Public Transport in Vilnius

Today you can travel through Vilnius by bus. The first buses were seen on the streets of Vilnius in 1905. In summer, they would take passengers from Cathedral Square to Verkiai. A ticket cost five times more than a tram pulled by a horse; however, travel by bus was more convenient and faster. Only the rich could afford travelling by bus, which usually had 14-16 seats.

Regular bus routes ran during the interwar period and there were soon eight of them in Vilnius. However, the city was left without public transport during WWII. Buses only returned to the roads in 1946. These were 17 old buses repaired and left by the German army. The fleet was supplemented with ZIS-5 lorries (obtained from the Russian army), which were adapted to transport people.

The first regular route during the post-war period was Žvėrynas-Central Railway Station. Trolleybuses, which have become a symbol of Vilnius, were rolled out in the middle of the 20^th century, when a 7.8 km-long network was built. Passengers could travel from Antakalnis to the Central Station. Time passed and in 1975, trolleybuses in Vilnius ran across 480.6 km of routes.