E. Slede

This book is a surprising discovery. It is a straight historical account of Riga's urban transport from the first horse buses and trams (1875 et 1883) to the present day (1965), with photographs of most type of vehicle, old and new, and a look in the future. The ten tram and eleven trolleybus routes are listed, with their length, running time, headway and capacity in passenger per hour, and a similar table is given for the combined public transport services on each principal street. As elsewhere in the USSR, trams have been diverted from certain main streets to other less important thoroughfares, but the tram is clearly still the principal form of transport, and there is a sketch of a futuristic tram station envisaged at the entrance to a proposed tram subway at the Polytechnic Institute. The final chapter explains how the proposed six tram subway routes will serve the town far more effectively than the alternative of a one- or two-route heavy metro. (J.H. Price)… (más)