Today, on April 22, First Deputy Mayor of Lviv Andriy Moskalenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation to Ukraine Felix Baumann, and Lvivelectrotrans CEO Volodymyr Kovaliv signed an agreement on the transfer of 11 low-floor trams to our city.
The used cars, as well as equipment and spare parts, are being transferred to Lviv by Bernmobil, a Bernese company. The city should receive them in July this year – early 2025. It is important that the delivery will be carried out at the expense of the Swiss side. 10 of these trams will be used on the lines, and one will be used for spare parts.
“Thanks to Switzerland, Lviv will receive assistance worth about UAH 80 million as part of the Bern Trams for Lviv project. In particular, we are talking about 11 trams that will be provided for our city,” said Andriy Moskalenko, First Deputy Mayor of Lviv.
According to Felix Baumann, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation to Ukraine, these trams are the first low-floor trams manufactured in Bern.
“It’s nice to be in Lviv again. We started our cooperation by supporting small and medium-sized businesses and continued in the healthcare sector. And we are glad that we are now cooperating in the transportation sector. We hope that the red trams from Bern will be useful in Lviv.
These trams are not new, but their condition is quite excellent. I have used them in the capital of Switzerland, so I can confidently say that they will be a good addition to the rest of the trams that run in Lviv,” said Felix Baumann, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation to Ukraine.
In general, the Bernese Trams for Lviv project envisages that Lvivelectrotrans will also receive a rail grinding machine, additional spare parts, and lifting devices for these trams free of charge. And the technical staff of the Lviv utility will undergo a month-long practical training in Bern. In addition, the project will provide advisory services in the field of sustainable urban mobility.
Lvivelectrotrans, for its part, will also have to make some modernization on the territory of the car repair depot to ensure proper maintenance of the cars.
According to Oleh Zabarylo, Director of the Department of Urban Mobility and Street Infrastructure at Lviv City Hall, the Swiss trams will increase the number of modernized low-floor vehicles on Lviv’s lines.
By the way, today the Swiss delegation inspected the car repair shops of Lvivelectrotrans, where the Bernese trams will be delivered. The guests were also shown vintage cars that no longer run on the lines and the most modern ones – the Electron brand.
As a reminder, in the second half of 2022, Lviv prepared a feasibility study for the potential supply of up to 75 tramcars and sent a project application to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. And in the summer of 2023, we received a proposal to consider a possible supply of trams from Bern. Later, the issue of transferring trams to Lviv was raised by a Ukrainian parliamentary and governmental delegation that visited Switzerland and confirmed that the city needed additional electric vehicles. The delegation included MP Natalia Pipa.
We would like to add that Berlin will donate 12 more used working trams and spare parts to Lviv. These are KT4D cars.
It is worth noting that the city has recently significantly updated its electric transport rolling stock. Thus, during 2021-2024, with loans from the European Investment Bank under the Urban Public Transport of Ukraine project Lviv purchased 10 modern low-floor Electron trams. In addition, Lviv plans to modernize existing trams to adapt them for the transportation of people with reduced mobility.