Bratislava inaugurates much-anticipated tram connection to Dubravka

Adjustments and repairs will continue, however, at least until November

Earlier this week, on 26 October, Bratislava’s tramway connection to Dubravka was completed, finalizing a project that has been widely anticipated by locals, residents and visitors of the Slovak capital. Repairs and adjustments to the line will continue, however, at the very least until mid-November, but its operations will not be suspended unless absolutely necessary.

A much anticipated and necessary project

The connection has been undergoing modernization works since 22 July 2019. Works, however, led to a severe deterioration of the traffic conditions in the area which made it even more important for them to be completed as soon as possible.

At the unveiling of the newly modernized tramway, Bratislava’s mayor Matus Vallo specifically thanked citizens for their patience and their resolute response to the difficulties of the past year. He stated that "It was an extremely demanding transport project, but it was necessary and caused wrinkles for many drivers. In addition to traffic restrictions, however, we had to deal with other problems, such as. refusal of access to the exchange office and the associated delay in starting the tram, or errors in the original project that caused time delays. Today, however, the people of Bratislava have prepared a new, high-quality and nice track. "

Also present at the ceremony was Slovakia’s Minister of Transport Andrej Doležal who highlighted the city and the country’s efforts in adopting environmentally friendly policies and projects that benefit users and ultimately serve the EU’s fight against climate change. "I am very happy that we can use European funds for this project to support the ecological travel of the population. At a time of climate change, transport in big cities is becoming one of the key things we are focusing on,” he stated.

The entire modernization project for the Dúbravsko-Karloveská radial is worth over 66 million euros. Some 85% of that amount was financed by the EU through the Integrated Infrastructure Operational Programme while the rest came from the national and local budgets (10% was provided by the state, while the rest was drawn from Bratislava’s own coffers).