History
In the second half of the 19th century, urban development of cities within the Austro-Hungarian Empire created communication problems, which occasionally led to the construction of transit systems. The first projects for the construction of horse-drawn trams appeared in the 1870s. This network was called Konka after the Polish word for horse, koń. A horse-drawn tramway was built in Lviv and opened on May 5, 1880. The gauge of this first line was 1 meter. In 1906, the Lviv city administration took control of the tramway. In 1908, the tramway was fully electrified.
Running parallel to the Lviv tramway, was the Siemens & Halske tramway which opened on May 31, 1894. In 1896, the Lviv city administration took control of the Siemens & Halske tramway. Only on October 1, 1922, after the city became part of the Second Polish Republic were the tram lines switched to the right-hand-side system.
After the end of the Second World War and the annexation of the city by the Soviet Union, several lines were closed for service, yet most of the tramway infrastructure was preserved. On November 27, 1952, the tram lines were changed to the trolleybus systems. Starting in the 1970s, some lines in the city centre were shut down. In 1988, the first fast tram (now operated by the lines 3 and 5) was established in the city. Since then no extensions to the tram network have been built, however various extensions have been planned, most notable of which is the planned tram line to Sykhiv district.
Another characteristic of the Lviv tram is the grooved rail that is used. It is one of a few cities of the former Soviet Union that use this type of rail. This oddity resulted from the fact that, when the system was constructed, Lviv was part of Galicia in Austria-Hungary.
Read more about this topic: Trams In Lviv
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