Ukraine has very extensive Metro transportation system. It's the most efficient and vital Metro in whole of Eastern Europe because it is absolutely necessary, without it country would get paralyzed, and carries out transportation of 3 million passangers daily.

Ukraine has active subway in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Underground-Rail in Kriwij-Rij and under construction Subway of Donetsk.

Kyiv Metropoliten is a system of active arteries of the capital. Today it accounts for 45 fully operated stations and nine more are being developed and constructed as we speak.

http://img32.exs.cx/img32/5187/kyiv-map.gif

I am copying this from my "Kyiv - Construction Boom" thread where Metro was mentioned as well:

Design of Metro stations in Kyiv Metro varies exetremely one from another. Although there are some standard types such as "sorokonozhka" which is just plain panel with quadratic columns.

http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/Kreshatik3.jpg

This is Universitet Station which is right under a University. As you can see there are busts of famous people such as Shevchenko and Pushkin. This is a very old station, more than 40 years old.
http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/Univer1.jpg

http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/Univer2.jpg

My station Zolota Brama (Golden Gates) is located under a historic Golden Gates reconstruction, which are gates that were there 1000 years ago and defended Kyiv and Europe as whole from asian invaders. It was built 15 years ago.
http://www.metropoliten.kiev.ua/photos/stations/gold.jpg

Zhitomirska Station opened just a year ago. On this picture it is still not completely furbished. Although you can see the plasma-tv there which are now being installed on every single station for entertainment and commercial.
http://urbanrail.net/eu/kie/zhitomirska2.jpg

Republican Stadium station
http://www.metropoliten.kiev.ua/photos/stations/stad-87.jpg

Slavutych Station represents the simplest design. Opened in 1992.
http://www.metropoliten.kiev.ua/photos/stations/slav.jpg

Minsk Station, named in honor of Belarusian capital city.
http://www.metropoliten.kiev.ua/photos/stations/minsk.jpg

All pictures taken from Unofficial Site of Kyiv-Metro fans www.metropoliten.kiev.ua

http://www.metropoliten.kiev.ua/photos/stations/akadem-logo.jpg

http://www.metropoliten.kiev.ua/photos/stations/dorogo.jpg

Each station is constructed by it's unique design, a competition of designers selects best version and adopts. Some resemble Kyiv's glorious 1500 years old past and other's symbolize the present and the future.
http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/Pecherskaya1.jpg

http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/Pecherskaya2.jpg

http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/Dorogogichi2.jpg

http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/PlTolstogo1.jpg

Many tourists consider visiting Kyiv's Underground a "must-see". It is believed to symbolize our capital in it's modern developed form yet with a distinguished past.

http://www.metro.kiev.ua/images/PlTolstogo2.jpg

Dnipropetrovsk

Has so far the youngest Metropoliten in the whole country. It has opened in 1995 and is now developing further. Station designs are simpler than in the Capital yet are clean, bright and effective:

http://i.alkar.net/gorod/photo/metro/met2.jpg

http://i.alkar.net/gorod/photo/metro/vokzalna.jpg

http://i.alkar.net/gorod/photo/metro/zavodska.jpg

http://i.alkar.net/gorod/photo/metro/metalurgiv.jpg

Kharkiv

Which is a huge city with population over a million (there is a thread here with pics of it somewhere, if desire arises to see those, it may be easily found).

Metro of Kharkiv is very extensive and altogether comprises three fully operated lines and the fourth one is in the plannings as well. Last than a month ago 2 new stations opened up in Kharkiv.

http://meet040821.chat.ru/23Aug/image002.jpg

http://www.vostok.net/img/kharkov/foto/013.jpg

http://www.metro.kharkov.ua/Images/Pic_Big/istor_musey.jpg

http://www.metro.kharkov.ua/Images/Pic_Big/barabashova.jpg

http://www.metro.kharkov.ua/Images/Pic_Big/sovetskoy_armii.jpg

http://www.metro.kharkov.ua/Images/Pic_Big/xtz.jpg

http://www.metro.kharkov.ua/Images/Pic_Big/pl_vosstaniya.jpg

http://www.metro.kharkov.ua/Images/Pic_Big/gosprom.jpg

Krywij-Rig

Has an underground transportation which is not always accepted as Metro. Even though it is underground, these are underground-trams.
It's also very controversial in Ukraine and whole world. This city has population of only 700,000 and according to Ukrainiam legislation only a city with over a million population can ask for a Metro. This is also common all over the world.

