Helsinki Metro
Encyclopedia
The Helsinki Metro is the metro
system in Helsinki
, Finland
. It is the World's most northern
metro system, and currently the only one in Finland. The system was opened to the general public on 2 August 1982 after 27 years of planning. It is operated by Helsinki City Transport
(HKL) for Helsinki Regional Transport Authority
(HSL) and carries 50 million passengers per year.
The system contains a single forked line with seventeen stations along a total length of 21.1 kilometres (13.1 mi). It primarily serves the tightly built suburbs of East Helsinki
, but can also be used as a means of transport within the central parts of the city. The Länsimetro
extension will continue the line into western Helsinki and the southern parts of the neighbouring city of Espoo
, currently served by buses only.
The local commuter rail network
(overground) that serves north and northwest directions does not intersect with the metro network, but passengers can change trains at the Helsinki Central Railway Station
(Metro station Rautatientori).
s, heavier rail vehicles, bus
es or trolleybus
es were all opes as alternatives. The city council's reaction to the committees presentation was largely apathetic, with several council members stating to the press they didn't understand anything about Castrén's presentation.
Despite the lacklustre reception, Castrén's committee was asked to continue its work, now as the metro committee, although very little funding was provided. In spring 1963 the committee presented its proposal for the Helsinki Metro system. On a technical level this proposal was very different from the system that was finally realised. In the 1963 proposal the metro was planned as a light rail
system, running in tunnels a maximum of 14 metres below the surface (compared to 30 metres in the finalized system), and with stations placed at shorter intervals (for instance, the committee's presentation shows 10 stations between Sörnäinen
and Ruoholahti
, compared to the six in the realized system). Castrén committee proposed for the system to be built in five phases, with the first complete by 1969 and the final by 2000, by which time the system would have a total length of 86.5 kilometres (53.7 mi) with 108 stations. This was rejected after lengthy discussions as too extensive. In 1964 the city commissioned experts from Hamburg
, Stockholm
and Copenhagen
to evaluate the metro proposal. Their opinions were unanimous: A metro was needed and the first sections should be built by 1970.
Although no official decision to build a system along the lines proposed by Castrén was ever made, several provisions for a light rail metro system were made during the 1950s and 60s, including separate lanes on the Kulosaari
and Naurissaari bridges, and space for a metro station in the 1964 extension of Munkkivuori
shopping center. The RM 1, HM V
and RM 3 trams built for the Helsinki tram
system in the late 1950s were also equipped to be usable on the possible light rail metro lines.
. Following two more years of planning, the Valtonen-led committee's proposal for an initial metro line from Kamppi
to Puotila
in the east of the city was approved after hours of debate in the city council on the early morning hours of 8 May 1969. The initial section was to be opened for service in 1977.
in Roihupelto to Herttoniemi
was begun in 1969 and finished in 1971. The first prototype train, units M1 and M2, arrived from the Valmet
factory in Tampere on 10 November 1971, with further four units (M3–M6) arriving the following year. Car M1 burned in the metro depot in 1973.
Excavating the metro tunnels under central Helsinki had begun in June 1971. Most of the tunneling work had been completed by 1976, excluding the Kluuvi
bruise , a wedge of clay
and pieces of rock in the bedrock, discovered during the excavation process. To build a tunnel through the bruise an unusual solution was developed: the bruise was turned into a giant freezer, with pipes filled with Freon 22 pushed through the clay. The frozen clay was then carefully blasted away, with cast iron
tubes installed to create a durable tunnel. Construction of the first stations, Kulosaari
and Hakaniemi
begun in 1974. The Kulosaari station was the first to be completeted, in 1976, but construction of the other stations took longer.
In summer 1976 Teuvo Aura
, the city director of Helsinki, signed an agreement with Valmet and Strömberg
to purchase the trains required for the metro from them. In doing so Aura bypassed the city council completely, reportedly because he feared the council would decide to buy the rolling stock from manufacturers in the Soviet Union
instead. By this time the direct current
-based technology of the M1 series trains had become outdated. In 1977 prototypes for the M100 train series (referred to as "nokkajuna", "beak train", to differentiate from the M1 prototypes) were delivered. In these units the direct current from the power rail was converted to alternating current
powering induction motor
s. The M100 trains were the first metro trains in the world to be equipped with such technology.
Aura's bypassing the city council in acquiring the rolling stock was not the only questionable part of the construction process of the Metro. On 3 June 1982, two days after the Metro had been opened for provisional traffic, Unto Valtanen came under investigation for taking bribes. Subsequently several members of the metro committee and Helsinki municipal executive committee
in addition to Valtonen were charged with taking bribes. In the end it was found that charges against all the accused except Valtonen had expired. Valtonen himself was convicted for having taken bribes from Siemens
.
and Hakaniemi (the Sörnäinen station
was not yet opened at this time). On 1 July the provisional service was extended to Rautatientori
. President of the Republic of Finland
Mauno Koivisto
officially opened the Metro for traffic on 2 August 1982 – 27 years after the initial motion to the city assembly had been made.
The Metro did not immediately win the approval from inhabitants of eastern Helsinki, whose direct bus links to the city centre had now been turned into feeder lines for the Metro. Within six months of the Metro's official opening, a petition signed by 11 000 people demanded the restoration of direct bus links. Subsequently the timetables of the feeder services were adjusted and opposition to the Metro mostly died down.
On 1 March 1983 the Metro was extanded in the west to Kamppi
. The Sörnäinen station, between Hakaniemi and Kulosaari, was opened on 1 September 1984.
The Metro was extended eastwards in the late 1980s, with the Kontula
and Myllypuro
stations opened in 1986, and the Mellunmäki station
following in 1989. The construction of a westwards expansion begun in 1987 with tunneling works from Kamppi towards Ruoholahti
. The Ruoholahti metro station
was opened on 16 August 1993.
