The Western Metro Extension (Finnish: Länsimetro, Swedish: Västmetron) will be an extension of the Helsinki Metro system from central Helsinki, Finland, to the neighbouring city of Espoo. The new stretch of line will extend from the existing Ruoholahti metro station via the island of Lauttasaari, the Aalto University School of Science and Technology (at Otaniemi), and Tapiola, to a new terminus at Matinkylä. A possible future phase might extend the line to Kivenlahti.
Final approval for a 13.5-kilometre (8.4 mi) route was granted on 4 April 2007, and the construction began in November 2009. Preliminary construction is currently scheduled for May 2011, and then the main construction phase will start. Rock blasting is expected to be complete by the end of 2012, followed by the fitting out of the tunnels. The extension is currently expected to open for service at the end of 2015.[1]
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The Länsimetro was first proposed already when the Helsinki Metro system was first being designed in the 1950s. After the two forks of the Metro line eastwards from Helsinki had been completed, the Länsimetro continued to be proposed. Until the early 2000s, Espoo continued to reject such a proposal.
Espoo is the second most populous city in Finland, currently served by roads, bus transport and local train. Espoo is connected to Helsinki by the Rantarata coastal railway, and by two motorways: Finnish national road 1 (Turun moottoritie) in the north and the Western highway (Länsiväylä) in south. As the primary passageway between southern Espoo and central Helsinki, the Länsiväylä has been repeatedly enlarged to cope with congestion, but was still seeing chronic traffic jams at certain lines of the day. Widening the Länsiväylä had not solved the traffic jams, instead moving them closer to the centre of Helsinki.
Since the 1990s, the Finnish state and the city of Helsinki have been ready to finance their portions of the project and commence construction, but Espoo for a long time opposed the project, mainly because of financing: the state had only agreed to pay 30% of the costs and Espoo had been wanting the state to contribute at least 70%.
Helsinki made an official suggestion to Espoo to construct the Länsimetro in 1997. A year later, on 8 December 1998 the city council of Espoo had decided to only support extending the metro system to Tapiola, leaving off the planned continuation to Matinkylä and even Kivenlahti. On 16 February 1999, Espoo changed its statement and showed support for the plans to extend the metro to Matinkylä (with a vote in favour of 48 to 18).
The Länsimetro issue was reawakened again in 2002 when a new plan for public traffic in the capital area by Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council (YTV) was being made. YTV prioritised the Länsimetro over extension of a light rail line in to Espoo, a view that differed from that taken by Espoo city council. A compromise solution to investigate a "southern Espoo railway connection" (allowing for an express tram) was added, and both this railway connection and a light rail line were scheduled for 2010 to 2020.
According to a survey requested by Helsingin Sanomat in late 2005, 77% of Espoo residents and 90% of Helsinki residents were in favour of the Western Metro extension[2].
On 25 September 2006, the Espoo city council made an official decision about whether to adopt the Länsimetro. The result was 45 votes to 19 in favour of the metro.[3].
After Espoo city council had passed the decision allowing tax-generated income to be put towards the extension project—the worry was that such a large expense could conceivably bankrupt Espoo. In response, critics of the decision proceeded to take the municipality of Espoo to the highest administrative court on a charge of "neglect in the decision-making";[4] since administrative courts cannot rule on the substance of the decision, only the formal procedure was questioned.
Helsinki City Council ratified the plan for the extension on 11 November 2009, leading to construction work starting on 24 November 2009.[5] Judicial complaints and appeals postponed the start for a year or so, but all were rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court.[6] The work started in January 2010 with the extension of the tunnels at the Ruoholahti metro station,[7] and first rock blasting in Espoo was done in August 2010.[8] As of August 2011, 92% of the contracts for tunneling and station building are signed. Tunnelling of the rail tunnel is expected to be finished in 2013, and construction of the first stations will begin in 2012. The metro will open for traffic in 2015.[9]
In 2002, a joint study[10] by the City of Helsinki, the City of Espoo and the Ministry of Transport and Communications compared the impact of the metro extension with building a bus rapid transit system. The running costs of the two were estimated to be roughly equivalent. The metro would reduce emissions in Helsinki, but feeder buses would increase them in Espoo.[10] The metro would make travel from parts of Espoo near the new stations to Helsinki faster and more convenient, but would increase the travel time from outlying areas.
