>>105913407
>That network was far bigger than Melb's and now it's just disappearing.
>now
Not now, it all began in the 90s.
Like every other civic institution, it took a tremendous hit after the collapse of USSR.
They had a deficit of everything: Drivers, road workers, engineers designing new trams, factories building them, colleges educating all of them, tax money funding all of the above.
For some other institutions it took decades of hard work and billions of rubles to recover them from the pit they fell into, but with Petersburg's trams no one seem to have bothered.
Trams don't really offer any benefits over modern electric busses, while requiring a lot of work to set up and maintain the lines, with out harsh climate making it even more expensive.
And considering that many of those lines are built along (or right on top of ) automobile roads, when you are maintaining them, not only do you disrupt the tram line itself, but also the traffic of some busy highway it was built in the middle of. Much easier to just disassemble the whole thing, add two more lanes to the road and send some busses down it.
Some years ago I lived in the district of Shchukino and worked in Strogino, so twice a day I had to take either bus or a tram going along Stroginskoye Shosse between two districts. I chose bus whenever possible, because of the terrible noise and shaking trams experienced on that road, even though the cars themselves were new (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/71-931) - the tramway tracks were old, combined with the slight inclination of the road itself, this made for a hellish experience.
On a funny side note, back then the government decided that they want more people to become tram drivers, so they substantially raised the salaries, lowered the requirements and launched a publicity campaign for this goal.
After that, at list thrice in a single year a driver of the tram I was riding in forgot to switch tracks and we all had to disembark & walk back 100+ meters.
