Kiev Passenger Railway Station
Encyclopedia
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Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
's Central Station and adjoining "Southern Station," plus the adjacent Suburban Station, together serving more than 170,000 passengers per day (as of 2005). "Southern Station" is a misnomer in virtually universal usage in Kiev, referring to an entrance on the other side of the tracks from Central Station. The station complex thus provides long-distance and international services, and short-distance service (elektrichka
Elektrichka
Elektrichka is an informal word for elektropoyezd , a Soviet or post-Soviet regional electrical multiple unit passenger train. Elektrichkas are widespread in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union....
) for suburbs (including dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...
areas), minor city stations, and nearby regions. The Kiev Metro
Kiev Metro
The Kiev Metro is a metro system that is the mainstay of Kiev's public transport. It was the first rapid transit system in Ukraine and the third one built in the USSR . It now has three lines with a total length of 63.7 kilometres and 49 stations...
station Vokzalna
Vokzalna (Kiev Metro)
Vokzalna is a station on Kiev Metro's Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line. The station was opened along with the Metro on the 6 November 1960, and is named after Kiev's Central rail station and is the metro stop for those using the train....
is adjoining the complex, constituting the station's main intersection with city transport. The Kiev tram
Kiev tram
The Kiev Tramway is a tram network which serves the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The system was the first electric tramway in the former Russian Empire and the third one in Europe after the Berlin Straßenbahn and the Budapest tramway. The system currently consists of 139.9 km of track, including...
terminal Starovokzal'na (the terminal for Kiev's High-Speed Tram line) is also adjacent via a passageway.
History and architecture
The old Kiev railroad station was constructed during 1868-1870, as a part of Kiev-BaltaBalta
-Places:*Balta, Shetland, an island in Scotland*Balta Sound, a sound on the east coast of the island of Unst in the Shetland Islands, Scotland*Bâlta, a village in the town of Filiaşi, Dolj County, Romania*Bâlta, a village in Runcu, Gorj, Romania...
and Kiev-Kursk
Kursk
Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...
railroad constructions, which were also completed in 1870. The station was located in a valley of Lybid’ river, replacing soldiers' and gendarmes' settlements. The two-floor brick station building of Old English Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style was by the architect М. V. Vyshnevetskyi.
The current Central Station building was constructed in 1927-1932 and designed by O. Verbytskyi. It was built in the style of Ukrainian Baroque
Ukrainian Baroque
Ukrainian Baroque or Cossack Baroque is an architectural style that emerged in Ukraine during the Hetmanate era, in the 17th and 18th centuries....
with some elements of Constructivism
Constructivism (art)
Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...
.
In 2001, the building was restored to roughly its original state. In the same year, the new modern "Southern Station" building was erected at the opposite side of Central Station's sixteen tracks, being in reality not a separate station but merely another large entranceway to the Central Station, with new ticket windows and linked by a hallway above the track accesses. The renovation project also included two large underground parking structure
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
s, one of which remains uncompleted to the date.
Name disambiguation
Officially, Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi Railway Station is regarded as the whole huge complex of passenger terminals, railways, depots etc. with respective personnel. Practically, such installations in post-SovietSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
countries are widely known as railroad vokzals, which means the building(s) and services immediately serving passengers for various types of transport. The official name Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi is not used colloquially, appearing only in tickets, schedules etc. By the same token, the locally popular terms "Central Station" and "Southern Station" do not appear in such technical literature, as for internal purposes they are treated as the same location.
Development plans
Currently the station is severely overloaded with suburban traffic, intercity traffic (especially during the height of winter and summer holidays), and also subwayKiev Metro
The Kiev Metro is a metro system that is the mainstay of Kiev's public transport. It was the first rapid transit system in Ukraine and the third one built in the USSR . It now has three lines with a total length of 63.7 kilometres and 49 stations...
traffic (in daily rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
s). Relief plans include:
- Upgrading Darnytsia stationDarnytsia Railway StationUkrzaliznytsia's Darnytsia Railway Station is the largest railroad station of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, located in the Left-bank Darnytsia area....
to make it a second long-distance passenger station, serving the Left-Bank of the city (including new sleeping carSleeping carThe sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...
maintenance facilityMotive power depotMotive power depot, usually abbreviated to MPD, is a name given to places where locomotives are stored when not being used, and also repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds", or, for short, just sheds. Facilities are provided for refuelling and...
.) - Construction of a second surface entrance for the Vokzalna metro stationVokzalna (Kiev Metro)Vokzalna is a station on Kiev Metro's Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line. The station was opened along with the Metro on the 6 November 1960, and is named after Kiev's Central rail station and is the metro stop for those using the train....
, which is currently the most overloaded station of the metro system http://www.metro.kiev.ua/?q=node/340. - Extension of the Podilsko-Vyhurivska Metro Line, which is now under construction on the banks of Dineper river, to the Vokzalna metro station.