211 - Prague Skoda 14T and 14T4 trams in April 2023

There are now 55 Skoda 14Ts and Skoda 14T4s in the fleet of dopravni podnik hlavni mesta Prahy (dpp) - Prague's Transport Company. There were once 60 of these "angry lizards" or "balloons" in the fleet, but 9165 was involved in a fatal accident some years ago and was scrapped, along with the two coupled Tatra T6A5s that ran into it at full speed and 9112, also involved in a rear end accident, along with 9127, 9163 and 9164 have been scrapped due to corrosion issues that dogged the whole fleet at one stage. The class has been troubled from the outset due to the nature of the fixed truck system that was not suitable for some of the tighter corners on the system and, for a number of years, they were limited to Lines 3, 17 and 24 with some operation on Line 8 on Sundays but now, they seem to appear on many services and, in April 2023, were seen on Lines 1,3,6,8,9,10,12,14,16,17,20,24,25 and 26. The whole class was, at one stage, withdrawn from service due to the corrosion issues and the class was once expected to number in excess of 100 but was terminated at 60 as the new Skoda ForCity 15T came online and was developed along with Prague's engineers and has been much more successful. The 55 remaining cars have all been repaired and some have been refurbished to 14T4 standard and this involves a heavy "PO" rebuild as well as relocation of seats so that all seats are forward and rearward facing instead of the inward facing seats that were originally located in the high floor sections of the trams. Skoda 14Ts are painted in a red and silver livery. Skoda 14T4s are painted in a red, silver and black livery that "evens out" the low window and high window sections and is much more pleasing to the eye. Most recent repaints of Skoda 14T4s have been in the grey and red livery of Prague's Integrated Transport Authority (pid) and is less pleasing to look at but suits the shape of the Porsche designed 14T. At 24th April 2023, this was the state of the Skoda 14T and 14T4 fleet: Tram Status Type Location Comment 9111 L 14T4 9112 X SCRAPPED 9113 L 14T4 pid 9114 L 14T4 9115 L 14T4 9116 L 14T 9117 L 14T4 pid 9118 L 14T4 9119 L 14T4 9120 L 14T4 9121 L 14T4 pid 9122 L 14T4 9123 L 14T4 pid 9124 L 14T4 9125 L 14T 9126 L 14T4 9127 X SCRAPPED 9128 L 14T 9129 L 14T4 9130 L 14T4 9131 L 14T4 9132 L 14T4 9133 L 14T4 9134 L 14T4 9135 L 14T 9136 L 14T 9137 L 14T 9138 L 14T 9139 L 14T 9140 L 14T 9141 L 14T 9142 L 14T 9143 L 14T 9144 L 14T 9145 L 14T4 9146 L 14T4 9147 L 14T 9148 L 14T4 9149 L 14T4 9150 L 14T4 pid 9151 L 14T4 9152 L 14T 9153 L 14T 9154 L 14T 9155 L 14T4 9156 L 14T 9157 L 14T 9158 L 14T pid 9159 L 14T 9160 L 14T4 9161 L 14T4 9162 L 14T4 9163 X SCRAPPED 9164 X SCRAPPED 9165 X SCRAPPED 9166 L 14T 9167 L 14T4 pid 9168 L 14T 9169 L 14T New Secheron Pantograph 9170 L 14T4 pid The 14T and 14T4 still remain the favourites of the Podbaba Transport team and, of course, feature in our title page and back page. We hope you enjoy this presentation and that you will "like" it and subscribe to our channel: Youtube Podbaba Transport. a Podbaba Transport presentation 9th May 2023