Long debates preceded the opening of the Isar Valley Railway in 1891.
For a while, a tram was favored.
More precisely a steam tram.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen
- traffic turnaround, S 7 extension, local public transport: the subject of mobility is virtually omnipresent.
Anyone who thinks this is a contemporary phenomenon is mistaken.
There was already intense discussion 150 years ago - at that time about a tram that would connect Wolfratshausen with booming Munich.
A newspaper article from the Tölzer Kurier from October 24th, 1886, which the Tölz author Christoph Schnitzer came across during his research, reminds of this.
Much is familiar from today's debates.
The wording of an old newspaper article
The article says regretfully: "The project for a tram from Munich to Wolfratshausen has become very quiet again and one is beginning to doubt the implementation of the same." The parallel to the S 7 extension is positively imposed.
The former author claims that the population both in the Oberland and in Munich were taken with the idea.
"The favorable reception that the project found in the Munich press is proof that the railway has numerous friends among the population of the capital too." It was argued that the townspeople found the "surprising changes that the Isarthal from Munich upwards offers “will be enjoyed on your excursions.
One can assume that the "train is very busy".
The timing for the execution is favorable, also because wages are low and loans are easy to obtain.
Tramways were very popular
Indeed, the tram was a means of transport that made a career in the German Reich.
It was available in different versions, namely as a horse-drawn tram on rails (the first ran regularly in Munich from Promenadenplatz in the direction of Nymphenburg in 1876), as an electric (the Ungerer-Bahn in Munich opened in 1886) and as a steam tram (the first German ran from Kassel in 1877 to Wilhelmshöhe).
One of these should familiarize the people of Munich with the beauty of the Isar valley.
As stated in the Wolfratshausen home register, Krauss & Cie.
with the plan to run the tram from Sendlinger Tor on the existing state road via Schäftlarn, Ebenhausen and Icking to Rottmannshöhe on the east bank of Lake Starnberg.
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Finally realized: The Isar Valley Railway, inaugurated in 1891.
It was powered by a steam locomotive.
© Sabine Hermsdorf
The Wolfratshausen magistrate disliked this variant along the high bank.
The allegations culminated in the assertion that the project would be capable of "ruining the Wolfratshausen market in business terms." The once prosperous Wolfratshausen was already suspended in terms of traffic by the Holzkirchen-Tölz and Munich-Weilheim-Starnberg lines.
The urgent demand: The connection must lead through the valley, i.e. Wolfratshausen.
The author of the article alludes to this critically by writing: The company would not have found that benevolent accommodation from “business people in Wolfratshausen because of a misunderstood interest that one could rightly expect”.
Two years later, the Wolfratshausen city fathers decided to take a drastic step and provided a one-time payment of 60,000 euros for the construction of the “correct” route.
Ultimately with success, with a stop in the rafting town.
Also read: The history of the Tattenkofener Bridge
The construction of a tram is abandoned.
One thing is certain: in 1888, two years after the article, something was going on again.
The Mannheim factory owner Ernst Böhringer acquires the concession to build and hands it over to the Munich Local Railway.
In May 1890, work began on the Isar Valley Railway, which was operated by a steam locomotive.
On July 27, 1891, the Thalkirchen-Wolfrathausen line was opened.
In 1897 the section via Eurasburg to Bichl was completed.