Singsaker Line

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.

[1] Upon reaching Tyholtveien the double track shifts to a single-direction loop run anti-clockwise.

[1] Upbound trams continued along Tyholtveien to the stop at Asbjørns gate, which served the Tyholt neighborhood.

There it had a stop and then continued along Søndre gate across the canal to Trondheim Central Station, the terminus.

[3] The first proposals for a tramway to Singsaker was launched by the management of Trondhjems Elektricitetsværk og Sporvei in 1924.

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.

Director Jon Garstad instead wanted the trams to terminate at Torvet, thus saving NOK 20,000 annually in operating costs.

[5] 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.

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.

[9] 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.

There were some local protests from people at Øvre Rosenborg, since they would have a longer route into town than via Buran.

New stops were built at the Teaching College and in Stadsingeniør Dahls gate at Nonnegata, outside Rosenborg School.

Despite being longer, it could still be run with only seven trams; the higher speed up the Singsaker Hill allowed faster travel times.

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.

[16] The Norwegian Teaching College in Trondheim established a campus in Hanrik Mathiesens vei in 1960, giving a boost to traffic.

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.

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.

[17] Despite massive protests from local residents, Trondheim Sporvei's board chose in 1963 to follow the director's proposal, with three against two votes.

A Büssing bus from Oslo Sporveier was put into service for test runs from 22 September 1966.

The oldest part of the line, from 1927 and 1935 had not yet had their tracks replaced after construction, and this was estimated to cost as much as the Rosenborg Loop.

With five votes against one, they rejected introducing buses, pointing out that Hovdenak had too optimistic numbers for bus operation.

The company was debt-free, and investments in the Singsaker Line would be a natural next step; amortized over 30 years, the upgrade would only cost NOK 59,000 annually.

On the other hand, buses would inflict an immediate expense of 500,000, while there were sufficient trams to operate the route.

[21] The buses changed the route, and continued from Rosenborg School down Nonnegata to Olav Trygvassons gate in the city centre, but not via the railway station.

From February 1969 the buses were forced to drive via the station due the concession; this resulted in every other bus taking the former tram route via Singsaker to the city.

Festningsgata
Modern view of the Elgeseter Bridge . The Singsaker Line branched off from the Elgeseter Line outside the Student Society (round red building) and headed up Klostergata.
Expansion of the Elgeseter Bridge in 1951. Closest two trams at the site where the Singsaker Line branches from the Elgeseter Line