The blue streetcars are disappearing from the streets of Berne
Published: Friday, Dec 13th 2024, 11:50
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The days of the legendary Blue Train from Bern to the suburb of Worb are numbered. One last train will make its rounds at the weekend and will then be decommissioned. The means of transport became famous thanks to a radio sketch from the 1950s.
In the cabaret number "Dr schnäuscht Wäg nach Worb" by Ernst Mischler and Karl Steuer, a German tourist stands at the Zytgloggeturm in Bern and asks a local when the next bus to Worb is leaving.
At the end of the dialog, which is full of witty misunderstandings, the completely exasperated tourist learns that there is no bus to Worb, but the Blue Train, which he has just missed.
In 1908, the first steam-powered train ran from Helvetiaplatz in Bern to the village of Worb. From 1930, the now electrified vehicles were painted blue.
Football fans angry
In the 1980s, the train was replaced by streetcars, but the blue color remained. In 2010, the streetcars were painted blue and red. This is because red is the color of the Bernmobil public transport company. The color scheme was intended to symbolically underline the cooperation between Bernmobil and Regionalverkehr Bern-Solothurn (RBS) on the route.
The red and blue in turn annoyed the fans of the Bernese football club YB. They now had to ride around in a streetcar at home that was wearing the club colors of arch-rivals FC Basel.
With the timetable change at the weekend, the last blue streetcars will finally be taken out of service. However, no one will have to "walk or run" to Worb in future, as in the sketch. The blue streetcars will be replaced by new vehicles, all in red.
The new streetcar is 42.5 meters long and, according to Bernmobil, has 56 seats in the bidirectional vehicles and 71 seats in the one-way vehicles.
©Keystone/SDA
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