Another new station followed: the Kaisaniemi
station, between Rautatientori and Hakaniemi, was opened on 1 March 1995. It had in fact been decided on already in 1971, and the station cavern had been carved out of the rock during the original tunneling works, but a lack of funds had pushed back the station's completion.
On 31 August 1998, after four years of construction, the last new section of line to date was completed, with the opening of a three-station fork from Itäkeskus to Vuosaari
.
The second generation of Metro trains to be used in passenger service (the M200 class) were delivered in 2000 and 2001 by Bombardier
. These trains are based on Deutsche Bahn
's class 481 EMUs used on the Berlin S-bahn
network.
On 25 September 2006, the city council of Espoo
approved, after decades of debate, planning, and controversy, the construction of a western extension of the Metro
. If all goes to plan, Metro trains will run to Matinkylä
by the end of 2015. (See section The future below.)
On 1 January 2007, the latest station, Kalasatama
, between the Sörnäinen
and Kulosaari
stations, was opened. It serves the new "Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta" (Eastern Harbour) area, a former port facility that will be redeveloped as its functions are moved to the new Port of Vuosaari in the east of the city.
After 8 November 2009, the Rautatientori
station, under the Central Railway Station, was closed to the public because a burst water pipe flooded it. After renovations, the station reopened for public use on 15 February 2010. The lifts were still under renovation, but they also reopened for service on 21 June 2010.
The Helsinki Metro system currently consists of seventeen stations. The stations are located along a Y shape, where the central line runs from the city centre towards the eastern suburbs. The line forks at the Itäkeskus metro station
. The six stations in central Helsinki are below surface, while the eleven eastern stations are surface stations.
Trains on the metro system usually run every four or five minutes, and they alternate between the Mellunmäki
(northern) and Vuosaari
(eastern) branches. The metro trains stop at every station, and the names of the stations are announced in both Finnish
and Swedish
(with the exceptions of Central Railway Station
, which is announced also in English, and "Kaisaniemi
", which is pronounced identically in Finnish and Swedish).
The metro is designed as a core transport facility, which means that extensive feeder bus
transport links are provided between the stations and the surrounding districts. Taking a feeder bus to the metro is often the only option to get to the city centre from some districts. For example, since the construction of the metro, all daytime bus routes from the islands of Laajasalo
terminate at the Herttoniemi metro station
.
Itäkeskus - Mellunmäki: (northern branch) () () () ()
Itäkeskus - Vuosaari: (southern branch) () () () ()
s or lift
s.
The trains themselves have no steps, and the platforms are always at the same level as the train floor.
(HSL) agency. The HSL travel card (matkakortti) is the most commonly used ticket, which can be paid either per journey or for a period of two weeks to one year. Currently, the metro lies entirely within the Helsinki zone. Single tickets can be bought from ticket machines at the stations or by SMS
. A single ticket can be used to change for any other form of transport inside Helsinki city, and is valid for one hour. Regional tickets are likewise valid. There are no gates to the platforms, and a proof-of-payment
system is in place.
Especially for people with seeing difficulties, all platforms have a yellow line marking the safe area on platform.
Additionally there are fire extinguishers in trains and stations.
is 5 feet, 1524 mm (European broad gauge), as in all Finnish railway traffic. The electricity used by the metro trains is a 750 volt
direct current
, and it is drawn from an electricity track (also known as third rail
) on the side of the metro tracks.
There are currently two different models of Metro Train in service. The M100 series was built by Strömberg
in the early 1980s and the newer M200 series was built by Bombardier
and has been used since 2001. Even though the system was built in the 1970s and 1980s, it is still modern compared to most other metros in the world.
The normal speed of the metro trains is 70 kilometres per hour (43.5 mph) inside the tunnels and 80 kilometres per hour (49.7 mph) on the open portion of the network. The points
have a maximum structural speed of either 35 kilometres per hour (21.7 mph) or 60 kilometres per hour (37.3 mph).
The maintenance and storage depot for the metro system is at Roihupelto, between Siilitie metro station
and Itäkeskus metro station
. The depot is connected to the metro line from both the east and western directions, with a third platform at Itäkeskus used for de-training passengers before returning to the depot. Both heated and unheated undercover storage areas are provided so that trains are ready for use without a lengthy heating period.
Behind Roihupelto depot is the metro test track, allowing testing at speeds of up to 100 km/h; the far end of this test-track is connected via a non-electrified 5 km long railway route to the VR
main line at Oulunkylä railway station
. Both the metro and mainline share a 1524 mm rail gauge
. The access line is mostly along the first half of the old Herttoniemi Harbour railway. Through the area of Viikki
, this single line has street running
. The Jokeri bus-line makes use of the depot line's railway bridges to cross Vantaa river
and Finnish national road 4
.
As of 2008, the new Vuosaari harbour
and its rail link are 2 km from the present end at Vuosaari metro station. When a new metro link line to the VR harbour railway is constructed, the existing depot link will be closed. This section of the route will be released for the light rail
-based Jokeri line upgrade, scheduled for 2016 onwards.
The City of Helsinki supports plans to extend the Metro to the neighbouring municipalities of Espoo
in the west and Vantaa
and Sipoo
in the northeast. The municipalities themselves are not very supportive of the idea, and especially the extension to southern Espoo (in Finnish, länsimetro
, or "western metro") provoked much discussion and political feuding both within Espoo and between the two municipalities. However, according to a poll conducted in 2005, 75% of people in Espoo favoured building the western extension, and in September 2006, the Espoo city council approved the extension.
