Kharkiv Metro

Kharkiv Metro

The central platform of one of the first stations in the system, Kholodna Hora.
Overview
Native name Харківський метрополітен
Kharkivskyi metropoliten
Owner City of Kharkiv
Locale Kharkiv, Ukraine
Transit type Metro/Subway
Number of lines 3[1]
Number of stations 29[1]
Daily ridership 633,150 (2013)
Annual ridership 231.1 million (2013)[1]
Website Kharkiv Metro (Ukrainian)
Operation
Began operation 1975
Number of vehicles 59
Train length 5 cars
Technical
System length 37.6 km (23.4 mi)[1]
System map
Map of the Kharkiv Metro.
Train (model 81-718.2) on 23 Serpnia station.
Kharkiv metro token

The Kharkiv Metro (Ukrainian: Харківське метро or Харківський метрополітен) 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. The metro consists of three lines which operate on 37.6 kilometres (23.4 mi) of route and serve 29 stations.[1] The system transported 231.1 million passengers in 2013[1] (down from 239.3 million in 2012[2]).

History

Initial plans for a rapid transit system in Kharkiv were made when the city was a capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. 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 (6.5 mi) 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.

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: 39.6 km 29

Facts and numbers

Pushkinska station.

Currently, the Kharkiv Metro consists of 3 lines, 29 stations, and 37.6 kilometres (23.4 mi) of route.[1] 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 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-car trainsets (all of the platforms are exactly 100 metres (330 ft) 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.

An art deco light fixture from Arkhitektora Beketova station.

See also

References

External links

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