The Singsaker Line () was a branch of the Trondheim Tramway which ran from Øya and Elgeseter to the neighborhoods of Singsaker, parts of Tyholt and Rosenborg in Trondheim, Norway. The line branched off from the Elgeseter Line at the Student Society. It was double track until Tyholtveien, after which it ran through a loop through Rosenborg. It was served by Line 3, which continued through the city center to Trondheim Central Station.
The line opened in 1927 to Ankers gate and was the first of the network not to feature conductors. It was extended to Asbjørnsens gate in 1933. Until 1955 it used the old Class 2 trams, but after 1958 it received wide, more comfortable Class 4 trams. The Rosenborg Loop opened in 1958 along with the introduction of Class 7 trams. In this configuration it was long. The line was closed in 1968 and replaced by buses.
Route The Singsaker Line branched as a double track line from the Elgeseter Line at Student Society in Trondheim (Studentersamfundet). There it branched off Elgeseter gate immediately after the Elgeseter Bridge and ran up the hill along Klostergata. The line continues with the street name change to Christian Fredriks gate with the stop Vollabakken. It continues under the College Bridge onto Eidsvolls gate, passing the Norwegian Institute of Technology. After passing Jonsvannsveien the line had a stop named for said road outside R. Kjeldbergs Kolonial, serving the neighborhood of Singsaker.Kjenstad (2007): 107
Upon reaching Tyholtveien the double track shifts to a single-direction loop run anti-clockwise. Upbound trams continued along Tyholtveien to the stop at Asbjørns gate, which served the Tyholt neighborhood. This section consisted of double track laid prior to the loop being built. Asbjørns gate was used for a regulation pause in the schedule. The line continued along Henrik Mathiesens vei to a stop named Lærerhøyskolen. This served the neighborhood of Rosenborg and a campus of the Norwegian College of Teaching in Trondheim. The line then continued down one block of Christians Monsens gate before reaching Stadsingeniør Dahls gate. Just afterwards the tram made a stop. The line continues along the center lane to a stop at Nonnegata. The street turns slightly and changes its name to Festningsgata and then completes the loop.Kjenstad (2007): 108
From Elgeseter Bridge Line 3 continued in to town via the Elgeseter Line. It runs northwards through the city center along Prinsens gate. Until 1961 it ran via Kongens gate, Torget and Munkegata to Ravnkloa. After 1961 the line instead followed Prinsens gate, with a stop at the intersection of Prinsens and Kongens gate. It then ran onto Olav Tryggvasons gate until Søndre gate. There it had a stop and then continued along Søndre gate across the canal to Trondheim Central Station, the terminus.Kjenstad (2007): 106
History
Construction
The first proposals for a tramway to Singsaker was launched by the management of Trondhjems Elektricitetsværk og Sporvei in 1924. They proposed a route from the existing Elgeseter Line at Elgeseter Bridge via Singsaker and Rosenborg to Buran. It would have been built it in several stages, with the first terminus at Tyholtveien. The whole line was estimated to cost 1.175 million Norwegian krone (NOK). The board instead chose to wait in the hopes that the price would be reduced. A new proposal in 1926 saw a change in the plans. Instead of following Høyskolealléen, Klæbuveien and Christian Fredriks gate, the line was chosen to just follow Klostergata and Eidsvolls gate. A bus route was also considered, but it would cost NOK 96,000 more per year to operate than a tramway, thus making the whole project unprofitable. A trolleybus was also considered, but at the time there was no technical way to combine the overhead wires from both trams and trolleybuses on the same road.Kjenstad (2005): 86
The Singsaker trams would operate into the city center. The chief of operations, Fredrik Kleven, suggested that they should operate to Trondheim Central Station. Ideally he wanted them to operate to Voldsminde, but he did not want to mix trams with and without conductors on the Lade Line. Director Jon Garstad instead wanted the trams to terminate at Torvet, thus saving NOK 20,000 annually in operating costs. The board suggested that the trams run in a loop down Prinsens gate, and along Dronningens gate to Munkegata where they would connect to the existing track. This would cost NOK 52,000 to build. Alternatively, a new stop could be built at Church of Our Lady, costing an additional NOK 30,000. No-one on the board voted for the railway station alternative.Kjenstad (2005): 87
The board also wanted to introduce ten-minute headway and, unlike the other routes, remove the conductor. It was also decided to build the terminus at Ankers gate, based on studies of the number of people walking past each station. The city engineer consequently recommended building double track along the whole line. The city council approved building the line on 28 October 1926, but without double track all the way. However, the decision of where to place the terminal stop in the city was delayed. In the end, the board voted to build the line to the railway station, in part because the calculations of extra costs were not documented well enough.Kjenstad (2005): 87–89
Construction started on 27 April 1927. The first was built with double track, while the last from Gudes gate to Ankers gate/Tyholtveien was built with single track. Five of the Class 2 trams were rebuilt to be single-manned. Construction was finished on 1 September, after which there was one week of trial runs before ordinary operations started on 7 September. The line cost NOK 292,600 to build.Kjenstad (2005): 89–90
