and consequent planned
destruction of Warsaw Early attempts (1918-1939) Plans to build an underground rail system in
Warsaw date as far back as 1918, when the idea was first proposed after Warsaw regained its status as
Poland's capital city. An underground railway system was expected to solve the transport difficulties of the densely built city center. Proper preliminary planning and
boring work were initiated by the
Warsaw Tramway Authority in 1925, with construction expected to start in the late 1920s. The
Great Depression halted those plans as
Poland and the world were gripped by economic hardship. In 1934, with the election of a new mayor of Warsaw,
Stefan Starzyński, work was to resume on the metro. The mayor dusted off the plans from the mid-1920s, and with some minor adjustments, construction of the metro was planned to start by the late 1930s, with a projected finishing date of the first of two projected lines scheduled for the mid-1940s. By then, the subway network was to consist of two lines. Line M1 (north–south line, long) was to follow a route similar to the present-day line and was to link the southernmost borough of
Mokotów with the city center and the northern borough of
Żoliborz. This line was to be connected with the newly constructed
Warszawa Główna railway station and the railway tunnel crossing the city from west to east. Line M2 (east–west, long) was to start beneath the westernmost borough of
Wola, proceed along the Chłodna street to the pivotal station beneath the
Saxon Square and then further eastwards to the
Vistula river escarpment. There, the line was to go overground, cross the river through a newly built bridge and proceed to the easternmost railway station of
Warszawa Wschodnia. Altogether, in 35 years, 7 lines were to be built. The works finally started in 1938, but
World War II brought an end to the ambitious undertaking. The short trace tunnels made in 1938 serve as a wine cellar today.
Post-war plans (1945-1950) The city suffered heavily during World War II. Although the majority of pre-war projects were destroyed during the war, most of the engineers behind their creations survived and returned to their city to take part in its rebirth. However, the new Communist authorities of Poland envisioned a city completely different from what it had been before the war. As the "ideal" communist city, Warsaw was to be decentralized and the need to commute to the city center was reduced. Thus, the Office for the Reconstruction of Warsaw (BOS) commissioned several engineers to prepare a project for a fast urban railway (
SKM) crossing the city in a deep cutting. Although to a large extent it was to follow line 1 of the pre-war plans, only the central stations were to be located underground. However, by the end of the decade, the project was cancelled. Instead, in 1948 communist planners developed a different concept with the new SKM morphing into a rapid transit line at a depth of up to . The suggested north–south direction, with three parallel branches of the same line in the city center, corresponded to the planned development of the city along the Vistula. The works, however, never started and this project was also abandoned.
Cold War era tunnels (1950-1957) In the 1950s, as the
Cold War continued, Soviet strategic plans required that a secure transport link across the river Vistula be built. One of the ways to achieve this was to create a deep metro system in Warsaw (
pl:Metro głębokie w Warszawie; up to beneath the ground), which would be interlinked with the rail network and could serve as an underground conduit for transporting troops. Plans assumed that the first line (about long) would lie along a north–south axis, with a branch of the same line crossing the Vistula river in the city centre. The construction works started almost simultaneously at 17 different points on both sides of the river. By 1953 only of tunnels had been built; after the death of
Joseph Stalin and the start of a period of
détente, all work was halted under the pretext of technical difficulties. In the following years, only one junction tunnel and one shield-driven tunnel were continued. These works were undertaken experimentally, to discover the best driving methods suitable for the ground conditions beneath Warsaw (
pliocene clay formations layer spread beneath
quaternary soils). All work was halted in 1957, and the tunnel eventually flooded in 1960.
Current Metro (1983-Present) Planning and construction In 1955, planners returned to the old idea of a shallow metro network. However, the planning phase proceeded at a very slow pace and the economic situation prevented all successive governments from actually starting serious work. Finally, in 1983, the program was approved by the government and the first tunnels were built. Lack of funds, technical difficulties, shortage of materials and outdated tunnelling methods meant that the work progressed very slowly, sometimes at a speed no greater than per day.
Opening The Metro was opened on 7 April 1995 with a total of 11 stations.
Newer extensions On 11 March 2016, a 1 billion
PLN (€225 million) contract was awarded to the Italian company
Astaldi to build the first phase of the north-east
M2 extension with of track and 3 stations:
Szwedzka,
Targówek Mieszkaniowy, and
Trocka. On 30 April, construction on Szwedzka station started, and on 2 May, the other two stations started construction. Construction of this phase took 3 years, until it opened on 15 September 2019. Initially, this extension was to be built at the same time as the west extension which was due to be completed in 2020. However, due to delays, it was decided that each extension will be built at its own pace. The extension from
Rondo Daszyńskiego to
Księcia Janusza was opened on 4 April 2020, and the extension from
Księcia Janusza to
Bemowo was opened on 30 June 2022. On 28 September 2022, the extension of
M2 consisting of three new stations:
Zacisze,
Kondratowicza, and
Bródno was opened to the public. Turkish construction firm Gülermak was commissioned in November 2018 to complete the three western-most stations on the line – Lazurowa, Chrzanów and Karolin.
Timeline == Metro Warszawskie ==