The construction work started with the excavation work of the tunnels at Ruoholahti in November 2009. Further excavation work started in Lauttasaari and Espoo in May 2010. The extension is expected to be in operation in 2015 at the earliest. (Currently, the metro serves Kamppi
bus terminal, where the buses via the highway Länsiväylä
to Espoo leave.)
via Kamppi
to Pasila
north of the city centre, and possibly onwards to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport
, is also being planned. This is being taken into consideration in city plans and has been discussed by the city assembly, but does not look likely to be constructed before 2020 at the earliest. To prepare for this eventuality, a platform level for a crossing line was already excavated during the original construction of the Kamppi station.
The construction of the Helsinki commuter rail
Ring Rail Line, which connects the airport to the rail network, was begun in May 2009. The current plans commissioned by the city recommend the extension of the tram network, instead of the metro, to Laajasalo. Thus, the construction of the second metro line on a Laajasalo-Kamppi-Airport route appears unlikely.
On 17 May 2006 the Helsinki city council decided that the current, manually driven metro trains will be replaced by automatic ones, operated without drivers. Until this is done, expansion of the system will not be possible as new and replacement parts for the current system, built in the 1970s, are increasingly difficult to obtain. The goal is to have the automatic trains running in 2013.
There is a plan to extend the Vuosaari section of the line to the new Vuosaari harbour
(see section The depot above).
A new station is being planned in Roihupelto, between Siilitie
and Itäkeskus
, to serve a possible future suburb.
Kamppi/Kampen
Hakaniemi/Hagnäs
Kaisaniemi/Kajsaniemi
Munkkivuori/Munkshöjden
(HKL) yearly report for 2003, the metro system had a total of 55.4 million passengers, who travelled a total of 404.1 million kilometres. The total turnover
for the metro division of HKL was €16.9 million and it made a profit of €3.8 million.
The Metro is by far the cheapest form of transport in Helsinki to operate, with a cost of only €0.032 per passenger kilometre. The same figure for the second cheapest form - trams - was €0.211.
In 2002, the Metro used 39.8 GWh of electricity, though the figure was rising (from 32.2 GWh in 2001). This equals 0.10 kWh per passenger kilometre, and compares favourably with Helsinki's trams (which used 0.19 kWh per passenger kilometre in 2002).
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
system in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. It is the World's most northern
The world's most northern
This is a list of various northernmost things on earth.- Cities and settlements :See also: Northernmost settlements, Northernmost cities and towns-Geography:-Animals:-General:-Shrubs:-Trees:-Culture and music:-Sport :- Religion :...
metro system, and currently the only one in Finland. The system was opened to the general public on 2 August 1982 after 27 years of planning. It is operated by Helsinki City Transport
Helsinki City Transport
Helsinki City Transport or HKL is the official city-owned public transport company in Helsinki, Finland. It operates the Helsinki metro, Helsinki tram and ferry boat traffic...
(HKL) for Helsinki Regional Transport Authority
Helsinki Regional Transport Authority
Helsinki Regional Transport Authority began its work on January 1, 2010. The work of the new intercommunal authority is based on the new Finnish public transportation law in force since December 3, 2009...
(HSL) and carries 50 million passengers per year.
The system contains a single forked line with seventeen stations along a total length of 21.1 kilometres (13.1 mi). It primarily serves the tightly built suburbs of East Helsinki
East Helsinki
East Helsinki is an area in Helsinki, Finland, usually thought to comprise the city's eastern and south-eastern major districts , including the districts of Vartiokylä, Myllypuro, Mellunkylä, Vuosaari, Herttoniemi, Laajasalo and Kulosaari...
, but can also be used as a means of transport within the central parts of the city. The Länsimetro
Länsimetro
The Western Metro Extension 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...
extension will continue the line into western Helsinki and the southern parts of the neighbouring city of Espoo
Espoo
Espoo is the second largest city and municipality in Finland. The population of the city of Espoo is . It is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area along with the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, and Kauniainen. Espoo shares its eastern border with Helsinki and Vantaa, while enclosing Kauniainen....
, currently served by buses only.
The local commuter rail network
Helsinki commuter rail
Helsinki commuter rail is the commuter rail system serving Greater Helsinki, Finland. The network is operated by VR, the Finnish national railway company. Together with the Helsinki Metro and trams, the network forms the heart of Helsinki's public transportation infrastructure.Trains run above...
(overground) that serves north and northwest directions does not intersect with the metro network, but passengers can change trains at the Helsinki Central Railway Station
Helsinki Central railway station
Helsinki Central railway station is a widely recognised landmark in central Helsinki, Finland, and the focal point of public transport in the Greater Helsinki area. The station is used by approximately 200,000 passengers per day, making it Finland's most-visited building...
(Metro station Rautatientori).
1955–1967: Light rail plan
The initial motion for building a metropolitan railway system in Helsinki was made in September 1955, though during the past five decades the idea of a tunneled urban railway for Helsinki had surfaced several times. A suburban traffic committee was formed under the leadership of Reino Castrén, and in late 1955 the committee set to work on the issue of whether or not there was truly a need for a tunneled public transport system in Helsinki. After nearly four years of work the committee presented its findings to the city council. The findings of the committee were clear: Helsinki needed a metro system built on separate right-of-way. This was the first time the term "metro" was used to describe the planned system. At the time the committee did not yet elaborate on what kind of vehicles should be used on the metro: tramTram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s, heavier rail vehicles, bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es or trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es were all opes as alternatives. The city council's reaction to the committees presentation was largely apathetic, with several council members stating to the press they didn't understand anything about Castrén's presentation.
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
system, running in tunnels a maximum of 14 metres below the surface (compared to 30 metres in the finalized system), and with stations placed at shorter intervals (for instance, the committee's presentation shows 10 stations between Sörnäinen
Sörnäinen
Sörnäinen is a neighbourhood in the city of Helsinki, Finland.Sörnäinen is located a little more than one kilometre north from the coastal centre of Helsinki, near the district of Hakaniemi. The east side of Sörnäinen borders the sea....
and Ruoholahti
Ruoholahti
Ruoholahti is a quarter in Helsinki, part of the Länsisatama neighbourhood and Kampinmalmi district. The name means Grass Bay and is pronounced...
