und 1,26 m Wickellänge (= Hubhöhe), das sind 50,24 m Laufstrecke und 5 m Hub). Das bedeutete für einen kompletten Hebe- und Senkvorgang eine Gesamtstrecke von etwa 132 bis 140 m. Bei solcher Tätigkeit musste jeder sich auf den anderen verlassen können. Viel Erfahrung und Kondition war vonnöten, um die harte Tätigkeit im Akkord (berechnet nach gelöschter Ladung gemäß einer Gebührenliste durch den Kranmeister) gewinnbringend zu schaffen. Zwischen 15 und mehr als 20 Mann arbeiteten in und an einem mittelalterlichen Ladekran. Sie waren zum Teil in der „Aufläder-Zunft“ organisiert, dem ursprünglichen Wort für die Ladetätigkeit am Kran.

 

EINSATZBEREICHE

In der Schifffahrt kamen beim Betrieb der seit dem Mittelalter verbreiteten Hafenkräne zwecks Zeitgewinn gewöhnlich Doppeltreträder zum Einsatz, die an beiden Seiten eines drehbaren Turms befestigt waren. Diese Turm-Tretkräne waren entweder aus Holz oder Stein gebaut und konnten beim Verladen eine Last von bis 2,5 Tonnen bewältigen. Es wird geschätzt, dass circa 80 Tretkräne an 32 Kranstandorten am Rhein mit Nebenflüssen im Einsatz waren, im gesamten deutschsprachigem Raum sogar ca. doppelt so viele.

 

Verbreitet war der Einsatz der Treträder auch beim Betrieb von Mühlen und beim Bau großer Gebäude, insbesondere der mittelalterlichen Kathedralen, wo Tretradkräne als Einzel- oder Doppelräder in die Dachkonstruktion integriert waren. Im Freiburger Münster, Gmünder Münster, Straßburger Münster, in St. Marien und St.Nikolai Stralsund sowie in der Abtei des Mont-Saint-Michel sind diese beispielsweise noch vorhanden. Bis 1868 befand sich auf dem bis dahin unvollendeten Südturm des Kölner Doms ein durch Treträder angetriebener Baukran aus dem 15. Jahrhundert.

 

Noch Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts mussten in den britischen Kolonien Sträflinge in den Tretmühlen arbeiten. Zwei solcher Mühlen, zynisch als „dancing academies“ bezeichnet, wurden ab 1823 in Sydney zum Antrieb von Getreidemühlen eingesetzt. Da diese Mühlen großen Profit abwarfen, wurden sechs weitere in Betrieb genommen. Die Arbeitszeit betrug bis zu zwölf Stunden täglich, die Leistung wurde mit der Dampfmaschine in Relation gesetzt und mit 70 Watt pro Arbeiter angegeben. Aus dem Jahr 1850 wird berichtet, dass 28 Sträflinge die Arbeit in der Tretmühle verweigerten und den Tod durch Erhängen vorzogen. Auch Frauen mussten in den Tretmühlen arbeiten, auf Schwangerschaft wurde keine Rücksicht genommen.

 

WIKIPEDIA

How Will Biological Progress Transform the World? "Imagine a genetic code with four-base codons in place of three, but still only encoding 20 amino acids. Every mutation from a coding codon could land on an unused codon in a 4D space of 256 combinations. We could make a fail-fast genetic code that cannot evolve."

 

In our evolution, the sparse 64-to-20 encoding allows some soft errors to accumulate in the adjacent possible. In Endy’s thought experiment, they’d start with evolved artifacts that arose through traditional means, where codon adjacency is endemic to the process. If they then remap it to a sparse coding matrix, with "firewalls" between all coding regions, they’d have to reengineer the codon-amino acid mapping, and I would think that's non-trivial. I like moon shot thinkers like that!

 

Many humans seem to presume we are the endpoint of evolution, so it's good to give them some hope. =)

 

On enhancing human intelligence genetically? Drew: "I would ask the physicists what the heat flux limit is for the brain before it melts"

 

I got to go get my mic on to go on stage now… Agenda

Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin (recitation: Eduard Doduel) and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he is completely away from the need to acquire a profession and gives himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.

 

In 1801, he traveled with Ionian islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he traveled to Central Greece with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) he created was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.

 

Being a prolific writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, consisting of a sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for his age. For the first time in his work, we witness the real discovery of a "place": While the phenomenon of walking becomes a form of discovering and recognizing (reading) the view, on the other hand, information based on monuments, history, contemporary people and documents all join together in this phenomenon.

 

The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and offers rich data in archeology and topography, constitutes a valuable treasure of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks before the rebellion (before 1821). Dodwell sets off from Venice by taking an intelligent and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he had met in Italy in late April 1801, as an interpreter. He crosses the Adriatic sea and arrives in Corfu under Russian-Ottoman occupation with his travel companions within a month. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Lefkada (Santa Mavra). Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to Greece with William Gell.

 

In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrived in Zakinthos (Zante) from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago.

 

After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's trip to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, he writes in an easy-to-understand manner both about the architectural order of the city ("The houses of the Greeks are lime and the houses of the Turks are painted in red") and its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring (blessed water source / fountain). He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Patra ' Noting that many black slaves were found in Dodwell, Dodwell also made efforts to obtain some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. On the Dodwell route, it documents scientifically its own knowledge as well as the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece and previous travel testimonies.

 

Due to an epidemic in Dodwell Peloponnese, he chose to go to Athens in another way, passing through Nafpaktos (Inebahtı), Galaksidi (watching the carnival shows here) and passing through Amfisa (here he is a guest at the house of a Kefalonian doctor and visits the voivodeship), climbs to Parnasos mountain, Hriso and stops in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through the villages of Arahova and Distomo and takes him to the ancient site of the Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there he continues to other Viotia (Boeotia) villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Passing through the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the relief of the Acropolis relief (relief) marbles.

