Kyiv-Passazhyrskiy Railway station

Kyiv-Passazhyrsky
Southwestern Railway terminal
Location	Vokzalna Ploshcha, Kiev, Ukraine
Coordinates	50°26′26″N 30°29′22″E / 50.44056°N 30.48944°ECoordinates: 50°26′26″N 30°29′22″E / 50.44056°N 30.48944°E
Owned by	Ukrzaliznytsia
Platforms	7
Tracks	14
Connections	tram, Metro (Vokzalna station, Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line)
Construction
Structure type	at-grade
Parking	yes
History
Opened	1870
Rebuilt	1932, 2001
Electrified	1950
Services
Terminus Southwestern Railways Terminus

Kyiv-Passazhyrsky (Ukrainian: Київ-Пасажирський) is a railway station in the capital of Ukraine, Kiyv.

Serving more than 170,000 passengers per day (as of 2005). Southern Station is a misnomer in virtually universal usage in Kiev, referring to a large entrance with ticket booths on the other side of the tracks from the Central Station building. The station complex thus provides long-distance and international services, and short-distance service (elektrichka) for suburbs (including dacha areas), minor city stations, and nearby regions.

The Kiev Metro station Vokzalna^[1] is adjoining the complex, constituting the station's main intersection with city transport. The Kiev tram terminal Starovokzal'na (Ukrainian: "Старовокзальна") (the terminal for Kiev's High-Speed Tram line) is also adjacent via a passageway.

History and architecture

The old Kiev railroad station was constructed during 1868-1870, as a part of Kiev-Balta and Kiev-Kursk railroad constructions, which were also completed in 1870. The station was located in a valley of Lybid’ river, replacing soldiers' and gendarmes' settlements. The two-floor brick station building of Old English Gothic style was by the architect М. V. Vyshnevetskyi.^[2]

The current Central Station building was constructed in 1927-1932 and designed by O. Verbytskyi. It was built in the style of Ukrainian Baroque with some elements of Constructivism. The Central Station building is designated as the Landmark of Architecture, numbered 193.

In 2001, the building was restored to roughly its original state. In the same year, the new modern "Southern Station" building was erected at the opposite side of Central Station's sixteen tracks, being in reality not a separate station but merely another large entranceway to the Central Station, with new ticket windows and linked by a hallway above the track accesses. The renovation project also included two large underground parking structures, one of which remains uncompleted to the date.

Name disambiguation

Officially, Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi Railway Station is regarded as the whole huge complex of passenger terminals, railways, depots etc. with respective personnel. Practically, such installations in post-Soviet countries are widely known as railroad vokzals, which means the building(s) and services immediately serving passengers for various types of transport. The official name Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi is not used colloquially, appearing only in tickets, schedules etc. By the same token, the locally popular terms "Central Station" and "Southern Station" do not appear in such technical literature, as for internal purposes they are treated as the same location.^[3]

The name Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi (literally Kiev Passenger) is also used to differentiate it from other railway stations across the city such as Kyiv-Volynsky, Kyiv-Moskovsky, Kyiv-Tovarny, others.

Development plans

Currently the station is severely overloaded with suburban traffic, intercity traffic (especially during the height of winter and summer holidays), and also subway traffic (in daily rush hours). Relief plans include:

• Upgrading Darnytsia station to make it a second long-distance passenger station, serving the Left-Bank of the city (including new sleeping car maintenance facility.)
• Construction of a second surface entrance for the Vokzalna metro station, which is currently the most overloaded station of the metro system .
• Extension of the Podilsko-Vyhurivska Metro Line, which is now under construction on the banks of Dineper river, to the Vokzalna metro station.

Photos

• 
• 

  The former two-platform brick station building of Old English Gothic style in the 19th century.

• 

  Railwaymen Monument

• 

  suburban station

See also

• Ukrzaliznytsia - the national railway company of Ukraine

References

1. Part of Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line.
2. "The Capital's Railway Station". Southwestern Railways of Ukraine. Retrieved April 12, 2006.
3. "CIS Train Schedule". Railsoft,Inc. Retrieved February 22, 2010.

External links

• South-Western railway of Ukraine - Official website (Ukrainian)/(English)/(Russian)
• Ukraine Train Tickets - Online Sales