Kharkiv Metro

Kharkiv Metro
Харківський метрополітен
Kharkivs'kyi metropoliten
Info
Locale Kharkiv, Ukraine
Transit type Underground Metro
Number of lines 3
Number of stations 29
Daily ridership +1 million
Operation
Began operation 1975
Operator(s) City of Kharkiv
Technical

The Kharkiv Metro (Ukrainian: Харківське метро; Russian: Харьковское метро) is the metro system that serves the city of Kharkiv (Kharkov), the second largest city in Ukraine. The metro was the second in Ukraine (after Kiev) and the sixth in the USSR when it opened in 1975.

Contents

Lines and Stations

# Name Opened Length Stations
1 Kholodnohirsko-Zavodska Line 1975 17.3 km 13
2 Saltivska Line 1984 10.4 km 8
3 Oleksiivska Line 1995 11.9 km 8
Total: 39.6km 29

(The colours in the table correspond to the colours of the lines in the Kharkiv metro map.)

History

Initial plans for a rapid transit system in Kharkiv were made when the city was a capital of the Ukrainian SSR. However, after the capital moved to Kiev in 1934 and Kharkiv suffered heavy destruction during World War II, a rapid transit system was dropped from the agenda. In the mid-1960s, the existing mass transit system became too strained, and construction of the metro began in 1968.

Seven years later on August 23, 1975, the first eight-station segment of 10.4 kilometres was put into use. It is claimed that the metro does not have the beautiful and excessive decorations that stations in Moscow and Saint Petersburg Metros show, yet they do make the best of mid-1970s and later styles.

Facts and Numbers

Currently, the Kharkiv Metro consists of 3 lines, 29 stations, and 39.6 kilometres of tracks. The stations arranged in a typical Soviet design of a triangle, that is, three radial lines crossing in the city centre. Open from 5:30 in the morning till midnight, it has a daily passenger traffic of over one million passengers.

Because of the city's uneven landscape, the metro stations are located on varying depths. Six of the system's 29 stations are deep level stations and the remaining rest are shallow. Of the former, all but one are pylon type, and the latter are of column type. The shallow stations comprise fourteen pillar-trispans and eight single vaults. Kharkiv was the first metro to exhibit the single vault design of the shallow type (see more at the Skhodnenskaya article).

The metro is served by two depots which have a total of 320 carriages forming 59 five-carriage trains (all of the platforms are exactly 100 metres long).

The metro is subordinate to the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine and unlike the Kiev Metro, is not privatised and owned by a municipal company. In 2009, the Ministry transferred the metro to the city administration.

See also

External links