Prague’s leadership introduced the city’s new fleet of trams on Wednesday, showcasing the Škoda ForCity Plus 52T units set to enhance public transportation. The first trams are scheduled to be operational on the streets of Prague by the end of the upcoming year. The city secured an eight-year contract, following a public tender, with Škoda for the purchase of 40 trams, along with an option to acquire up to 160 additional units. The cost for each tram is estimated at 83 million crowns.

The Škoda ForCity Plus Praha 52T is a cutting-edge, unidirectional five-section tram with a 100% low-floor design, ensuring a step-free experience for passengers, including the area above the bogies. The tram, measuring 32 meters in length, boasts various modern features, including full-car air conditioning with an ecological refrigerant, an anti-collision system, automatic passenger counting, energy-efficient LED interior and exterior lighting, and 70 upholstered seats, 44 of which face the direction of travel, and 26 against it.

Compared to the previous 15T trams, the new vehicles offer a 33-passenger increase in capacity, equating to nearly 16%. Passengers will benefit from an enhanced information system with six large screens spanning the width of the aisle, as well as more intuitive door opening buttons and signaling to the driver.

The contract’s total value amounts to almost 16.602 billion crowns, marking one of the most substantial investments in new trams in the modern history of Prague’s public transportation system (DPP). The initial batch of 20 trams is expected to arrive in December 2025, followed by an additional 20 vehicles by the end of December 2026.

These state-of-the-art trams also feature an anti-collision system designed to enhance operational safety. Leveraging doubled LiDAR technology, an HD camera, precise localization through offline recorded HD maps, and odometry, the system creates a virtual driving tunnel. This enables the tram to detect obstacles with a remarkable accuracy of 10 cm, issue timely warnings, minimize false positive alerts, and activate the emergency brake when needed.

Article by Prague Forum