Saint Petersburg Metro
Encyclopedia
The Saint Petersburg Metro is the underground railway
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 Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 and Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position...

, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It has been open since November 15, 1955.
Formerly known as the V.I. Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

 Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...

 Leningrad Metropoliten
, the system exhibits many typical Soviet
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....

 designs and features exquisite decorations and artwork
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

 making it one of the most attractive and elegant metros in the world. Due to the city's unique geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, the Saint Petersburg Metro is one of the deepest subway systems in the world and the deepest by the average depth of all the stations. The system's deepest station, Admiralteyskaya
Admiralteyskaya (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Admiralteyskaya is an unfinished station on the Frunzensko-Primorskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. It was designed to relieve congestion at the Nevsky Prospekt and Gostiny Dvor stations, as well as to provide a more direct link to the Hermitage and other notable museums...

, is 105 metres below ground. Serving two and a half million passengers daily, it is also the 12th busiest
Metro systems by annual passenger rides
The most-used metro systems in terms of passenger rides per year:# Tokyo Subway 3.161 billion # Moscow Metro 2.348 billion # Seoul Subway 2.048 billion...

 subway system in the world.

Lines

Colour and iconNameYear of openingLengthNumber of stations
Line 1
(Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya)
1955 29,6 km 19
Line 2
(Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya)
1961 30,1 km 18
Line 3
(Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya)
1967 24,3 km 10
Line 4
(Pravoberezhnaya)
1985 11.1 km 8
Line 5
(Frunzensko-Primorskaya)
2008 14.0 km 9
Total: |110 km 64

Stations

Some of the features of the Saint Petersburg Metro make it stand out amongst others, even those in the former USSR. It is customary to have stations in the centre of a city built very deep, not only to minimise disruption, but also, because of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 threat, they were built to double as bomb shelters, and many old stations do feature provisions such as blast doors and air filters. However, in most cities, the lines become shallow or even begin to run above ground as they reach the city's outer residential districts. However, this is not the case in Saint Petersburg. The difficult geology means that 56 out of 63 stations are at a deep level. The design and architecture went through numerous phases. The original stations were predominantly of the pylon type
Pylon station
The pylon station is a type of deep underground subway station. The basic distinguishing characteristic of the pylon station is the manner of division of the central hall from the station tunnels...

, of which there are 15 stations. Also popular was the column
Deep column station
The deep column station is a type of subway station, consisting of a central hall with two side halls, connected by ring-like passages between a row of columns...

 layout, and there are 16 such stations in the system.

The first stage is exquisitely decorated in the Stalinist Architecture
Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture , also referred to as Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union between 1933, when Boris Iofan's draft for Palace of the Soviets was officially approved, and 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned "excesses" of the past...

 style, but from 1958, Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

's struggle with decorative extras restricted the vivid decorations to simple aestatic themes. During this time a new design called "horizontal lift" became widespread, and 10 stations were built with this layout. The horizontal lift design is a variation of a station with Platform screen doors
Platform screen doors
Platform screen doors and platform edge doors at train or subway stations screen the platform from the train. They are a relatively new addition to many metro systems around the world, with some platform doors retrofitted rather than installed with the metro system itself. They are widely used in...

, and has not been found elsewhere outside Saint Petersburg. However, because the design became unpopular with passengers, and for technical reasons, no stations featuring this design have been built since 1972. From the mid-1970s, a new open "single-vault" design was developed by local engineers and became very popular, not only in Saint Petersburg, but some other cities as well. Known technically as Leningradky Odnosvod
Single-vault station
The single-vault deep underground station is a type of subway station.The construction of a single-vault station consists of a single wide and high underground hall, in which there is only one vault . The first single-vault stations in the USSR were built in Leningrad in 1975: Politekhnicheskaya...

