St Petersburg ЛВС 86 Modernisation

[louiej5]

Hi there,

When will all the LVS 86K trams in St Petersburg be finished being modernised? How many unmodernised LVS 86K's remain? Will St Petersburg modernise all LVS 86K's, or will they keep any unmodernised LVS 86K in regular passenger service in the long term?

I'm hoping to travel to St Petersburg and photograph the unrefurbished LVS-86K trams before they are modernised, but I can't travel there until at least 2025 or later.

Thanks

[Qwerty_qwertovich]

Hello!

When will all the LVS 86K trams in St Petersburg be finished being modernised?

The LVS 86K trams are no longer undergoing modernization. With the arrival of new trams, the old ones are set to be decommissioned.

How many unmodernised LVS 86K's remain?

All trams, except for 8193, have undergone refurbishment with modernization (I'm 99% certain that 8193 will be decommissioned this summer) However, many trams have seen minimal changes post-modernization (for example, 5002 https://transphoto.org/photo/1932133 ).
Most of the LVS trams now have modernized interiors (like this one https://transphoto.org/photo/1941473/ )
As for the exterior, there are currently 52 trams left with the old 'square' cabin design. Regarding trams without modernized control systems (the modernized ones are referred to as LVS 86M2), there are 176 of them.
The date of modernization can be found in the description. It usually looks like this: КВР/КРМ/КР mm.yyyy

[louiej5]

Thank you Qwerty_qwertovich for your detailed answers. I'm particularly concerned with the exterior appearance of the old LVS 86K.

With the arrival of new trams, the old ones are set to be decommissioned.

Is there a timeline or year when all the LVS 86K's will be decommissioned? Has retirement started already? I assume that the 52 trams with the old exterior will be the first to retire, correct?

I saw some old news articles saying that St Petersburg plans to order hundreds of new trams over the next few years. There weren't much details in terms of decommissioning schedule of old vehicles, and the news articles were from 2020-2021. I wonder if there have been any updates since then, like delays in procurement and retirement.

https://www.fontanka.ru/2021/04/17/69871538

[louiej5]

Thank you Qwerty_qwertovich for your detailed responses. Sorry for the delayed reply. I think my response got lost somewhere. Yes, I am particularly interested in the unmodernised exterior design of the LVS 86K.

With the arrival of new trams, the old ones are set to be decommissioned.

Is there a schedule or year when the LVS 86K's are expected to be decomissioned, and has decomissioning started yet? I assume the 50 unmodernised LVS 86K's will be the first to retire?

I saw some old news articles saying St Petersburg wanted to purchase several hundred new trams over the next few years. But there were no details on the retirement schedule of the old vehicles. The news was from 2021, so I wonder if there have been any updates since then, like procurement delays?

https://www.fontanka.ru/2021/04/17/69871538/

I haven't started learning Russian yet, so I'm sure I'm neglecting many details. Thank you for explaining things for me.