Tatra KT4 1142

Location: Ivan Franko Street, Lviv, Ukraine
Operator of Vehicle: LKP Lvivelektrotrans
Date of Photo: June 1, 2008

It is very difficult to escape news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine right now.  I visited Lviv in western Ukraine in 2008 on a family origins tour.  From what I’ve read, Lviv has not been the site of any warfare yet, but many Ukrainians are passing through the city as they attempt to escape the country and reach Poland, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Lviv.  

Unlike the larger cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro, Lviv does not have a Metro system.  The backbone of its public transit system is a tram network that traces its origins to horse drawn vehicles beginning operation in 1880.  The trams have been electrified since 1908.  However, due to the lack of expansion of the system since World War II and difficulties in keeping it maintained, ridership has declined by more than half between 1990 and 2010.  Until 2014, the system was operated entirely by Soviet built trams.  In that year, a Ukrainian-German joint venture delivered eight low floor trams to Lviv, and in 2020, a low floor tram model built entirely in Ukraine entered service.

For more photos of Lviv’s Tatra KT4 trams, please click here.