Trolleybuses in Chisinau, Moldova

[Eugen1985]

Sadly this year the reamaining iconic Soviet, Russian ZIU - 9 trolleybuses have been retired from service. This is because used lowfloor second hand trolleybuses have been bought from several countries to replace some of the older trolleybuses in service, among them also the ZIU - 9 trolleybuses. The ZIU - 9 trolleybuses have been in service in Chisinau from 1972 until 2023 which means that they are a big part of the transporation history in Chisinau. At one time Chisinau had over 150 of these trolleybuses in service but with the purchase of more modern trolleybuses, the number of ZIU - 9 trolleybuses declined until only about 20 remained in service. I have several pictures of the ZIU - 9 trolleybuses in service from various years. This is part 1.

ZIU- 9 was and is a very good soviet trolleybus. ZiU-682 (also ZiU-9) is a Soviet and Russian high-floor trolley bus of large capacity for intraurban passenger traffic. The abbreviation ZiU derives from the full name of the manufacturer (the Order of the Red Banner of Labor Trolleybus Plant named after Uritsky), located in Engels, Saratov region (currently ZAO Trolza). This model of the trolleybus was in series production from 1972 to 2015, after experiencing several upgrades. The large output of ZiU-9 allowed it to become the dominant model of the trolleybus in the Soviet Union, beginning in the late 1970s, and afterwards in Russia. In the 1990s, on the basis of ZiU-9, other trolleybus manufacturers, organized primarily on the basis of repair plants, developed their variants of this machine ("clones"). In total, more than 42,000 of ZiU-9 family trolleybuses. This is the most mass model of the trolleybus in the world. The pictures are mine from a few years ago from my vacation in Chisinau. By the end of the 1980s. individual elements of the construction of the trolleybus, which was produced at that time for almost 20 years, are considerably outdated. Therefore, simultaneously with the launch of the latest modifications of the ZiU-682V, a deeper modernization of this trolleybus model was prepared for production, which received the designation ZiU-682G. Experienced copies of ZiU-682G were produced back in 1988, and from February 1, 1991 the plant completely switched to their serial production. During the existence of the USSR, the ZiU-9 trolleybus was exported to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Poland, Greece, Argentina, Colombia, Mongolia, and planned shipments to India. After the collapse of the USSR, new trolleybuses of this model entered the former soviet union republics: Ukraine (1992-1996, 2002-2004, 2006-2008, 2013), Belarus (1993-1995, 2002), Moldova (1992-1994) , Transnistria (1992-2008), Armenia (1993), Kazakhstan (1991-1998, and also 2001-2002), Kyrgyzstan (1993-1994, 2001, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2013), Uzbekistan (1992 , 1995-1998), Abkhazia (2001, 2004, 2010), as well as to Mongolia (1990) and Yugoslavia (2000). In Georgia, in 2002, the re-exported ZiU-9 from Athens arrived, and in some cities of Russia - from Hungary and Serbia. In 2007, two ZiU-682G-016 (012) P trolleybuses were sent to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), where on January 10, 2008 the first trolleybus route was planned to open. Their further fate is unknown. Until now, ZiU-9 trolley buses continue to be operated in the cities of Mendoza and Córdoba in Argentina, where rare two-door specimens are found.