, it remains the most popular of all and there are 16 such stations in the city.
The remaining stations are located virtually on the edge of the city, and one, Devyatkino
Devyatkino
Devyatkino is a station of the Saint Petersburg Metro and St. Petersburg-Kuznechnoye railway. It is the only Metro station located outside the city limits, in Leningrad Oblast....

, is territorially in Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position...

, far away from the harsh underground geology that forms the Neva Delta. The three shallow column
Shallow column station
The shallow column station is a type of construction of subway stations, with the distinguishing feature being an abundance of supplementary supports for the underground cavity...

 stations that are located in the southwestern section of the city and are all on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line
Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line
Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line is the oldest line of the Saint Petersburg Metro, opened in 1955. The original stations are very beautiful and elaborately decorated, especially Avtovo and Narvskaya. The line connects four out of five Saint Petersburg's main railway stations...

. The first one, Avtovo
Avtovo (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Avtovo is a station on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. It was designed by architect Ye.A. Levinson and opened as part of the first Metro line on November 15, 1955....

 is considered to be one of the most beautiful stations in the world and was opened as part of the first stage in 1955, while the other two were built in the late 1970s as typical Moscow-style pillar trispan stations. In addition, there are four termini stations that are on the surface and are located near the lines' connection with the train depots. The city's northern climate means that even here all of the station space is inside an enclosed structure.

History

The first plans for rapid transit in Saint Peterbsurg existed as early as in 1899 and focused on an elevated rail system. However, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 became the country's capital after the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

 and the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

, and for more than a decade the plan was abandoned. However, the idea resurfaced in the late 1930s, following the successful opening of the Moscow Metro
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro is a rapid transit system serving Moscow and the neighbouring town of Krasnogorsk. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the Moscow Metro has 182 stations and its route length is . The system is...

 in 1935. As in Moscow, the excavation of underground structures in Saint Petersburg turned out to be generally difficult because of underground rivers and cavities.

The modern system's history began in 1940 when the construction of a line linking together all of the central rail terminals commenced. Delayed by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the system was opened on 15 November 1955 with the first seven stations (the eighth one, Pushkinskaya
Pushkinskaya (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Pushkinskaya is a station of the Saint Petersburg Metro. Opened on 30 April 1956....

 opened a few months later). These became part of the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line
Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line
Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line is the oldest line of the Saint Petersburg Metro, opened in 1955. The original stations are very beautiful and elaborately decorated, especially Avtovo and Narvskaya. The line connects four out of five Saint Petersburg's main railway stations...

, initially connecting the Moscow Rail Terminal in the city centre with the Kirovsky industrial zone in the southwest. Subsequent extensions included lines under the Neva River
Neva River
The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...

 in 1958, as well as the construction of the Vyborgsky Radius in the mid-1970s to connect the new housing developments in the north. In 1978 the line was extended past the city bounds into the Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position...

.

Construction of the second north-south Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line
Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line
The Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line , is the second oldest line of the Saint Petersburg Metro, opened in 1961. It featured the first cross-platform transfer in the USSR...

 began shortly after the opening of the system; the service between Tekhnologichesky Institut
Tekhnologichesky Institut
Tekhnologichesky Institut is a cross-platform interchange station of the Saint Petersburg Metro. The stations consists of two halls, with both serving located on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line and Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line trains...

 and Park Pobedy
Park Pobedy (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Park Pobedy is a station on the Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. It was opened on April 29, 1961. An above-ground vestibule was designed by A.S. Getskin and V.P. Shuvalova. This station was the first station in the world with Platform screen doors....

 commenced in 1960, and a northerly extension to Gorkovskaya opened in 1963, forming the USSR's first cross-platform transfer station at Tekhnologichesky Institut. The Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya line was subsequently extended towards the city's southern districts in the early 1970s, and to the northern districts throughout the 1980s. The final northerly extension of the line to the Parnas station opened in 2006 following numerous delays.

