The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) agreed to the free transfer of 11 tram cars from the city of Bern to Lviv. All trams are operational and currently running on the Bern lines. Lviv will receive them during July-December this year.
This was reported in the department of urban mobility and street infrastructure of the LMR.
“Last fall, two official meetings took place in Lviv and Bern. We studied the technical condition of the trams, prepared all the necessary documents. And we can officially announce that the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs has approved the financing of the entire project package,” said Oleg Zabarilo, director of the Department of Urban Mobility and Street Infrastructure.
“Now we are preparing to sign a Memorandum between the Lviv City Council, Lviv Electrotrans LLC and Switzerland, represented by SECO, regarding the free transfer of 11 used Duewag / Vevey Be 4/8 trams from the Bernmobil transport company.” As of now and until June inclusive, these trams will still run in Bern, and from July to December of this year they will be handed over to Lviv,” said Iryna Ivanyshyn, head of the project implementation group of International Financial Organizations of LLP Lviv Electrotrans.
Also, as part of the “Bern trams for Lviv” project, Lvivelectrotrans will receive a rail grinding machine, additional spare parts and lifting devices for these trams free of charge.
In addition, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs agreed to pay for the training of the technical staff of the Lviv utility company in Bern. “We are talking about the monthly training of four of our engineers,” added Iryna Ivanyshyn.
In addition, in the second half of 2022, a technical and economic feasibility study was prepared in Lviv for the potential supply of up to 75 tram cars and a project application was sent to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.
And already in the summer of 2023 – we received an offer to consider the possible delivery of trams from Bern. Later, the issue of transferring trams to Lviv was raised by the Ukrainian parliamentary-government delegation, which was in Switzerland and confirmed that the city needs additional electric transport. People’s deputy Natalia Pipa was among the members of the delegation.