The small tram service in Daugavpils in Latvia is undergoing significant modernisation process:
Four tramcars of the EVO1 model of Czech manufacturer Pragoimex were supplied since October 2023, which have been in regular service since December 2023. However, the tramways have been assembled in the country itself, at the Daugavpils locomotive repair plant (DLRR). The new vehicles are four-axle low-floor high-capacity trams around 15 metres long.
Not long a ago, a total of eight Russian-built 71-911Е “City Star” tramcars were purchased was in 2019/20, at a price of just EUR 511,700 each. All of these new trams run in Daugavpils with pantographs, while the previously procured trams are all still travelling with trolley booms (comparable to trolleybuses). These include 8 four-axle and 4 six-axle low-floor trams also from Russian production built in 2014, 8 Tatra T3Ds from 1973-83 acquired from Schwerin around 20 years ago and a further 8 Russian trams of the formerly widespread standard type 71-605A from 1990-91 – in addition to some work and heritage trams.
However, it is not only the fleet that is being modernised, the tram network is also being expanded. The two outer termini Stropu ezers and Butjerova iela, where the depot is also located, were connected by a new 1.8 km long, largely single-track line. On 25 January 2024, the trams started the new service: the two lines 3 and 5 run on the new line in opposite directions as a circle line (see network map at: https://www.urbanrail.net/eu/lv/dauga/daugavpils.htm ), their other common terminus is at Cietoksnis Fortress. The two lines are supplemented by the trunk line 1 from the railway station to Butjerova iela loop. Line 2, on the other hand, has been out of service since 10 August 2023 due to roadworks that also affect the tracks. The power supply had already been modernised here previously.
All these modernisation efforts clearly show that the tram will continue to play an important role in urban transport for the city’s almost 100,000 inhabitants.
In the bus sector, the first six Scania Citywide II LF BEV electric buses have been in operation since summer 2023.
We reported in detail about the tram here:
