One Network, One Line, 125 Years!
Tram No 1 started its long life in Liepaja in September 1899. There are several postcards on-line showing the system in its early days.
It is worthy of note that the early route was single track with (presumably?) passing places. The church below will appear in Friday's blog.
Note also that the city centre was busy wth shoppers who would have travelled there using the one tram route in 1899 and following.
fbb is not sure whether the above picture really is of Liepaja as there were no sidings or junctions in the city. But the bridge below was real enough and, much widened, still stands today.
By the time the above photo was snapped, double track running in the city centre was apparent. The double tracking had begun in 1904 not long after the system opened. The assumption is that the line was successful and an increased frequency necessitated the extra track. Extra trams were added to the fleet in 1903.
In 1941 the first woman driver, Anna Cejusa, joined the company then, as the clouds of war dissipated, new trams similar to those below took to the rails.
The next intake of new rolling stick was in 1957 when more substantial "Gotha" trams arrived.
fbb should have mentioned that the track is metre gauge, not "standard" gauge as in UK railways and in the curremnt UK tram systems.
The Tatra trams began arriving in 1962.
Messily they tended to wear all over advertsing livery.
In 1974, the company's on-line history summary reports that total passengers carried reached 12 million annually which is quite an achievement for a one-line system in a town with a popukation of only 77,000. That is in the same order as Kettering, Paisley and Peterborough, none of which has trams! Blackpool's count is 142,000 and it, like Liepaja has one tram route.
In 2007 discussions started about an extension to Ezerkrasis - shock horror - only 108 years after the first section opened. This was at the southern end of the line and involved a short piece of tram abandonment shown in slightly paler blue, lower left!
Delivery of new low floor trams began in 2021 and, this time, they all wear the same livery.
These are very smart, although fbb does wonder about the practicality of the white plastic finish in the interior.
The four (uncomfortable?) seats right at the back do give some idea of the constraints of metre gauge bodywork!
The trams are unidirectional with turning circles at both ends of the route ....jpg)
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... and doors on the right hand side only ...
... ergo, none on the left hand side!
Just a video snippet of trams passing squeakily where a temporary single track section is in operation.On Friday, we take a virtual ride along the system, look at fares and glimpse the Liepaja bus netwrok.
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| to a blog near you |
Thurs 17 Oct
(mini) Clever cornering cheats
Fri 18 Oct
(maxi) Liepaja route and info
Sat 19 Oct
(mini) Stagecoach Succumbs in Sussex
Sun 20 Oct
(mlini) Traumatic Travels in Torquay
e & o e
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Next corner cheating mini blog : Thurs 17th Oct
The Lisbon articulated trams, now about 20 years old, have a similar rear seat arrangement, on the even narrower 600mm gauge. Some newer cars have recently been added to the fleet but I don't know what they're like inside.
ReplyDeleteThe post war pictures show respectively the Gotha cars, Tatra T3s (the rounded cars arriving from 1962) and Tatra T4s (which date from 1983 onwards).
ReplyDeleteAlso, there was a second line, running north westwards from just north of the river bridge, along Raina ilea and Oskara Kalpaka iela. About halfway along this was another line back to the city centre, which could well be the junction shown in the coloured postcard.