60 years since the iconic Tatra T3 tram started roaming the streets

On November 21, 1962, the Tatra T3 tram was put into regular service in Prague. It was a very modern tram for its time and would become a successful export product. Today, T3s can still be seen transporting people to countries like Ukraine.





Frantisek Kardaus |  Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The T3 ranked among the proudest products of Czechoslovakian industry in the 1960s. Designer František Kardaus came up with a timeless design for the tram that featured a round facade with two protruding round reflectors. The T3 became the most-produced tram in world history, with around 14,000 cars of all prototypes being built.

Nowadays you can still take a ride in the T3 if you enter the “nostalgic line no. 23″, which passes around Prague Castle, as well as Old and New Town. Standard operating lines in Prague stopped using the model in 2011. However, trams are still in use in some countries , for example in Kyiv, Ukraine, where some of them were even converted into barriers during the initial Russian advance.This was not the first time that the T3 was used for this purpose.Prague residents did the same in 1968 in an attempt to slow down the invasion of Warsaw Pact forces.




Nostalgic line no.  23 |  Photo: Petr Hejna, DPP

Berta D. Wells