In 1991, all the cars from the Krasin depot, 601–607, were transferred to Darnitsa and renumbered 071–077.
001 | The fisrt T6 car to come to Kiev, numbered 001,
was manufactured in 1985 by Tatra Smichov. After coming to Kiev
and acquiring said number, it was sent around a number of Ukrainian cities
as a demonstration car. It came back to Kiev in 1987 and started
to serve the Darnitsa Depot routes. A few years later, however,
it was transferred to the Krasin Depot (nowadays Podol Depot)
and converted into a special-purpose car. The only photo of the 001
in passenger service at our disposal has been made, most probably,
after 1987, on the line north of Metro Chernigovskaya. | |
001 | Thus, at the beginning of the 1990s the 001 was rebuilt as a
cafe car, available for hire. When not hired, it used to serve route 12,
albeit for a double fare and with monthly tickets not honored. Then, in 2005
it was taken out of service. Even though its problem was rather minor, it was facing
a grim prospect of becoming a donor of parts, but eventually it was saved
by the Kievans for Public Transit committee.
With substantial volunteer effort, it was revived and repaired during 2006 2007,
and now it is back in service and available for hire.
In this picture, it approaches the Puscha Voditsa terminus of route—12,
back when it served this route as mentioned above. | |
002 | The second Kiev T6 was decommissioned in the early 2000s
also due to a minor mechanical failure. For several years it stood motionless
in the Darnitsa Depot, before being officially written off in 2008.
In this picture, it is clearly visible to be out of service for a few years... | |
003 | Up until June 2004, the Darnitsa T6's used to cross
the Dnieper. They got deprived of such a possibility when the tram line across
the Paton bridge was demolished, on a personal order from then-Mayor Omelchenko.
Since then, these cars can run under their own power on the left bank only.
In this picture, a single T6 is laying over at Kontraktovaya Ploschad, which during
1998–2004 was the only right-bank terminus of the trans-Dnieper routes.
| |
004 | This car, 004, was used almost exclusively as a trailer,
attached to different lead cars and servicing various routes out of the Darnitsa
depot. Here it is proceeding towards Metro Lesnaya on route 35, having
just turned from Krasnogvardeyskaya Ulitsa onto Prospekt Gagarina. | |
005 | Route 35 serves two Metro stations,
Lesnaya (the left-bank terminus of the red line) and Chernigovskaya
(the next-to-last stop on the same line). Here, car 005 approaches the
latter, having arrived from the residential area of Troeschina.
The location is between the Ulitsa Aleksandra Boychenko and
Ulitsa Andreya Malyshko stops. | |
006 | Almost the same spot some two decades earlier.
A three-car trainset 005+006+007 approaches the intersection of
Krasnogvardeyskaya and Prospekt Gagarina, southbound on route 22.
That route is still there today, linking Bulvar Perova in the neighborhood
of Voskresenka and Borispolskaya Ulitsa at Rembaza, but
served by far fewer trams — often single cars.
Three-car trains, once quite popular on a few lines,
are nowhere to be found in Kiev since the mid-2000s. | |
007 | This stretch ot the tram line along Krasnogvardeyskaya Ulitsa
is on reserved track, aside from the roadway. Alas, this does not prevent
a few car and jitney drivers from treating it as an express lane in an attempt
to steer around traffic jams — sure enough, in an accident-prone manner.
Here, car 007, a satellite to 013, is bound for Ulitsa Kibalchicha on route 33,
approaching the triple intersection of Krasnogvardeyskaya, Krasnotkatskaya, and
Prospekt Gagarina.
| |
008 | Private houses in the neighborhood of Krasny Khutor,
served by the tram line along Tashkentskaya Ulitsa, presently terminating
at Metro Borispolskaya. The single route that runs here is number 29
— which is not what we read on the route sign of this train.
It is either on a "mission run" (a rather common phenomenon in the beginning of
the 2000s, whereby some runs on some routes would be redirected to different termini),
or coming back from a layover at the Krasny Khutor terminus, which does have
layover tracks, unlike the Metro Poznyaki terminus of route 8.
| |
009 | The Darnitsa tram depot is the youngest in Kiev,
created in 1959. It is situated on both sides of Ulitsa Pavla Usenko,
between Sergienko and Azerbaydzhanskaya. Here, car 009, a second car of a train
led by 008, is passing by the depot along Usenko.
The train in one route 33, bound for DVRZ.
