Swiss trams not to be sent to Belgrade, to be recycled instead – GSP gives up on 50 vehicles

The Swiss BLT is to start gradually removing the Schindler trams and sending them to be recycled, because GSP Beograd canceled the donation of 50 of these trams right before the signing of the agreement, BLT said in an announcement several days ago.

– Since 50 Schindler trams are not to be picked up as agreed, the first vehicles are now being recycled. Schindler trams will be gradually shut down by the end of 2025 in tours of four or five. At the moment, BLT, together with Seco, is checking whether around 20 articulated rail cars of the Be 4/8 Sedan type can be delivered to Lviv in Ukraine – the press release says and adds that GSP Beograd has notified BLT that the plan of the biggest public transporter in Belgrade is to procure new trams in the period until EXPO 2027.

As can be seen, BLT also opted for this move because it needs space for the new TINA trams.

As said, when it comes to the trams sent to be recycled, 80-90% of the material, mostly steel, is reusable.

The project of the donation of Swiss trams to the capital of Serbia was launched in 2001 by an agreement between Switzerland and Serbia and the City of Basel. The trams with trailers and spare parts were delivered to Belgrade in several tours. The last ones arrived around eight years ago, and until then over 100 trams with trailers (around 65 trams and around 50 trailers, mostly of the Duewag and Schindler brands) had been delivered to Belgrade. At the moment when, within the first tours, these trams were delivered, the donation, as those familiar with the mater told us unofficially, was certainly significant for the Belgrade tram subsystem, whose backbone consisted of the Czech Tatra KT4 trams and when there were no visible plans to procure new trams (the CAF trams were purchased considerably later). These deliveries, as those in the know say unofficially, were also significant because these are quality, well-maintained and comfortable vehicles, although they are around half a century old.

If so, why does Belgrade no longer need these trams?

The people we talked to note that, considering all the announcements made by the city about the upcoming tender for another 100 new trams, in addition to the current procedure of procuring 25 trams (which, to be fair, is suspended), there would be a problem of where to park all those vehicles. As has been clarified to us, when the delivery of the first new trams begins, a part of the vehicles in the worst condition will have to be withdrawn from use and from the depots. If, in theory, as has been said to us, the Swiss donation were accepted and if new trams gradually arrived in the coming period, there would be no space for all those vehicles in GSP’s facilities.

When it comes to the financial side of the donation, the delivery of the donated trams and spare parts was, for the most part, paid by Belgrade, which would have been the case now too if the donation had been accepted. Since the funds required for picking up the trams are not small, as has been said to us, at the moment, it would not be financially feasible to pay for the delivery of trams which would be very likely to be scrapped not long after, once the wholly new trams were delivered.

D. A.

JKP GSP Beograd

BLT

GSP Beograd

donation of Swiss trams to Belgrade

Basel

EXPO 2027