 

Dodwell will stay here until September and visit almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and the Egina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he writes about the folk dances, music and games of the Greeks, even about baths, even insects and birds.

 

After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come and are highly affected by the high level of living, cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Viotia (Boeotia) and stops by Chalkida and Marathon.

 

He stays in Athens all summer. In December of 1805, we find him touring the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, Acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mikene and Atreus, The ruins of Tiryns and Nauplion, Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are the places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia.

 

In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavrita, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.

 

Dodwell (who has drafted about 400 places and monuments) has been aiming to combine the scientific look with art by adding the engravings to them after using the camera obscura technique and documenting the archaeological ruins he has visited recently. The four volumes of his work, published after Dodwell, are a basic handbook for all travelers traveling around Greece and are still considered a very useful resource for archaeological research today.

 

The work was published 2 years after Dodwell's death in 1834. Publishers received the material to create the book and detailed instructions about the publication from Dodwell himself. Paintings with stone prints and based on Dodwell's own drawings show magnificent relic images from Greece and Italy. These include, in particular, wall forms, acropolis (city hills or endpoints), fortifications, and domed tombs. Engravings showing monuments in Greece are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory texts; the same is not true for monuments in Italy, however, because Dodwell was unable to write his explanations about them. Publishers have not been able to fill this gap. The embroidery of the paintings on stone was made by the well-known engraver C. Hullmandel.

 

Despite the misrepresentation of naming and identification in some of the architectural remains, Dodwell's work remains a pioneer in terms of both its subject and less-known archaeological sites. The aim of the author was to add this book to his two volume volume "Classical and Topographical Tour in Greece", published in 1819.

 

Written By: İoli Vingopoulou

(further pictures and informations you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Austrian State Archives (ÖStA)

Austrian authority

Oesterreichisches Staatsarchiv.svg

State level Federation

Position of the authority subordinated agency

Supervisor(s)/organs to the Federal Chancellery

Founded in 1749 as the Secret House Archive (Empress Maria Theresia)

Headquarters Vienna Highway (Landstraße, 3rd district of Vienna)

Board of Directors Univ. Doz Dr. Wolfgang Maderthaner

www.oesta.gv.at site

 

Central Archives building of the Austrian State Archives in Nottendorfergasse 2 in Vienna 3

The Austrian State Archives (ÖStA) in Vienna is the central archive of the Republic of Austria. It keeps on the basis of the Federal Records Act the archives of the Federation. The tasks of the Austrian State Archives are therein described as follows: capturing, taking over, keeping, obtaining, placing, organizing, making accessible, exploiting and utilisation of archived documents of the Federation for the exploration of the history and present, for other research and science, for the legislation, jurisdiction, administration as well as for legitimate concerns of people.

As far as in the public records monuments are concerned, the Austrian State Archives according to Monument Protection Act in place of the Federal Monuments Office is also responsible for the preservation.

History

The origin of the Austrian State Archives goes back to the year 1749 when Empress Maria Theresa in the course of an administrative reform installed a secret Hausarchiv. The establishment was related to the new, centralized administration, which required a separate archive. For other centers of administration such as Prague, Graz and Innsbruck documents were taken to Vienna.

In the historical analysis is important to note that there have been earlier archives and collections of documents, whose contents were incorporated into the new archive.

In the 19th Century the name House, Court and State Archives became then usual.

1951 there was a scandal because Heinz Grill, archivist in the House, Court and State Archives, had stolen gold and silver bulls over the years and sold to metal dealers ("affair Grill").

The archive departments

The modern Austrian State Archives is divided into several sections:

Archives of the Republic

The in 1983 founded archive of the Republic is the youngest archive department. It is the center of contemporary research in Austria and archival responsible for the evaluation, discarding, taking over and custody, safeguarding, maintenance and overhaul, accessing, compilation and exploitation of those written or typed material supply, which in the Austrian central authorities (all ministries, central federal departments and subordinated offices) have been produced since 1918.

Since the introduction of the electronic file (ELAKimBUND) in the Austrian federal administration (nationwide for all federal agencies since 2004), the Archives of the Republic is also responsible for the implementation of the digital archiving of this written material. Since 2007 it has been actively worked on an appropriate solution for long-term preservation of the "born digital" act. The startup of the digital archive Austria took place in 2012.

General Administration Archive

The General Administration Archives preserves the records of the central authorities responsible for internal administration of the Habsburg Monarchy from 16th Century, over 12,700 running meters, a significant collection of maps and plans, and about 5,000 documents. In its origins, the General Administration Archive goes back to the first-time centralisation of the old registries of the court chancelleries in founding the "Directorium in publicis et cameralibus" in 1749. The archive materials of the General Administrative archive were decimated by the Justice Palace fire in July 1927 considerably.

