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The Kharkov (Kharkiv) Metro (Template:Lang-uk; Template:Lang-ru) is the metro system that serves the city of Kharkov (also known as Kharkiv, Charkow), the second largest city in Ukraine. The metro was the second in Ukraine (after Kiev) and the fifth in the USSR when it opened in 1975.

Lines and Stations

(The colours in the table correspond to the colours of the lines in the Kharkov metro map.)

History

Initial plans for a rapid transit system in Kharkov were made when the city was a capital of the Ukrainian SSR. However, after the capital moved to Kiev in 1934 and Kharkov suffered heavy destruction during World War II, a rapid transit system was dropped from the agenda. In the mid-1960s, the existing mass transit system became too strained, and construction of the metro began in 1968.

Seven years later on August 23, 1975, the first eight-station segment of 10.4 kilometres was put into use. It is claimed that the metro does not have the beautiful and excessive decorations that stations in Moscow and Saint Petersburg Metros show, yet they do make the best of mid-1970s and later styles.

Facts and Numbers

Currently, the Kharkov Metro consists of 3 lines, 28 stations, and 35.4 kilometres of tracks. The stations arranged in a typical Soviet design of a triangle, that is, three radial lines crossing in the city centre. Open from 5:30 in the morning till midnight, it has a daily passenger traffic of over one million passengers.

Because of the city's uneven landscape, the metro stations are located on varying depths. Six of the system's 28 stations are deep level stations and the remaining rest are shallow. Of the former, all but one are pylon type, and the latter are of column type. The shallow stations comprise fourteen pillar-trispans and eight single vaults. Kharkov was the first metro to exhibit the single vault design of the shallow type (see more at the Skhodnenskaya article).

The metro is served by two depots which have a total of 320 carriages forming 59 five-carriage trains (all of the platforms are exactly 100 metres long).

The metro is subordinate to the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine and unlike the Kiev Metro, is not privatised and owned by a municipal company. In August 2005, the Ministry proposed to transfer the metro to the city administration.

See also

• List of rapid transit systems
• Transport in Ukraine

External links

• Official site
• Kharkov Transportny — Popular site with resources and images Template:Ru icon
• Urbanrail — Description
• Subways.net — Description
• Metro soyuza — Photographs Template:De icon/Template:Ru icon
• Kharkov Metro — Unofficial website Template:Ru icon

• Kharkiv Metro