History
Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, experienced substantial growth during the postwar period when it was the capital of the Armenian SSR. Due to the city's very uneven landscape only an underground system could meet all of the criteria to efficiently move large numbers of people around the city. The first plans for a rapid transit system began to be formed in the late 1960s, under the auspice of Anton Kochinyan, then the 1st secretary of the Communist Party of Armenia. Initially this was centred on a rapid tram system, rather than a full underground metro system. During this time, the Soviet City Engineering Planning Department clearly stated that a Metro system would only be awarded to cities with more than a population of one million, which Yerevan lacked at the start of construction (1972). Nevertheless, all of the tunnels in which the tram lines were to be built were built with a design that would have allowed a potential conversion into a full underground metro system.
By the end of 1978 over 4 km (2.5 miles) of tunnels were already bored through, when the plans were redesigned so that the system would be opened as a full underground metro (although to avoid extra bureaucratic measures the system continued to be officially called "Rapid Tram" right up until its opening).
There is an anecdotal version of how the Soviet rules (more than 1 million, a full Metro system; less than million, a Tram system) were bypassed. Reportedly the Chairman of the Armenian Communist Party, Karen Demirchyan convinced the Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev in the following manner:
| “ | Technical problems with the construction of the Rapid Tram were allowed during planning when calculations were done about perspective passenger traffic. The root of which lies in the hearts of the Armenian people. Each Armenian who lives away from his or her parents must visit them daily. As a result the passenger flow will be at least 1.5 times greater than projected. Moreover the republic is growing and becoming more developed at an increasingly large amount, sooner or later many of the Armenian diaspora (which outnumber those living in the former Armenian SSR) will want to return home. In this case, by 2000 our capital will not have 1.5 million, but 2 million inhabitants. We need Metro! | ” |
In fact, as of 2012, Yerevan has an actual population of just over 1 million.
On 7 March 1981 the system was triumphantly opened, becoming the eighth Soviet Metro system, with a first four station stage of 7.6 kilometres. Since then, the system has grown to a 12.1 km (7.56 miles), 10 station network.
The engineering work was of such high quality that during the 1988 earthquake, which paralyzed the whole republic, although suffering some minor damage, the Metro managed to withstand the earthquake and continued to operate on the next day. However this did put an end to most of the extension projects as all the resources were diverted to reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure elsewhere in Yerevan and Armenia.
On 28 December 1999, the Metro was named after Karen Demirchyan, the man who was responsible for changing the status of the Rapid Tram system into becoming a Metro system, after he was killed two months earlier in a terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament.
N.B Shengavit-Charbakh route is operated as a separate shuttle service.
Read more about this topic: Rapid Transit In Armenia
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