The public records which are kept in this division are divided into 10 thematic groups (= inventory groups), which for their part again contain files of various central services:

Inventory group Internal Affairs: Chancellery, Ministry of Interior, police authorities, Council of Ministers, rights of the Austrian State of Lower Austria, city expansion fund

Inventory group Justice: Supreme Justice office, Ministry of Justice, prosecutors, Linz Regional Court, Imperial Court, Administrative Court

Inventory group Instruction and Cultus: Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Ministry of Education, Old and New Cultus

Inventory group Commerce: Department of Commerce, Post Office, Ministry of Public Works, Navy Department, Patent Office

Inventory group Agriculture: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Operations, Forestry and Dömänendirektion (Domain Directorate) Vienna, Forest Institute Mariabrunn, teacher Audit Commission, Agricultural Society

Inventory group Transport: United Court Chancellery, General Court Chamber, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public buildings, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and National Economy, Department of Commerce, the General Inspectorate of the Austrian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Railway Construction Department, State railway administrations, private railway companies

Inventory group Family archives and Estates

Inventory group Nobility: imperial nobility files, Hofadelsakten (Court nobility records), pedigrees

Inventory group Audiovisual Collection: Politics and Public life since 1945, Austrian landscapes and buildings, customs, history, science, technology, medicine, business, art, culture and sport

Inventory group Plan and Posters collection: collection of plans comprised of the following funds: Hofbauamt (Court building authorities), chancellery, General Construction Authority, Lower Austrian Civil Construction Authority, Bausektion (construction section) of the Ministry of the Interior, Bausektion of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Public Works, State Baudirektionen (construction directorates), Waterway Construction Authority, Dikasterialgebäudeverwaltung (dicasterila building administration), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture and Teaching, Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Stiftungshofbuchhaltung (Foundation Court Bookkeeping), Ministry of Justice, city expansion fund

War Archive

The beginning of a proper Military Archives in the Habsburg monarchy is to fix in the year 1711, when Emperor Joseph I. ordered the creation of an archivist office with the Hofkriegsrat, the highest central authority for the Habsburg warfare. Already in the first half of the 18th Century, this hofkriegsrätliche (Court's warfare council) archives of the chancelleries has gradually evolved into a kind of military central archives, especially since 1776 through the merger of the hofkriegsrätlichen plan collection with the combat engineer the archives of the chancelleries in reference to cartographic material became to a central contact point. In addition, however, the aim was put on experiences in the past, lessons from former campaigns for the present and future. In view of the above, Emperor Joseph II in 1779 ordered the documentary revision of the campaigns since 1740. This access to the history of war intended Archduke Karl to continue, too, by 1801 disposing the creation of the Imperial War archive. This had according to its founding mission to collect documents and maps, but also scientifically and journalistically to evaluate.

The Imperial and Royal (from 1889 kuk) Kriegsarchiv (war archive) initially consisted of a department of scriptures, a card archive, library and a department of military history works. By the end of the 19th Century the war archive had the bulk of the until then elsewhere stored military documentary material taken on. During the First World War, the war archive had with the assumption of mass documentary material from the front considerably more tasks to carry out, for which the number of staff of the archives substantially had to be increased. After the end of war in 1918 the war archive became a civilian institution, to which after the fall of the monarchy have been given masses of new documentary material from previously independent departments and liquidated offices. During the Second World War, the war archive as Army Archives Vienna was a part of the German Army archive organization under the supreme command of the Wehrmacht. After considerable losses as a result of the war, the War Archives in 1945 became a department of the newly created Austrian State Archives. In the years 1991-1993 moved the since 1905 in the Stiftskaserne (barracks) in the 7th District of Vienna housed war archive to the Central Archives building in Vienna III.

The war archive contains about 180,000 document cartons and 60,000 account books on 50 shelf kilometers and is by far the most important military archives in Central Europe. Its map collection with over 600,000 maps and plans is the largest in Austria. There is also a collection of about 400,000 images. The former library of the war archive is one of the most extensive collections of older military historical literature .

The in 22 inventory groups aggregated inventories of the Kriegsarchiv, in their structure these two fundamentally different archiving traditions are reflected to this day, can be broadly divided into five major blocks:

Personnel files of officers, petty officers, crews and officials of the armed forces of about 1740 to 1918; reward acts (1789-1958), so documents on military awards, which the archives of the Military Maria Theresa Order is attached.

Feldakten (combat files) with material on the operations of the imperial or kk Field armies from 16th Century to 1882 (Old Field records and Army files) as well as on 1914-1918 (Army High Command, New field files - Neue Feldakten).

Most High command, main, subordinate and territorial authorities. This group brings together the recordings of major institutions in the entourage of the emperor (especially of the Military Chancellery, the Generaladjutantur (general adjutancy) and the General Staff), the central military services (Hofkriegsrat (Court War Council) 1557-1848, War Office 1848-1918, Ministry of National Defence from 1868 to 1918) and a number of other authorities, institutions and territorial command posts such as the disability Office, the Apostolic field Vicariate, the supreme combat engineer and artillery authorities, the military educational institutions, the military invalids houses and single General and Military command posts in the countries.

Navy and Luftfahrtruppe (air force troup (19th - 20th century)

Collections, which include in particular the maps and plan collection, image collection, the manuscripts and a very important collection of military scripture estates.

The war archive is now a "historical archive". The here kept official written or printed material essentially ends with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War (1918). The collections of the Kriegsarchiv (war archive) on the other hand constantly increase.

Financial and Hofkammerarchiv [ Edit]

The financial and Hofkammerarchiv (Court Chamber archive) arose when in 1945 the previously separately kept inventories of the Hofkammerarchiv and financial archives were merged. The Court Chamber, founded in 1527 was the central financial authority of the Habsburg monarchy. 1848 took over the newly founded Treasury its duties. The archive contains financial records that are especially important for historians. In historical Archive building in the Johannesgasse the Directorate room of Franz Grillparzer is still preserved, working there from 1832 to 1856 as director. With 1st December 2006, the Department of Finance and Court Chamber archive was incorporated into the General Administration Archive. The bulk of the archival material was moved into the central archive building in the Nottendorfergasse.

House, Court and State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives in Minoritenplatz

Board on State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives, Minoritenplatz 1, 1749 by Maria Theresa (1740-1780) was established as a central archive of the Habsburg dynasty. By creating a well-ordered document repository unifiying the hitherto over several sites scattered important House and state documents in Vienna, it should be ensured that the legal titles and rulers' rights of the dynasty in the future were quickly available when required.

