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 proposed 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 center. 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 were 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 center 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 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 were destroyed during the war, most of the engineers behind their creations 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 center was reduced. Thus, the Office for the Reconstruction of Warsaw (BOS) commissioned several engineers to prepare a project for a fast urban railway (SKM) crossing the city in a deep cutting. Although to a large extent it was to follow 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 center, 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 center. 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, 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 1983, the program was approved by the government and the first tunnels were built. Lack of funds, technical difficulties, shortage of materials and outdated tunneling 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

Line	Current stock	Image	Introduced	Sets	Length (m/ft)	Seats	Capacity
M1	Metrovagonmash (81-717.3/714.3)		1990, 2006	1 (15)	115.26/378.15	260	1200
	Vagonmash (81-572/573)		1994-1997
	Vagonmash (81-572.2/573.2)		2009	3 (7)
	Alstom (Alstom Metropolis 98B)		2000–2005	18	116.74/383.01	264	1454
	Siemens Mobility (Siemens Inspiro)		2013	35	117.7/386	232	1500
M2			2015
M1	Škoda Transportation (Škoda Varsovia)		2022	23 (37)	119.01/390.45
M2

Initially, all of the trains were Russian-built. They first arrived in Warsaw in 1990 as a "gift" from the USSR, five years before the Metro's opening, from the Metrovagonmash plant in Mytishchi near Moscow (model 81-717.3/714.3 - 10 carriages). Subsequent trains arrived from Saint Petersburg's Vagonmash (I. E. Yegorov) Plant in 1994 (81-572/573 - 32 carriages) and an additional 18 81-572.1/573.1 carriages in 1997.[20]

In 1995 the metro began operation with 14 three-car trainsets, with 5 minute intervals between trains during rush hours. With the opening of the Centrum metro stations the trains were extended to four cars and their number was increased to 15.[21]

In 1998, 108 new carriages of the modern Metropolis family were ordered from the French company Alstom, forming 18 six-car trainsets. These were all delivered by 2005[22] (24 were produced in Barcelona and the remainder in the Alstom Konstal plant in Chorzów).[23]

In 2006, additional 30 carriages were ordered from Russia to extend the existing 81-series to the target length of six cars, with deliveries taking place up to 2007.

In 2007 five new russian trains were purchased, with the contract extended to seven in 2009.

In February 2011, an order was signed with German manufacturer Siemens for 35 complete trains from their new Inspiro line. A large number of these were manufactured in Poland by Newag. The first five 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 trains 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.

By 2020, the Siemens Inspiro was the majority of the operating rolling stock.

Originally the 81-series and Alstom Metropolis trains were painted in two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper one white and the lower one red, with a blue bar identifying the M1 line between them. For the Simens Inspiro a livery with a yellow and red stripe under the windows was chosen in order to resemble the color scheme of the surface public transport taken from the flag of Warsaw. Subsequently the older trains have had the blue bar replaced with a yellow one during scheduled refurbishment.[24]

In January 2020, Škoda Transportation was awarded a new contract for 37 new, single-space trains, named the Varsovia. The first EMU arrived in Warsaw on April 25, 2022, in October the first unit entered regular passenger service on the M1 line.[25]

With the delivery of the Škoda Varsovia the obsolete 81-series is being gradually retired, units in good technical condition have been donated for spare parts to Kyiv[26] and Kharkiv,[27] where trains of the type are still common.

• 
  Nowy Świat-Uniwersytet Station, M2
• 
  Świętokrzyska Station, M2
• 
  Ratusz Arsenał Station, M1
• 
  Dworzec Gdański Station, M1
• 
  Płocka Station, M2
• 
  Bemowo Station, M2
• 
  Służew Station, M1
• 
  Stare Bielany 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 are 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, Warsaw's 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 Warsaw's 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 center 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

• Jan Rossman, ed. (1962). 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)