SELKETAL STEAM CUT AS BUSES REPLACE TRAINS

Germany’s Harz railway operator is facing criticism for running buses instead of trains in its new timetable. Services on the Selketal section - including Quedlinburg, Gernrode, Harzgerode and Stiege - were affected from the start of the summer schedules on April 29. The Harzer Schmalspurbahnen (HSB) is blaming the move on a lack of firemen. Among steam-hauled trains to disappear are the 7.34am Gernrode-Harzgerode and 10.30am Quedlinburg-Alexisbad; both are replaced by buses. A further change is dropping the ThursdaySaturday steam diagram which, in previous years, supplemented the daily use of a single steam locomotive through replacement of a railcar. However, steam now hauls the 8.00am Gernrode-Quedlinburg and 8.30am Quedlinburg-Eisfelder Talmuehle trains daily; these were previously only steam-hauled as part of the second diagram. The HSB has said its target is to improve Selketal services during the summer. Only 94,000 passengers used the Selketalbahn in 2016, down from 99,000 the year before. That compared with 258,000 (250,000 in 2015) on the Harzquerbahn in the area around Nordhausen, and 633,000 (664,000) on the Brockenbahn, which runs to northern Germany’s highest mountain. The new figures bring the 87-mile metre-gauge network’s total passenger numbers below 1 million. Some HSB ticket prices rose from March 1: an adult return from any station to the Brocken summit station now costs 41 euros, up from 39 euros last year and 37 euros the year before. Tickets on other stretches are cheaper.

TONY STREETER Better than a bus? The Selketal summer timetable became known for its frequent use of 0-4-4-0T No. 99.5906 on the Thursday-Saturday diagram. In October 2009, the 1918-built Mallet approaches Drahtzug near Alexisbad.