Of the today in 11 inventory groups organised inventories of the House, Court and State Archives the following topics have been given priority:

the history of the Habsburg dynasty

the activities of the supreme Court offices and the Imperial Cabinet

Diplomacy and foreign policy of the Danube monarchy

highest Administration and Jurisdiction in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation whose imperial dignity the Habsburgs held for centuries almost without interruption until the dissolution of the National Association in 1806.

Worthy of mention furthermore in the House, Court and State Archives deposited ruler and family archives, estates, a manuscript collection, a collection of seal and stamp imprints as well as a plan and map collection.

Showpiece under the "Collections" of the archive department is but unquestionably the document collection formed from different provenances.

Overall, stores the in a 1899-1902 built landmarked Archive functional building at Vienna's Minoritenplatz housed House, Court and State Archives on 16,000 running meters, 130,000 accounting records and document cartons, 75,000 documents, 15,000 maps and plans, and about 3000 manuscripts.

The oldest piece is a document that Emperor Louis the Pious issued in the year 816. The chronological endpoint sets the year 1918. The House, Court and State Archives is among the "historical" departments of the Austrian State Archives, who do no longer grow by receiving documentary material deliveries from the Austrian federal ministries.

The great importance of the House, Court and State Archives for international research is based on the wide geographical catchment area and the variety of its collection. Due to the territorial expansion of the Habsburg rule from the 15th Century and the literally global relations of the dynasty, the here stored archival material encompasses practically all continents.

In addition to the "classical" access of diplomatic and political history, the archive also offers a social and cultural history oriented research rich material.

Restoration workshop

The restoration workshop of the ÖStA belongs alongside those of the National Library and the Federal Monuments Office to the most important restoration facilities for paper, parchment, sealing and bookbindery in Austria.

Significant archivists

Ludwig Bittner (1877-1945), archivist 1904-45

Anna Coreth (1915-2008), Director of the House, Court and State Archives

Walter Goldinger (1910-1990), Director-General in 1973

Lothar Gross (1887-1944), director of the House, Court and State Archives

Joseph Knechtl (1771-1838), archivist 1806-1834, 1834-1838 Director

Hanns Leo Mikoletzky (1907-1978), Director-General 1968-72

Lorenz Mikoletzky (* 1945), Director-General from 1994 to 2011

Rudolf Neck

Kurt Peball (1928-2009), Director-General 1983-89

Gebhard Rath (1902-1979), Director-General 1956-68

Leo Santifaller (1890-1974), Director-General 1945-54

Erika Weinzierl (* 1925), archivist at the House, Court and State Archives 1948-64

Publications

The Austrian State Archives publishes the periodical Communications of the Austrian State Archives (Mösta) appearing in annual volumes since 1948. In addition, archive inventories, supplementary volumes to the communications and exhibition catalogs are published.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterreichisches_Staatsarchiv

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A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.

Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.

Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.

“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”

“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”

Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.

Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”

Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”

Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.

Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.

While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.

Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”

“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”

The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.

The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”

The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.

“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”

 

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

 

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

 

1/160 sec; f/8.0; ISO 100

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM

Manual; Pattern metering

Photoshop Post-processed

Conor Nitely looks up, noticing Guin then. Cheeks go red like a fire engine. He turns quickly to Phoebe, rolling the clay fast in his hands as he speaks a little too loudly now. "SO...ERRR...YOU KNOW TINKERBELL?"

 

Phoebe Scribe tucked her ruler back into the side pocket of her backpack and trailed her gaze around the others' clay doors, before crumpling hers up and starting to read the new word. She mouths it out, and sets about making the shape of a bottle of beer. She rolls it on the ground, and begins shaping a column of clay. Her face turns bright red when Conor calls her tinkerbell. She swallowed hard. "Uh, I's not tinkerbell. Audr-- Phoebe."

 

Conor Nitely shakes his head, clay still rolling /fast/ between those hands. It's unrecognizable as a bottle really, more like a sad worm. "NO TINKERBELL..." Cheeks go three shades deeper when he realizes he's shouting. Three deep breaths then, quieter as he continues. "Tinkerbell has a chain. Says Boo. Saw you on the bridge." He looks down at the misshappen lump in his hand, smashing it back together before he continues. Nervous eyes flick to the crowd as he leans in to whisper to the girl.

 

Phoebe Scribe started shaping her bottle with her hands, and grew more frustrated when it wouldn't shape the way she wants. She heard Conor's whisper and blinked, mouthing an "o" when she turned to look at him, promptly shutting up and furiously working on her bottle.

 

Conor Nitely scowled, mostly at himself. He'd done quite well tonight with the new girl, yelling at her then seeming to make her upset. He concentrated on his clay for awhile, the lump still not resembling any type of bottle. Not from lack of trying though. A sigh of relief at the next word. This one /had/ to be easier.

 

Conor Nitely nodded slowly, finger raising to his own lips to mimic the gesture. "Conor doesn't tell," he whispered back, molding the first tube for his flashlight. Unruly hair flopped as he shook his head, remembering to correct himself. "/I/ don't tell. And I'm Conor. See-Oh-En-Oh-Are."

 

Phoebe Scribe nodded and started to roll a second piece for her flashlight, making a little lump that she meant to resemble a button. "Tinkerbell's nice to me." She held the flashlight with thwo hands, so it wouldn't flop or break apart. "Nice to meetcha Conor."

 

Conor Nitely looked a little surprised at that, not sure they were still talking about the same person. "She's nice to me too..." he started hesistantly. "Didn't shoot me yet." Sage nod then, hands absently rolling a second lump for the head of his flashlight. "Did you just move here? 'Cause I haven't seen you before. Just at the bridge. But I /wasn't/ running away. Just...walking fast."

