Romanticism of Baku tram

Once trams are obsolete  -

They will be painlessly replaced,

Without thinking about changes,

And then they will be put to rest...

"Baku tram" Yakov Kogan, 1983

Trams were considered the embodiment of romance in any city at all times. Fans of trams say that they feel a sense of peace and detachment there, caused by a lyrical and dreamy immersion in looking out a window. A tram is reliable and predictable, anxiety leaves you there - you are in a tram, a tram decides everything, and you feel carefree during your trip.

The urban horse railway lines began to appear in different cities of the Russian Empire since the end of the 19th century, and the first electric tramway was opened in the spring of 1924 in Baku. Its predecessor, the horse-railway, was opened in Baku as early as the end of the 19th century, the system of commodity movement to transport cargoes between quays and the freight station of the Transcaucasian railway and back was opened at the same time. The price for the use of all the horse-railway routes was 5 kopecks. The price of the 'student's travel card' for 20 trips was 60 kopecks. It could be bought at the Saharyants bookstore. There were "travel cards" for adults as well - the price of 30 trips was one and a half rubles.

The initiator of building the horse-drawn tram company was the millionaire and maecenas Hajji Taghiyev ['Great philanthropist Hajji Zeynalabdin Taghi Taghiyev']. In early November of 1887, Taghiyev established a joint stock horse-drawn tram company together with five other businessmen. The engineer-technologist Bronislav Aleksandrovich Rotuld developed the project and supervised the construction. The Baku horse-drawn tram service was built by a partnership consisting only of local residents, using exclusively local money.

The horse-railway system occupied a huge area, given to the Baku tram society for free by the city. The territory of the tram park included stables, haylofts, a depot for the repair of wagons, a forge, a mechanical workshop, apartment houses for employees, a hospital.

The horse railway line was put into effect step by step, as the construction of the sites was completed, and its solemn opening was held on November 24, 1889, in the presence of the chief civilian in the Caucasus, Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Dondukov-Korsakov, who arrived in Baku specially for this purpose.

In 1910 the Baku horse railway line was bought by the city self-government - it was a question of replacing the horse-drawn tram line with an electric tram line. But they were able to do it only in the early 1920's.

The construction of a ring tram line started in March 1923, in the harsh days of devastation. Thousands of workers and employees joined the installers in the weekend and after their working day. The enthusiasm of Baku residents allowed to build the first tram line in just eight months. The Baku construction was considered one of the largest not only in Transcaucasia, but also in the Soviet Union. On February 8, 1924, the oldest driver of the horse-drawn tram, an active participant in the construction, Alexander Lisovsky had the honor to lead the first car through the streets of Baku. "The first few hours we took passengers free of charge. It was a holiday, a real big holiday for the whole people," the driver recalled.

By the end of 1924, the Baku tram system included 72 tram wagons operating at five lines with a length of 35.9 km. In 1920, horse-railway system transported 9.9 million people, and more than 50 million - in 1925-1926.

In the 1960s, priority was given to the development of metro, trolleybuses and buses. The tram system began to decline. By 1980, the total length of Baku's tram lines was about 70 km. In the 1990s, the bus and metro services started to displace the tram system from the Baku public transport system. The road was extended at the expense of tram lines on broad avenues and streets, and the construction of multi-storey apartment buildings was started in places where there were narrow sections with the tram service. In 2004, the last tram line was dismantled in Baku. However, Baku's executive power has plans to revive the tram service. Episodically, there are talks about the construction of a new tram system, which would meet world standards.