Trams in Minsk

The history of the tram network starts with the opening of a horse tram on 22 May 1892, following two years of construction by the "Company for city and suburb horse-railways in Minsk". This came in the wake of massive population growth, from 5,500 in the 1860s to 91,000 by the end of the century,[1] and after several decades during which horse-drawn omnibus services had proliferated across the booming city. Horse trams were already well established in other major Russian cities, and were considered safer and more comfortable than the horse omnibuses at a time when city streets were generally unpaved.[1] By 1900 a horse-tram line connected two of the principal main-line rail stations, and a slow process now began creating a wider network centred on this. In 1909 the network was taken over by the "Russian Company of Urban and Suburban trams" and in 1913 it was transferred into the ownership of the city authorities.

Between May 1918 and 7 August 1921 the trams stopped, thanks to the First World War and the Civil War that followed the 1917 Russian Revolution.

A major upgrade, which some sources identify as the beginning of the modern tram network in Minsk, started on 20 January 1928 and concluded on 13 October 1929. This marked the formal opening of a new system, now using electrically powered trams. The old one meter gauge had been replaced with standard Russian broad gauge. At this stage there were two routes:

• "Tovarnaya station" - "Komarovka" («Товарная станция» — «Комаровка») served 9 permanent tram halts and a further 4 request halts.
• "Main station" - "Freedom Square" («Вокзал» — «площадь Свободы») served 2 permanent tram halts and a further 1 request halt

In 1929 approximately 18-19,000 passengers used the trams each day, and the tram cars were also being used for carrying freight. The early 1930s saw a steady expansion of the network. By 1934 the system had been extended further and was organised into seven routes, serviced by 6 tramcars over a total line distance of 33 km (21 mi). In 1939 there were 70 tramcars for passengers and the total length of the tramlines had grown to 36.8 km (22.9 mi).[1]

The trams stopped again with the German invasion in June 1941. Under occupation, one line was restarted in May 1943, but as the tide turned of war turned the trams stopped running again in June 1944, and the retreating German armies took with them substation equipment and blew up important tram infrastructure as they left. After the war it took some time for services to get back to normal.

The post war years saw a big growth in motor bus and trolleybus operations in Minsk. In August 1951 the city sent 26 workers from the tram department to retrain as trolleybus drivers and in March 1952 the city's tram and trolleybus services were merged into a single operation. Nevertheless, work on extending the Minsk tram network also continued, and by there were tram routes totalling 48 km (30 mi), serviced by 122 tramcars. A major investment in the 1960s funded a new tram depot, completed in 1966, with capacity for 250 tramcars, and there was also investment in electrically heated points for the tram network.[1]

Work started on the Minsk Metro in 1977, and the first of its two lines opened in 1984. The second opened in 1990. On 30 June 1984 tram lines were removed from main streets in the busy centre of Minsk, and the tram network assumed the configuration which it currently (2015) retains.