Warsaw Metro

First phase of the planned metro network started in 1938, never completed with the onset of World War II and consequent planned destruction of Warsaw

Plans to build an underground rail system in Warsaw date as far back as 1918, when the idea was first floated after Warsaw regained its status as Poland's capital city. An underground railway system was expected to solve the transport difficulties of the densely built city centre. Proper preliminary planning and boring work were initiated by the Warsaw Tramway Authority in 1925, with construction expected to start in the late 1920s. The Great Depression buried those plans as Poland and the world was gripped by economic hardship.

In 1934, with the election of a new mayor of Warsaw, Stefan Starzyński, work was to resume on the metro. The mayor dusted off the plans from the mid-1920s, and with some minor adjustments, construction of the metro was planned to start by the late 1930s, with a projected finishing date of the first of two projected lines scheduled for the mid-1940s. By then, the subway network was to consist of two lines. Line 1 (north–south line, 7.4 km or 4.6 mi long) was to follow a route similar to the present-day line and was to link the southernmost borough of Mokotów with the city centre and the northern borough of Żoliborz. This line was to be connected with the newly constructed Warszawa Główna railway station and the railway tunnel crossing the city from west to the east. Line 2 (east-west, 6.36 km or 3.95 mi long) was to start beneath the westernmost borough of Wola, proceed along the Chłodna street to the pivotal station beneath the Saxon Square and then further eastwards to the Vistula river escarpment. There, the line was to go overground, cross the river through a newly built bridge and proceed to the easternmost railway station of Warszawa Wschodnia. Altogether, in 35 years, 7 lines were to be built. The works finally started in 1938, but World War II brought an end to the ambitious undertaking. The short trace tunnels made in 1938 serve as a wine cellar today.

The city suffered heavily during World War II. Although the majority of pre-war projects perished during the war, most of the engineers behind their creation survived and returned to their city to take part in its rebirth. However, the new Communist authorities of Poland envisioned a city completely different from what it had been before the war. As the "ideal" communist city, Warsaw was to be decentralized and the need to commute to the city centre reduced. Thus, the Office for the Reconstruction of Warsaw (BOS) commissioned a number of engineers to prepare a project of a fast urban railway (SKM) crossing the city in a deep cutting. Although to a large extent it was to follow the line 1 of the pre-war plans, only the central stations were to be located underground. However, by the end of the decade, the project was cancelled. Instead, in 1948 communist planners developed a different concept with the new SKM morphing into a rapid transit line at a depth of up to 15 metres (49 feet). The suggested north–south direction, with three parallel branches of the same line in the city centre, corresponded to the planned development of the city along the Vistula. The works, however, never started and this project was also abandoned.

In the 1950s, as the Cold War raged on, Soviet strategic plans required that a secure transport link across the river Vistula be built. One of the ways to achieve this was to create a deep metro system in Warsaw (up to 46 m (150 ft) beneath the ground), which would be interlinked with the rail network and could serve as an underground conduit for transporting troops. Plans assumed that the first line (about 11 km or 7 mi long) would lie along a north–south axis, with a branch of the same line crossing the Vistula river in the city centre. The construction works started almost simultaneously at 17 different points on both sides of the river. By 1953 only 771 m (843 yd) of tunnels had been built; after the death of Joseph Stalin and the start of a period of détente, all work was halted under the pretext of technical difficulties. In the following years, only one junction tunnel and one shield-driven tunnel were continued. These works were undertaken experimentally, in order to discover the best driving methods suitable for the ground conditions beneath Warsaw (pliocene clay formations layer spread beneath quaternary soils). Finally, in 1957, all work was halted.

Since 1955, planners returned to the old idea of a shallow metro network. However, the planning phase proceeded at a very slow pace and the economic situation prevented all successive governments from actually starting serious work. Finally, in 1984, the program was approved by the government and the first tunnels built. Lack of funds, technical difficulties, shortage of materials and outdated tunnelling methods meant that the work progressed very slowly, sometimes at a speed no greater than 2 m (6 ft 7 in) per day.

The Metro was opened on 7 April 1995 with a total of 11 stations. The initial line, Line M1, has 21 stations over a route distance of 22.7 km (14.1 mi).

The station names on the M1 line are announced by Ksawery Jasieński.

