Early History of Trackless Public Transport in Kyiv

The article describes the creation and early stages of operation of trackless public transport - trolleybus and bus - in Kyiv. The first successful but short-lived attempt to use omnibuses (horse-drawn carriages) as a means of public transport in this city dates back to 1879. It was not before 1913 that the city implemented bus service, whose main purpose, notably, was to create competition for the privately-run tram enterprise. That project had lasted but a year and a half. Only in 1925 did buses come back. Their routes were changing frequently; at the first stage, all of them basically duplicated existing tram routes (even though competition was no longer a goal). Then, in 1935, trolleybuses made their first appearance. The final decision on the routing of the first trolleybus line was made less than a month and a half short of its inauguration. In the next two years, two more lines were added, whereafter one could talk of an emerging trolleybus network. Overall, this demonstrates that initially there was no clear concept of the role of these modes of transport in the whole system, and their early evolution was quite haphazard. It was only after WWII that the trolleybus and bus networks started evolving in a more sensible manner, following better-defined goals.