St. Petersburg faces difficulties in tram procurement

On July 21, at a meeting of the city government, the head of the transport committee, Denis Minkin, said that St. Petersburg exceeds federal requirements for the service life of rolling stock. However, last year«s delivery of 61 trams did not allow achieving full compliance of the fleet — the share of cars meeting standards is 80%.

In 2025, the city purchased 383 buses, 83 electric buses, 92 trolleybuses, and 61 trams. But for 2026, the competitive procedures for tram procurement were nullified. According to Minkin, this could negatively affect the state of the Gorelektrotrans fleet and the workload of manufacturing plants. The transport bloc, together with the investment committee, is working out options for attracting financing. Earlier it was reported that to bring the entire tram fleet to a normative condition by 2030, it is necessary to purchase 300 trams. For 2026, an additional 14 billion rubles (about $156 million at current rates) was requested for 72 trams, but in the end, the purchase of even 26 trams for 4.7 billion rubles (about $52 million at current rates) was canceled. The financial bloc of Smolny noted that they may return to this issue.