History

1900 – Elektrické podniky hlavního města Prahy (Prague Electrical Enterprises), the predecessor of today’s Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy (Prague Public Transit Company), opens Prague’s central electrical station (power station) in Holešovice, where the tram depot of the first central workshops for medium and heavy tram maintenance (also known as the Headquarters) is established
1912 – The central workshops are moved to the newly purchased and adapted premises of the former Rustonka machine works in Karlín. An extensive repair facility for trams and buses and other auxiliary operations (warehouses, rail workshops and, for some time, overhead contact line workshops and bus garages) are gradually set up here. Rustonka serves as a repair facility until the early 1980s. Rails are manufactured here until 2007. The facility no longer exists today.
1932 – To further develop public transit, large tracts of land on the border of Malešice, Štěrboholy and Hostivař are purchased for the construction of new central workshops. Plots of land in Dejvice are also purchased for new garages.
1951 – Design work on the new central workshops to be built in Hostivař begins – the design work on the extensive investment project proves to be very complicated and, due to the under-budgeted financing of public transit in the 1950s, is postponed several times.
1962 – Construction of the Tram Repair Shop, specifically the first sector of the new grounds of the central workshops in Hostivař, begins according to the plans of the design firm Dopravoprojekt Bratislava. The new central workshops are designed for a straight-line tram repair system and are intended for medium and heavy repairs of T-series trams only. Old, two-axel cars continue to be repaired at the Rustonka facility until these are decommissioned. Konstruktiva Praha is the general contractor for the construction project.
1968 – The new Tram Repair Shop is officially opened on January 2nd, 17 years after the project was commissioned and 36 years after the plots of land were purchased. Workers from the Rustonka facility, the provisional four-axel tram workshops at the Hloubětin depot, the exchangeable aggregate repair facility at the Švábka premises and the paint shop at the Vokovice depot are gradually transferred to the new repair shop. The repair shop is connected to the Prague tram track network at the same time. Standard and major inspections of T1 and T3 trams are part of the production schedule; later, “tyristorizace” (modernisation) and “total repairs” (in extent equivalent to general repairs) are added to the production schedule. Outside the regular production schedule, several special vehicles are built. Trams under repair are moved along a U-shaped production line; the facilities for the repair of undercarriages (bogies) or exchangeable aggregates are located in the core of the repair hall.
1982 – The first stage of the new bus repair shop (OZA Hostivař), intended for medium and heavy maintenance of buses, including general repairs, opens. Later, operation of the Hostivař garages, the establishment of which was forced by the closure of the Libeň and Dejvice garages, are added to the bus repair operations.
1985 – Hostivař metro depot – which continues to service the metro A-line (Depo Hostivař – Nemocnice Motol) to this day – opens. Several auxiliary operations, an administrative building, a metro test track and a track connection the Praha-Hostivář train station (no longer in operation today) are gradually built.
1993 – The Metro Repair Station in Hostivař, designated for the repair of Soviet metro cars, opens.
1994 – Opravna elektrických strojů (OEST – Electrical Machine Repair Shop), which was designed for the centralised repair of turning machines for the needs of the Prague Public Transit Company, opens as part of the next stage of construction of the Metro Repair Station. These operations continue to be part of the Tram Repair Shop today.
1988 - 1991 – The first partial modification of the repair shop to allow repairs of the 32-metre-long KT8D5 triple-articulated trams is carried out.
1996 - 2003 – The Tram Repair Shop undergoes major reconstruction in order to modernise technical equipment, adapt to a new manufacturing programme also containing articulated trams and a programme for modernising older trams, and, last but not least, fulfil new environmental standards required by law. A new basic manufacturing station, body workshop, paint shop and final assembly station are built in the hall. Special manipulators on air cushions are used to move vehicles. A new hall for the repair of undercarriages (bogies) with a sublevel wheel laith and a workstation for detaching and attaching undercarriages (bogies) are also new additions. In addition to the hall, some other new structures are erected: e.g., a new multipurpose box, an air blaster for coach bodies, and oiling facilities. The tram washer is also modernised.
2008 – The Tram Repair Shop begins to be partially modified for low-floor 14T and 15T trams. This means building a station with footbridges for access to the roof equipment, long inspection pits and a lifting station. The repair facility for low-floor trams is still being modernised today.
2014 – The existing tram test track, in operation since the Tram Repair Shop opened, has a four-rail, triple gauntlet track added to it to allow, if required, short test tram rides for external customers.
2019 – A hold yard is opened at the Hostivař Central Workshops to act as a substitute depot for the Hloubětín depot, which is undergoing reconstruction. All three modes of transport, i.e., metro, tram and bus, are thus taking place at Prague Public Transit’s Hostivař facility.
2021 – The Tram Repair Shop has 307 employees; the production schedule consists of modifications of T3 trams, KT8D5.RN2P triple-articulated trams and low-floor 14T and 15T trams.