Helsinki Metro (Helsingin metro)

Helsinki Metro (Helsingin metro)

The Helsinki Metro, or in Finnish: Helsingin metro, in Swedish: Helsingfors metro is a rapid transit system serving the Helsinki Capital region, Finland. It is the world's northernmost metro system. It was opened to the general public on 2 August 1982 after 27 years of planning. It is operated by Helsinki City Transport and Metropolitan Area Transport Ltd for Helsinki Regional Transport Authority and carries 92.6 million passengers per year.

The system consists of 2 lines, serving a total of 30 stations. It has a total length of 43 km (26.7 mi). It is the predominant rail link between the suburbs of East Helsinki and the western suburbs in the city of Espoo and downtown Helsinki.

The line passes under Helsinki Central Station, allowing passengers to transfer to and from the Helsinki commuter rail network, including trains on the Ring Rail Line to Helsinki Airport.

Helsinki Metro History

1955–67: Light Rail Plan

The initial motion for building a metropolitan railway system in Helsinki was made in September 1955, though during the five decades beforehand, the idea of a tunneled urban railway for Helsinki had surfaced several times. A suburban traffic committee (Finnish: Esikaupunkiliikenteen suunnittelukomitea) was formed under the leadership of Reino Castrén (1908–1981), and in late 1955, the committee set to work on the issue of whether or not there was truly a need for a tunneled public transport system in Helsinki. After nearly four years of work, the committee presented its findings to the city council. The findings of the committee were clear: Helsinki needed a metro system built on separate right-of-way. This was the first time the term "metro" was used to describe the planned system. At the time the committee did not yet elaborate on what kind of vehicles should be used on the metro: trams, heavier rail vehicles, buses or trolleybuses were all alternatives. The city council's reaction to the committee's presentation was largely apathetic, with several council members stating to the press that they did not understand anything about Castrén's presentation.

1967–69: Heavy Rail Plan

In late 1967, Reino Castrén departed Helsinki for Calcutta, where he had been invited as an expert in public transport. Prior to his departure Castrén indicated he planned to return to Helsinki in six months and continue his work as leader of the metro committee. For the duration of Castrén's absence, Unto Valtanen (1929–1989) was appointed as the leader of the committee. However, by the time Castrén returned, Valtanen's position had been made permanent. Following his appointment Valtanen informed the other members of the committee that the plans made under Castrén's leadership were outdated, and now the metro would be planned as a heavy rail system in deep tunnels mined into bedrock. Following two more years of planning, the Valtanen-led committee's proposal for an initial metro line from Kamppi to Puotila in the east of the city was approved after hours of debate in the city council on the early morning hours of 8 May 1969. The initial section was to be opened for service in 1977.

1969–82: Construction

Construction of a 2.8-kilometre (1.7 mi) testing track from the depot in Roihupelto to Herttoniemi was begun in 1969 and finished in 1971. The first prototype train, units M1 and M2, arrived from the Valmet factory in Tampere on 10 November 1971, with further four units (M3–M6) arriving the following year. Car M1 burned in the metro depot in 1973.

Excavating the metro tunnels under central Helsinki had begun in June 1971. Most of the tunneling work had been completed by 1976, excluding the Kluuvi bruise (Finnish: Kluuvin ruhje), a wedge of clay and pieces of rock in the bedrock, discovered during the excavation process. To build a tunnel through the bruise an unusual solution was developed: the bruise was turned into a giant freezer, with pipes filled with Freon 22 pushed through the clay. The frozen clay was then carefully blasted away, with cast iron tubes installed to create a durable tunnel. Construction of the first stations, Kulosaari and Hakaniemi begun in 1974. The Kulosaari station was the first to be completed, in 1976, but construction of the other stations took longer. As the case with many underground structures in Helsinki, the underground metro stations were designed to also serve as bomb shelters.

1982 Onwards: In Service

On 1 June 1982, the test drives were opened to the general public. Trains ran with passengers during the morning and afternoon rush hours between Itäkeskus and Hakaniemi (the Sörnäinen station was not yet opened at this time). On 1 July the provisional service was extended to Rautatientori. The President of the Republic of Finland Mauno Koivisto officially opened the Metro for traffic on 2 August 1982 – 27 years after the initial motion to the city assembly had been made.

The Metro did not immediately win the approval from inhabitants of eastern Helsinki, whose direct bus links to the city centre had now been turned into feeder lines for the Metro. Within six months of the Metro's official opening, a petition signed by 11,000 people demanded the restoration of direct bus links. Subsequently, the timetables of the feeder services were adjusted and opposition to the Metro mostly died down.

On 1 March 1983, the Metro was extended in the west to Kamppi. The Sörnäinen station, between Hakaniemi and Kulosaari, was opened on 1 September 1984.

The Metro was extended eastwards in the late 1980s, with the Kontula and Myllypuro stations opened in 1986, and the Mellunmäki station following in 1989. The construction of a westwards expansion begun in 1987 with tunneling works from Kamppi towards Ruoholahti. The Ruoholahti metro station was opened on 16 August 1993.

Another new station followed: the Kaisaniemi station, between Rautatientori and Hakaniemi, was opened on 1 March 1995. Its construction had, in fact, been decided on in 1971, and the station cavern had been carved out of the rock during the original tunneling works, but a lack of funds had pushed back the station's completion.

