Travels 2021 – Part II
On 29. October 2021 by Webmaster- Day 1 Kyiv
After a late arrival there was just time for about an hour near the railway station. Now very few old cars on the fast tram compared to previous visits.
- Day 2 Kyiv
Most time was spent on the left bank system.
- Day 3 Zhytomyr
A day-trip by Marshrutka. We managed to walk much of the tram line this time and the cars do not look very good and one wonders when the line will be closed. Many new trolleybuses have recently arrived.
- Day 4 Bila Tserkva
Another day-trip by Marshrutka. The main aim was to see the two ex Budapest Ikarus trolleybuses that still run and we did see them during the evening rush hours.
- Day 5 Chernihiv
The first destination on our road trip. The old trolleybuses mostly look terrible but we were told that they will all be replaced by new equipment soon.
- Day 6 Konotop
Another depot visit and charter here. No KTM-5 was available for us so we could no travel on line 3 with our T3.
- Day 7 Sumy
Still a lot of older vehicles in service.
- Day 8 Charkiv
The day was spent riding around and chasing the Stadler low floor car on short-term loan from Minsk. We were surprised to see a two door T3 in excellent condition but it turned out that this was a recent addition from Praha where it was converted to this configuration when made into a training car.
- Day 9 Charkiv
The main aim was to get to see depot 3 which we had always failed to do during our previous visits and with the help of a charter we even managed this on a weekend: ZiU-9 #346.
- Day 10 Charkiv
Before we had to leave for Donbas we had a charter with one of the recently rebuilt T3s and managed to meet up with the Minsk tram.
- Day 11 Severodonetsk
We decided to do three systems this day so we could only allocate a limited time to each.
- Day 11 Lysychans’k
As is usual, only a very small number of trolleybuses operated. We saw two of the three that are operational. Below are a number of images showing the same vehicles in different locations or from different angles.
- Day 11 Bachmut
As with the other two systems that day we could only go to a few select locations of the network as the available time was rather short.
- Day 12 Kramatorsk
We decided to visit the trolleybus depot simply to try to gain access to the closed tram depot but again we were told that this was not possible. But we found out that the trams are about to be scrapped at the end of October. Later we found one very old tram sign that they forgot to take down along the line. There are still some older trolleybuses in service but many have been scrapped.
- Day 13 Druzhkivka
The day started rather dull weather wise but luckily the sun came out in the afternoon. Only one KTM-5 left in service now. The line to the railway station was new for us as it did not operate when we visited last.
- Day 14/15 Dnipro
Our visit coincided with a public holiday and thus the service was not as frequent as during a weekday. After a cheap breakfast in a tramway canteen (they have them usually at all the dispatchers offices where one can also buy the day pass – but we later learned that the day pass is now also sold by conductors) we simply rode and walked around. One really needs a couple of days to see everything here (like Charkiv). We did not find any day passes anywhere else during our trip and the price in Dnipro is very cheap indeed.
- Day 15 Kamianske
A lot of T6s have arrived from Praha replacing older equipment. There was not enough time to visit all the lines on this visit: a good reason to return once more.
- Day 16 Zaporizhzhia
We did not see any of the old T3s running (nearly all have been retired we learned since – still stored at the depot) but it was nice to see the ex Berlin KT4s. Much time was spent walking along parts of the “downtown” loop which we had always neglected on previous visits: most lines run here. We also did a short charter with an old ZiU-9 (most of the old trolleybuses have been scrapped).
- Day 17 Zaporizhzhia
A little more than half a day was left for riding around. Some of the drivers took the Covid prevention very seriously and only accepted a small number of sitting passengers. Many passengers got stranded for a long time. Marshrutkas did not act like that and thus a few rides (all very full) had to be done to move around more quickly. Afterwards we had our first 3 hour long-distance taxi ride to Mariupol because our driver from Kyiv had to return home. We had thought about cancelling certain destinations from here on but in the end only Kropyvnytskyi was deleted from the schedule (as we had not planned a hotel night there and walking around the town for 2 hours with our luggage just seemed too much of a task as was having to find a new onward taxi without the help of a hotel).
- Day 18/19 Mariupol
No more KTM-5s in service! Some of the second hand T3s have been renumbered because of the closure of the eastern depot (now just a workshop and bus depot). All the old trolleybuses have been replaced, including the ex Solingen ones. Very few tram lines operated in the Eastern part of the network.
- Day 20 Kherson
There is a 6 hour drive between Mariupol and this town and having found a cheap taxi we decided to minimise the stay in Kherson (this added more time for Mykolaiv). Thus only 2 hours in the early morning were available to visit a few sections of the network near the hotel (the first photos had to be taken before or at sunrise). Many of the routes were thus missed but then we had been here before (we have been everywhere before of course, sometimes 2-3 times).
- Day 20/21 Mykolaiv
Having added more time for this system (by reducing the time spent in Kherson) we decided to arrange a depot visit on the spot. We also managed to charter a tram (a modernised KTM-5) on the second day. Not enough time was available to see more of the new trolleybuses (many old ones survive but we concentrated on the tramway on both days).
- Day 21/22 Kryvyi Rih
The highlight of our tour! We have been here a few times before and never have we been able to visit the depot of the fast tramway (well, we did visit it once by quickly going round it by charter tram but no photos were allowed). Also photography on the fast tramway was rather restricted since about 2014 (though we managed 2-3 photo stops during our charter a few years back). Now we had the grand tour of the depot (having to wear high visibility vests and a helmet … just for guests). Still, we had a great time (we had rented car 010 for a ride to the depot, the requested articulated car was somehow not available but ran in service later) and we were very surprised to be able to take photos everywhere on the stations. We have not quite found out if this is now allowed for everybody (we think not: a woman with a small child walked towards us at the very end of the platform taking photos herself of the trams with her phone but was promptly shouted at by the station master and hurried back to the normal stopping area at the other end). We talked to the station attendants and they seemed either aware that we were about that afternoon or looked with fascination at our photos just taken inside the depot). The security guards ignored us completely. We had no problems at all and everybody was very friendly. We spent most of the day on the fast tram and thus had very little time for the city tramway and the trolleybuses. At 2.50 UAH this system offers the cheapest fares (all the others we visited are usually around 4-6 with Mariupol the highest at 9.00 UAH for trams and 10.00 UAH for trolleybuses). On the fast tram they still use tokens (as they do on the Dnipro metro) – Kyiv and Charkiv no longer use tokens.
- Day 23 Kremenchuk
This system has now retired all of the old trolleybuses and runs a few battery operated extensions.
- Day 24 Cherkasy
Not many old vehicles run on Sundays but we managed to charter the “historic” Kyiv-12.05 trolleybus. Weekdays see more services operate.
- Day 25/26 Kyiv
We started our trip in the capital and we ended it there. We were not successful to find the new low floor #5001 car when we had arrived but it did run now. We managed a ride on it on line 28 but then later the car disappeared. The track connection to the Darnyts’kyi depot is under reconstruction (one track seems available for pull ins and pool outs) and we later discovered the car together with many others sitting in the line 4 northern loop waiting for the evening rush. With the sun rapidly disappearing we managed to see the whole collection of trams run on the fast tram on the right bank in order to loop round at one of the southern loops (probably the first one) to rejoin their lines 28 and 35 (no passengers were carried). It was interesting to see all these different types of trams run on the fast tram, normally they do not go here at all! On the last day we went to Darnyts’kyi depot but not much was running there (all the interesting cars were operating from Lisova metro station going north only). A bus replacement line 33T operated some distance away from the depot to bring passengers north. We look forward to our next visit to Kyiv and Ukraine (we will probably do the Western part of the country again including Odesa): but certain systems do need a repeat visit as well (Poltava, Dnipro, Kamianske, Kryvyj Rih…).
