ROMANIA: Tram services restarted in Reșița on December 20 after a hiatus of more than 13-years. The city’s sole route links Kaufland in the north to Reșița-Montana in the southeast, a distance of 9 km.
The tramway in Reșița was inaugurated in 1988, but services ceased in August 2011 because the city could not afford to renew the ageing infrastructure and rolling stock. The line ran from RENK, 250 m north of current terminus Kaufland, to Stavila, which is 1 km east of Reșița-Montana. The 1 250 m long outer sections are not expected to reopen.
After three years of discussion, the decision to restore tram operations was finally made in 2019 as the city was able to secure EU funding to support rehabilitation work.
Austria’s Porr was awarded a 268m lei contract in April 2022 for reconstruction of the infrastructure. Its scope covered the renewal of the tracks, stops, the depot and the power supply system, as well as the provision of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
The end-to-end journey on the truncated line takes 30 min and trams operate at headways of 8 min in the peaks.
Turkey’s Durmazlar has supplied 13 twin-section trams under a 135·4m lei contract awarded in June 2020. Their purchase was underwritten by the EU’s 2014-20 Regional Operational Programme. The 18 m long, 2 400 mm wide bidirectional trams have a capacity of 135 passengers, 33 of which can be seated.
