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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 is some 105 km long (total length varies according to criteria applied) and has 60 stations (average station distance 1770m). Like in Moscow, older stations are elegantly decorated whereas newer stations show a more functional design. The metro works between 6 a.m. and 1 a.m. and trains pass every 95 seconds during rush hour and every 4 minutes the rest of the day.

Due to the geological difficulties (swamp), 54 out of 60 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. Travel time is 32 min for the southern part and 11 for the northern.
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.

The newest line (23.3 km, 13 stations) comes from the eastern side of the river Neva into the city centre. In various stages it was extended towards the northwestern districts and now forms a cross-city line.

30/12/1985: Pl. A. Nevskogo - Prospekt Bolshevikov
01/10/1987: - Ulitsa Dybenko
30/12/1991: - Sadovaya
15/09/1997: - Chkalovskaya
14/01/1999: - Staraya Derevna (Krestovskiy Ostrov opened 3 Sept. 1999)
02/04/2005: - Komendantskiy Prospekt (2.3 km)

Construction of Line 5 (Frunzensko-Primorskaya) began in the 1990's, but was suspended for some years due to financial problems; it is now back under construction. This line will run from Sadovaya towards the south: Zvenigorodskaya (transfer to Pushkinskaya on line 1), Obvodnyi Kanal, Volkovskaya, Bukharestskaya, Mezhdunarodnaya and Prospekt Slavy. The line will be connected to the northern branch of line 4 (Sadovaya - Komendantskiy Prospekt). Next to Sadovaya/Sennaya Pl., a new terminus is therefore being built for Line 4 called Spasskaya.

Spasskaya, Zvenigorodskaya and Volkovskaya stations are scheduled to open in Dec. 2008, with the new line 5 being introduced then.

Admiralteyskaya station was built on line 4 (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 95 seconds during rush hour and every 4 minutes the rest of the day.

- FARES (04/2008)

Single ticket (zheton - token) - 17 roubles

Smart Cards: 10 rides in 7 days - 140 r.; 20 rides in 15 days - 268 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

Kommet Site Reklamnoye Buro

Podzemka Peterburga (Petersburg Underground) - Mikhail Kraynov's large collection of metro maps

ometro.net by Alexey Nevolin

Razmyshleniya o Piterskom Metro

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