, compared to the six in the realized system). Castrén committee proposed for the system to be built in five phases, with the first complete by 1969 and the final by 2000, by which time the system would have a total length of 86.5 kilometres (53.7 mi) with 108 stations. This was rejected after lengthy discussions as too extensive. In 1964 the city commissioned experts from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
and Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
to evaluate the metro proposal. Their opinions were unanimous: A metro was needed and the first sections should be built by 1970.
Although no official decision to build a system along the lines proposed by Castrén was ever made, several provisions for a light rail metro system were made during the 1950s and 60s, including separate lanes on the Kulosaari
Kulosaari
Kulosaari is an island and a suburb in Helsinki, Finland. It is also the 42nd neighbourhood of the city. Construction of villas on the island started in the beginning of the 20th century, and a bridge from Sörnäinen was opened in 1919...
and Naurissaari bridges, and space for a metro station in the 1964 extension of Munkkivuori
Munkkivuori
Munkkivuori is a quarter of the Munkkiniemi neighbourhood in Helsinki. The buildings and the plan of site are typical of the late 1950s. Most of the residential buildings in Munkkivuori are within a loop formed by Ulvilantie ring road...
shopping center. The RM 1, HM V
Karia HM V
HM V is a class of two-bogie four-axle tram operated by Helsinki City Transport on the Helsinki tram network. All trams of this type were built by the Finnish tram manufacturer Karia in 1959....
and RM 3 trams built for the Helsinki tram
Helsinki tram
The Helsinki tram network forms part of the Helsinki public transport system organised by Helsinki Regional Transport Authority and operated by Helsinki City Transport in the Finnish capital city of Helsinki. The trams are the main means of transport in the city centre. 56.6 million trips were made...
system in the late 1950s were also equipped to be usable on the possible light rail metro lines.
1967–1969: Heavy rail plan
In late 1967 Reino Castrén departed Helsinki for Calcutta, where he had been invited as an expert in public transport. Prior to his departure Castrén indicated he planned to return to Helsinki in six months and continue his work as leader of the metro committee. For the duration of Castrén absence Unto Valtanen was appointed as the leader of the committee. However, by the time Castrén returned, Valtonen's position had been made permanent. Following his appointment Valtonen informed the other members of the committee that the plans made under Castrén leadership were outdated, and now the metro would be planned as a heavy rail system in deep tunnels mined into bedrockBedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
. Following two more years of planning, the Valtonen-led committee's proposal for an initial metro line from Kamppi
Kamppi metro station
The Kamppi metro station is a station on the Helsinki Metro. In addition to serving the area around Kamppi in central Helsinki, the station is integrated with the Kamppi Center bus terminal and shopping complex....
to Puotila
Puotila metro station
Puotila or Botby gård is a ground-level 'cut-and-cover' station on the eastern branch of the Helsinki Metro. It serves the districts of Puotila and Puotinharju in East Helsinki....
in the east of the city was approved after hours of debate in the city council on the early morning hours of 8 May 1969. The initial section was to be opened for service in 1977.
1969–1982: Construction
Construction of a 2.8 kilometres (1.7 mi) testing track from the depotTrain station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
in Roihupelto to Herttoniemi
Herttoniemi metro station
Herttoniemi or Hertonäs is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Herttoniemi in East Helsinki....
was begun in 1969 and finished in 1971. The first prototype train, units M1 and M2, arrived from the Valmet
Valmet
' was a Finnish state-owned conglomerate. Valmet was formed in 1951, when the state of Finland decided to group their various factories working on war reparations to the Soviet Union under one company...
factory in Tampere on 10 November 1971, with further four units (M3–M6) arriving the following year. Car M1 burned in the metro depot in 1973.
Excavating the metro tunnels under central Helsinki had begun in June 1971. Most of the tunneling work had been completed by 1976, excluding the Kluuvi
Kluuvi
Kluuvi is the commercial centre of Helsinki, Finland, and a neighbourhood in the Vironniemi district of Helsinki. The Helsinki Central railway station, the Helsinki main post office, the Stockmann and Sokos department stores, the Kluuvi shopping centre and the main offices of Finnish banks are...
bruise , a wedge of clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
and pieces of rock in the bedrock, discovered during the excavation process. To build a tunnel through the bruise an unusual solution was developed: the bruise was turned into a giant freezer, with pipes filled with Freon 22 pushed through the clay. The frozen clay was then carefully blasted away, with cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
tubes installed to create a durable tunnel. Construction of the first stations, Kulosaari
Kulosaari metro station
Kulosaari or Brändö is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the island district of Kulosaari in East Helsinki....
and Hakaniemi
Hakaniemi metro station
Hakaniemi or Hagnäs is a station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the central Helsinki districts of Hakaniemi and Kallio....
begun in 1974. The Kulosaari station was the first to be completeted, in 1976, but construction of the other stations took longer.
In summer 1976 Teuvo Aura
Teuvo Aura
Teuvo Ensio Aura was a Finnish politician from liberal party. He served as Mayor of Helsinki and interim Prime Minister of Finland twice, 1970 and 1971–72.-References:...
, the city director of Helsinki, signed an agreement with Valmet and Strömberg
Stromberg
-People:*Lyndon Stromberg, American sculptor and designer*Karl Stromberg, the villain in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me*Joseph R. Stromberg, historian with the Ludwig von Mises Institute*Glenn Strömberg, Swedish soccer player...
to purchase the trains required for the metro from them. In doing so Aura bypassed the city council completely, reportedly because he feared the council would decide to buy the rolling stock from manufacturers in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
instead. By this time the direct current
Direct current
Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...
