Kharkiv Metro

Kharkiv Metro Харківський метрополітен Kharkivskyi metropoliten
Background
Locale	Kharkiv, Ukraine
Transit type	Underground Metro
Number of lines	3
Number of stations	29
Daily ridership	~650,000
Operation
Began operation	1975
Operator(s)	City of Kharkiv
Technical
System length	39.6 km (24.6 mi)

The central platform of one of the first stations in the system, Kholodna Hora.

Train (model 81-718.2) on 23 Serpnia station of Kharkiv Metro

The Kharkiv Metro (Ukrainian: Харківське метро) is the metro system that serves the city of Kharkiv, 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.

Lines and Stations

(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.

Kharkiv metro token

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^{[citation needed]} Metros show, yet they do make the best of mid-1970s and later styles.

Facts and Numbers

Metro station Pushkinska.

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 until 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 directly subordinated to the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine. Unlike the Kiev Metro, Kharkiv is not privatised and owned by a municipal company. In 2009, the Ministry transferred the metro to the city administration.

In preparation for the upcoming Euro 2012 football championship, the metro is installing bilingual announcements -- Ukrainian and English -- for its trains. The announcements are due to start operating in April 2012.^[1]

See also

• List of rapid transit systems
• Transport in Ukraine

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kharkiv Metro.

References

1. ↑ http://www.isria.com/pages/12_January_2012_169.php

External links

v t e Kharkiv Metro Kholodnohirsko–Zavodska Line   Kholodna Hora Pivdennyi Vokzal Tsentralnyi Rynok Radianska  Prospect Haharina Sportyvna  Zavod Imeni Malysheva Moskovskyi Prospekt Marshala Zhukova Radianskoi Armii Imeni O.S. Maselskoho Traktornyi Zavod Proletarska Saltivska Line   Istorychnyi Muzei  Universytet  Pushkinska Kyivska Akademika Barabashova Akademika Pavlova Studentska Heroiv Pratsi Oleksiivska Line   Peremoha Oleksiivska 23 Serpnia Botanichnyi Sad Naukova Derzhprom  Arkhitektora Beketova Ploshcha Povstannia Metrobudivnykiv imeni H.I. Vashchenka  Metro Bridge · List of stations