Prague said goodbye to the “square” trams that had been running in the metropolis for 25 years
The Prague transport company said goodbye to the T6A5 trams. After more than 25 years of deployment on Saturday, all five vehicles of this type, which still remained in operation, set off on their last ride. DPP will keep two of them for occasional retro operation, the other three will be offered for sale. Another company has a permanent exhibition in its museum.
Trams took their last regular journey on Saturday on line no. 4, where they ran until 6 pm at 15-minute intervals in the section between the Smíchovské nádraží and Čechovo náměstí turnoffs. They were charged regular tariffs and public transport tickets.
The sixth, museum tram was also displayed at the turning point at Smíchovské nádraží until 6 pm, and public transport fans could pick up and stamp a commemorative ticket from it.
At 18:15 all six trams set off from Smíchovské nádraží on the way through Prague. They drove along the route Anděl, Újezd, Malostranská and through Chotkovy sady to Špejchar, where people could take pictures of them. At 19:00 they set out on their last drive to their home depots.
In addition, the farewell symbolically referred to a number of facts from the history of the tram. “It is exactly 26 years since the takeover of the first two T6A5 cars, which took place on June 24, 1995. For the first time, we put the T6A5 trams into operation at interruption No. 4. Member of the Board of Directors and Technical Director of DPP – Surface.
Two of the trams kept the transport company – it will be the first and last, the 150th piece he bought from the Tatras. It will be used during the so-called retro operation, when DPP organizes special rides for enthusiasts of otherwise decommissioned models. The remaining T6A5 vehicles were offered for sale by the transport company.
Trams were manufactured between 1991 and 1998 by the Prague Tatra, sending a total of 296 pieces to the world. DPP was put into normal operation on September 23, 1995. Prague was mainly the operator of Tatra T6A5 trams.
When the first of a total of 150 T6A5 cars took over traffic in the mid-1990s, it must be a significant improvement for passengers. For example, they saw a more modern interior such as upholstered seats (later the seating capacity was a third when two seats on the right side of the car began to be supplied next to each other) or more powerful ventilation. The method of heating also changed, instead of heated seats, as the T3 had, the vents in the wall of the car near the floor were solved.
The most visible change was the outer shape, instead of the round shapes of the T3 type came square lines. The design was due to an era of origin and at a time when transport companies in the world were massively introducing low-floor models, in which passengers often had to travel up a few steps.
Even before Prague, the T6A5 trams appeared in Bratislava (1991) and Košice (1992), the first Czech transport company to take over the type, then the Ostrava one in 1994. The fifth city to buy “the six” as new was Brno. In the end, a large part of the cars discarded by the DPP went to the Moravian metropolis. Still on the rosary 2019, 30 T6A5s were in operation in the streets of Prague.
Unlike the “three” – but also the double-sided articulated “two” – the Prague T6A5 cars have never been reconstructed, and because of this, their service in the capital has come to an end. The Prague transport company could allow their decommissioning thanks to the fact that it reaches both the supply of reconstructed T3 (over 380 pieces) and the modern high-capacity low-floor type 15T (the company bought 250 of them). It also has almost fifty modernized KT8 and over 50 low-floor 14T.
Video: I like crossroads and chirping, says the driver of a historic tram
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