On 31 August 1998, after four years of construction, the final section of the original plan was completed, with the opening of a three-station fork from Itäkeskus to Vuosaari.

The second generation of Metro trains to be used in passenger service (the M200s) were delivered in 2000 and 2001 by Bombardier. These trains are based on Deutsche Bahn's Class 481 EMUs used on the Berlin S-Bahn network.

On 25 September 2006, the city council of Espoo approved, after decades of debate, planning, and controversy, the construction of a western extension of the Metro. Metro trains began to run to Matinkylä in late 2017. (See section The future below.)

On 1 January 2007, Kalasatama station, between the Sörnäinen and Kulosaari stations, was opened. It serves the new "Sörnäistenranta-Hermanninranta" (Eastern Harbour) area, a former port facility redeveloped as its functions were relocated to the new port of Vuosaari in the east of the city.

On 8 November 2009, the Rautatientori station, under the Central Railway Station, was closed due to flooding caused by a burst water main. After renovations, the station reopened for public use on 15 February 2010. The lifts were fully replaced, the new ones opened on 21 June 2010. On 23 August 2019, heavy rain caused the Rautatientori station to close once again due to flooding. The station reopened in a matter of days, but the lifts again took many months to fix, finally reopening on 17 March 2020.

2006 Onwards: The Western Extension

The construction of the Western extension from Ruoholahti to Matinkylä in Espoo was approved by the Espoo city council in 2006. Construction began in 2009 and the extension was opened on 18 November 2017. This first stage of the extension was 14 km (8.7 mi) long, with eight new stations, two in Helsinki and six in Espoo and was built entirely in a tunnel excavated in bedrock.

After first stage of the Western extension opened, the bus lines in Southern Espoo were reconfigured as feeder lines to either Matinkylä or Tapiola metro stations instead of terminating at Kamppi in the centre of Helsinki. After much outcry, four new peak-time lines began running into Kamppi on 22 August 2018.

Before the extension of the metro, trains could be a maximum length of three units (each unit being two cars) but the new stations west of Ruoholahti were built shorter than the existing stations because it was originally planned to introduce driverless operation. The driverless project was cancelled in 2015, but the shorter new stations mean that the maximum train length is reduced to two units, shorter than on the original sections of the metro. To increase capacity, the automatic train protection system theoretically permits headway as short as 90 seconds, if required in the future.

The decision to fund the construction of the second stage, from Matinkylä to Kivenlahti, was taken by the Espoo city council and the state of Finland in 2014. Construction began in late 2014. This stage of extension is 7 km (4.3 mi) long and includes five new stations and a new depot in Sammalvuori. All of the track, including the depot, was built in tunnels. The line opened for passenger traffic on the 3rd of December 2022. As with the first phase to Matinkylä, the feeder lines that used ro run to Matinkylä bus terminal were changed to run to Espoonlahti bus terminal in Lippulaiva shopping centre. Also in common with the first phase, many people were unhappy with the reorganisation of bus lines. Those living in Kivenlahti and Saunalahti, especially, were annoyed at direct bus lines into Kamppi, taking 25-30 minutes, being replaced with feeder lines to Espoonlahti, a transfer to the metro and a half-hour metro ride into the city centre.

Helsinki Metro Network

The Helsinki Metro system consists of 30 stations. The stations are located along a Y shape, where the main part runs from the Matinkylä through the center of the city towards the eastern suburbs. The line forks at the Itäkeskus metro station. 22 of the network's stations are located below ground, all eight of those stations located above ground are in Helsinki.

Trains are generally operated as Kivenlahti–Vuosaari or Tapiola–Mellunmäki with some services running Kivenlahti–Mellunmäki in the early mornings and evenings. The rush-hour frequency of 24tph in the central section between Tapiola and Itäkeskus was reduced to 20tph from August 2022, due to a lack of drivers and rolling stock. All services stop at every station, and the names of the stations are announced in both Finnish and Swedish (with the exceptions of Central Railway Station, University of Helsinki and Aalto University, which are also announced in English).

The metro is designed as a core transport route, which means that extensive feeder bus transport links are provided between the stations and the surrounding districts. Taking a feeder bus to the metro is often the only option to get to the city centre from some districts. For example, since the construction of the metro, all daytime bus routes from the islands of Laajasalo terminate at the Herttoniemi metro station with no through routes from Laajasalo to the centre of Helsinki.

Helsinki Metro Overview

Helsinki Metro Native Name:
Helsingin metro
Helsingfors metro
Helsinki Metro Locale: Helsinki Capital region, Finland
Helsinki Metro Transit Type: Rapid transit
Helsinki Metro Number of Lines: 2
Helsinki Metro Number of Stations: 30
Helsinki Metro Daily Ridership: 304,000 (2017)
Helsinki Metro Annual Ridership: 92.6 million (2019)
Helsinki Metro Began Operation: 2 August 1982
Helsinki Metro Operator(s): Helsinki City Transport and Metropolitan Area Transport Ltd
Helsinki Metro System Length: 43 km (26.7 mi)
Helsinki Metro Track Gauge: 1,522 mm (4 ft 11+29⁄32 in) Broad gauge
Helsinki Metro Electrification: 750 V DC third rail