-based technology of the M1 series trains had become outdated. In 1977 prototypes for the M100 train series (referred to as "nokkajuna", "beak train", to differentiate from the M1 prototypes) were delivered. In these units the direct current from the power rail was converted to alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
powering induction motor
Induction motor
An induction or asynchronous motor is a type of AC motor where power is supplied to the rotor by means of electromagnetic induction. These motors are widely used in industrial drives, particularly polyphase induction motors, because they are robust and have no brushes...
s. The M100 trains were the first metro trains in the world to be equipped with such technology.
Aura's bypassing the city council in acquiring the rolling stock was not the only questionable part of the construction process of the Metro. On 3 June 1982, two days after the Metro had been opened for provisional traffic, Unto Valtanen came under investigation for taking bribes. Subsequently several members of the metro committee and Helsinki municipal executive committee
Kommunstyrelse
The Kommunstyrelse is the executive branch of local government in each of the 290 municipalities of Sweden. The term used in the English version of the Swedish Local Government Act is municipal executive committee...
in addition to Valtonen were charged with taking bribes. In the end it was found that charges against all the accused except Valtonen had expired. Valtonen himself was convicted for having taken bribes from Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
.
1982 onwards: In service
On 1 June 1982, the test drives were opened to the general public. Trains ran with passengers during the morning and afternoon rush hours between ItäkeskusItäkeskus metro station
Itäkeskus or Östra centrum is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the Itäkeskus shopping centre and surrounding areas in East Helsinki...
and Hakaniemi (the Sörnäinen station
Sörnäinen metro station
Sörnäinen or Sörnäs is a station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the central Helsinki districts of Sörnäinen and Kallio...
was not yet opened at this time). On 1 July the provisional service was extended to Rautatientori
Rautatientori
Rautatientori is an open square in central Helsinki, immediately to the east of the Helsinki Central railway station. The square mostly serves as Helsinki's secondary bus station...
. President of the Republic of Finland
President of Finland
The President of the Republic of Finland is the nation's head of state. Under the Finnish constitution, executive power is vested in the President and the government, with the President possessing extensive powers. The President is elected directly by the people of Finland for a term of six years....
Mauno Koivisto
Mauno Koivisto
Mauno Henrik Koivisto is a Finnish politician who served as the ninth President of Finland from 1982 to 1994. He also served as Prime Minister 1968–1970 and 1979–1982...
officially opened the Metro for traffic on 2 August 1982 – 27 years after the initial motion to the city assembly had been made.
The Metro did not immediately win the approval from inhabitants of eastern Helsinki, whose direct bus links to the city centre had now been turned into feeder lines for the Metro. Within six months of the Metro's official opening, a petition signed by 11 000 people demanded the restoration of direct bus links. Subsequently the timetables of the feeder services were adjusted and opposition to the Metro mostly died down.
On 1 March 1983 the Metro was extanded in the west to Kamppi
Kamppi metro station
The Kamppi metro station is a station on the Helsinki Metro. In addition to serving the area around Kamppi in central Helsinki, the station is integrated with the Kamppi Center bus terminal and shopping complex....
. The Sörnäinen station, between Hakaniemi and Kulosaari, was opened on 1 September 1984.
The Metro was extended eastwards in the late 1980s, with the Kontula
Kontula metro station
Kontula or Gårdsbacka is a ground-level station on the northern branch of the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Kontula in East Helsinki....
and Myllypuro
Myllypuro metro station
Myllypuro or Kvarnbäcken is a ground-level station on the northern branch of the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Myllypuro in East Helsinki....
stations opened in 1986, and the Mellunmäki station
Mellunmäki metro station
Mellunmäki or Mellungsbacka is a ground-level bridge station on the northern branch of the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Mellunmäki in East Helsinki, and is the terminus of the northern branch....
following in 1989. The construction of a westwards expansion begun in 1987 with tunneling works from Kamppi towards Ruoholahti
Ruoholahti
Ruoholahti is a quarter in Helsinki, part of the Länsisatama neighbourhood and Kampinmalmi district. The name means Grass Bay and is pronounced...
. The Ruoholahti metro station
Ruoholahti metro station
Ruoholahti metro station is a station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Ruoholahti in Helsinki's southwestern city centre. Ruoholahti is the westernmost metro station in Helsinki, and will continue to be until the extension to Espoo, known as Länsimetro under construction is...
was opened on 16 August 1993.
Another new station followed: the Kaisaniemi
Kaisaniemi metro station
Kaisaniemi or Kajsaniemi is a station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the central Helsinki district of Kaisaniemi. It is the only station whose name is announced in only one language: whether this is Finnish or Swedish is unknown and irrelevant, because the Finnish 'Kaisaniemi' and the Swedish...
station, between Rautatientori and Hakaniemi, was opened on 1 March 1995. It had in fact been decided on already in 1971, and the station cavern had been carved out of the rock during the original tunneling works, but a lack of funds had pushed back the station's completion.
On 31 August 1998, after four years of construction, the last new section of line to date was completed, with the opening of a three-station fork from Itäkeskus to Vuosaari
Vuosaari metro station
Vuosaari or Nordsjö is a ground-level station on the southern branch of the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Vuosaari in East Helsinki, and is the terminus of the branch....
.
The second generation of Metro trains to be used in passenger service (the M200 class) were delivered in 2000 and 2001 by Bombardier
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
. These trains are based on Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
's class 481 EMUs used on the Berlin S-bahn
Berlin S-Bahn
The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...
network.
On 25 September 2006, the city council of Espoo
Espoo
Espoo is the second largest city and municipality in Finland. The population of the city of Espoo is . It is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area along with the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, and Kauniainen. Espoo shares its eastern border with Helsinki and Vantaa, while enclosing Kauniainen....
approved, after decades of debate, planning, and controversy, the construction of a western extension of the Metro
Länsimetro
The Western Metro Extension 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...