http://urbanrail.net/eu/kry/krivy-rih-metalurgiv1.jpg

http://urbanrail.net/eu/kry/artema_2.jpeg

http://urbanrail.net/eu/kry/schem.jpeg

P.S. Pay attention to name of the cities, these are not all Metro from Kyiv but 4 different cities.

If any additional confusion arises, those are not pictures of every station :)

Wow, I had no idea Kiev had such a beautiful metro! They look like the ones in Moscow. How long does it take for the subway system and stations to be built? It sounds like the Ukraine is modernizing their system or expanding.

Wow, I had no idea Kiev had such a beautiful metro! They look like the ones in Moscow. How long does it take for the subway system and stations to be built? It sounds like the Ukraine is modernizing their system or expanding.

On average with full funding it takes a year to build 2 stations. So long because it's very difficult constructing metro in Kyiv since the city is situated on hills and therefore the Metro is extremely deep (100m below) which is the deepest underground transport in the world. Design is often changed right during the construction, which is a common practice in Ukraine today.

Ukraine is modernizing the system and also constantly expanding. Construction never stops in Kyiv, although there are constant (unfortunately) breaks in the funding for Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk.

You've noticed correctly that some stations in Kyiv Underground look similar to the underground palaces of Moscow.

Great stuff! Wish there were higher-quality shots tho.
In Kiev the metro functions just like in Moscow. You get carts coming in and out of the station every 15 seconds in rush hour, and in normal hours you get a cart every 30 seconds.

Great stuff! Wish there were higher-quality shots tho.
In Kiev the metro functions just like in Moscow. You get carts coming in and out of the station every 15 seconds in rush hour, and in normal hours you get a cart every 30 seconds.

Thanks. I'll try locating better quality shots.

Pan Barvinok thank you for posting such wonderful and educational post about the metro in Ukraine. Even though I myself find metro of St-Petersburg and Moscow to be slightly superior I find them to be very similar in cleanliness and eye candy. The same can't be said about the subway in my current residence in the village of Brooklyn.

Kiev has some extremely beautiful subway stations. The metro system also seems to be very thorough, in that it has many lines going in all directions of the city.

nice, got that russian feel to it from the days of the ussr.

wow
these are quite nice subway stations....

diverse,
old but elegant,
and some are modern and nice

very extense metro system (subway)

I wish I could visit the eastern Europe very soon :)

wow i had no idea Ukraine had such beautiful subway stations.
I had no idea anywhere in the world had such beautiful subway stations. Im so used to the regular boring gray concrete box with white lights....sigh.

Could anyone paste some photos of Kievian Fast Tram?

The fast-tram of Kyiv
They are never intercepted by a road, any type of crossing, therefore they are able to travel at full speed.
http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/kie/kyiv-fast-tram2.jpg


This is the inside of the Kyiv's metro-cars(wagons).

http://www.metropoliten.kiev.ua/gallery/albums/userpics/10008/P3190013.JPG

The fast-tram of Kyiv
This is the inside of the Kyiv's metro-cars(wagons).


May I point out that the pic you showed is an 817.17/.14 series car (I think I got that right) built 1973-present.
The E -series cars with various mods (built 1963-70, undergone at least 2 full rehabs), which once looked like this:
http://metropoliten.kiev.ua/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/6.jpg
may soon look like this (still a prototype):

http://metropoliten.kiev.ua/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/VAGON1.JPG
http://metropoliten.kiev.ua/gallery/albums/userpics/10005/VAGON2.JPG
All pictures taken from http://metropoliten.kiev.ua/


The fast-tram of Kyiv
They are never intercepted by a road, any type of crossing, therefore they are able to travel at full speed.


