The Tatra T6A2 was a

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

car built by

ČKD Tatra ČKD (Českomoravská Kolben-Daněk) () was one of the largest engineering companies in the former Czechoslovakia and today's Czech Republic. It is famous for the Tatra T3, a tramcar that sold 13,991 units worldwide. History ČKD was formed i ...

between 1985 and 1999. Having enjoyed widespread success with its previous models among mainly

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

customers, the T6A2 was quite different in appearance to its predecessors, and was bought extensively by cities in the former

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, as well as by

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

(

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

) and

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

(

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Variations

T6A2D/B6A2D

Towards the end of the 1980s, many

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

cities required new trams to replace their aging fleets, and it was for this reason that Tatra commissioned the building of three

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

vehicles in 1985. These vehicles were tested first of all in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

before being moved to

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

. Between 1988 and 1991, 174 of the type were delivered to five East German cities.

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

was the largest customer, taking delivery of 177 examples, plus a further 5 which were acquired from

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

in 1995. In 2011 six modernized vehicles from Berlin were sold to the swedish city

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

as a stop gap measure until new build low floor trams on loan to Stockholms new opened tram line arrived at their new home. All are withdrawn from service now, but there are plans to rebuild one into a maintenance vehicle.

T6A2B

The T6A2B was produced for the

network, of which 40 were delivered in 1991 followed by a second batch of 17 in 1999.

T6A2H

The 13 examples delivered to the Hungarian city of

were labeled T6A2H and entered service in 1997 into a fleet that had previously consisted of exclusively Hungarian-built stock.

Production

256 T6A2 trams and 92 B6A2 trailer cars were produced from 1985 to 1999 and delivered to:

Service today

B6A2D-M

Szeged Transport Company SzKT decided in 2003 to modernize its ageing fleet with refurbished used Tatra tramcars. As part of this program, in 2005 it bought four used B6A2D trailer cars from Rostock in order to convert them to cabless motor cars ("active trailers"). The cars underwent a complete refurbishment and modernization that included renewing the frame and bodywork, replacing the doors from four- to two-winged, as well as the seats. Modern electronic equipment with IGBT transistors was designed by Cegelec. The cars got motorized bogies that match those of type T6A2H, and half-pantographs. The tramcars do not have cabs but they got equipped with auxiliary driving controls at both ends that allow solo operation if needed. The appearance of the refurbished tramcars resembles that of the T6A2H. The modernized B6A2D-M cars are used on line 1 paired with a T6A2H in two-car consists, thus freeing up T6A2H cars that replaced old FVV tramcars (made in 1962) on other lines.

Gallery

File:Szeged 1-es villamos Bécsi körút 2012-01-16.JPG, T6A2H in Szeged File:Tram in Sofia near Macedonia place 2012 PD 072.jpg, T6A2B in Sofia File:Tatra rostock.jpg, T6A2m in ''Rostock'' with a low-floor trailer File:Tatra T6A2D 213, tram line 12 in Szczecin, 2018.png, Tatra T6A2D in Szczecin, ex Berlin

References

External links

{{TatraTram Tatra trams Tram vehicles of Germany Tram vehicles of Hungary