Don’t run off the rails - Take the Tram

A red tram in Graf Ignatiev Street in Central Sofia

I just love Trams and this is really one of my favourite ways of getting round Sofia.

When I walk around the cities of Europe, East and West such as Sofia, Prague, Budapest or Frankfurt one of the pleasant sights and sounds is the trams trundling through the streets and over the bridges - not quite so good if you live right next to the tramway of course.

It’s not easy to understand why some cities have given up their trams.

Anyway, they’re a familiar sight in Sofia, often brightly coloured, and sometimes plastered with advertisements.

As far as the passengers are concerned, it’s just the same as buses. You get on, punch your ticket and, if you can get a seat, sit down and enjoy your ride.

By the way, there’s a pecking order when it comes to seats. There are special seats for the old and infirm but anyway it’s the custom for old people and small children to have the first choice and mostly someone will gladly give their seat up for the old or young.

I have a couple of slight problems in that I’m not young but perhaps don’t look too doddery and sometimes I’m calculating if someone is really old enough for me to give up my seat.

Another problem is that I have favourite seats - those facing backwards which have more leg room but I have found that lots of people would rather stand than travel like this.

My wife is one of these, so sometimes I feel mildly embarrassed as I sit and she stands. Still, that perhaps just shows my upbringing and she’s younger than me!

Sofia, like so many cities is clogged up with cars and so the Municipality has tried a number of ways to keep the public transport running - bus lanes and such.

Trouble is, Sofia drivers take little notice.

Where the trams are concerned one idea is to put bollards along the route which only go down when the tram is coming. I suppose there’s some kind of sensor system.

More trouble is: Car drivers still nip in behind and sometimes the bollards don’t go down and then chaos ensues:

A tram in trouble

This is what happens when the Bollards jam or the sensor doesn’t work. Chaos!

Here a traffic policeman and various members of the public try to push the tram back and in fact the traffic is soon flowing again.

By the way Graf Ignatief - Graf means Count - was a Russian politician, expelled from Britain but admired in Bulgaria for his part in negotiating the treaty of San Stefano. This was signed on March 3rd 1878 and established Bulgaria as an autonomous principality.

Ever since, March 3rd has been Liberation Day in Bulgaria

I'm John Rocha, Blog Master of Bulgarian Vistas.

I like to write from experience about living in Bulgaria, holidays in Bulgaria, Bulgarian food,

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