Minsk Metro

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The Minsk Metro (Belarusian: Мінскае метро, Russian: Минское метро) is a rapid-transit system that serves the capital of Belarus, Minsk. Opened in 1984, it presently consists of 2 lines and 23 stations totaling 27.6 kilometres. In 2005 it carried 800 thousand passengers per day.

Line plan

1 Lines and stations
2 History
3 Operational characteristics
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Lines and stations

#	Name	Opened	Length	Stations
1	Moskovskaya (Московская)	1984	9.5 km	9
2	Avtozavodskaya (Автозаводская)	1990	18.1 km	14
	Total:		27.6km	23

The colours in the table correspond to the colours of the lines in the metro map. Minsk metro currently consists of 2 metro lines: Moskovskaya which was the first to open in 1984 after 8 years of construction, crosses the city from southwest to northeast. The second, Avtozavodskaya Line, opened in 1990, has 14 operating stations and runs from northwest to souteast. The transfer between the two lines is in the city centre.

[edit] History

Traktornyi Zavod - a typical late Soviet composition

During the 1950s-1970s the population of the city soared over a million and designs for a rapid transit system were initially put up during the late 1960s. Construction began on 16 June 1977, and the system was triumphantly opened to the public on 30 June 1984, becoming the ninth metro system in the Soviet Union. The original eight station section has since swelled into a two-line 23 station network consisting of 27.6 kilometres of track.

Belarusian National Motives on Ploshchad Yakuba Kolasa

Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union the construction of Minsk metro went uninterrupted throughout the 1990s (as contrary to other ex-Soviet Metros like Yerevan and Samara, which were frozen due to complete lack of funding). Some experts attribute it to the slow reformation of the Soviet planned economy in Belarus, which turned out to be beneficial for the metro expansion. Currently, station launch dates are ahead of original schedule. Like the final phase of the Avtozavodskaya Line originally planned for 2006, was opened in late 2005. The northern extension of the Moskovskaya Line is scheduled to open in September 2007 instead of the original early 2008.

[edit] Operational characteristics

Kamennaya Gorka - with its "high-tech" design

The city is located on an almost level surface and on very dry soils. As a result, although all of the Minsk Metro stations are under the surface, there are no deep-level stations that are found in most of ex-Soviet cities. Out of the current 23 stations 14 are pillar-spans and 9 are of vaulted type. Like most of the Soviet metro systems, all of the stations are vividly decorated. Some (notably, Nyamiha/Nemiga) exhibit Belarusian national motives, others focus on a more Soviet socialist themes. Although recent years saw more priority on high-tech decorations.

Currently the Avtozavodskaya line is considered to be completed. The Moskovskaya line is extending in both directions with 2 planned stations to the north end, and 3 stations to the south end. From there a third line is planned and when constructed the system will form a typical Soviet triangle layout with six radii intersecting in the city centre.

[edit] See also

List of rapid transit systems

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Minsk Metro

Rapid transit in the former Soviet Union
Metros: Moscow • Saint Petersburg • Kiev • Tbilisi • Baku • Kharkiv • Tashkent • Yerevan • Minsk • Nizhny Novgorod • Novosibirsk • Samara • Yekaterinburg • Dnipropetrovsk • Kazan Metrotrams:Volgograd • Kryvyi Rih Cave railroad: New Athos Under construction: Almaty • Omsk • Chelyabinsk • Krasnoyarsk • Donetsk • Astana