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Bulgaria's capital has 1.3 million inhabitants and lies in the west of the country.

Due to ever increasing road traffic and a series of dormitory towns on the outskirts of the city traffic problems got worse in the old city centre where roads are narrow. Therefore the Bulgarian government approved a master plan for the construction of a metro system following the three-diameter structure, with a total length of the lines estimated at 52 km. There will be 47 stations and the network will be able to carry more than 1 million people a day. The first line runs from Obelya through Lyulin to the city centre and from there to Mladost. All three lines will eventually form a downtown triangle, marked by the St. Nedelya Square, the Kliment Ohridski University and the National Palace of Culture. The first line opened after some 20 years of construction work on Jan. 28, 1998, with through operation from Obelya to Mladost finally starting in Sept. 2009.

Average distance between stations is 1100 m; platform length - 120 m; operational speed of the trains is 90km/h; minimum interval between trains - 90 sec; track gauge - 1435 mm; power supply - third rail at 825 V DC.

Total length (2009) - 18 km, 14 stations

28 Jan 1998 - Slivnitsa - Konstantin Velichkov (6.4 km)
17 Sept 1999 - Konstantin Velichkov - Opalchenska
31 Oct 2000 - Serdika - Opalchenska
20 Apr 2003 - Slivnitsa - Obelya (1.8 km)
08 May 2009 - Vasil Levski Stadium - Mladost 1 (5.6 km)
08 Sept 2009 - Serdika - Vasil Levski Stadium

 Projects

Line 1 is being extended towards the southeast.

Later the line will be extended further south and a branch towards the airport will be added. The first section of the airport branch has been under construction since Feb 2009.

The second line will link Lozenets with Ilientsi via the city centre (18 km and 15 stations). There are two stations already constructed - NDK (National Palace Of Culture) and Museum of the Earth and People (HEMUS) - with all the tunnelling and station work done in the 1980s. A branch will create a link to the Line 1 terminus at Obelya. Construction of the 6.4 km section between Nadezhda and Lozenets started in Dec. 2008.

The third line will run from Kniazhevo to the Poduene and Vassil Levski residential districts.

Detailed geographical map with Line 1 & 2

- OPERATION

The Sofia metro runs from 05:00 until 24:00, every 4 minutes during peak hours, and every 8 minutes during normal daytime hours. A ride takes now 25 minutes approx

- FARES

Single - 1 BGN

(1) Musagenitsa; (2) Vardar © St. Mitrev; (3)(4) Construction near Interpred 2005 © Wolfgang Niebel

Metropolitan of Sofia (Oficial Site)

Sofia Metro at Wikipedia

Valentin Mladenov's Sofia Metro Site

Transport and Metro Info from City Server