Toshkent mayor finally closes the city's tramway

摘要

On 29 March Toshkent Mayor Rakhmonbek Usmonov announced that the city's remaining six-line 87.8 route-km (54.5 route miles) tramway is to be closed by the end of August 2016 in order to provide additional road space to reduce traffic congestion. Diesel buses would provide replacement service and parallel routes have been operated from 5 April. Mayor Usmonov said the city hopes to sell the 30 KTM-19 trams dating from 2007 and the 20 Pragoimex Vario LF trams bought in 2011. Declining ridership figures on the network currently see the trams carrying 20 000 passengers/day, but numbers have fallen as frequencies have been lengthened, with only 48 trams in daily service.