The depot administration building is behind the train. | |
010 | A bleak background is quite appropriate for this photo. Car 010 is, in fact, making one of the last runs on route 31,
from Podol to Rembaza. Tram service across the Paton Bridge is going
to be permanently discontinued a few hours later.
In anticipation of that, buses have already been put in service
for the evening rush hour; the new route will only get a permanent
number (51) on the next day. It may be one of those buses that can be seen in
the background. | |
011 | One of the first routes to be served by the then-new
T6 cars was route 27, which used to connect Bulvar Perova
in the neighborhood of Voskresenka with Dvorets Sporta in the center of the city. At the latter terminus, the turning loop used to run around the block,
on Basseynaya — Shota Rustaveli — Rognedinskaya — Esplanadnaya. Here the train is approaching the last stop of route 27,
and in the background is a T-3 on one of the routes that also ran here:
1, 5, or 35. | |
012 | Miloslavskaya Ulitsa in the residential neighborhood of Troeschina is at the very edge of Kiev, in the north-east.
Trams came here in the mid-1990s, the line having been extended
from the still-existing loop at Saburova. Here 012, a trailer in
the train led by 068, is approaching the common terminus of tram route 28
and trolleybus routes 30 and 46. | |
013 | Privokzalnaya Ulitsa runs past the Darnitsa railway station. Hence, in the post-World-War-II restoration of the tram network
on the left bank of the Dnieper, a line here was among the first to be built
(opened in 1959). Nowadays, routes to Rembaza, Krasny Khutor and Poznyaki
run here. A train with 013 at the head approaches the Darnitsky Vokzal
(Darnitsa Station) stop of route 26. That route is to be closed
a few months later: Construction of a new passenger terminal
will necessitate the closing of the turning loop used by route 8,
which will therefore be extended to Metro Lesnaya, replacing the 26. | |
014 | One more photo of the classic route 27, from
two decades ago. A train led by 014 moves along Prospekt Gagarina,
crossing Ulitsa Usenko. No trace of trams remains here nowadays:
in the fall of 2004, a few months after the Paton Bridge line
was dismantled, the Prospekt Gagarina stretch together with branches
on adjacent streets shared its fate. | |
015 | Another view of route 27, the beginning of Ulitsa Suvorova near Ploschad Slavy in the district of Pechersk. Car 015 and an unknown satellite have just turned here from Ulitsa Yanvarskogo Vosstaniya, bound for Voskresenka on the left bank of the Dnieper. In the background one can see Ploschad Slavy and the Salyut hotel, built in 1984 and resembling some kind of a spaceship. | |
016 | Route 8 on the left bank was launched in 1998, linking the Darnitsa railway station and Metro Poznyaki. The existing line was extended along Ulitsa Ahmatovoy and Prospekt Grigorenko to the new southern terminus at Poznyaki. At the time when this photo was made, the northern terminus of this route was still the Darnitsa station, which is where this train is headed. In the end of summer of 2004, as already mentioned, route 8 was extended to Metro Lesnaya. | |
017 | Once again, route 27 some twenty years ago. Two T6 trains cross the roadway of Basseynaya Ulitsa. The building behind them is a refuge for homeless Jews, built at the end of XIX century by a famous mecenate Lazar Brodsky. It stood until 1996, being occupied by medical offices of different kinds, until being demolished by orders of then-mayor Omelchenko, to make room for a new traffic junction. Two years later, the tram line was dismantled, too. The T-3 train following 017 and its trailer is most probably serving route 35, which used to link Vokzal and Bereznyaki. | |
018 | Naberezhnoe Shosse on the right bank of the Dnieper.
A single car 018, serving route 31, from Podol to Rembaza,
passes under a building dating back to the second half of XIX century,
which was used as a railway office. | |
019 | Bereznyaki, one of the three stops that used to
be on the bank of the Rusanovsky Kanal (visible on the left).
The tram is running on route 21 from Voskresenka to Podol.
Nothing hints at the sad fact that this is the last day of existence
of this tram line: this same evening, service here will be permanently
discontinued. Termination notices were posted only at the Kontraktovaya
Ploschad terminus, inside a few cars, and on a few stops not including this one.
Most passengers, therefore, do not even suspect that next morning, instead of
trams, they are going to see workers dismantling the track. | |
020 | Prazshkaya Ulitsa, one of the main streets in
the area of Staraya Darnitsa. The line to the DVRZ (Darnitsky VagonoRemontny Zavod, Darnitsa Railroad Car Repair Factory) runs here,
and this train 016+020 is serving route 33 bound for said factory.
The switches in the lower left corner is where the line used by the weekday-only route 23 joins. | |