In August 1914 there was some livening up in Lviv’s main railway station. The same as in other cities of the Empire, thousands of mobilized people and volunteers took trains on a daily basis heading for their military unit, and from there — to the front. At the end of that same month in Lviv stations the inflow of civilians increased. Worried on hearing the rumours about the Russian troops approaching, Lvivites were trying to quit the city. For some days in the adjacent streets traffic was blocked, cries and weeping could be heard everywhere. The witnesses of those events described how residents in panic lost their things and belongings and their children at the railway stations; several people perished in the crowd. 

With the beginning of war, the public transport traffic in Lviv got considerably limited. A large part of tram drivers were taken to the army, and their places were taken by the representatives of intelligentsia. During the Russian occupation the authorities tried to introduce the right-side traffic in the city, but the left-side tram network prevented this from happening. As the result of violation of the usual schedule a large number of people were gathered at the stops, and they “stormed” the carriages and were hanging on the rail guard, which often caused accidents.