Liepājas tramvajs is a municipal company that operates a single

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

line in

Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after Riga and Daugavpils. It is an important ice-f ...

, Latvia. The current

double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

ed tram line has a length of .

History

1899

The first electric tram line in the Baltic states was founded in

, September 26, 1899. The first nine trams used by the company were made by Herbrand (based in Köln,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

). The first tram line was built to

Karosta Karosta is a former Russian Imperial and Soviet naval base on the Baltic Sea, which today is a neighbourhood in Liepāja, Latvia. History The naval base was originally constructed in 1890-1906 for Tsar Alexander III of Russia, and named По ...

1903

In 1903 the company ordered six new trams from Herbrand. The new trams received numbers 10 to 16.

1904

Two-way tram line has been built at Liela street in the city center.

1940

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the old Herbrand trams has been placed to new self-made frames. 18 March 1941 for the first time since 1899 the woman (Anna Cekuse) has become the conductor. The company starts to use tree-digit numbering, precessing tram number with 1. In 1949-1956 few trams has been built in

using the details from

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

and self-made frames.

1957

In 1957 Liepājas tramvajs has received 8

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...

T57 trams with numbers 125–132.

1960

Liepāja has received 10 new trams Gotha Т59Е with the numbers 139–148 in 1961. In 1962 has been bought 8 new Tatra T2-62 with numbers 149–156.

1970

In 1974 Liepājas tramvajs has transported 12 million passengers per year.

1990

New tram-stops with add stands has been built in Liepāja by EuroAWK

2007

In Liepāja widely discussed plans to extend the tram line to the

Ezerkrasts Ezerkrasts is one of the largest and most modern neighbourhoods of Liepāja, Latvia. It is located near the southern border of the city, on the western coast of Liepāja lake. Ezerkrasts named so after the naming contest in 1975, in which this na ...

district. The company starts to offer new service — payments for the tram tickets by mean of

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

. This service was developed in cooperation with Riga company Citycredit.

2013

the tram line to the

district is made

2018

In 2018, 12 KONCAR NT2300 low-floor trams were ordered, with first delivery happening in November 2020, and one KONCAR NT2300 trams should be on Liepāja's streets by the end of 2020.

October 2020

The first KONCAR NT2300 low-floor tram is being tested in Zagreb's streets, 2 Liepaja's tram drivers and 2 technicians drive to Zagreb, to learn how to drive KONCAR NT2300 tram, also a plan has been made to extend tram line to go to k-senukai market, to go through Laumas district and go to Karostas bridge.

10 November 2020

The , KONCAR NT2300 delivery has been started to Liepāja, it will go through other countries to Germany by land, then it will be loaded onto a ship and delivered to Liepāja by ship. This is the first Croatian tram to be delivered to another country also the first new Liepāja tram has been numbered as ''250'' which means the other 13 trams will receive numbers from 251 to 262.

17 November 2020

The first KONCAR NT2300 has been delivered to Liepāja and put into Liepaja's tram rails, the old trams are numbered to 247, the number 248 will be given to the "snow white" track cleaner and number 249 will be given to a technical tram when it is purchased in future, also there is a discussion to buy two more trams, so Liepāja will have 14 new trams in total, also the two new tram should come to Liepāja at January 2021 but the first six should all be delivered by May 2021, the new trams are not expected to drive through Liepaja's streets till 2021, when the second KONCAR NT2300 will be delivered to Liepaja.

18 February 2021

The second and third KONCAR NT2300 have been delivered to Liepaja, however as of 18 February, Liepaja's tram drivers have started to train on how to drive KONCAR NT2300 trams. The new trams are expected to be in service sometime in March.

18 March 2021

The KONCAR NT2300 trams enter service during Liepaja's 396th birthday, currently all 6 KONCAR NT2300s are in service

21 November 2022

The last model of KONCAR NT2300 was brought to Liepāja, but now have 14 trams.

Fleet

The current fleet consists of five Tatra KT4SU trams that were newly delivered, eleven type KT4D trams formerly in service in

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

Gera Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...

and

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

, six KONCAR NT2300's, two of them are in service and a tram track cleaner called 'Snow White', which was built around the 1920s and rebuilt in 1954, and is the only tram from that time which is still in operating condition. This tram fleet is currently the oldest tram fleet in the Baltics.

Tickets & price

Gallery

Liepajastramvajs 3.jpg, Tram station in

Liepajastramvajs 12.jpg, Tram No. 12 at Peldu St. Liepajastramvajs 13.jpg, Tram No. 13 near ''Kursaal'' (Kūrmāja) Tram in Liepāja001.jpg, alt=The current trams in liepāja, The current trams in liepāja

References

External links

*
Unofficial website

gallery of Liepāja's tram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liepajas Tramvajs Liepāja Transport in Liepāja Tram transport in Latvia Metre gauge railways in Latvia