 

Phoebe Scribe smirked a little when she looked up at him. "I dun think she shoots kids." She squished her flashlight flat and pounded on it with her fist. "Um, well..." She hemmed and hawed before leaning in to murmur. "Kinda. It's complicated. Live with m'daddeh now. Used ta live with my grandpere." Her eyes lower to the clay and she pounds on it a little harder.

 

Conor Nitely rolls the word around in his mouth, tripping on it for a moment as he repeated, "Grandpere." He leans back into her to whisper back. "Good you have a daddy to live with right? Is he nice?" A quick plea to Sister D, brow creasing as he wonders if she's about to take the clay away. "Can I take some home...err back with me Sister? I need to make something that's not a door or flashlight or bottle then get the moisture out."

 

Phoebe Scribe looked back at the nun and beamed a smile briefly before she shrugged at Conor. "He's alright, but ain't never home. Tinkerbell says he's an asshole though." She whispered the swear word, cringing as it left her lips. "WHat 'bout you?"

 

Conor Nitely shrugged, smirking only slightly at the swear. A vague answer at best. "Sometimes I stay in the barracks and sometimes I stay in the Nook and Cranberry. Has a balcony!" He broke into a full grin at Sister D's words, small hands reaching out quickly to snag two chunks of clay. The pink piece he tried to palm, hiding it as best he could as he shaped it into a ball. The white sat untouched for a moment. "Sometimes not home is good though? If he's...you know...an..." he hesitated at repeating the word, eyes flicking to Guin in a -not around her- look.

 

Phoebe Scribe scooted forward to grab a sheet of paper and a few colors, picking red and green like she typically carried around in her bag. She blew air from between her lips, and nodded to Conor. "Not home is good. What's nook and cranberry?" Her fingers curl around a green crayon and she brings it to the paper.

 

Conor Nitely watched her go for the paper, suddenly realizing clay time was over. He'd shove both chunks into his bag quickly, relieved the pink was now out of sight. "Nook and Cranberry is like an alley 'cept it doesn't have two ways out. Just one. Alleys have two ways out more like a tunnel." He chewed on his lip for a minute, hand just poised over a piece of paper as he tried to determine what to draw. "Maybe I can ask if I can show you sometime. Kinda like a secret club. Have to ask permission first."

 

Phoebe Scribe started coloring the lower half of her sheet green, looking deep in concentration once she fills the half solidly. She picked up the red, and colored patches all over the grass while listening to Conor. She plays it cool and nods, though she's bouncing in place with excitement. "Sounds good. I mean, cool." The word 'cookies' clearly caught her attention, and her gaze snapped to Darkness.

 

Conor Nitely clapped his hands over his mouth, diverted by the word 'cookies.' The paper remained untouched, not even a scribble drawn on it. "Noooo donuts though," he lectured. "Makes you sick and stink."

 

Phoebe Scribe's brow furrowed. "Donuts don't make ya stink or sick...do they?" She looked at Conor quizically, then the adults around the circle for verification.

 

Phoebe Scribe's eyes darted between River and Conor. "Naw, don't think I wanna." Her head shook side to side. She'd given up on her picture drawing - contact with people was too good to sit and color through when she did that all the time by herself. Her hand reached out for a cookie, before she looked up at the nun and froze in place. "May I please have a cookie?"

 

Conor Nitely reached out for a cookie, hesitating for a moment before taking a second. "Don't eat cookies from River just in case," he said bossily to Phoebe, spinning around on his knees then. One cookie was held out to Elise, his voice rising as he all but shouted. "I DIDN'T SAY THANK YOU MISS ELISE ABOUT CATY. SO ERRRR...." The cookie hung there, suspended mid-air in his hand. It was unclear really, if it was meant to be a peace offering or she was a test subject. "SO HERE."

 

Phoebe Scribe reached for a cookie and snapped it in half, sitting back on her heels. "Thank ya ma'am." She took a timid bite, and watched River for a moment to see if he was serious.

 

Conor Nitely nodded, pivoting back around them. Those cheeks were pink again, crimson even when he realized Guin was still there. He just dropped his head then, taking rough bites from his cookie. Poisoned or not, he wasn't listening just then.

  

Phoebe Scribe watched Conor take bites of his cookie, and finally chewed the first bite of her own, swallowing it as if it was a heavy brick instead of a treat. She looks to Conor and asks. "So...when's school done? After cookies?" It sounded like a good endpoint to her, as her attention was waning.

 

Puddin takes a bite of her cookie, chewing and swallowing before glancing over to her daddy. She suddenly remembers her promise to her momma and shakes her head slightly, "just a rooms... I like tha colour reds... and pinks too and black."

 

River Grau smiled slightly as it seemed a couple people were more hesitant, even if they didn't believe his bluff. Capping the marker, he looked over at the pink bal of clay Pudding was done using. Stabbing it with the marker, he brought it over to Clementine. "Would yah like to use the pik clay?" Girls liked pink and perhaps this was a truce from being mean before.

 

Conor Nitely shrugged, crumbs going everywhere but in his mouth. "Sometimes it ends after show and tell if you bring a baby in a bag and sometimes it ends when people start fighting." Wise nod then, a quick glance back at River.

 

Darkness Odigaunt is finally relaxing again. She answers the girl's question "It is. When you finish art and cookies, you can go."

 

Clementine Cristole looks to River's pink clay. "Sure, thank you." She'd hold her hand out, ready to take the clay if the boy wasn't mean and took his offer back. The pink reminded her of her Auntie Dazy.

 

Iohannes Crispien would allow Clemmy to reach ofr a cookie, grabbing one himself. He then helps flip to the locutions section, then point to the phrase, 'Ab imo pectore' He'd then bring her hand up to her chest, then lightly pounds his own, "From here, it means."