First expansion
The first expansion of the line was suggested by Director Garstad in 1933, but was rejected by the board. The proposal would have expanded the line to add an additional station, Asbjørnsens gate, at the intersection of Tyholtveien, Asbjørnsens gate and Henrik Mathisens vei. The costs were estimated at NOK 65,000, and calculations showed a positive net present value. Despite that the city chief of administration was opposed to the proposal, the city council passed the expansion of 28 March 1935. This was in part based on the new Labour Party majority, who wanted to create more jobs. As part of the suggestion, the tram company had to advance the costs of rebuilding the road to the city road department. The expansion was opened on 29 September, allowing ridership to increase by 11.2 percent to 1.6 million.Kjenstad (2005): 105
The Singsaker Line had always had the lowest ridership of the three tram lines, and therefore it had been served using the oldest material—narrow cars with only wooden benches. The first Class 4 tram—no. 35—was put into service on 12 September 1952. Many people tried to time their trips into town to catch it; this could be quite difficult since there was only a one seventh chance. From December, the tram was taken out of service due to the amount of snow. This resulted in protest meetings, but the company did not have enough trams to use them on Line 3.Kjenstad (2005): 157–58
A group of children placed large amounts of leaves into the track on 20 October 1955 a. Tram no. 24 up Eidsvolls gate could not handle the leaves, and started sliding backwards without breaking power. The conductor tried to spread sand on the tracks, but that did not help either. The tram behind, no. 19, noticed this just after leaving Vollabakken, but dared not back up due to the traffic. There were large material damages from the impact, but no-one was seriously injured. Since the two trams were to be taken out of traffic soon, both were withdrawn.Kjenstad (2005): 164
Rosenborg Loop The final expansion took place in 1955. To test out the ridership for the Rosenborg Loop, a bus was rented to test drive the loop from Asbjørnsens gate, down Henrik Mathiesens gate, back along Stadsingeniør Dahls gate and Festningsgata, before meeting up with the old track at Tyholtveien. The single track section from there to Gudes gate would then have to be rebuilt to double track. A proposal to run a single-tracked line onwards from Rosenborg to Buran, connecting onwards to the Lademoen Line, was discarded, as was a loop at Solhaugplatået. The Rosenborg Loop had originally been suggested by the Communist Party in 1946, and the loop would cost just short of NOK 1 million. There were some local protests from people at Øvre Rosenborg, since they would have a longer route into town than via Buran.Kjenstad (2005): 163
Construction started during the summer of 1955. For the first time in Trondheim, the tracks were laid in asphalt instead of paving stones. New stops were built at the Teaching College and in Stadsingeniør Dahls gate at Nonnegata, outside Rosenborg School. The posted destination on the trams were not changed from Singsaker to Rosenborg, despite the extension. The Class 6 trams were chosen to be put into service, since new stock was being delivered. The loop was opened on 9 November 1955.Kjenstad (2005): 163–64
After the opening of the loop, the line became a much more profitable. Despite being longer, it could still be run with only seven trams; the higher speed up the Singsaker Hill allowed faster travel times. Ridership in November 1955 was up 33 percent since the previous November. Subsequently, the Solhaug bus route operated by Trondheim Bilruter had lost sufficient ridership to be terminated. During rush hour, an extra tram was put into service, decreasing the intervals from six to five minutes. Eventually trailers were also put into use. All this was despite a price increase with 50% in 1955.Kjenstad (2005): 165–66
After the Dalsenget fire on 10 October 1956, where all the newest trams burnt down, the Singsaker Line was again served by the oldest trams with wooden benches.Kjenstad (2005): 176–78 This lasted until the delivery of the Class 7 trams in 1957, which were also put into service on the Singsaker Line. For the first time the line was using the newest stock the company had.Kjenstad (2005): 196–97 In 1958, after the opening of the Lade Line, Line 2's terminus was moved from the railway station to Lade, and Line 3 became the only line to serve the railway station.Aspenberg (1995): 14–15
Decline and closure
The Norwegian Teaching College in Trondheim established a campus in Hanrik Mathiesens vei in 1960, giving a boost to traffic. While the Rosenborg Loop had given a huge increase in traffic, it was not sufficient to stop the decline after 1960. With the deregulation of the sales of cars, and a new, expansive city planning based on distant suburbs and motorways, the tramways in town were quickly losing market shares. Line 3 had the largest decline, and in 1961 it was losing NOK 131,000 annually. In 1962, Director Odd Hovdenak made three suggestions: 10-minute headway; removal of the conductors which had been reintroduced during World War II; or replacing the tram with buses, and at the same time changing the route to follow Nonnegata. The removal of conductors would again make the line profitable, while the reduced headway would not. Hovdenak recommended introducing buses.Kjenstad (2005): 245