The vehicles did not have numbers, but coloured symbols

The first Prague trams initially provided an intercity service. They ran from the National Theatre, which was under construction, to Karlín, which was an independent town at the time the track was opened in 1875. The vehicles were horse-drawn and the former carriage house can still be found by Urxova tram stop today, although it serves as a car service centre now. The line therefore roughly copied today’s metro line B.

The second line ran between the Smíchov Railway Station and Újezd. However, passengers had to walk across the Vltava River—the lines could not be connected because there were problems with the carrying capacity of the chain bridge between the National Theatre and Újezd. (A few years later, it was replaced by the stone structure we now call Legion Bridge.) The horse-drawn tram network gradually expanded to Prague’s other towns. The lines were not numbered, but were distinguished by reflectors with coloured quarter-circles, and additional horses were added on difficult climbs. It will probably not surprise you that help was needed in the upper part of Wenceslas Square, but assistance was also necessary for the entrance to Charles Bridge.

Horse-drawn trams and electric vehicles ran simultaneously in Prague

An electric tram first appeared in Prague during the Jubilee Exhibition in 1891 thanks to František Křižík. It took visitors to the Exhibition Grounds via Ovenecká ulice from the now defunct funicular railway in Letná. Křižík then built a regular electric tram in 1896 and the vehicles ran to Vysočany. In Karlín, they partly competed with the horse-drawn trams, as each one ran along one of the main streets in the district.

Other routes were added, for example between Vinohrady and the city centre. Even in the first years of operation, some builders tried to ensure the power lines had a minimal impact on the street space. A tram supplied with power from the side ran between Smíchov and Košíře; the wires hung only above the pavement and significantly fewer of them were needed.

The electric tram lines were owned by different operators, but this became unsustainable and city hall started to buy them out gradually. The city also took ownership of the horse-drawn railway network, which was gradually equipped with overhead lines. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, no one could imagine wires between the statues on Charles Bridge. Křižík therefore supplied the trams with power from elements in the paving. A similar system is still used in the historic centres of some European cities today, but it did not work out in Prague: there were so many failures that in 1908 trams disappeared from Prague’s oldest bridge.

Prague has one-way trams thanks to the Sokol movement

There were no loops in the city at the final stop until the Sokol movement festival in 1907. The car with the driver therefore had to go around the towed car when changing direction. Thanks to the loops, the transit company was able to transport 20,000 people to the festival in Letná. Today, most trams in Prague are one-way and loops are essential for transport in the metropolis.

During the First World War, you could encounter freight trams in Prague, which replaced the missing horses, 18 medical cars and one funeral car, which took dead soldiers from hospitals to Olšany Cemetery. During the First Republic period, the network of lines grew considerably. The city managed to build tracks in suburbs such as Vokovice, Pankrác, Hrdlořezy, Bílá Hora and Hloubětín—trams often reached them even before the first buildings were built. In the 1938 promotional film How is Prague Growing? the actor Jiří Dohnal tries to convince his colleague Helena Svirtová to move to Zahradní Město, which is currently under construction. The fact that the new district was served by električky (the Prague slang word for trams) and the fast connection to Wenceslas Square played a major role. A similar thing is currently happening in Holyně and Slivenec, where trams still run across fields, but the buildings around them are growing rapidly.

Although the numbers do not compare with today’s, the 1920s also brought an increase in the number of automobiles. However, the designers of new tram lines had already envisaged the separation of trams from other transport. Where possible, they placed the tracks on separate belts, usually running down the middle of the street.

14,000 of the legendary T3 trams were produced

Prague’s public transport has been symbolised by type T trams since 1950. The basic concept, however, dates back to the pre-war United States, where the first licence and plans were purchased by the entrepreneur Emil Kolben. However, the cooperation with foreign partners ended after the February coup in 1948 and the detailed design work therefore took a long time.

The concept for an underground railway was discussed for several decades, and pre-war proposals even envisaged that trains would surface on the outskirts of Prague and continue to towns such as Čelákovice or Český Brod. When you go to the Connected City exhibition, you might be reminded of the current plans to put the S train lines in new tunnels.

However, the construction of underground lines at the Main Station did not begin until 1966. Trams were supposed to run under the streets, which is also reflected in the station’s layout. In the metro tunnels there are still dead ends near Muzeum leading towards the surface. However, the capacity of such a solution would not have been sufficient and the government decided to redesign the metro as completely separate from traffic on the streets a year later.

The end of trams on Vinohradská ulice?

The opening of the underground railway meant the removal of many tram tracks in the centre, and it was even envisaged that operation in Chotkova ulice, Vinohradská ulice and Sokolovská ulice would be terminated. But the metro serves for slightly different types of trips and we now know that both modes of transport can work side by side. This is why trams are returning to the upper part of Wenceslas Square.

Since the 1990s, several relatively massive construction projects have appeared in Prague, where trams have been given a path completely separate from the surrounding traffic. The sections in Krejcárek, Modřany and Barrandov are more reminiscent of railway lines.

But the development is by no means over; by 2035, the tram network is expected to grow by another 42 kilometres. Want to find out where the new lines will lead? And where they will even cross the border to the Central Bohemian Region? Come to CAMP for the Connected City exhibition.

You can listen to Marek Binko’s talk about the development of tracks in Prague any time from a recording: