Jena, 20.04.2026. With a rolling museum on rails, Jenaer Nahverkehr celebrated its 125th anniversary last Saturday. Numerous historical trams and passengers in contemporary clothing caught the eye in the city area.
- Event: 125 Years of Jenaer Nahverkehr
- Action: Vehicle parade with various tram generations
- Date: Saturday, April 18, 2026
- Route: Start and finish at Betriebshof Nord, journey across the city area
- Special feature: Passengers in historical clothing matching the respective vehicle era
Time Travel on Rails Across the Saalestadt
The milestone birthday of Jenaer Nahverkehr was celebrated on Saturday with a special spectacle on the rails. A vehicle parade, consisting of trams from various generations, started at Betriebshof Nord. From there, the cars traveled via various routes through the entire city area before returning to the starting point in Jenaer Norden.
A special eye-catcher was not only the elaborately maintained historical motor cars but also the participants of the anniversary ride. Numerous passengers had dressed in historical costumes matching the era of the respective tram, providing an authentic journey through time.
A Look Back at the Beginnings in 1901
The event over the weekend commemorated the birth of public transport in Jena at the beginning of the 20th century. The very first journey of an electric tram on the city’s tracks took place on April 1, 1901. At that time, however, it was still a purely technical acceptance run without regular guests. The official start of scheduled operations followed a few days later, on April 6, 1901. This marked the beginning of a development of urban mobility in Jena that continues to this day.
Background: The Tram as the City’s Lifeline
Since the first journey 125 years ago, the tram network in Jena has changed drastically. What once began with a few kilometers of tracks in the center is now a modern, high-frequency network. Especially through the construction of the large residential areas in Lobeda and Winzerla in the second half of the 20th century, the tram became an indispensable lifeline for the city. Jena’s topographical location in the narrow Saaletal makes rail-bound public transport particularly efficient, as the trams mostly progress much more freely on their own tracks than car traffic on the heavily burdened north-south axis (B88). Anyone who still sees one of the old Gotha cars driving through the city today experiences a piece of living technical history that shaped the cityscape for decades before the era of modern low-floor trams.
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125th Anniversary – Tram parade traveled across Jena on Saturday
Transparency note: This article was created automatically, editorially reviewed, and expanded with AI support.