T4 is the name of a tram produced by ČKD Tatra

CKD

A knock-down kit is a kit containing the parts needed to assemble a product...

. It is the narrower variant of the Tatra T3

Tatra T3

The T3 is a type of tramcar produced by Tatra. During its period of production, between 1960 and 1989, 13,991 multiple units and 122 sidecars were sold worldwide, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union...

 model. A large number of cars was supplied to the DDR

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

, the USSR, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 and the former Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

 using names T4D, T4SU, T4R and T4YU, respectively. The T4 was originally developed in 1958 and has been continuously modernized or copied since.

T4D

In Germany this type came into four former provincial cities: Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, Halle

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

 (Saale), Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 and Magdeburg

Magdeburg

Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

. It has space for 26 seats and 88 standees (this number is more than optimistic). Between 1968 to 1986 a total of 1,766 vehicles were delivered. The trailers of the T4D-series were called B4D. The trailers have two more seats instead of the driver's cab. 789 trailers were delivered to the above-mentioned cities.

Thus combinations of several cars became possible. This was called "Großzug" ("big train") and most-commonly consisted of two motor cars and a trailer. After the German reunification

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

, Germany began a modernization of the T4D-cars. The modernized cars are designated as T4D-C (Halle

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

), T4D-M (Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

), T4D-MS or T4D-MT (Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

). Unmodernized T4Ds were mostly taken out of service. Today (2010), unmodernized T4Ds are only used as works cars. Magdeburg gave away some cars to the Romanian cities of Oradea

Oradea

Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...

 and Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

. Cars from Halle are used today in Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...

, Iaşi

Iasi

Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...

, Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 (one car, garage number 1004), Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

; Leipzig and Dresden vehicles are used in Pyongyang

Pyongyang

Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...

 (North Korea

North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

) and Rostov-on-Don

Rostov-on-Don

-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...

 (Russia).

In some cities, like Dresden, a majority of the modernized T4Ds have been replaced by new low-floor trams. At night, only the new low-floor trams are in use, for safety reasons. In Leipzig, the number of low-floor cars is increased by using low-floor trailer cars. The T4 is remarkable particularly for its distinctive design, which differs strongly from later "box" or modern trams.

T4SU

In the USSR, just like in the DDR there were networks, which permitted a maximum width of vehicle of 2.2 metre. Since those were too narrow for T3 and the factory in Gotha

Gotha (town)

Gotha is a town in Thuringia, within the central core of Germany. It is the capital of the district of Gotha.- History :The town has existed at least since the 8th century, when it was mentioned in a document signed by Charlemagne as Villa Gotaha . Its importance derives from having been chosen in...

 stopped its production, the T4s was sold as T4SU to the Soviet Union. Like the other CSU types, a closed operator's cab was included. No trailer cars were used.

T4R

The Romanian vehicles do not differ technically and structurally from the Soviet. Since the vehicles were suitable, due to the smaller car body width, for most Romanian networks, they were used more frequently and differently than the T3. In all cities but Bucharest, these vehicles are in a state of disrepair, and they are mostly withdrawn from service.

In 1998, RATB began a project of modernisation of the T4R cars by making an articulated 6-axled car from two T4R cars. The new vehicle type is named "Bucur". The project progresses very slowly due to financial problems, and the number of trams to be produced is also uncertain, although they originally intended to convert all existing 130 T4 cars into 65 modernised vehicles.

The T4R trams in Bucharest are numbered 3301 to 3431, but there have been only 130 cars delivered. The tram with number 3339 has never been delivered. An urban legend tells that CKD had wrongly printed the number and RATB sign on a car that was delivered elsewhere, then they sent the last car for Bucharest with the number 3431. However, RATB's documents always mention 130 T4R trams for Bucharest, and not 131.

T4YU

The Yugoslav T4s was delivered starting from 1967. The two motor coaches delivered for the capital Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 used electrical equipment of the T4D. One car came back to Prague a short time later, and was used for excursion trips. The other was rebuilt as a trailer car and shipped to Halle (Saale). In 1972(?) twenty T4s were delivered to Belgrade with Soviet equipment, and those vehicles were used until the beginning of nineties. Today, only one Halle (Dresden donation) car is in use. Croatian city of Zagreb

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

 bought 95 vehicles between years 1977 and 1983, most of them are still in use today. Zagreb cars are similar in their electrical equipment to the German variant.

Production

3509 trams were produced from 1967 to 1987 and delivered to:

	City	Year	T4D	B4D	T4SU	T4R	T4YU	B4YU	Total
	Arad Arad, Romania Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...	1974–1981	0	0	0	100	0	0	100
	Belgrade Belgrade Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...	1967/1972	0	0	0	0	22	0	22
	Brăila Braila Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...	1978	0	0	0	10	0	0	10
	Bucharest Bucharest Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....	1973–1975	0	0	0	131	0	0	131
	Dresden Dresden Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....	1967–1984	572	250	0	0	0	0	822
	Galați Galati Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....	1978	0	0	0	10	0	0	10
	Halle Halle, Saxony-Anhalt Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...	1968–1986	323	124	0	0	0	0	447
	Iaşi Iasi Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...	1978–1981	0	0	0	70	0	0	70
	Kaliningrad Kaliningrad Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...	1971–1979	0	0	223	0	0	0	223
	Leipzig Leipzig Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...	1968–1987	597	273	0	0	0	0	870
	Liepāja Liepaja Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...	1976–1979	0	0	15	0	0	0	15
	Lviv Lviv Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...	1972–1979	0	0	73	0	0	0	73
	Magdeburg Magdeburg Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....	1967–1986	274	142	0	0	0	0	416
	Tallinn Tallinn Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...	1973–1979	0	0	60	0	0	0	60
	Vinnytsia Vinnytsia Vinnytsia is a city located on the banks of the Southern Bug, in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast.-Names:...	1971–1979	0	0	42	0	0	0	42
	Zagreb Zagreb Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...	1976–1983	0	0	0	0	95	85	180
	Zhytomyr Zhytomyr Zhytomyr is a city in the North of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Zhytomyr Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Zhytomyr Raion...	1977–1979	0	0	18	0	0	0	18
		Total	1766	789	431	321	117	85	3509