The oldest Tatra T3, Kharkiv 3050 in service on 31 December 2022. (A. Sheva
Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, has re-opened its tramway service as repairs to its Saltovskoye depot have been completed. The city, with a population of 1.4 million, is located close to the Russian border and was badly damaged in the February 2022 offensive. The city came back under Ukrainian control in the summer of 2022. Thanks to technical assistance from the European Investment Bank worth €400 000, the depot has seen the worst of the damage repaired to both it and its fleet of Tatra T3 tram 656’s which were also badly damaged in the attack.
Kharkiv also boasts the oldest Tatra T3 3050 still to be in service. Delivered to the city of Praha in 1963, it operated in the Czech capital for many years as a driver training vehicle before being sold to the city in 2015. Between 1961 and 1999, some 14,000 were built in Praha and supplied to 47 cities making the T3 the most numerous tram type in the world at that time. The prototype of the T3 6102 is preserved in the Praha tram museum.