Trams in Lviv

Here is a description from November 27 of that year found in "Lvivska Gazeta" : The first tram in Ukraine was opened in Lviv on May 3, 1880.

They were dark brown with white inscriptions reading "Lviv Tram" (Polish: "Tramway Lwowski"), decorated with a red border.

In 1888 the Society of Lviv-Bełżec Railways submitted a project for the construction of a steam tram to the Lviv magistracy.

The idea of a steam tram had become widely publicized in Lviv, but the project of the Lviv-Bełżec Railroad Association did not find support from city officials.

Then the Mortgage Joint-Stock Bank of Lviv offered the city council a concession for laying the line from the Church of St. Anne's Shevchenko Street to Yaniv, but this project was not implemented.

It was won by the German firm Siemens & Halske, which obliged after two years of demands from the city council.

According to Ilkam Lemkom, "some Miss Skorobetska, the wife of the driver who lost his job, wrote in a respectable Lviv newspaper that she had, "made a proposal to the tram physically impossible to execute, with appropriate gestures."

In simpler language, this meant that the woman, having thrown her skirt and leaning back to the tramway, urged him to kiss her in one place."

In 1907, the Ministry of Railways of the Austrian Empire allowed conversion of the horse-drawn trams to use electric traction.

Thus, the following routes were opened, beginning with Liberty Avenue: Bogdan Khmelnytsky to Pidzamche, Zelena to Lychakivskyi cemetery, Shevchenko to Klepariv, Gorodotsky to the train station, and Zamarstynivska to Zamarstyniv.

In 1907 a line was created for the "New World" (an area in Lviv), after which property prices in the then-most prestigious district of the city fell by half.

During the battle for the city in the Ukrainian-Polish war in November 1918, the grid suffered significant damage, resulting in service stopping in May 1919.

The tramway consisted of two depots, car repair workshops and two traction substations with a total capacity of 6540 kW.

On September 1, 1939, in air raid at the beginning of the German invasion of Poland, rails and a contact network on Gorodotsky Street were damaged as a result of bombardment.

The wooden parts in them had been replaced by metal, doors were arranged with pneumatic drives, and open outside areas were closed off.

As of January 1, 1950, the Lviv tramway consisted of two depots with a total capacity of 80 carriages, 185 passenger cars (of which 59 were trailer vehicles), 19 cargo platforms and snow blowers.

In 1959, the journey between Liberty Avenue and Mickiewicz Square was stopped in order to allow room for the trolleybuses.

In 1952 to 1953 a line from Zhovkva tollhouse was continued to the tram depot number 2 (near the meat processing plant).

At first, plans were made to build two tunnels with around metro size in the center of the city (practically, metrotrams), and to link them to overground routes.

The portals of the first tunnel, 2.2 km in length, were to be built in the Pidzamche district and intersection of Franko Street and Snopkivska.

Underground construction began with the erection of the first Potocki Palace in the courtyard, which led to damage to surrounding buildings.

As to April 2023, the Lviv tramway consists of 8 lines (1 of which is temporarily out of service due to street renovation) on 81 kilometers of tracks with approximately 70 cars.

In 2000s and 2010s Lviv acquired 50 overhauled and modernized Tatra KT4 trams previously used in German cities Erfurt,[3] Gera and Berlin,[3] with them being the first new tramcar purchase since the independence of Ukraine.

In September 2012, a contract to supply modern low-floor trams was awarded to Lvivelektrotrans, a joint venture of Electron and TransTec Vetschau.

[4] These newest additions to Lviv's long tram history were introduced in August 2013 and now run on route 9a.

Previously passengers could pay the fare by buying a paper one-time ticket for cash at kiosks or from the driver.

The service is provided by private companies, in particular, the country's largest bank PrivatBank through its Privat24 mobile application.

In the fall of 2023, LCE "Lvivavtodor" (operator of the e-ticketing system "Leocard") announced that cashless payment of fares in all urban public transport in Lviv will start on December 11, 2023.

Since the introduction of cashless payment in all public transport, the right to discounted travel is granted only if you have a personalized LeoCard.

Passengers paying in cash must obtain a ticket from the driver and keep it throughout the trip, and LeoCard holders must validate the card.

View of the Lviv trams in the depot (1920s).
line 8
Routes map 2015 (without line 8 that was opened in November 2016)
Lviv tram and trolleybus network
Lviv electric public transport network. Scheme of tram and trolleybus lines (09.2022)
Coat of arms of Lviv
Coat of arms of Lviv