Belgrade's CAF Urbos Trams

The Belgrade tram fleet primarily consists of ubiquitous CKD Tatra KT4YU vehicles (left) dating from the mid 1980s through to 1997 (where Belgrade received the last ones built) and CAF (Spain) Urbos low floor trams (right) which were first introduced in 2011.

This short blog is primarily regarding the interiors of the CAF Urbos trams.  In common with many major eastern European cities Belgrade has a dense urban tram network with frequent stops and many interchanges with other trams and the urban bus network, which tends to have a greater reach.  Also, like mamy cities in eastern Europe, the last decade has seen the need to replace Soviet-era trams, or trams acquired second hand from western Europe, which in Belgrade included some Duewag vehicles.

And this is the subject of this blog: the tight 2+2 seating throughout the CAF Urbos fleet in Belgrade.  Dense urban public transport networks with a high turnover of passengers very much need to be easy to move through, whether its commuters, shoppers or tourists, different groups laden with luggage, purchases, perhaps mobility impaired, or travelling with prams/pushchairs. 

The Belgrade CAF Urbos are the antithesis of good urban public transport interior design.  They are actually really difficult to move through, unattractive at best to move down inside, and do not lend themselves to scooping up hoards of intending passengers.  One suitcase or one pram should not cause issues and blockages stop after stop, but on my first tram ride in Belgrade (at the tail end of the PM peak) that's exactly what it did.  It was like being on one of the Stadlers in Croydon!

For good measure the operator, GSP Belgrade, has specified a light coloured fabric covered seat for the Urbos trams.  As can be seen, they stain very easily.  First rule of a tram or bus seat cover, it's either easy clean (leather or similar) or dark and heavily patterned!

A much better modern tram interior is this Solaris Tramino, in Poznan.  It has plenty of room to move around in and plenty of opportunity for customers to move away from the doors. The CAF Urbos in the West Midlands on Midland Metro are another example of a suitable urban tram interior design. The older Tatra KT4 trams in Belgrade have 1+1 seating, with very wide aisles and a greater standing and maneuvering capacity.

Also of note in Belgrade is a smart ticketing system, touching a ticket anywhere on the screen validates it.  Even a day ticket should be touched at every boarding.

The Belgrade bus fleet seemed to be primarily Turkish built, with a few western designs probably acquired second hand.  However of interest was this Chinese Higer built electric vehicle, with a roof mounted pantograph for charging.

Close up of the pantograph.  A spot of Googling suggests that five such vehicles have entered service in the last month or so.  In a city with a lot of older diesel buses I'm sure they'll welcome this sort of innovation, lest they get admitted to the EU and need to start meeting more stringent air quality targets!

My usual gratuitous final tram photo.  A CAF Urbos stands at the Belgrade Central Station stop.