Minsk Metro - History

History

During the 1950s-1970s the population of the city soared over a million and designs for a rapid transit system were initially put up during the late 1960s. Construction began on 16 June 1977, and the system was opened to the public on 30 June 1984, becoming the ninth metro system in the Soviet Union. The original eight station section has since expanded into a two-line 28 station network with 35.5 kilometres of track.

Despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union the construction of Minsk metro continued uninterrupted throughout the 1990s (as opposed to other ex-Soviet Metros like those of Yerevan and Samara, which were halted due to a complete lack of funding). Some experts attribute it to the slow reform of the Soviet planned economy in Belarus, which turned out to be beneficial for the metro expansion. Currently, station launch dates are ahead of original schedule. For example, the final phase of the Avtozavodskaya Line, originally planned for 2006, was opened in late 2005, and similarly the northern extension of the Moskovskaya Line, originally scheduled for 2008, opened on 7 November 2007.