Odesa starts testing the return of electric vehicles

Odesa electric transport started running in a test mode on March 28, 2026, after a long period of forced downtime.

According to the press service of the Odesa City Council, the interval of movement should be 20-40 minutes.

Instead, during the day on March 28, social (free) buses will operate in reduced numbers in those directions where it is currently impossible to resume the operation of electric transport. On Sunday, social buses will be off and will continue to operate on Monday.

Electric buses will run on the following routes:

• C1 "Railway Station - 28th Brigade Street". Departure from the Railway Station (Starosinnaya Square): 7:00, 8:10, 9:20, 10:30, 13:30, 14:40, 16:00, 17:10, 18:20. Departure from 28th Brigade Street: 7:00, 8:10, 9:20, 10:30, 13:30, 14:40, 16:00, 17:10, 18:20.
• C3 "S. Richter Street - Digtyarna Street". Departure from S. Richter Street: 6:45, 8:45, 15:15, 17:15. Departures from Digtyarna Street: 7:45, 9:45, 16:15, 18:15.
• C4 "Tiraspol Highway - Digtyarna Street". Departures from Tiraspolske Shosse: 7:30, 9:30, 15:00, 17:00. Departure from Digtyarna Street: 8:30, 10:30, 16:00, 18:00.
• No. 18k (tram) "11th station of the Big Fountain - 14th station of the Big Fountain". Departure from the 11th station of the Big Fountain: 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00. Departures from the 14th station of V. Fontan: 7:30, 8:30, 9:30, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 15:30, 16:30, 17:30, 18:30.
• No. 27 (tram) "Arkhitektorska Street - Svobody Avenue". Departure from Arkhitektorska Street: 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00. Departure from Svobody Ave: 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, 15:30, 16:30, 17:30, 18:30.
• No. 8 (trolleybus) "Superphosphate Plant - Railway Station". Departure from the Superphosphate Plant: 7:00, 8:30, 9:50, 12:30, 15:10, 16:30, 17:55, 19:25. Departures from the railway station: 7:45, 9:05, 10:25, 13:05, 15:45, 17:05, 18:30, 20:00.

On the morning of December 31, 2025, the head of the Odesa City Administration, Serhiy Lysak, announced that due to a power shortage, trams and trolleybuses in Odesa were not yet operating. On the evening of the same day, the mayors of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, and Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevych, announced that they had sent buses to Odesa to replace trams and trolleybuses on the city's streets. Subsequently, buses arrived from other regions, with the last batch of five vehicles arriving on February 28, 2026.

Кирило Бойко