Annual ridership and number of stations of the Warsaw Metro

London Underground lines

Line	Current stock	Image	Introduced	Driving	Cars per set	Sets	Length (m/ft)	Seats	Capacity
M1	Metrovagonmash (81-717.3/714.3)		1990, 2006	OPO	6	15	115.4/379	260	1200
M1	Metrovagonmash (81-572/573)		1994-1997	OPO	6		115.4/379	260	1200
M1	Metrovagonmash (81-572.2/573.2)		2009	OPO	6	7	115.4/379	260	1200
M1	Alstom (Alstom Metropolis)		2000–2005	OPO	6	18	117.1/384	264	1454
M1	Siemens Mobility (Siemens Inspiro)		2013	OPO	6	35	117.7/386	232	1500
M2
OPO: One Person Operation.

Initially, all of the trains were Russian built. They first arrived in Warsaw in 1990 as a "gift" from the USSR, five years prior to the Metros opening, from the Metrovagonmash plant in Mytishchi near Moscow (model 81-717.3/714.3 - 10 carriages). Subsequent trains arrived from Saint Petersburgs Yegorov Plant in 1994 (81-572/573 - 32 carriages) and additional 18 81-572.1/573.1 carriages in 1997.[13]

In 1998, 108 new carriages were ordered from French Alstom. These were all delivered by 2005[14] (24 were produced in Barcelona and the remainder in Chorzów).[15] In 2006, additional carriages were ordered from Russia, with deliveries taking place up to 2007.

In February 2011, an order was signed with German Siemens for 35 complete trains from their new Inspiro line. A large number of these were to be manufactured in Poland by Newag. The first 5 of these trains were put into service in 2013. However, in November 2013 a fire broke out in one of the carriages and for safety reasons all five were withdrawn from operation until the cause of the fire was determined. Once the investigation was completed the five new Inspiro trains were placed back into service in March 2014.

As of 2020, the majority of the operating rolling stock is Siemens-built (Siemens Inspiro type).

• 
  Nowy Świat-Uniwersytet Station, M2
• 
  Świętokrzyska Station, M2
• 
  Ratusz Arsenał Station, M1
• 
  Dworzec Gdański Station, M1

A map of the Warsaw Metro, showing the north–south Line M1, as well as the planned east–west lines

Two new stations planned from the beginning as completion of the line M1

The first line was a compromise between earlier route proposals further east and west (one of which belonged to the planned Line 4) and as such does not go to some important areas of the city. For example, it does not pass directly under the old town, Warsaws main tourist attraction, which has few public transport links, passing it about 600 metres (2,000 feet) to the west. It also does not directly connect to the central railway station, with the nearest stop being over 400 metres (1,300 feet) to the east (the second line also avoids it, with the closest station about 400 metres (1,300 feet) to the north). Until the opening of the second line in March 2015, the Metro system was confined to the western bank of the Vistula river, thus doing nothing to ease traffic problems on Warsaws bridges, a major bottleneck between the city center and the eastern Praga district. Plans for the third line to Warsaw Chopin Airport have been abandoned for the foreseeable future, with the airport served by a new railway station instead.

Transport planners have suggested that the WKD, a light rail line that runs to the western suburbs, could be integrated with the city's tram system, or be more closely tied to the Metro and a future suburban rail network, or both. The first such plans were prepared in the late 1930s and the railway tunnel running below the city centre was to be shared by both the railways and the metro. In the mid-1990s the WKD, PKP and Warsaw Metro systems were temporarily integrated and Warsaw city travel cards were valid also in the suburban railways. This idea was, however, dropped in 1999 due to financial problems.

• Transport in Poland
• Zarząd Transportu Miejskiego w Warszawie
• List of metro systems

Inline citations

Bibliography

• Various authors (1962). Jan Rossman (ed.). Studia i projekty metra w Warszawie; 1928-1958. Warsaw: Arkady. p. 391.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Warsaw Metro (category)

• Official website
• Construction the second line of Warsaw Metro – official website
• Warsaw at UrbanRail.net
• Warsaw Metro Map
• Warsaw Metro fan site and discussion forum (in Polish)
• pictures of Warsaw Metro (in English and German)
• Stations as Canvas: Painting the Warsaw Metro

Videos

• Television TVPW - The Information Movie about Warsaw Metro system (production: TVPW) (in Polish)
• Television TVPW - Relation of opening the "Słodowiec" station (production: TVPW) (in Polish)
• Television TVPW - The movie about building the metro in Warsaw from the beginning to the end (production: TVPW) (in Polish)
• Television TVPW - The interview with Robert Jaryczewski - the best metro driver of the world in 2008 (production: TVPW) (in Polish)
• Television TVPW - The movie about signaling in metro in Warsaw (production: TVPW) (in Polish)