Bern farewell to Vevey trams

The tramway in the Swiss capital, Bern, is taking delivery of new Stadler Tramlink 100% low-floor trams. On 1 September 2024 the local tram club TVB organised an official farewell run for the original Vevey-built low-floor trams in Bern. 

 

When introduced in 1989/90, these were the first accessible LRVs in the Swiss capital and gained a reputation as the Rolls Royce of Swiss trams. From the 12 of these single-ended, three-section trams produced, 11 are being donated to Lviv in Western Ukraine, with the first units getting transferred there by road and rail in early autumn. 

 

No. 735 will remain for heritage purposes in Bern and it is planned to use the vehicle as a comfortable lounge tram for private charters and social events. 735 is due to be restored to its original olive green and cream livery from 1990, as Bernmobil's current dark red colour scheme was not introduced until 2000. 

 

For the farewell run tram No. 734 was used and then travelled over all those branches of the network, which typically were not served by the Vevey cars in regular service. Bern's Vevey trams were formally withdrawn from frontline services on lines 3 and 7 in early July 2024, when a major construction site at Kocherpark required a seasonal reconfiguration of all tram services in the west of the city until October.