European cities with old trams

[crosvilley]

Can anyone update from the previous 2024 ( locked ) thread on any old Tatra trams still operating in European cities please ?

Location / type / use ?

Thank you

 

[Class15]

Belgrade, pretty much every line.

 

[Farigiraf]

Can anyone update from the previous 2024 ( locked ) thread on any old Tatra trams still operating in European cities please ?

Location / type / use ?

Thank you

Nearly every tram network in ex-Eastern bloc countries still runs Tatras.
Turn up in any Czech, Slovakian, Romanian or Polish (except Krakow) city with a tram network and you'll eventually find one. Additionally you have:
- Zagreb and Osijek (HR)
- Most cities in eastern Germany. Many cities are undergoing fleet modernisation so it's half-old half-new. Main exception being Berlin where it's all modern-era stock (though the Schoneiche and Strausberg tramways about 30 mins out of the city still have older fleets).
- Riga and Daugavpils (LV)
- Budapest and Szeged (HU) although I think in Budapest they're mostly constrained to the west side of the city.
There are also older trams operating in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Tallinn but I don't know how common they are nowadays.

Plus you have the heritage/nostalgia specials which nearly every city runs regularly, on various days throughout the year. Heritage running days in Prague and Budapest are fairly common, usually summer weekends, other cities generally have more limited timetables.

Among those cities that have fully modern tram fleets you have Debrecen and Miskolc (HU), Olsztyn (PL), Cluj and Resita (RO) and Woltersdorf (near Berlin), though they still have older vehicles retained for heritage specials. Woltersdorf in particular is worth a visit as it's home to a rare 1-segment tram, alongside the older units from around 1960.

 

[NCT]

Prague is probably the haven for Tatra action, and Brno is pretty good too. Both are standard gauge systems with wide body trams.

Riga also has a good number of T3 and T6A5. Frequencies are lower than in Prague so there's a bit more waiting around required. Also Riga's track and vehicle maintenance isn't on the same level as Prague.

Talinn still has some KT4 and KT6DM (KT4 with a low floor section inserted).

In Poland, Szczecin is probably the best for a range of Tatra and Konstal trams. In Warsaw the Konstal 105s only come out in peak times, and otherwise it's all low floor. Wroclaw still has Konstals I think.

In former GDR, Gera, Zwickau and Plauen still have a decent level of KT4D action (those I have experience of), though I'd be quick as TINA and Heiterblick trams are on their way.

 

[erikvd28]

Porto, Lisbon and Milan for old herritage trams which still ride regular lines! Don't forget my favorite Görlitz for some KT4D's(which will be replaced around 2028)
Osijek will be replaced also very soon (2027ish)

 

[bluegoblin7]

(though the Schoneiche and Strausberg tramways about 30 mins out of the city still have older fleets).

Strausberg operates Flexity Berlins and has done for several years now. Schoneiche is now predominantly second hand Duewag MGT6Ds from Heidelberg. Most of the Tatras are sidelined following collision damage.

 

[Whisky Papa]

Prague will provide considerably less Tatra T3 action if you are visiting at the weekend, other than on line 23 which duplicates the 22 up past the castle, and is operated entirely with 'vintage' T3 stock, or occasionally something older from the museum.

The low-floor T3R.PLF conversions will still be in operation at the weekend, usually with a T3 in tow, but looking through current timetables, only line 2 has any weekend journeys advertised as not being low-floor. A few other lines gain such journeys from mid-evening, I think this is for starting night service shifts.

During the week, high-floor T3s operate in varying proportions on all lines other than the ones mentioned below. In some cases it may be only working, coming round every two hours or so, but the shorter 'crowd-buster' lines tend to have a higher proportion.

The bi-directional T8s are required on the currently truncated line 13, any line 17 journey to/from Libuš and all journeys on line 19.

​

 

[Taunton]

Nearly every tram network in ex-Eastern bloc countries still runs Tatras.
Turn up in any Czech, Slovakian, Romanian or Polish (except Krakow) city with a tram network and you'll eventually find one. Additionally you have:
- Zagreb and Osijek (HR)
- Most cities in eastern Germany. Many cities are undergoing fleet modernisation so it's half-old half-new. Main exception being Berlin where it's all modern-era stock (though the Schoneiche and Strausberg tramways about 30 mins out of the city still have older fleets).
- Riga and Daugavpils (LV)
- Budapest and Szeged (HU) although I think in Budapest they're mostly constrained to the west side of the city.
There are also older trams operating in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Tallinn but I don't know how common they are nowadays.

Russia likely still has the largest fleet, as they long did, but Soviet cities there tended to standardise either on home products (about two-thirds) or Tatras (about one-third), a typical Soviet-era spare parts logic; there were a small number that had both (and Moscow was one of these, but now all gone). A number have had substantially adapted, or had completely new, bodies applied, some seemingly locally, so the best identification now is by the trucks.

 

[StephenHunter]

I've just come back from Riga. The Tatras are still very present, but they also have a bunch of Škoda 15T low-floor trams.