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Sankt Peterburg was the capital of the Russian empire until the Russian Revolution of 1917 when the power of the new Soviet state moved to Moscow. In 1914, the town changed its name from the German Sankt Petersburg into Russian Petrograd, but after Lenin died in 1924 it was renamed into Leningrad. Just before the end of the Soviet period, in 1991, the city's inhabitants decided to go back to its original name Sankt Peter(s)burg. Today the city has 4.7 million inhabitants.

St. Petersburg's Metro has a total length of 110.2 km and 63 stations (average station distance 1900 m). Like in Moscow, older stations are elegantly decorated whereas newer stations show a more functional design.

Due to the geological difficulties (swamp), 57 out of 63 stations were built very deep (30-100 m); the unstable soil in fact caused the collapse of the tunnel between Pl.Muzhestva and Lesnaya.

Some stations on the St. Petersburg Metro boast an interesting feature: to reduce construction costs, the passenger platform is separated from the tracks by steel doors which open simultaneously with the doors of the arriving train, but these doors did not prove so successful, so that later stations were built without them.

After the first metro line was built in Moscow, plans for St. Petersburg were made, following the capital's model. But the first line was not opened until 1955.

This 11 km line between Avtovo and Pl. Vosstaniya linked four of five existing railway stations (the fifth was also linked in 1958). It was further extended on both sides. Today this line is 29.6 km long and has 19 stations.
In 1995 a section of the tunnel between Pl. Muzhestva and Lesnaya collapsed and had to be totally rebuilt. Through service could only be established in June 2004.

15/11/1955: Avtovo - Pl. Vosstaniya
01/06/1958: - Pl. Lenina (under Neva river)
01/06/1966: - Dachnoye (this on-ground station opened after Avtovo. Closed forever in 1977 with the extending of  the line.
22/04/1975: - Lesnaya

The second line runs north-south and is 30.1 km long (18 stations). At the station Tekhnologicheskiy Institut Line 1 and Line 2 provide convenient cross-platform transfer. In Dec 2006 a surface extension on the tracks that lead to depot was added.

29/04/1961: Tekhnologicheskiy Institut - Park Pobedy
01/07/1963: Tekhnologicheskiy Institut - Petrogradskaya
25/12/1969: Park Pobedy - Moskovskaya
25/12/1972: Moskovskaya - Kupchino (transfer station with suburban trains)
06/11/1982: Petrogradskaya - Udelnaya
19/08/1988: Udelnaya - Prospekt Prosveshcheniya
22/12/2006: Prospekt Prosveshcheniya - Parnas

10 stations and 22.5 km long.

Line 4 (8 stations - 11.2 km) comes from the eastern side of the river Neva into the city centre. In various stages it was extended towards the northwestern districts to form a cross-city line, but in March 2009, the northwestern leg was transferred to the new Line 5, so that line 4 now terminates in the city centre in a new station called Spasskaya, located next to Sadovaya/Sennaya Pl.

30/12/1985: Pl. A. Nevskogo - Prospekt Bolshevikov
01/10/1987: Prospekt Bolshevikov - Ulitsa Dybenko
30/12/1991: Pl. A. Nevskogo - Sadovaya
15/09/1997: Sadovaya - Chkalovskaya
14/01/1999: Chkalovskaya - Staraya Derevnya
03/09/1999: Krestovskiy Ostrov added
02/04/2005: Staraya Derevnya - Komendantskiy Prospekt
07/03/2009: Sadovaya - Komendantskiy Prospekt transferred to new Line 5
07/03/2009: Dostoyevskaya - Spasskaya

Construction of Line 5 began in the 1990s, but was suspended for some years due to financial problems; the first stations were brought into service eventually in Dec. 2008. In March 2009, the section Sadovaya - Komendantskiy Prospekt, which was formerly part of Line 4, was incorporated into the new line 5.

8 stations - 16.8 km

15/09/1997: Sadovaya - Chkalovskaya
14/01/1999: Chkalovskaya - Staraya Derevnya
03/09/1999: Krestovskiy Ostrov added
02/04/2005: Staraya Derevnya - Komendantskiy Prospekt
20/12/2008: Volkovskaya - Zvenigorodskaya
07/03/2009: Sadovaya - Komendantskiy Prospekt connected to Line 5

Under construction: southern extension for line 5 plus additional station Obvodnyi Kanal on operating section.

Admiralteyskaya station was built on line 5 (without exits, though) in provision for a future transfer to line 3, but there is no station on line 3 as of yet and its construction is not planned for the near future.

For project details click here (thanks to Yuri Popov)

- OPERATION

The metro works between 5:45 and 24:00 and trains run every 2-3 minutes.

- FARES (2009)

Single ticket (zheton - token) - 20 roubles

Smart Cards: 10 rides in 7 days - 165 r.; 20 rides in 15 days - 315 r.; etc.

The Sankt Petersburg Metropolitan (incl. history and nice pictures)

Metrowalks.ru - The Ultimate Photo Gallery including all St. Petersburg metro stations by Igor Vanin

St. Petersburg Metro at Wikipedia

Podzemka Peterburga by Misha Kraynov

Kommet Site Reklamnoye Buro

ometro.net by Alexey Nevolin

Interesnye Fakty o Piterskom Metro at metro.ru

Mir metro/Metroworld by Aksenov Dmitry

UrbanRail.Net St. Petersburg Metro Gallery (with photos by Werner Huber)

St. Petersburg Metro Gallery by Alexei Bobko

Metrosoyuza - Underground Stations - Peter Donn's site includes excellent pictures of most stations

Andrey Surikov's METROSTROY site

St. Petersburg Metro Projects (thanks to Yuri Popov)

St. Petersburg Metro Track Map

© All pictures courtesy of Andrey Zalmanov (Peterburgskiy Metropoliten) - More photos here and here