The Moscow tram has celebrated its 122nd anniversary

The Moscow tram celebrates its birthday on April 7, 2021. This day 122 years ago the first electrical cars started their operation in the city. The electrical trams were launched on the very first line. The tracks passed from Butyrskaya Square to Petrovsky Park — 2,35 km in total.

The first electric trams gained speed up to 27 km/h and almost immediately displaced the horse-drawn cars. The last horse tram was launched in 1911. It was traditionally harnessed by horses and could hold up to 40 passengers. The horse tram moved at the pedestrian’s speed, no more than 8 km/h.

In 1922 13 regular routes worked in the capital. By the early 1930s trams became the most popular mode of transport — around 800 000 people chose them on a daily basis — this amounted to the third of all Muscovites.

During the World War II the trams did not stop for a day — even at the time of defense of Moscow. They operated at a lower light not to attract any unwanted attention and not only transported the passengers and supplies but also helped to evacuate the municipal institutes.

Today there are near 700 trams operating at 40 routes in Moscow. 390 of them are modern three-section trams Vityaz-Moskva with low floors, USB chargers, climate control system and media screens.

In 2021 tram rides will become even more comfortable and reliable — the modern low-floor cars Vityaz-Moskva have already started to join the fleet. They have more seats, bicycle racks, modern illumination, a voice intercom to connect the low-mobility passengers with a driver and extra ramps as well.

Moreover, this year the first onу-section low-floor trams will be launched in Moscow. They will operate on the routes which are not overloaded even at rush hours. This year Moscow will receive 109 low-floor cars in total − 19 three-section and 90 one-section ones. It will bring Moscow closer to our goal to renew all rolling stock by 2024.

As far as tram infrastructure is concerned it will not be long before Moscow opens all sections of tram tracks which are now closed for repairs now All works will be finished as scheduled in May 2021.

It has become possible thanks to the integration of the tram and metro networks —innovative technologies of the Moscow Metro allow to finish the work on refurbishing tracks just in 1,5 months, and it is 2,5 times faster than before. The experience gained thanks to the Moscow Metro will allow to almost never block the tram traffic for repairing purposes in the future. Only a few years ago we had to arrange such gaps in metro as well — almost monthly, but now the lines are closed only to connect new stations to them. The most important question for us now is to finish current track repairs and launch trams.