The next location in “Around the World in Trams” is reached and during April we will be taking a look at some of the trams which operate in the Latvian capital city of Riga.
Trams have been running in Riga since 1882. That was originally a horse tram system with electric operation taking over from July 1901. There are now six different tram routes in operation and although the system still has a large number of Tatra trams in service, more recently they have welcomed some Skoda 15T trams into the fleet.
This first image could have actually qualified for our “Trams &” series as we see Tatra T3 51211 come under the railway just as a train comes over the top. The tram was built in 1978 and started off its career operating in Moscow before moving to Latvia in 1987. It is now a Tatra T3A and carried the number 51211 between 2009 and 2017. It was then renumbered 31215 and would remain in service until 2023 when it was withdrawn. Although this particular example no longer runs there are still plenty of its sisters which do.
Photograph by David Fowler, July 2014