. If all goes to plan, Metro trains will run to Matinkylä
Matinkylä
Matinkylä or Mattby is one of the major urban areas of Espoo, a city on the southern coast of Finland. Matinkylä is understood as the area between the Helsinki-Hanko highway and the coast of the Gulf of Finland, between the areas of Haukilahti and Iivisniemi.About 30 000 people live in the...
by the end of 2015. (See section The future below.)
On 1 January 2007, the latest station, Kalasatama
Kalasatama metro station
Kalasatama or Fiskhamnen is a station on the Helsinki Metro, in the capital city of Finland. The station was opened on 1 January 2007, and it serves the eastern part of the central Helsinki district of Sörnäinen...
, between the Sörnäinen
Sörnäinen metro station
Sörnäinen or Sörnäs is a station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the central Helsinki districts of Sörnäinen and Kallio...
and Kulosaari
Kulosaari metro station
Kulosaari or Brändö is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the island district of Kulosaari in East Helsinki....
stations, was opened. It serves the new "Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta" (Eastern Harbour) area, a former port facility that will be redeveloped as its functions are moved to the new Port of Vuosaari in the east of the city.
After 8 November 2009, the Rautatientori
Rautatientori metro station
Rautatientori metro station or Central railway station metro station is a station on the Helsinki Metro in Finland. The entrance is located in the Asematunneli main hall, which has an exit to the Helsinki Central Railway Station. It is the only Helsinki Metro station whose name is announced also...
station, under the Central Railway Station, was closed to the public because a burst water pipe flooded it. After renovations, the station reopened for public use on 15 February 2010. The lifts were still under renovation, but they also reopened for service on 21 June 2010.
Network
Itäkeskus metro station
Itäkeskus or Östra centrum is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the Itäkeskus shopping centre and surrounding areas in East Helsinki...
. The six stations in central Helsinki are below surface, while the eleven eastern stations are surface stations.
Trains on the metro system usually run every four or five minutes, and they alternate between the Mellunmäki
Mellunmäki metro station
Mellunmäki or Mellungsbacka is a ground-level bridge station on the northern branch of the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Mellunmäki in East Helsinki, and is the terminus of the northern branch....
(northern) and Vuosaari
Vuosaari metro station
Vuosaari or Nordsjö is a ground-level station on the southern branch of the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Vuosaari in East Helsinki, and is the terminus of the branch....
(eastern) branches. The metro trains stop at every station, and the names of the stations are announced in both Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
and Swedish
Finland-Swedish
Finland Swedish is a general term for the closely related cluster of dialects of Swedish spoken in Finland by Swedish-speaking Finns as their mother tongue...
(with the exceptions of Central Railway Station
Rautatientori metro station
Rautatientori metro station or Central railway station metro station is a station on the Helsinki Metro in Finland. The entrance is located in the Asematunneli main hall, which has an exit to the Helsinki Central Railway Station. It is the only Helsinki Metro station whose name is announced also...
, which is announced also in English, and "Kaisaniemi
Kaisaniemi metro station
Kaisaniemi or Kajsaniemi is a station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the central Helsinki district of Kaisaniemi. It is the only station whose name is announced in only one language: whether this is Finnish or Swedish is unknown and irrelevant, because the Finnish 'Kaisaniemi' and the Swedish...
", which is pronounced identically in Finnish and Swedish).
The metro is designed as a core transport facility, which means that extensive feeder bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
transport links are provided between the stations and the surrounding districts. Taking a feeder bus to the metro is often the only option to get to the city centre from some districts. For example, since the construction of the metro, all daytime bus routes from the islands of Laajasalo
Laajasalo
Laajasalo is a group of islands that forms a neighbourhood in southern Helsinki, the capital of Finland. As of 2005, it had a population of 16,486....
terminate at the Herttoniemi metro station
Herttoniemi metro station
Herttoniemi or Hertonäs is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the district of Herttoniemi in East Helsinki....
.
List of stations
Ruoholahti - Itäkeskus: () () ( / ) () () () () () () () ()Itäkeskus - Mellunmäki: (northern branch) () () () ()
Itäkeskus - Vuosaari: (southern branch) () () () ()
Access
The fact that most of the stations are located on the surface makes the metro system more friendly for passengers with mobility problems. There are no stairs on most sub-surface stations, and one can access the stations from the street level via escalatorEscalator
An escalator is a moving staircase – a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.Escalators are used around the...
s or lift
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
s.
The trains themselves have no steps, and the platforms are always at the same level as the train floor.
Ticketing
The ticketing scheme on the Metro is consistent with other forms of transport inside the city of Helsinki, managed by the Helsinki Regional Transport AuthorityHelsinki Regional Transport Authority
Helsinki Regional Transport Authority began its work on January 1, 2010. The work of the new intercommunal authority is based on the new Finnish public transportation law in force since December 3, 2009...
(HSL) agency. The HSL travel card (matkakortti) is the most commonly used ticket, which can be paid either per journey or for a period of two weeks to one year. Currently, the metro lies entirely within the Helsinki zone. Single tickets can be bought from ticket machines at the stations or by SMS
Short message service
Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...
. A single ticket can be used to change for any other form of transport inside Helsinki city, and is valid for one hour. Regional tickets are likewise valid. There are no gates to the platforms, and a proof-of-payment
Proof-of-payment
Proof-of-payment or POP is an honor-based fare collection approach used on many public transportation systems. Instead of checking each passenger as they enter a fare control zone, proof-of-payment requires that each passenger carry a ticket or pass proving that they have paid the fare. Ticket...
system is in place.
Safety
Passenger safety instructions are inside train carriages above the doors and stations at ticket hall and platforms. These instructions guide to using emergency phones and also include a emergency phone number to traffic center. There is emergency-stop handles at platforms, which are used to stop the train either arriving or departing in cases such as person trapped between doors, or person fallen onto track. There are emergency brake handles inside the carriage next to the door and at both ends of carriage.Especially for people with seeing difficulties, all platforms have a yellow line marking the safe area on platform.
