Nostalgic line no. 23
You can find the Nostalgic Tram Line 23 on the streets of Prague every day using our legendary and historic T3 tram cars, and you can visit Prague Castle or other popular tourist spots in the city by paying the standard Prague Integrated Transport (PID) fare.
Fares and timetable
- The standard Prague Integrated Transport (PID) fares apply to travel on this line.
- You can buy tickets using a contactless payment card while in the tram, from vending machines or at points of sales.
Line 23 route:
Královka – Malovanka – Hládkov – Brusnice – Pražský hrad – Královský letohrádek – Malostranská – Malostranské náměstí – Hellichova – Újezd – Národní divadlo – Národní třída – Karlovo náměstí – Štěpánská – I. P. Pavlova – Bruselská – Zvonařka.
The line operates from approximately from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Interval: 30 minutes
Journey time: 31 minutes
The current timetable of the line can be found on this link.
The History of Prague’s T3 Tram
Even before the end of the Second World War, the predecessor companies to today’s Prague Public Transit Company (DPP), the “Electrical Companies of the Capital City of Prague (1918-1940) were interested in the modernization of their existing fleet of tram cars. In 1951, the Tatra Smíchov company (Vagónka Tatra Smíchov) came up with the prototype for a new car, the T1 tram. It was based on an entirely new design concept, that of the American PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee Car) streetcars, which included two two-axle bogies (trucks) – the chassis or framework that carries the wheelset. Between the years 1951 - 1956, 133 T1 type trams were delivered to Prague. The cars were considered to be quite elegant looking. The decline in the number of T1 trams in operation began in the mid-1970s. The last T1 made its final run out of the depot in Střešovice on 25 January 1983.
Service on Nostalgic Tram Line 23 began on 25 March 2017 - i.e. on the 109th anniversary of the birth of František Kardaus, the designer of the T3 tram.
Despite the success of the introduction of T1 trams to Prague’s streets, the research and development work on new and improved versions of its basic PCC type design continued. Downsides of the T1 included cramped interiors and it was impossible to modify its track gauge from the standard 1-meter (1000 mm). In 1955, two prototypes of the next generation tram car, the T2, were introduced. These cars were larger and more powerful but also much heavier and had higher associated energy requirements. Serial production of this type began in 1957, but no other T2 cars were delivered to Prague.
A Synonym for “Tram“
The T3 tram was introduced to the world in the summer of 1960 at the Brno International Trade Fair. Earlier, the design team from Tatra Smíchov, a national enterprise business entity, had done extensive testing of the design on the tram tracks around the city of Prague, initially without passengers. This prototype testing of the T3 involved fine-tuning, as a result of which it underwent various design modifications before entering mass production.
T3 trams went into regular service in Prague on 22 November 1962 on lines 4 and 27. As with any new design, there are always a few only-later-discovered hiccups and the T3 was no exception. In the end, the T3 turned out to be highly reliable and a large number of the new T3s were delivered to Prague. A final public farewell to the T3 took place at the Open House Day at the depot in Hostivař, Prague in 2011. Currently, passengers can only ride on one of these T3s on our Nostalgic Line Number 23.
