Prague Tram System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Prague Tram System is the largest tram system in the Czech Republic, consisting of 133 kilometres of track, 951 tram cars, and 35 lines. It is operated by Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy a.s., a company owned by the City of Prague. The system serves over 340 million passengers a year. The first horsecar tram line was opened in 1875, the first electric tram ran in 1891.

Contents 1 Prague Trams Today 1.1 Night Trams 2 The history of lines 2.1 Horse Tram 2.2 Electric Trams 2.3 By the early 20th century 3 World War One 4 Golden Era of the Trams 5 Interesting Facts

[edit] Prague Trams Today

As of January 2007 Prague tram network includes:

• 26 day routes (numbered 1 to 26),
• 9 night routes (numbered 51 to 59) and
• 1 historial route, number 91.

The day routes work from 4.30AM till 1:00AM of the next day. Most of the routes work on the all days of week from morning to the late night. Also, some routes work on selected days of week (usually on workdays) and/or rush hours.

[edit] Night Trams

• Work between midnight and 5:00 till 6:00

The trajectories are distinct from the day routes except two routes. All the night trams intersect only in one place in the center of Prague, which is (Lazarská). At this stop, passengers interchange between the routes within 5 minutes. There are several similar points in the city.

[edit] The history of lines

[edit] Horse Tram

The horsecar trams started to operate on September 23, 1875 along the route Karlín - National Theater. The owner and the enterpreneur of this road was Eduard Ottlet, from Belgium. This way lead to the theater, along the Národní Třída street. Tracks went approximately in direction of today Metro Line B. In 1876 track was extended west of the National Theater, through the Újezd hub to the Smíchov Railway Station. In 1882 the network was extended to Vinohrady and Žižkov. In that time they were a independent suburb of Prague, now they are integral part of city. In 1883 the size of the entire network was 19,43 kilometers. The entire network was managed by the general direction of Prague Tram.

[edit] Electric Trams

In 1891 the first electric tram line was opened on Letná (Letná was one of favourite places of recreation in Prague). This line lead from the upper terminal of the Letná Funicular, where the pavellion of Regional Anniversary Exhibition was located, to the place of nowadays exhibition on Ovenecka street. And then, after two more years, this line was extended to the Governor's Villa, on 1,4 kilometer totally. In 1896, on March 19th František Křižík opened second, more important tram line, which leads from today Florenc to the Libeň and Vysočany. Being generated from the primary tram line, disturbing to the firstible character of the Exhbition pavilion, this way was too busy. It joined the industrial districts of Prague with its residential area in a center.

• In 1897 without loosing any time, again the new tram line is opened. That time it was the out-of-town space. It was named, "Glavachkova electric railway, along the route (Smíchov - Košíře). later on, the new passenger railroad, named (Královské Vinohrady) was opened. The Praha - Vinohrady stretch spams 5,8 kilometers, has 17 stations, and further passes through Nove Mesto. The route was formed by joining to the electric railway of Vinohrady cadestal area.
• At another side of the city, thanks to above-listed railway between Andel and Smichov, it allowed Prague tram to provide one-seat-ride between Kashirzhe and Vinohrady. Finally, the city enterprice, named the Prague Transportation Enterprice was formed.
• In 1898 the horse railway was bought by this enterprice. ue to the this the construction of new track started along with electrification of the existing tracks.

[edit] By the early 20th century

• That time, there was a sequence of forming a city monopoly, from providing a workroom for a city transportation. It began to electrify the horse tram very early (shortly after, as Otletova Prague trams came under the jaws of competitors of the electric enterprizes. Later on it was picking the trackways of the rest of users. The last private trackway, the work of František Křižík was transferred to the city by the year of 1907.
• In 1905 The electrification works were finished. Even the last horse tram routelast route of through the Charles Bridge was electrified (also a project of František Křižík) The tram route through the Charles Bridge worked till 1908.

[edit] World War One

The coming of war conflict with the fast pace, elaborated new strains to the network. In favor of earlier-coming sanitation trains from a war frontier, sanitation trams were rebuilt to. The lack of horse wagons – then the transportation problems in metropolis construction –by itself , it forced the imposition of such tram elaborations as, transporting the warfare and fuel, raw materials, and food. During the war, the product of ammunition, warfare should go for every price with an increasing demand, It came also to the melting of trams and falls in capacities (the melted trams were used to produce grenades and bombshells, etc).This situation ended by the year of 1918, by signing the Peace Treaty noted as Czechoslovak Republic.

[edit] Golden Era of the Trams

Again, the trams network underwent expansion – Mainly till the newly built quarter in nowadays Metropolitan Prague, such as Dejvice, Nusle or Žižkov. By the year of 1927 the construction for the network exceeded in Hlubočepích with 100km yet, (to the day it costed a dairy). Herewith they began to join new tram types. In the view of that,that the tracks were unidirectional its was impossible to make the dead ends on the turns, or later on, on the loops. Subsequently, it was necessary to rebuild many terminals, in this fashion.

• In the middle of 1920s, the tram network began to be joined with their competitors – the buses. But for anything else, equally modern for that time, so as trams could exist in threat.

(as it became 50 years later) and a tram network first was improved on-place, where it was impossible to expand due to technical reasons. Increasing largeness of the Prague and its tram network and increasing distance tariffs started to slow down the transportation from one end of metropolis to another. In view of the computation of lines and cornering(???) trams steadily grew.

• The most transportational fall in a city center, such as on "Na Příkopě" and "Václavské náměstí", began to be overviewing. Such as untwist of situation was found, various attention was attracted about running trams underground or of a spped-tram, by the end of 1930s. The projecting deskroom was directed, whose coherence was on suggesting of the best solution.

During the occupation anything had to be placed in a close place. Such a compound situation appeared.

[edit] Interesting Facts

At 20:00 night trams begin they work as day routes. It helps to replace the day trams which are already coming to depots, and then work with the rest of day trams. About MIDNIGHT whenever a tram arrives to its terminals, it changes its route designators to (51-59),and works already as a night tram.