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Samara Metro (Russian: Сама́рский Метрополите́н), formerlly known as the Kuibyshev Metro (Куйбешевское Метро), is a rapid transit system which serves the city of Samara, Russia. Opened in 1987, it consists of 8 stations and is 10.3 km long.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Timeline 2 Operation 3 Picture gallery 4 See also 5 External links

The city of Samara (known during Soviet times as Kuibyshev) is situated at the confluence of the Samara and Volga Rivers. Being an important junction of several waterways and railways, the city grew rapidly during the 20th century simulataneosly becoming an important industrial centre. In the late 1970s its population exceeded a million passing the legal Soviet requirement to begin developing a ripid-transit system.

The design plan for Kuibyshev was based on the standard Soviet triangle arrangement, but with provisions to suit the dynamics of Kuibyshev, whose business, commercial and historical centre is situated on the edge, on the bank of the Volga River. Whilst the edges of the city were located with industrial zones and Soviet bedroom rayons. Most of the central regions (the geographical centre) between the areas were flats built primarily for the workers. It was also the central area which experienced the most concentrated congestion.

In the finalised plan, the first stage was to pass under this central artery and then expand westwards towards following the bank of the Volga around the commercial zone and eventually terminating at the city's central railway terminal. Construction begain in 1980, on the first four station stretch totalling 4.5 km. On December 25, 1987 the system was triumphantly opened to the public becoming the fifth such in Russia and the twelfth of the former Soviet Union.

Immediately after the opening of the first stage, which despite its modest size (compared to other Soviet systems) the Metro was overladden with passengers. Construction of the second stage began shortly however, this was slowed down with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the chaotic economic hardships that followed. Originally schedualed to open in 1991, the next three station 4.5 km segment opened slowly, one station at a time from December 1992 to December 1993.

Despite the economic stagnation, the system manage to grow to length that allowed it to carry out its major transport role, unlike the ill-fated Nizhny Novgorod and Yerevan Metros throughout the 1990s.

Construction on the third planned stage, originally destined for 1995 began at that time, but because of constant offsets was extreamely slow, and in the end had to be cut back a station. The remaing part was opened in December 2002, however as the layout was not changed it had no provisions to reverse trains, and thus a separate shuttle service had to be introduced.

	Samara Metro
								Vokzalnaya
								Teatralnaya
								Samarskaya
								Alabinskaya
								Rossiyskaya
								Moskovskaya
								Gagarinskaya
								Sportivnaya
								Sovetskaya
								Pobeda
								Bezymyanka
								Kirovskaya
								Yungorodok
								Krylya Sovetov
	edit

Segment	Date opened	Length
Yungorodok-Pobeda	December 26, 1987	4.5 km
Pobeda - Sovetskaya	December 31, 1992	1.6 km
Sovetskaya-Sportivnaya	March 25, 1993	1.4 km
Sportivnaya-Gagarinskaya	December 30, 1993	1.5 km
Gagarinskaya-Moskovskaya	December 12, 2002	1.3 km
Total:	8 stations	10.3 km

The system is served by the Kirovskoye Depot which provides

Yungorodok station	Kirovskaya station	Bezymyanka station	Pobeda station
Sovetskaya station	Sportivnaya station	Gagarinskaya station	Moskovskaya station

• List of rapid transit systems

• (Russian)/(English) Samara metro page)
• (English) Metro of Samara on Urbanrail.net

Rapid transit in the former Soviet Union
Metros: Moscow • Saint Petersburg • Kiev • Tbilisi • Baku • Kharkiv • Tashkent • Yerevan • Minsk • Nizhny Novgorod • Novosibirsk • Samara • Yekaterinburg • Dnipropetrovsk • Kazan Metrotrams:Volgograd • Kryvyi Rih Cave railroad: New Athos Under construction: Almaty • Omsk • Chelyabinsk • Krasnoyarsk • Donetsk