Saint Petersburg tram

Saint Petersburg tram
LM-2008 railcar on Moskovsky Prospect
Basic information
Country	Russia
city	St. Petersburg
opening	August 27, 1863
electrification	September 29, 1907
operator	Gorelektrotrans
Infrastructure
Route length	228 km
Gauge	1524 mm
Power system	550 volts = overhead line
Depots	6th
business
Lines	43
Network plan, status: autumn 2019

The Saint Petersburg tram ( Russian Санкт-Петербургский трамвай / Sankt-Peterburgskij Tramwaj ) is a tram company in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg . In 2002 the city still had the longest tram network in the world with a route length of 285 kilometers and a line length of around 600 kilometers. In the meantime, the network is only the fourth longest due to line closures.

history

The history of the tram began on August 27, 1863 with the opening of the first horse-drawn tram by the French company Première Compagnie des tramways à Petersbourg . The first route ran from Admiralitejskaja Square over Nevsky Prospect to today's Moscow train station . It was built with the Russian broad gauge of 1524 mm and was 4.3 kilometers long. Two more routes, each 3.5 kilometers in length, followed in the next year. With the establishment of the Second Horse Railroad Company in Saint Petersburg in 1874, the first boom in the city's railways began. In 1877 there were already 27 lines running on a total of 90.7 kilometers. In 1899 the route was 131.3 kilometers.

In the past, lines were also run across the frozen Neva

A third company was added in 1878. The Nevskaya suburban horse-drawn tram started operating from the Moscow train station to what is now Rybazkoye . It was taken over by the city administration in 1902. In September 1880, the inventor Fyodor Pirozki operated the world's first electric tram service with a converted horse-drawn tram on a prepared section of a Petersburg horse-drawn tram for almost a month. Then the artillery officer had to close the business that was his hobby due to lack of money. The next electric railway operation was carried out by the Finnish Shipping Company from 1895 and 1896 , but not on land. The company laid tracks on the frozen Neva in the winter months . With its three lines it circumvented the monopoly of the Second Horse Railroad Company in Saint Petersburg . This operation ended with the construction of a new bridge in 1910. It was not until September 29, 1907 that the first permanent, city-owned electric railway went into operation in Petersburg. From 1915 one began to electrify the horse-drawn railway lines. The First World War and the related bottlenecks in the feed supply finally ended the horse-drawn tram operation in Saint Petersburg. The two steam tram lines from 1881 and 1887 were also electrified from 1918. This change came to an end on August 26, 1922.

From 1923 the trains ran according to a fixed timetable. The network continued to grow until 1941 and reached a length of around 700 kilometers. With the beginning of the blockade by the German Wehrmacht in World War II , a difficult time began for the railway company. By the end of the line, the railway had lost 500 kilometers of overhead contact line and 150 vehicles. Another 1065 cars were partially badly damaged.

After the war, repairs to the network and vehicles began. By 1947 the network was completely restored. In the following years it continued to grow. By 1986 the network had reached its greatest expansion with a line length of 1022 kilometers. At that time, almost 2,200 vehicles were in operation. The decline of the tram began with perestroika . By 1997, the network had shrunk by almost 400 kilometers. In that year, the first line from 1863 was also discontinued after more than 130 years of operation.

An articulated trolley of the type LWS-2005 in everyday use today

Current condition

The tracks and other railway systems are worn out in many places. For example, rail joints up to several centimeters wide occur, which is why the speed of the trains is low. Under the pretext that the tram would cause large traffic jams on the streets, tram lines were shut down and routes dismantled and the depots near the city center (on very expensive properties) demolished in order to build new office buildings in their place. instead of investing in the maintenance of facilities and vehicles.

At the end of 2012 the first two bidirectional wagons of type 71-631 arrived in Saint Petersburg, so that it is no longer necessary to drive around entire districts with this new type in order to be able to start in the opposite direction at the end stops. The articulated trolleys had previously been tested in Slatoust for several months .

On March 7, 2018, the first 4.2 km section of the new line 8 was opened as the first line operated by a private consortium. The route leads from the Ladoschskaya station of metro line 4 to Chasanskaya Ulitsa. Stadler is delivering a total of 23 bidirectional vehicles. The next 1.6 km section will open in summer 2018.

A second, privately operated route is to lead from the Kuptschino station on metro line 2 to Shushary and Slavyanka.

Tariff

The fare is 40 rubles, the equivalent of around 60 cents (as of June 2017).

There is a ticket vendor on every tram. Single journeys do not entitle you to change trains. A ticket must be purchased again when boarding.

vehicles

Until the " Petersburg tram-mechanical works " went bankrupt in 2013, vehicles from this manufacturer were mostly used.
Vehicles from other manufacturers as well as vehicles that have been modernized in our own workshop are now also used.
The "Museum of the electric urban transport" with historical vehicles from the city is located since 1967 on the Wassiliewinsel , Srediny Prospekt 77, in an old tram depot from the years 1906 to 1908. It is the oldest museum of electrical transport in Russia. The collection currently includes 45 trams and 18 trolleybuses as well as many models, paintings, historical uniforms, tickets, and other historical documents and photos.

Web links

Commons : Tram transport in Saint Petersburg - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

[1] tuell.ru v. November 22, 2012.

[2] ttp://www.metro-report.com/news/single-view/view/private-operator-begins-services-on-st-petersburg-fast-tram-route.html

[3] ttp://www.metro-report.com/news/news-by-region/europe/single-view/view/st-petersburg-tenders-for-second-ppp-fast-tram.html

[4] ttp://www.electrotrans.spb.ru/podvizhnoy_sostav