 

Guinevere Fouroux looks between the two girls when no one reaches for a cookie, so takes the intiative herself. Scooting back to the runner, she grins at the sister and reaches out to snag two cookies, one for Jaine and one for Whysper, and hands them over with a flourish.

 

River Grau smiled and set the ball of clay into Clementines' hand using the marker. "Here yah go." His tail flicked as he watched her, curious of what the girl would make.

 

Phoebe Scribe lifted an eyebrow at Conor's response and started looking around for the baby in a bag or a pending fight. "Kay...I's gotta get back soon." She went back to her cookie, and kept a watchful eye on those around her.

 

Whysper Noyes did reach for a cookie. Who in their right mind, even a petulant too cool for school tenager, could resist those cookies. She'd never admit how many she and Luci pilfered at night.

 

Jaina Lefevre hears Sister D's words and quietly gets to her feet. She pauses as Guin hands her a cookie. "Thank youse." she offers softly. She looks around for Nanny and spies Deets. "Mama!" She runs over to her, book in hand, bag bouncing on her back. She frowns as she sees the slice and looks from the bandage up to Deets. "Youse bleeding?"

 

Bailey Longcloth grins as she watches the group in front of her. It held promise, all these little ones together, getting along. For the most part anyway. Perhaps the adults could learn from them

 

Clementine Cristole takes the clay from River and says "Thank you" again. She didn't make anything with the clay, much like she didn't make anything from the clay before. She repeats after her father. "Ab imo pectore... it means from my heart?"

 

Tanner Blackheart nods slightly to Puddin and sighs looking away and glancing around, his eyes meeting Elise's for a moment before he looks over to D.

 

Darkness Odigaunt smiles and watches Jaina curiously. She studies the woman she calls 'Mama' for a oment before turning to the circle again. Seeing Tanner's look, she glances to Puddin, her new neice?

 

Conor Nitely nodded at Phoebe, the word 'dark' muttered quietly. When he spoke to her his eyes shot back to Guin, familiar blush rising in his cheeks. "I can walk you home if you want 'cause that's what gentlement do. But only if you want." His voice was starting to rise again, squeaking a little now. "AND NO HAND HOLDING 'CAUSE I DON'T REALLY KNOW YOU YET."

 

Phoebe Scribe leaned in towards Conor. "I lives in Apoc at the bar out yonder. You know it?" She blinked at his hand holding comment. "Uh... okay...." The thought hadn't crossed her mind, but she turned and looked towards Guin, then started rising up to her feet. She slung her pack over her shoulder and looked around.

 

Conor Nitely salutes Elise as she leaves, barely missing his eye with the half a cookie still in his hand.

 

Conor Nitely nodded a Phoebe, "There's more than one but if you know it..." he shrugged then, seeming to think that was enough of an answer. Up he went, adjusting his cowboy hat proudly. "Goodnight everyone and thank you for the clay and the arts Sister D." With that he'd turn to follow the girl, careful to not offer his hand.

  

The lng tanker Gemmata anchored outside Hammerfest, probably waiting for loading. Just west of Hammerfest there is the island of Melkøya, which is the endpoint of natural gas pipelines from gas fields in the Barents Sea.

 

Hammerfest, Finnmark, Norway

 

Links:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerfest

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melk%C3%B8ya

www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=563574000

My Hotel in Egypt.

 

This palatial hotel in the shadow of the Great Pyramids in Cairo has enchanted guests since 1869. Located in forty acres of jasmine scented gardens, Mena House Oberoi has played host to kings and emperors, Heads of State and celebrities. Its royal history is reflected in luxurious interiors that are embellished with exquisite antiques, handcrafted furniture and rich textiles. A variety of international as well as Egyptian cuisine is on offer at the excellent restaurants and bars in the hotel. This is the perfect place to begin your explorations of Cairo.

Shot at Endpoint, Manipal, Karnataka, India.

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Best viewed large and on black

www.flickr.com/photos/sandeepkbhat/5518088982/lightbox/

 

The giant topsail is a monolith of gneiss whose peak is located in Barra da Tijuca, extending through the neighborhoods of Joah the Itanhangá and Sao Conrado, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On top of granite rising 842 meters above sea level, is the largest stone block in the seaside of the planet.

 

Known as a Sphinx contradictory stories, arouses admiration for the grandeur and mystery. It is one of the endpoints of the Tijuca Forest Park and one of the most spectacular lookouts-

 

O gigante da Gávea

 

A Pedra da Gávea é um monólito de gnaisse cujo ponto culminante situa-se na Barra da Tijuca, estendendo-se pelos bairros do Joá, do Itanhangá e de São Conrado, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Com topo de granito subindo 842 metros acima do nível do mar, é o maior bloco de pedra a beira mar do planeta.

 

Conhecida como uma esfinge de histórias contraditórias, desperta admiração pela imponência e mistério. É um dos pontos extremos do parque da Floresta da Tijuca e um dos mirantes mais espetaculares.

 

© Copyright 2012 Francisco Aragão

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Use without permission is illegal.

© TODOS OS DIREITOS RESERVADOS. Usar sem permissão é ilegal.

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Portuguese

A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.

Fontana di Trevi (Roma)

A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.

O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.

O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V, determinou que fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.

Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.

Reformas

Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.

Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.

Restauro

A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.

A fontana de Trevi e o cinema

Em 1964, foi lançado o filme que leva seu nome Fontana di Trevi - filmado pelo diretor Carlo Campogalliani.

O monumento foi o cenário de uma das cenas mais famosas do cinema italiano: em La Dolce Vita de Federico Fellini, Anita Ekberg entra na água e convida Marcello Mastroianni a fazer o mesmo.

