Rafał Trzaskowski, President of Warsaw, introduced today the future of Warsaw Metro.
The first now line would link the Stadion Narodowy to Żwirki i Wigury as the Metro III (last year the project was to link the Dworzec Zachodni to Gocław), Myśliborska to Wilanów as Metro IV and Ursus Niedźwiadek to Gocławek as the Metro V. The Metro I would get one more station on the Plac Konstitucji and the Metro II would be extended to Marymont and Ursus Niedźwiadek. This network will offer 103 km divided into 103 metro stations.
Warsaw Metro History
The Warsaw Metro comes from very far. Everything started in 1918 when Warsaw regained its capital status. The first works were carried out by the Warsaw Tramway Authority in 1925.
The tramway was already well-developed in Warsaw with more than 60 km, but the metro was a necessity because of the density of the Capital, vs. 3500p/km2 now). Unfortunately, the Great Depression buried the project.
In 1934, with the newly elected President of Warsaw, Stefan Starzyński, the original plan was reused, and minor changes were made. The first two projects metro lines were scheduled for the mid-1940s.
The Metro I (North/South line) with 7.4 km started from the North of Żoliborz and to end up in the South of Mokotów.
The Metro II (East/West) with 6.36 km was to start in the west part of Wola, to Chłodna street, the Park Saski and then further eastwards to the Vistula river escarpment. A bridge was to be built and end up in the easternmost railway station of Warszawa Wschodnia.
The master plan was the construction of 7 metro lines in 35 years. The works started in 1938, but WWII destroyed all the plans…
There are still remains of one of the tunnels made in 1938!
Despite almost the total destruction of Warsaw, the major part of the engineers behind the construction of the metro survived. In the 1950s Soviet strategic plans required a secure transport link across the Vistula. One of the projects was to build a deep metro system (up to 46 m underground metro) interlinked with the rail network, that could serve as underground tunnels for transporting troops. The Metro I was to be 11 km with a (North/South line).
The works started in 1953 in 17 different parts of Warsaw but after the death of Stalin, the works stopped. Some parts continued slowly, but everything stopped in 1957.
In 1982, the engineers came back to the former plan (1934) and in 1984 the plan was approved by the government and the first tunnel was built. But for years lack of funds, technical difficulties and very outdated material perpetually postponed the opening of the Metro.
But on April 7th, 1995, 11 stations of the Metro I were inaugurated from Kabaty to Politechnika.
Since then, this line was constantly extended with the construction of Centrum metro station in 1998. Ratusz Arsenal in May 2001, Dworzec Gdański in December 2003, Plac Wilsona to Zoliborz in April 2005, Marymont in December 2006, Słodowiec in April 2008, Młociny in October 2008.
The second metro line between Rondo Daszyńskiego and Dworzec Wileński was opened on March 8th, 2015, before a multi-stage extension with the opening of the Księcia Janusza – Trocka line on April 4th, 2020.
The M1 still has two stations still not built, included in the original project between Metro Politechnika and Centrum and between Ratusz Arsenał and Dworzec Gdański, initially planned for 2009. The first one is planned for the next decade, Plac Konstitucji.
The M2 line extension is still on the way and will eventually connect Połczyńska to Bródno and Marymont to Ursus Niedźwiadek according to the new draft.
Beautiful Warszawa 