New Tatra-Jug trams for Ukrainian city

 

 

The industrial city of Kamianske (population 255 000) on the Dnieper river was known as Dniprodzerzhinsk from 1936 until 2016, when it reverted to its historical name. It has a reputation as being one of the most air-polluted cities in Ukraine. The city was the birthplace of Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982. The population was boosted since 2022 by an influx of refugees from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. 

 

The city has a 39km four-line 1524mm-gauge tramway system, opened in 1935. Today the city operates 32 trams, all high-floor and mostly Tatra models built in Czechoslovakia, though daily output is only around 14 trams. The hilly city is notorious for Ukraine's worst tram accident, in July 1996, when a Russian-built tram ran away on a steep hill due to brake failure, killing 34 and injuring over 100 more. 

Thanks to the Ukraine II programme, financed by the European Investment Bank, the city has been able to place an order for 17 new partly low-floor trams; they will be supplied by Tatra-Jug, a manufacturer set up in 1993 to ensure the availability of Tatra-designed trams inn the former Soviet Union after the collapse of communism. The factory is in Dnipro, a Ukrainian city not far from Kamianske. The order is for 15m bogie trams costing EUR 14.167M, with first delivery expected towards the end of 2025 and completed in 2026.