I lived at the outer terminus of this tram (#1) from '91 to '95. Let me say that the service was horrible. The cars were overcrowded, the headways were unbearable, etc. Now there's talk about modernizing the tram and even modernizing the Tatra T3 cars into modern-looking 3-part articulated trains with a middle low-floor section. This is still only a project. I don't know about funding, or whatnot.

http://www.ivdenis.nm.ru/1.jpg
http://www.ivdenis.nm.ru/2.jpg
http://www.ivdenis.nm.ru/3.jpg

A few weeks earlier - still unassembled. These pics predate those above:
http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/1.jpg - back view
http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/2.jpg - back view
http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/3.jpg - inside
http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/4.jpg - windshield
http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/5.jpg - front headlights
http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/6.jpg - low-floor section http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/7.jpg - inside
http://www.komitet.kiev.ua/brno/8.jpg

I was in Kyiv in 96 and 97 and there was this one station we went to where the escalator ride took forever. I read somewhere that they could double as bomb shelters if needed thats why they were built so deep. It was a great system though.

I had no idea it is so deep! What about the access? Lifts,escalators?

Some wonderful stations there, thanks for the info and photo's.

I had no idea it is so deep! What about the access? Lifts,escalators?
Deep-level stations all have escalators (usually 4 per exit). Not-so-deep stations don't have escalators. The system, just as all other ex-Soviet systems, don't have elevators, and are not accessible to people with disabilities.

Great pics. Ex-Soviet metro systems are usually very beautiful!

Makes me want to go there, if only to see the Metro !

Looks nice.

Those are amazing stations, I'm jealous.

AMAZING! oppulent! I am so jealous. Almost as good as Moscow

It is great to see the metro expanded in such a significant way. I visited in 1987 and it was not anywhere near this extensive.

You really have a beautiful city and country. I hope your people find peace, they deserve it.

Awesome stations. With a little luck and a few billion dollars, maybe Miami will get to have a few cool subway stations like that someday ;)

Why don't any of the stations have elevators? It would seem that compared to the cost of mining out a whole station and boring tunnels for the escalators, the cost of boring one last shaft for at least one elevator wouldn't be any big deal...

Then again... at least they have escalators. Unlike, say, Chicago. When I went to Chicago, I thought I was going to die hauling my (70 pound) suitcase up and down multiple flights of (steep!) stairs to transfer from the blue line (airport) to the red line (to my hotel), and to get up to the street at the end. I didn't even think it was legal (post-ADA) to have subway stations like that in the US anymore...

Why don't any of the stations have elevators? It would seem that compared to the cost of mining out a whole station and boring tunnels for the escalators, the cost of boring one last shaft for at least one elevator wouldn't be any big deal...
A plan, a profile and a cross-section of a deep level pylon`s station. There is no possibility to add an elevator on most deep level stations.
http://www.mymetro.ru/img/5/3/1.jpg

Like other former-USSR metros, very elegant and nice. :)

Preserve it like in the photos!!!!

Why don't any of the stations have elevators? It would seem that compared to the cost of mining out a whole station and boring tunnels for the escalators, the cost of boring one last shaft for at least one elevator wouldn't be any big deal...
Escalators are better than elevators as they carry much larger amount of ppl.

I think I actually like some of those stations more than the Moscow stations because they look a bit newer, cleaner, and brighter. However, I have to admit, they aren't quite as over the top either.

wow..beautiful!! i love it

Very nice. That fast tram looks cool too. Something that big cities all over the world should think of. Reduce car traffic and use tram, light-rail, subways and trains. Electric cars too :) We need to protect our blue world.

@Per_Stanislav
Thanks for sharing those phantastic photos of Kiev!


I had no idea anywhere in the world had such beautiful subway stations. Im so used to the regular boring gray concrete box with white lights....sigh.
Here's a collection of cities with the most beautiful subway stations around the world:

http://mic-ro.com/metro/metroart.html