A second study[11] by the same parties, published in 2004, investigated the alternative option of a light rail line. Supporters of the light rail line claimed it would be cheaper, faster to implement, and more environment-friendly than a traditional metro line. The primary disadvantage of the metro was seen to be having to build denser housing along the line to make it more profitable. Espoo is a relatively loosely built city with a lot of detached houses leading to a reputation as an upper middle class city. There have been fears that the building of the Länsimetro would create tighter residential centres around each new metro station, and the Espoo "image" might suffer.
An advantage of the metro line was the existing metro network, and coupling the light rail line to the metro network would have caused all passengers travelling from east Helsinki to Espoo to switch train systems. The metro option would allow for continuous trips from all stations in Espoo to all Helsinki stations from Ruoholahti to Kalasatama and beyond.
Opponents of the light rail line claimed it to be an additional form of rail transport to the already diversely composed rail transport network in the capital area. Supporters claimed that the light rail line could be easily integrated to the existing Helsinki tram network, with the work required being cheaper than that of a metro line.
In 2006, an informal private-sector shadow plan for a light rail alternative called TramWest[12] was released. According to critics, the plan underestimated costs and the line was partly placed in areas where it would have been impossible to implement. TramWest also included many level crossings, which, if done badly, would slow down public transport. The plan would also have caused the parks designed into the Kiasma and Helsinki music house areas to be cut through with a light rail line. The plan would have caused all lines to end at the Elielinaukio square next to the central railway station without integrating to any existing or future railway line. A revised version of the plan in 2008, claiming to address most of these concerns[13], was released in early 2008. The new plan proposes connecting Espoo to both the Länsiväylä and city centre areas, but with the eastern extremity relocated from Elielinaukio square to either Viikki or Laajasalo.
Preliminary plans, made in 2000 and 2001, cited the cost of the metro extension to Matinkylä to be about €400 million. When the Espoo city council decided on construction of the metro in 2004, the estimated price was €452 million. In September 2007, the estimated price of the Länsimetro was at least €530 million.[14]. In December 2007, Olavi Louko estimated that the price will rise to at least €600 million. According to Louko, the price of the excavation work has risen a third more than that of other ground construction work—with the factors for the increase including simultaneous excavation work, construction of the Kehärata in 2009 and security requirements.[15]
As of 2008[update] the estimated cost had risen to over €800 million[16].
The cities of Espoo and Helsinki jointly founded a company called Länsimetro Oy (English: Western Metro Limited) to implement the metro extension from the present Ruoholahti to Matinkylä. The CEO of the joint company is Matti Kokkinen.
Espoo's criterion for acceptance was that planning for the second stage of the line should also be started. The first stage of the Länsimetro is expected to be completed in 2013. The Espoo city council has set a number of requirements for the project:
A metro line extension was accepted as a basis for further planning in 2000. The locations of the stations was confirmed by the cities of Espoo and Helsinki in June 2007. The extension will be completely underground with the following stations (tentative names):
| Ruoholahti–Matinkylä | ||||
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Ruoholahti (Gräsviken) | |||
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Lauttasaari (Drumsö) | |||
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Koivusaari (Björkholmen) | |||
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Keilaniemi (Kägeludden) | |||
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Otaniemi (Otnäs) | |||
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Tapiola (Hagalund) | |||
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Urheilupuisto (Idrottsparken) | |||
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Niittykumpu (Ängskulla) | |||
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Matinkylä (Mattby) | |||
Of the stations listed above, the first three would be in Helsinki, the stations after that in Espoo. A station at Niittykumpu (Ängskulla) will not be built initially, because the population of the area is considered too low. However, the space for a future station will be excavated during the construction of the metro line.
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