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The
_** Kyiv Metro[a] is a rapid transit system in Kyiv, Ukraine, owned by the Kyiv City Council and operated by the city-owned company Kyivskyi Metropoliten.[3][4] It was initially opened on 6 November 1960, as a single 5.24 km (3.26 mi) line with five stations. It was the first rapid transit system in Ukraine, and the third in the former Soviet Union, after the Moscow Metro and Leningrad Metro. It is one of the three metro systems in Ukraine, together with Kharkiv Metro and Dnipro Metro.
Today, the system consists of three lines and 52 stations, located throughout Kyiv's ten raion (districts), and operates 69.6 kilometers (43.2 mi) of routes, with 67.6 km (42.00 mi) used for revenue service and 2.048 km (1.27 mi) for non-revenue service.[1][2] At 105.5 m (346 ft 1.5 in) below ground level, Arsenalna station on the Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line is the second deepest metro station in the world after Hongyancun station in Chongqing, China.[5]
In 2016, annual ridership for the metro was 484.56 million passengers, or about 1.32 million passengers daily.[1][2] The metro accounted for 46.7% of Kyiv's public transport load in 2014.[6]
There are also Kyiv Light Rail (rapid tram) and Kyiv Urban Electric Train (commuter rail), which are not parts of Kyiv Metro and are run by different companies (Kyivpastrans and Ukrainian Railways respectively). The first idea for an underground railway appeared in 1884. The project, which was given for analysis to the city council by the director of the Southwestern railways, Dmytro Andrievskiy, planned to create tunnels from Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station. The tunnel was expected to start near Poshtova square and finish near Bessarabka. A new railway station was to be built there, while the old railway station was to be converted into a freight railway station. The project was long discussed but eventually turned down by the city council.[7]
Kyiv was a pioneering city for Imperial Russian rapid transit, opening the first Russian tram system. In September 1916, businessmen of the Russo-American trading corporation attempted to collect funds to sponsor the construction of a metro in Kyiv. As a reason to construct it, the trading corporation wrote:
The development has been lately going at a fast pace, not only when talking about population growth, but as well while talking about the development of trade and industry businesses. The specifics of Kyiv, namely: the distance between the residential districts from the central business district, the insane price of the apartments in the centre and its neighbourhoods, the elongation and hilly position of the city, a predominantly commercial habit of its inhabitants - all those factors make the question of cheap, fast and safe transportation arise. The Kyiv city tram can't answer any of the issues. The tram's drawbacks are widely known, and the reason they appear is that, in the given conditions, the tram network development is not able to keep pace with the fast-growing city. An increase in rolling stock on the main lines may cause a slowdown in street movement, while an increase in speed threatens the safety of people. The only way out of the situation is the transfer from on-ground trams to underground trams, starting from the main streets.
— The Russian-American trading corporation, Kievlyanin, 24 Sep 1916 (O. S.)Despite the arguments, the project was not accepted by the city council, again.
