Karaganda tram

1950-1985

Tram management (a structural unit of the Regional Committee of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kazakh SSR) was established in Karaganda in 1950. The movement was opened along the route "New City - Old City" with a length of 12.5 km. In 1950, 3,002 thousand people were transported in 10 motor and 9 trailer cars. In 1954, the tram line “Old City - Mine No. 33-34” with a length of 20.5 km (21 cars) was commissioned ^[1] , in 1957 - “The Old City - Mine No. 70”. The length of the tram tracks by this time was 41.6 km, the number of trams was 45, the number of passengers carried during the year was 11 100 thousand.

In the early 60s, two more tram lines were put into operation: mine 33-34 - New Maykuduk (1961) and further to the plant of heating equipment (1963), the passenger turnover reached 20 million people.

In the late 60s. due to the intensive mining part-time work, the condition of the tram tracks deteriorated, the volume of passenger traffic dropped to 11,488 thousand people, and in 1972 to 4 million. In 1976, the route “New City - Mine No. 70” was closed, in 1977 - "New City - Old City", in 1984 - "Old City - Mine No. 33-34". In 1982, a maintenance station for 20 trams was commissioned in Karaganda ^[2] . In 1984, the tram service provided transportation of 627 thousand people, and in 1985 - 2 million passengers. The renewal and development of this type of transport was taken into account in the future; in particular, in the XII five-year plan (1986-1990), the construction of a tram depot in New Makuduk was planned, the introduction into operation of several new routes ^[3] .

Source of information of the period 1950-1985: Encyclopedia “Karaganda. Karaganda region. ”A-Ata, Ch. ed. Kazakh Soviet Encyclopedia, 1986

1985-1997

Since 1984, in Karaganda there has been one active tram route “mine 33-34 - STO plant”, which does not have a digital designation. Due to the low power of the traction substation, more than five cars could not work simultaneously on the line. Nevertheless, the route was claimed by residents of villages located in the area of ​​33 mines, for which the tram was the only mode of transport connecting them with Maykuduk. In the 1990s, the technical condition of wagons began to deteriorate. Due to power outages in the winter of 1996-97. cars often stopped right on the route. All this led to a decrease in passenger traffic and a decrease in revenue. By decision of the head of Razin Tram-Trolleybus Park OJSC, in September 1997 the tram traffic was closed.

Karaganda tram park was located in the Bolshaya Mikhaylovka area at 36 Mechanical Street. The park was designed for 50 cars, the depot had three viewing ditches and accompanying workshops, and there was also a tram-and-railway gate. A service double-track line led from Stantsionnaya Street to the depot. Based on the encyclopedia data, the tram traffic between the New and the Old Town was closed in 1977, and a new park near 33 mines was built only in 1982. It follows from this that, during this period, the production of cars first time, obviously, was carried out from the territory of the old park. Then the cars began to be put on the sludge on the "Old City" ring, and in the depot along the preserved single-track line they were distilled for repairs. After the construction of the new fleet, the territory of the old fleet was cut off from the rest of the network and turned into a sedimentation tank for decommissioned wagons. Rails and old cars on the territory remained until the beginning of the 90s, later the entire park area was leveled by a grader. The depot building was closed, sometimes the TTU service bus arrived there. In the second half of the 90s. the building was dismantled, there was only a frame made of reinforced concrete structures. The remains of cars and rails were handed over to the metal.

The new tram park at 33 mines was designed for 20 cars, the depot had two through ditches and one dead end with a lift. An open-type sink was located on the street; the fan counted four ways. The park was also a headland for the tram route. Near the park was a traction electrical substation. After the complete closure of the tram traffic, all the depot buildings immediately began to be dismantled, by 1999 there were remains of cars in the park, the depot building itself was almost two-thirds disassembled. Currently, the territories of both tram parks are wastelands.

The Karagandy tramway was a dedicated double-track line running to the side of the carriageway, and at Maykuduk, in the middle of the roadway. In the period of the greatest development of the network (1963-1976), there were five turning rings, and two tripartite circuits. Practically, it was one long line from the service station in New Maikuduk to the Shakhtar stadium in the New City with intermediate turning rings near the 33-34 mine and in the Old City and two branches to the park and the mine No. 70. After closing the route to the mine No. 70 (1976) rails and the contact network were immediately completely dismantled. After the passenger traffic between the Old and New Towns (1977) was closed, the rails were removed from the Saransk highway to the stadium, and the line from the tram park to the Old Town was made single-track. When the new park was opened (1982), the contact network was removed, and the rails lay almost until the end of the 80s, including a closed section from the Old Town to 33 mines. In 1997, after the final closure, the contact network was stolen in just a couple of days, and the rails in Mikuduk were completely dismantled by the year 2000.

Initially, KTM 1 / KTP 1 wagons were operated. In 1982, 5 KTM wagons arrived 5. After the tram fleet closed on the Mechanical section, the old wagons were transferred to a new fleet and were operated on the line until 1984, when the route to the Old Town was opened and more 7 KTM 5 cars, which operated on the remainder of the network. Some of the old cars were converted into service cars. In addition to passenger cars in the park there were also several snow blowers.

• Website "Electric Vehicle of Karaganda"
• Karaganda Tram on the City Electric Transport website