Precedentemente, a fonte foi o cenário do filme estadunidense Three coins in the fontain, onde a fonte do título é a própria Fontana dei Trevi.

Em Tototruffa 62, Totò tenta vender a fonte a um turista.

A fonte aparece como fundo principal no videoclip da canção Thank You for Loving Me do grupo Bon Jovi.

 

English

The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres (85.3 feet) high and 20 metres (65.6 feet) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world.

The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revived Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.

The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.

Commission, construction and design

In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Gian Lorenzo Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti[6] one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.

Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei – but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway.[9] Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.

The asso di coppe

Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, the "Ace of Cups".

The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.

Restoration

The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.

The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming hippocamps.

In the centre a robustly-modelled triumphal arch is superimposed on the palazzo façade. The centre niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light and shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.

The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).

Coin throwing

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. Another reported version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.

An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.

 

Wikipedia

 

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

 

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

 

Here at the Seattle - Boeing Museum of flight, a genuine CIA A-11 from "Project Oxcart", and the first 737-300, in its launch company colors for US Air.

As everyone knows, the SR-71 began life as a CIA program to replace the U2 with something much faster and much higher flying. When an (NATO named) SA-2 "GUIDELINE" missile shot-down Frances Gary Powers' U-2, someone schemed the DS-21, a supersonic drone that would be released by an A-11 at high altitude and high speed, fly high and fast over "denied terrirtory" ie Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China, and bring back the film. I can't remember if the whole drone would be recovered (ala the Ryan Firebee derivatives) or if only the film was expected to be caught in mid-air (ala the Corona film return recon. satellites). In any event, a trial drone launch went very wrong and destroyed both the drone and the launcher. A-11s were single-seat, the second seat being added for the drone controller. Undeniably cool, it was WAY too dangerous, and never went live. Lockheed also pitched an A-11 derivative as the YF-12, a strategic fighter carrying the Eagle missile which would evolve into the AGM-54 Phoenix for the Navy's F-14s. The USAF's SR-71 was the full-boat production endpoint. Two seats because they wanted 2 sets of eyes and brains, vs CIA who had only one seat because it was cheap and they were all about performance. DId CIA have their own SR-71s operating with USAF markings? That's above my pay grade. Did they operate A-11s in parallel? Personally, I doubt it. But I could be wrong.

US Air and Southwest were the two launch customers for the model. Lufthansa was the launch customer for the 737-100. Boeing bought this airframe when US Air retired it (based on hours and cycles) and used it to test various theories about the two, fatal, hard-over accidents that have occurred with 737s. Both involved an airplane that suddenly dived into the ground, in spite of the pilots' best efforts. Among other theories tested, this plane was subjected to the "Fat Guy" hypothesis, which suggested that a very over-weight passenger could have damaged the floor of a 737, and thus pulled suddenly on the cables that run from the cockpit to the tail surfaces. No credible weight and shoe-size could be found that would damage a floor. Which is somewhat reassuring, I think. When they'd finished testing the plane, someone suggested the remaining pieces could be given to the museum, and they were.

 

102-0221_IMG

Dam Square, or simply the Dam (Dutch: de Dam) is a town square in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Its notable buildings and frequent events make it one of the most well-known and important locations in the city.

 

Dam Square lies in the historical center of Amsterdam, approximately 750 meters south of the main transportation hub, Centraal Station. It is roughly rectangular in shape, stretching about 200 meters from west to east and about 100 meters from north to south. It links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which run along the original course of the Amstel River from Centraal Station to Muntplein (Coin Square) and Munttoren. The Dam also marks the endpoint of other well-traveled streets, Nieuwendijk, Kalverstraat and Damstraat. A short distance beyond the northeast corner lies the main red-light district, de Wallen.

 

On the west end of the square is the neoclassical Royal Palace, which served as the city hall from 1655 until its conversion to a royal residence in 1808. Beside it are the 15th-century Gothic Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) and the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. The National Monument, a white stone pillar designed by J.J.P. Oud and erected in 1956 to memorialize the victims of World War II, dominates the opposite side of the square. Also overlooking the plaza are the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky and the upscale department store De Bijenkorf. These various attractions have turned the Dam into a tourist zone. The square abounds with city pigeons, popular for birdfeeding.

 

he Dam derives its name from its original function: a dam on the Amstel River, hence also the name of the city. Built in approximately 1270, the dam formed the first connection between the settlements on the sides of the river.

 

As the dam was gradually built up it became wide enough for a town square, which remained the core of the town developing around it. Dam Square as it exists today grew out of what was originally two squares: the actual dam, called Middeldam; and Plaetse, an adjacent plaza to the west. A large fish market arose where ships moored at the dam to load and unload goods. The area became a center not only of commercial activity but also of the government, as the site of Amsterdam's town hall.

 

As a market square, the Dam had a weigh house that can be seen in some old paintings. It was demolished in 1808 by order of Louis Bonaparte who, upon taking up residence in the newly converted Royal Palace, complained that his view was obstructed.

 

The Damrak, or the former mouth of the Amstel River, was partially filled in the 19th century; since then, the Dam square has been surrounded by land on all sides. The new land made room for the Beurs van Zocher, a stock exchange that was built in 1837. After the stock trade moved to the Beurs van Berlage in 1903, the Zocher building was demolished. In its place, De Bijenkorf department store has stood since 1914.

 

In 1856, a war memorial named De Eendracht (The Unity) was unveiled inside the square before King William III. A stone column with a female statue on top, the monument acquired the nickname "Naatje of the Dam". It was taken down in 1914.

 

Several tram lines traverse the Dam and have stops there. In the time of the horse tram (end 19th century) the Dam was the most important tram hub of Amsterdam. After 1900 this function moved to the Stationsplein (Station Square).

 

Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, Amsterdam's main square became a "national" square well-known to nearly everyone in the Netherlands. It has frequently been the location of demonstrations and events of all kinds, and a meeting place for many people. On 4 May every year, the Dutch celebrate National Memorial Day (Nationale Dodenherdenking), in observance of which the last addition to the square, the National Monument, was set up in 1956.

 

Several times a year, such as on Queens Day or near Christmas, there is a big funfair on Dam Square.

 

Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin (recitation: Eduard Doduel) and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he is completely away from the need to acquire a profession and gives himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.

 

In 1801, he traveled with Ionian islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he traveled to Central Greece with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) he created was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.

 

Being a prolific writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, consisting of a sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for his age. For the first time in his work, we witness the real discovery of a "place": While the phenomenon of walking becomes a form of discovering and recognizing (reading) the view, on the other hand, information based on monuments, history, contemporary people and documents all join together in this phenomenon.

 

The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and offers rich data in archeology and topography, constitutes a valuable treasure of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks before the rebellion (before 1821). Dodwell sets off from Venice by taking an intelligent and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he had met in Italy in late April 1801, as an interpreter. He crosses the Adriatic sea and arrives in Corfu under Russian-Ottoman occupation with his travel companions within a month. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Lefkada (Santa Mavra). Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to Greece with William Gell.

 

In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrived in Zakinthos (Zante) from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago.

 

After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's trip to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, he writes in an easy-to-understand manner both about the architectural order of the city ("The houses of the Greeks are lime and the houses of the Turks are painted in red") and its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring (blessed water source / fountain). He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Patra ' Noting that many black slaves were found in Dodwell, Dodwell also made efforts to obtain some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. On the Dodwell route, it documents scientifically its own knowledge as well as the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece and previous travel testimonies.

 

Due to an epidemic in Dodwell Peloponnese, he chose to go to Athens in another way, passing through Nafpaktos (Inebahtı), Galaksidi (watching the carnival shows here) and passing through Amfisa (here he is a guest at the house of a Kefalonian doctor and visits the voivodeship), climbs to Parnasos mountain, Hriso and stops in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through the villages of Arahova and Distomo and takes him to the ancient site of the Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there he continues to other Viotia (Boeotia) villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Passing through the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the relief of the Acropolis relief (relief) marbles.

 

Dodwell will stay here until September and visit almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and the Egina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he writes about the folk dances, music and games of the Greeks, even about baths, even insects and birds.

 

After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come and are highly affected by the high level of living, cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Viotia (Boeotia) and stops by Chalkida and Marathon.

 

He stays in Athens all summer. In December of 1805, we find him touring the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, Acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mikene and Atreus, The ruins of Tiryns and Nauplion, Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are the places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia.

 

In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavrita, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.

 

Dodwell (who has drafted about 400 places and monuments) has been aiming to combine the scientific look with art by adding the engravings to them after using the camera obscura technique and documenting the archaeological ruins he has visited recently. The four volumes of his work, published after Dodwell, are a basic handbook for all travelers traveling around Greece and are still considered a very useful resource for archaeological research today.

 

The work was published 2 years after Dodwell's death in 1834. Publishers received the material to create the book and detailed instructions about the publication from Dodwell himself. Paintings with stone prints and based on Dodwell's own drawings show magnificent relic images from Greece and Italy. These include, in particular, wall forms, acropolis (city hills or endpoints), fortifications, and domed tombs. Engravings showing monuments in Greece are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory texts; the same is not true for monuments in Italy, however, because Dodwell was unable to write his explanations about them. Publishers have not been able to fill this gap. The embroidery of the paintings on stone was made by the well-known engraver C. Hullmandel.

 

Despite the misrepresentation of naming and identification in some of the architectural remains, Dodwell's work remains a pioneer in terms of both its subject and less-known archaeological sites. The aim of the author was to add this book to his two volume volume "Classical and Topographical Tour in Greece", published in 1819.

 

Written By: İoli Vingopoulou

To my surprise I found that Stressenhausen was, apparently, once connected to the rail network.

The John F. Kennedy Expressway is a 17.8-mile (28.65 km) long freeway that travels northwest from the Chicago Loop to O'Hare International Airport. The highway is named for the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, and conforms to the Chicago-area convention of using the somewhat misleading suffix Expressway. The Interstate 90 portion of the Kennedy is a part of the much longer I-90 (which runs 3,111.52 miles (5,007.51 km) from Boston, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington). The Kennedy's official endpoints are the Circle Interchange with Interstate 290 (Eisenhower Expressway/Congress Parkway) and the Dan Ryan Expressway (also I-90/94) at the east end, and the O'Hare Airport terminals at the west end. The Interstate 190 portion of the Kennedy is 3.07 miles (4.94 km) long and is meant to serve airport traffic. Interstate 90 picks up the Kennedy destination and runs a further 6.29 miles (10.12 km), before joining with I-94 for the final 8.44 miles (13.58 km).[1]

 

Traveling eastbound from O'Hare, the Kennedy interchanges with the eastern terminus of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Interstate 90) and with the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294) at a complex junction just west of Illinois Route 171 (Cumberland Avenue). The Kennedy later merges with the southern end of the Edens Expressway (Interstate 94) at Montrose Avenue; the Kennedy (at this point both I-90 and I-94) then turns south to its junction with the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways and Congress Parkway at the Circle Interchange in downtown Chicago.

 

With up to 327,000 vehicles traveling on some portions of the Kennedy daily, the Kennedy and its South Side extension, the Dan Ryan, are the busiest roads in Illinois.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Expressway

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...