The third Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line
Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line
The Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line , is a line of the Saint Petersburg Metro, opened in 1967. Since 1994, it has been officially designated as Line 3. It stands out among St. Petersburg metro lines for two reasons — its stations are almost exclusively of "Horizontal Lift" type and it has the...

 was first opened in 1967 and eventually linked Vasilievsky Island
Vasilievsky Island
Vasilyevsky Island is an island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, bordered by the rivers Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva in the south and northeast, and by the Gulf of Finland in the west. Vasilyevsky Island is separated from Dekabristov Island by the Smolenka River...

, the city centre, and the industrial zones on the southeastern bank of the Neva in a series of extensions (1970, 1979, 1981 and 1984). The fourth line, Pravoberezhnaya
Pravoberezhnaya Line
Pravoberezhnaya Line , is a line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. Opened in 1985, it is the shortest line in the system with the stations featuring a modern design...

, was opened in 1985 to serve the new residential districts on the right bank of the Neva before reaching the city centre in 1991 and continuing to the northwest in the late 1990s.

Saint Petersburg's unforgiving geology has frequently hampered attempts by Metro builders. The most notable case took place on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line
Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line
Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line is the oldest line of the Saint Petersburg Metro, opened in 1955. The original stations are very beautiful and elaborately decorated, especially Avtovo and Narvskaya. The line connects four out of five Saint Petersburg's main railway stations...

. While constructing the line in the 1970s, the tunnelers entered an underground cavity of the Neva River
Neva River
The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...

. They managed to complete the tunnel, but in 1995 the tunnel had to be closed and a section of it between Lesnaya and Ploschad Muzhestva flooded. For more than nine years, the northern segment of the line was physically cut off from the rest of the system. A new set of tunnels was built and in June 2004 normal service was restored.

Operation

The Metro is managed by the state municipal company Sankt-Peterburgsky Metropoliten (Saint Petersburg Metropolitan) that was privatised from the Ministry of Rail Services. The Metro was renamed to coincide with the city's name change in the early 1990s. The company employs several thousand men and women in station and track management as well as rolling stock operation and maintenance.

The Metro is financed by the city of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, from passenger fares, and from advertisement space at the stations and on the trains. Metro construction is undertaken by the subsidiary Lenmetrostroy that is financed by the Metro as well as directly by the Ministry of Transportation.

Rolling stock

The rolling stock of the metro is provided by five depots with a total of 1403 cars forming 188 trains. Most of the models are the 81-717/714 that are very common in all ex-Soviet cities. In addition there are older E and Em type trains on the Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line and newer 81-540/541 on the Pravoberezhnaya and Fruzenskaya-Primorskaya Line.

Security

The Metro was originally built as a system that could offer shelter in case of a nuclear attack. Every station is equipped with CCTV surveillance following recent terrorist threats. Until the summer of 2009, all photography and video filming in the Metro required a written permit. However, because of a legal challenge by an amateur photographer, after August 24, 2009, photography without a flash can be done without a permit.

Plans

The Metro has a very large expansion plan for the next half century. The Pravoberezhnaya Line
Pravoberezhnaya Line
Pravoberezhnaya Line , is a line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. Opened in 1985, it is the shortest line in the system with the stations featuring a modern design...

 has split in early 2009, and a new fifth line (Frunzensko-Primorskaya) took the northern (Primorsky) radius away from Pravoberezhnaya and open with a new section (Frunzensky) to the south. A ring line will follow and should be complete by 2025, along with the shortened Pravoberezhnaya Line extending to the northwest under the Gulf of Finland
Gulf of Finland
The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn...

. Other biradial lines will come through the city centre. According to the current plans, the system should double in length by 2050, and given that construction, which was frozen for more than a decade after the financial instability of the 1990s, has now fully been resumed, it is likely that this objective will be met.

The official website of the Saint Petersburg metro claims the opening of 41 new stations, 6 new depots and 71 km of new lines from 2008 to 2020.

At the same time, there are several short and mid-term projects on station upgrades, including escalator replacements and lighting upgrades. The station Gorkovskaya was closed between October 2008 and December 2009 for an upgrade.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK