The Tram That Never Came: Public Transportation Development in Soviet Tallinn

Abstract This study contributes to discussions regarding socialist and post-socialist infrastructures by exploring the planning and development of Tallinn’s public transportation system during the Soviet era. The plans drafted during this time focused on developing electric transportation with a special emphasis on trams. During the 1960s and the 1970s, planners envisioned an overhaul of the existing tram system and the subsequent construction of a light rail system supported predominantly by trolleybuses. However, the light rail project dragged on and eventually failed. Therefore, the tram system had stopped developing in the 1950s. The trolleybus network developed only partly and likewise failed to provide sufficient service. Therefore, the bulk of urban transportation was provided by a network of motorbuses, considered unwanted by the planners and thus unplanned for. The study demonstrates the paradoxical nature of Soviet infrastructural planning and development and highlights the difficulties of negotiating large infrastructural projects by Soviet institutions.