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Reeducation of the driving personnel
The driving personnel of the tram was taken over completely for trolleybus traffic. Tram
drivers, which were not suited sanitary or also due to advanced age for the reeducation to the
trolleybus driver, were appointed as conductor.
Since most tram drivers did not possess a driving licence for motor vehicles, they had to
acquire the driving licence II. All trolleybuses were constantly in use. It was necessarily as
well as of economic reasons to had versatile usable drivers, who could provide their service
in case of trolleybus breakdown also by motor coach.
A local driving instructor was engaged for the training of the tram drivers to trolleybus
drivers. The first 2 trolleybuses of the German type MPE I, delivered in September 1940, were
used for the training.
The driving lessons of the trolleybus drivers took place under unusual conditions. The
trolleybus overhead system, predominantly still single-tracked, was under construction.
At the training were
- partly used the oncoming lane in consideration of the tram,
- turned on not scheduled turnaround places,
- the current collector put down several times from a lane to the other one and
- particularly far-off driving of the trolleybus overhead system practised.
The take-up of the regular trolleybus operation took place under important relief for the
trolleybus drivers.
Since the winter approached and the former tram drivers and present trolleybus drivers did not
have experiences with road vehicles under winter roadway conditions, for the first months a
generous timetable was used.
The 5.1 km long trolleybus line was once passed through in 22 min. The turning time amounted
to in a turnaround loop 1 min and in the other turnaround loop 5 min. Thus resulted a time of
circulation of 50 min. Starting from February 1941, during the rush hour in the morning and
in the evening, the time of circulation was shortened on 40 min.
After initial difficulties the former tram drivers had gotten accustomed at the handling and
riding quality of the trolleybuses.
