Zagreb Tram Celebrates 116 Years

At the beginning of September, the Zagreb Electrical Tram celebrated the 116 year anniversary of the opening of the first tram line in Zagreb. The first passengers took a tram ride way back in 1891, and the tram carriages moved on tracks and were pulled by horses.

Various events, some tailored specifically for the youngest participants, were organized by the Zagreb Electrical Trams Company to celebrate the 116th anniversary of public transport in the city. The first regular tram line in Zagreb was introduced in 1891. A large crowd of people came to see the opening of the line. Although no special ceremony was organized to mark the event, on that day, almost twenty thousand of the 42 thousand inhabitants in Zagreb at the time, went for a free ride. The tram track was only eight kilometers long, the carriages were pulled by horses at a speed of 7.5 km per hour, and the passengers could ride in ten closed and six open carriages.
 
The horse drawn tram held its place in Zagreb for a number of years. The first electricity powered tram was introduced in 1910. Still, for a whole year after that, the trams continued being drawn by horses pending the electrification of the whole tram network. That year, the tram line network was considerably expanded and the number of carriages rose to 28 engine vehicles and 14 carriages. In 1920 there was a major expansion of the Zagreb Electrical Trams /ZET/ with the arrival of engineer Dragutin Mandl. He drew designs for the first domestically produced tram carriages, which were launched in 1922. In addition to passenger cars, ZET also made designs for the production of two street cleaning cars, between 1923 and 1926. About that same time, the outdated Ganz motor cars were modernized and their old yellow color was replaced with blue, the color of Zagreb.