They Will Have an Additional Low-Floor Section on the Middle Door and Will Be 9 Metres Longer: This Is the Transformation Ahead for Tram 2000

‘The additional agreement that Vinnytsia City Council signed with our Swiss partners in early autumn provides for technical support to our community by upgrading trams on Vinnytsia routes and improving accessibility for people with limited mobility. Their expert opinion on the ground, as specialists in the transport industry, is also important to us. During their stay in Vinnytsia, they studied the work of public transport in detail, analysed it and made their suggestions,’ says Andrii Sorokin, Director of the Department of Transport and Urban Mobility.

One of the important issues that foreign experts have been involved in addressing is tram traffic in the city centre. After all, Soborna Street is one of the few sections where trams run on a shared road with cars. Andrii Sorokin noted that such cooperation with foreign transport operators on the territory of the Vinnytsia community will help to optimise the existing tram network better and faster.

Together with representatives of the Spatial Development Agency, consultants Martin Häfliger and Artan Morina worked productively for a week on the Vinnytsia Mile project. The project envisages a comprehensive reconstruction of the city's transport and public artery, Kotsiubynskoho Avenue, from the Central Bridge to the railway station. To finance the project, we plan to attract donors and investors, who are currently being sought.

‘After the renovation of Pryvokzalna Square, we plan to turn it into a transport hub where trolleybuses, trams and buses of the routes heading towards the station will gather. Our work is being critically analysed by Swiss experts. Since they have their own experience of operating such a dense route network in a limited space as we do, they help us optimise the project in terms of urban design and the functioning of all transport that will arrive at Pryvokzalna,’ says Maksym Kravchuk, chief spatial planning expert at the Spatial Development Agency.

One of the main tasks is to make the most of the partners' experience in improving the accessibility of public transport for passengers in wheelchairs. The idea is to modify Swiss trams with additional low-floor sections, as is done in Switzerland.

‘This is extremely important today, when wounded Ukrainian defenders are returning home. It is not the first year that we have seen Vinnytsia making efforts to improve barrier-free transport. The transport company has a great engineering potential of craftsmen, and we really like their professional approach. They show this by example - from the experience of manufacturing VinWay. This was the basis of our cooperation. In the city of Basel, where I work, we started improving accessibility in 2010. Today, 80 percent of the work has been done. In all countries, it takes a long time, even in those with good funding. This will be a good solution for people and we are ready to help,’ says Martin.

They also agreed on preliminary dates for the visit of the transport company's engineers, who are already working on the project to re-equip Swiss trams, to Zurich. They will be trained by their colleagues from the company there.