Additionally there are fire extinguishers in trains and stations.
Rolling stock
The trains on the Helsinki Metro are technologically quite similar to trains on the VR commuter rail network, which serves the northern and western suburbs of Helsinki. The rail gaugeRail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
is 5 feet, 1524 mm (European broad gauge), as in all Finnish railway traffic. The electricity used by the metro trains is a 750 volt
Volt
The volt is the SI derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. The volt is named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta , who invented the voltaic pile, possibly the first chemical battery.- Definition :A single volt is defined as the...
direct current
Direct current
Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...
, and it is drawn from an electricity track (also known as third rail
Third rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
) on the side of the metro tracks.
There are currently two different models of Metro Train in service. The M100 series was built by Strömberg
Stromberg
-People:*Lyndon Stromberg, American sculptor and designer*Karl Stromberg, the villain in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me*Joseph R. Stromberg, historian with the Ludwig von Mises Institute*Glenn Strömberg, Swedish soccer player...
in the early 1980s and the newer M200 series was built by Bombardier
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
and has been used since 2001. Even though the system was built in the 1970s and 1980s, it is still modern compared to most other metros in the world.
The normal speed of the metro trains is 70 kilometres per hour (43.5 mph) inside the tunnels and 80 kilometres per hour (49.7 mph) on the open portion of the network. The points
Railroad switch
A railroad switch, turnout or [set of] points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction....
have a maximum structural speed of either 35 kilometres per hour (21.7 mph) or 60 kilometres per hour (37.3 mph).
The depot
Siilitie metro station
Siilitie or Igelkottsvägen is a ground-level bridge station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the northern part of the district of Herttoniemi in East Helsinki....
and Itäkeskus metro station
Itäkeskus metro station
Itäkeskus or Östra centrum is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the Itäkeskus shopping centre and surrounding areas in East Helsinki...
. The depot is connected to the metro line from both the east and western directions, with a third platform at Itäkeskus used for de-training passengers before returning to the depot. Both heated and unheated undercover storage areas are provided so that trains are ready for use without a lengthy heating period.
Behind Roihupelto depot is the metro test track, allowing testing at speeds of up to 100 km/h; the far end of this test-track is connected via a non-electrified 5 km long railway route to the VR
VR Group
VR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland. Formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995...
main line at Oulunkylä railway station
Oulunkylä railway station
Oulunkylä or Åggelby is a railway station in the Oulunkylä district of Helsinki, Finland. It is located between the stations of Käpylä and Pukinmäki, along the main railroad track from Helsinki to Riihimäki, about 7 km north from the Helsinki Central railway station.The station building in...
. Both the metro and mainline share a 1524 mm rail gauge
Rail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
. The access line is mostly along the first half of the old Herttoniemi Harbour railway. Through the area of Viikki
Viikki
Viikki is a neighbourhood of about 5,500 inhabitants in Helsinki, Finland. It is located at the bottom of Vanhankaupunginlahti bay, some 7–10 km from the city centre....
, this single line has street running
Street running
On-street running or street running is when a railroad track or tramway track runs directly along city streets, without any separation. The rails are embedded in the road....
. The Jokeri bus-line makes use of the depot line's railway bridges to cross Vantaa river
Vantaa River
The Vantaa River is a long river in Southern Finland. The river starts from the lake in Hausjärvi and flows into the Gulf of Finland at in Helsinki...
and Finnish national road 4
Finnish national road 4
Finnish national road 4 is a highway in Finland. It is the main route from Helsinki to Northern Finland and a major road link in the country. It runs from Erottaja in Helsinki to Sami Bridge in Utsjoki. The road is long...
.
As of 2008, the new Vuosaari harbour
Vuosaari Harbour
Vuosaari Harbour is a seaport facility in Helsinki, Finland, opened in November 2008....
and its rail link are 2 km from the present end at Vuosaari metro station. When a new metro link line to the VR harbour railway is constructed, the existing depot link will be closed. This section of the route will be released for the light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
-based Jokeri line upgrade, scheduled for 2016 onwards.
The western extension (länsimetro)
Espoo
Espoo is the second largest city and municipality in Finland. The population of the city of Espoo is . It is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area along with the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, and Kauniainen. Espoo shares its eastern border with Helsinki and Vantaa, while enclosing Kauniainen....
in the west and Vantaa
Vantaa
Vantaa is a city and municipality in Finland. Helsinki, Vantaa, Espoo and Kauniainen make up the Helsinki Metropolitan Area.Vantaa, with its population of , is the fourth most populated city of Finland. The biggest airport in Finland, the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, is located there...
and Sipoo
Sipoo
Sipoo is a municipality of Finland. Its seat is in Nikkilä/Nickby.It is the eastern neighbour of Helsinki and is located in the Uusimaa region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of ofwhich is water...
in the northeast. The municipalities themselves are not very supportive of the idea, and especially the extension to southern Espoo (in Finnish, länsimetro
Länsimetro
The Western Metro Extension 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...
, or "western metro") provoked much discussion and political feuding both within Espoo and between the two municipalities. However, according to a poll conducted in 2005, 75% of people in Espoo favoured building the western extension, and in September 2006, the Espoo city council approved the extension.
The construction work started with the excavation work of the tunnels at Ruoholahti in November 2009. Further excavation work started in Lauttasaari and Espoo in May 2010. The extension is expected to be in operation in 2015 at the earliest. (Currently, the metro serves Kamppi
Kamppi
Kamppi is a neighbourhood in the centre of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The name originally referred to a small area known as the "Kamppi field" , but according to the current official designation, "Kamppi" encompasses a much larger area with a population of 10,000 in 2004.The heart of Kamppi...
bus terminal, where the buses via the highway Länsiväylä
Länsiväylä
is a motorway in the Greater Helsinki area of Finland, mainly at the Helsinki conurbation. It is part of the Finnish national road 51. The road begins in Ruoholahti in western Helsinki and continues west through the island of Lauttasaari and then across the city border to Espoo. The Länsiväylä road...
to Espoo leave.)
Other
A second Metro line from LaajasaloLaajasalo
Laajasalo is a group of islands that forms a neighbourhood in southern Helsinki, the capital of Finland. As of 2005, it had a population of 16,486....
via Kamppi
Kamppi metro station
The Kamppi metro station is a station on the Helsinki Metro. In addition to serving the area around Kamppi in central Helsinki, the station is integrated with the Kamppi Center bus terminal and shopping complex....
to Pasila
Pasila
is a suburb in Helsinki, Finland. It is a central-northern neighbourhood, bordering Alppila to the south, Central Park to the west and Vallila to the east....
north of the city centre, and possibly onwards to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport
Helsinki-Vantaa Airport
Helsinki Airport or Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is the main international airport of the Helsinki metropolitan region and the whole of Finland. It is located in Vantaa, Finland, about west of Tikkurila, the centre of Vantaa, and north of Helsinki city centre...
, is also being planned. This is being taken into consideration in city plans and has been discussed by the city assembly, but does not look likely to be constructed before 2020 at the earliest. To prepare for this eventuality, a platform level for a crossing line was already excavated during the original construction of the Kamppi station.
The construction of the Helsinki commuter rail
Helsinki commuter rail
Helsinki commuter rail is the commuter rail system serving Greater Helsinki, Finland. The network is operated by VR, the Finnish national railway company. Together with the Helsinki Metro and trams, the network forms the heart of Helsinki's public transportation infrastructure.Trains run above...
Ring Rail Line, which connects the airport to the rail network, was begun in May 2009. The current plans commissioned by the city recommend the extension of the tram network, instead of the metro, to Laajasalo. Thus, the construction of the second metro line on a Laajasalo-Kamppi-Airport route appears unlikely.
On 17 May 2006 the Helsinki city council decided that the current, manually driven metro trains will be replaced by automatic ones, operated without drivers. Until this is done, expansion of the system will not be possible as new and replacement parts for the current system, built in the 1970s, are increasingly difficult to obtain. The goal is to have the automatic trains running in 2013.
There is a plan to extend the Vuosaari section of the line to the new Vuosaari harbour
Vuosaari Harbour
Vuosaari Harbour is a seaport facility in Helsinki, Finland, opened in November 2008....
(see section The depot above).
A new station is being planned in Roihupelto, between Siilitie
Siilitie metro station
Siilitie or Igelkottsvägen is a ground-level bridge station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the northern part of the district of Herttoniemi in East Helsinki....
and Itäkeskus
Itäkeskus metro station
Itäkeskus or Östra centrum is a ground-level station on the Helsinki Metro. It serves the Itäkeskus shopping centre and surrounding areas in East Helsinki...
, to serve a possible future suburb.
Unused stations
In addition to the metro stations already in operation, forward-looking design has led to extra facilities being constructed in case they are needed in the future.Kamppi/Kampen
- The current metro station lays in an east-west direction. A second metro station was excavated at the same time of construction in 1981. This station is perpendicular (north-south) to the first one and has platforms 100m in length, slightly shorter than those above. Tunnels designed to eventually connect the two sets of lines curve off from the west-end of Kamppi. See also: Helsingin SanomatHelsingin SanomatHelsingin Sanomat is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. In 2008, its daily circulation was 412,421 on weekdays and 468,505 on Sundays...
published side elevation plan and photograph of second level.
Hakaniemi/Hagnäs
- Two station boxes were constructed in Hakaniemi. Intended for future expansion, the second is presently unused.
Kaisaniemi/Kajsaniemi
- A second area exists below the current platforms, with the intention to allow for future expansion.
Munkkivuori/Munkshöjden
- The designers of Finland's first shopping centre were very enthusiastic about the rumoured plans for a metro system all over Helsinki—something that would not appear for another 20 years. Built in 1964, the station does not fit into any future metro lines and is unlikely to be used. The platform area is currently partially littered with building-rubble from more recent construction works in the area and the only visible evidence of the ahead-of-its-time station are a pair of large escalators. The escalators lead down from the main part of the shopping mall to the below-ground area where the ticket office would have been. The entrance to the lower level is behind the strange-shaped photographic shop.
Statistics
According to the Helsinki City TransportHelsinki City Transport
Helsinki City Transport or HKL is the official city-owned public transport company in Helsinki, Finland. It operates the Helsinki metro, Helsinki tram and ferry boat traffic...
(HKL) yearly report for 2003, the metro system had a total of 55.4 million passengers, who travelled a total of 404.1 million kilometres. The total turnover
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
for the metro division of HKL was €16.9 million and it made a profit of €3.8 million.
The Metro is by far the cheapest form of transport in Helsinki to operate, with a cost of only €0.032 per passenger kilometre. The same figure for the second cheapest form - trams - was €0.211.
In 2002, the Metro used 39.8 GWh of electricity, though the figure was rising (from 32.2 GWh in 2001). This equals 0.10 kWh per passenger kilometre, and compares favourably with Helsinki's trams (which used 0.19 kWh per passenger kilometre in 2002).
See also
- Geography of HelsinkiGeography of HelsinkiHelsinki has a total area of 686 km2 . 186 km2 of it is land and 500 km2 of the area is covered with water. It is located at .- Subdivisions :...
- Helsinki Metropolitan Area
- List of Helsinki metro stations
- List of metro systems
- Public transport in HelsinkiPublic transport in HelsinkiPublic transport in Helsinki consists of bus, tram, metro, train, and ferry services. The system is managed by Helsinki Region Transport ....