Fathers of the underground

Subway construction is one of the most promising and problematic spheres in urban development. Today, only four Ukrainian cities can boast of such a “promising problem”: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk. Dnipropetrovsk has the world’s smallest subway network, while the one in Donetsk has not been opened because the project has been “frozen” at the construction stage for 10 years. The most successful metro system is in the Ukrainian capital; it works, looks nice, and continues to expand.

The Kyiv Metro is one of the top 10 subway networks in European capitals by the number of lines and stations (3 and 44, respectively); it has 113 escalators and over 58 kilometers of tracks. Its carrying capacity is 42 trains per hour and a passenger turnover of 1,700,000 every 24 hours. The Kyiv authorities expect to add to these achievements in the nearest future. A new metro station, Vyrlytsia, will open on March 8. By 2020 there will be 108 stations, with 5 branch lines and 10 interchange stations. The length of the tracks will total 141.1 kilometers, in other words, 50 kilometers per million residents. By way of comparison, today there are only 21 kilometers of tracks per million Kyivans and over 30 kilometers per million Muscovites. The planned rate of building new metro lines ranges between 1.9 and 4.3 kilometers a year.

Last week the public joint stock company VAT Kriukiv Wagon Works supplied a train of their own manufacture to the Kyiv municipal administration and the Kyiv Metropolitan. It has five subway cars, two end ones and three intermediate. Everything was designed and built in Ukraine. The interior of the new cars is different from the old ones; they are streamlined and smooth, complete with soundproofed double-glazed units. The doors also slide open and close soundlessly outside the car, like on a bus. In addition, every subway car is equipped with air conditioners. The new train will be tested for three to four months at the electrical depots in Darnytsia and Obolon. After the testing is completed and the preliminary results of operation are studied, Poltava’s subway car manufacturers will be able to execute batch orders.

The Kyiv Metropolitan told The Day that the construction of a single metro train costs 27.68 million hryvnias; every intermediate car costs 2.61 million and an end car, 3.05 million. This is an expensive business, not to mention the cost of building an entire metro. The second entrance to Lisova Station cost 10 million hryvnias, and the second exit at Vokzalna Station scheduled for next year will cost 130 million. The cost of launching the new station at Vyrlytsia will be 15 million hryvnias, while the long-suffering Lvivska Brama Station will cost 140 million. The construction of every kilometer of deep subway lines in Kyiv costs 25- 30 million hryvnias and shallow lines, up to 20 million. For example, the 3.5- kilometer line between Kharkivska and Boryspilska stations will cost 667.3 million hryvnias. Metrobud, however, says that this type of project costs twice as much in Moscow, and even more in Europe and the United States. The sum total of capital investments in subway construction in 2002-2014 is 4,231.8 million hryvnias. The funds are allocated partially from municipal and central budgets.

Kyivmetrobud also insists that there is a catastrophic lack of funds. “The customer always owes us 15-30 million hryvnias,” The Day was told at the company press club. “We’re using equipment dating back to the USSR, 70 percent of which is worn out. We cannot raise profitability to a level where we can renovate our equipment, and we buy crucial modern innovations on credit.”

Another problem is geological. Compared to other CIS cities where metros are being constructed, Kyiv has the most unfavorable hydrogeological conditions. Powerful floating strata (a thin mixture of sand and water) begin at a depth of 15- 20 meters. Construction workers have to use special techniques like freezing, caissons, and chemical strengthening of the ground. The ground in Kyiv, together with low temperatures, may have caused the recent accident on the construction site of Demiyivska Station. Last week, for reasons that are still unclear, a wall of the future subway tunnel suddenly crumbled and a hoisting crane together with its operator fell into the pit. As a result, the future metro station was damaged and the residents of Holosiyiv district were left without water, sewage system, heat, telephone, cable television, and Internet service. One possible cause is that the ground froze and water in the sealed reservoir burst.

November 6, 2005, marked the 45th anniversary of the launch of the first section of the Kyiv metro. However, the subway could have appeared years earlier. In 1884 the City Duma spent a long time debating the construction of a railway line in an underground tunnel. The idea was finally rejected. Later, a similar idea was conceived by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, leader of the Ukrainian state, who wanted to make the historic downtown district of Zvirynets into the best one in Kyiv. He also wanted to build a government center with a hetman’s palace, offices and institutes of the Academy of Sciences, a modern, equipped central market, and an appropriate transport network, including underground routes. Owing to well-known historical reasons, these bright prospects never became a reality. Nearly 20 years elapsed before metro construction plans were launched in Kyiv. On July 9, 1936, the Presidium of the Kyiv City Council deliberated a diploma project entitled “Kyiv Metro Layout” by Palazov, a graduate of the Moscow Transport Engineering Institute. The minutes read that the author demonstrated an “able approach to solving one of the aspects of Kyiv’s reconstruction and the organization of city transport, and also effectively developed individual practical aspects of a blueprint for a metro.” For his design the engineer received 1,000 rubles from the city administration. Rumors began circulating about the imminent construction of a metro, and Kyiv began receiving letters from mining experts offering their professional services. For a while the city council replied in the negative, but preliminary construc tion work began in 1938. It was soon cut short by World War II. Kyivmiskbud began building the metro only in August 1949. The first 5.2 kilometer section of the Sviatoshyn-Brovary line, from Vokzalna Station to Dnipro, became operational on Nov. 6, 1960.

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The birthday of the Kyiv metro is Nov. 6, 1960, but the subway could have appeared as early as 1884.

Today there are subways in four Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk, although the one in the miners’ capital has not been opened.

Kyiv is one of the 10 European capital cities with a subway; number of lines and stations: 3 and 44, respectively.

Why does the cost of one kilometer of subway range from 14 to 25-30 million dollars?