Other additions have also changed the once sleepy plateau, so that today a wide range of hotels, pensions, and rooms in private houses are available for those taking holidays that are now usually shorter than the traditional Sommerfrische. In 1907 a narrow gauge railway was completed from the centre of Bozen to Klobenstein, dropping the cog engine required for the steep 1000-meter ascent of the mountain in Maria Himmelfahrt and continuing as a tramway, which still is in use today, to Oberbozen and Klobenstein. 

Bozen was well-known as a cultural and economic centre before it developed into a very important tourist resort after the railway over the Brenner was completed in 1867. After that date not only Bozen but the mountains of South Tyrol opened up to tourism. 

A document from the 19th centrury tells us about the first project for a mountain-train up to the Ritten in 1896, but actual construction based on a different plan only began ten years later. On 13 August 1907, the "Rittner-Train" was opened for traffic. 

The tram started on the Waltherplatz in Bozen, but after crossing the town the tram hat to be connected to a cog engine to overcome the steep ascent (to 1200 metres) to "Bozen's" aristocratic housemountain", the Ritten. As soon as the train reached Maria Himmelfahrt, the first village on the Ritten plateau, the cog engine was uncoupled, and the mountain train continued as a tram again from Maria Himmelfahrt to Oberbozen (the second stop), to Wolfsgruben, and via Lichtenstern to Klobenstein. 

After the cable car from Bozen to Oberbozen was completed in 1966, the tram and cog sections from Bozen to Maria Himmelfahrt were closed. But the train is still running on the plateau as a tram, from Maria Himmelfahrt to Oberbozen intermittently, and from Oberbozen to Klobenstein.

The timetable of the tram is coordinated with the timetable of the cable car, which makes the trip from Bozen to Oberbozen in 12 minutes. 

Of the early rolling stock that remains, two two-axle (1907) and two four-axle (1908/1910) tram-cars are still in use. We also have a modern tram-car from Stuttgart, built in 1958 and two tram-cars from the Trogenerbahn built in 1975/77. But we usually use the old ones, especially in the summer months, when a lot of friends of the original train come for this attraction as well as to enjoy nature, landscapes, and splendid views of the Dolomites. 

We are very happy that our old tram from the time of Austrian Emperor Franz Josef still an important, year-round public conveyance and not a museum piece. 

Timetable autobus Soprabolzano - Collalbo 24.03.2013 - 15.06.2013

Map showing the train tracks