by Yuri Popov (updated in May 2008)
After a decade of decline in 1990s, the situation with metro construction in St. Petersburg has substantially improved in recent years. The city rather than the federal government is now paying for the majority of the costs, and funding is increasing year after year. Currently, metro construction budget has exceeded half a billion dollars a year. The main diversion from the new metro construction - the restoration of a collapsed segment of Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya line (line 1) - is now successfully completed, and all the construction funding is spent on new stations. Formation of new Frunzensko-Primorskaya line (line 5), its separation from Pravoberezhnaya line (line 4), and the southern extension of Frunzensko-Primorskaya line (line 5) are the three main priorities for the next few years. As of the time of this writing, the projected schedule of station openings is as follows:
December 2008 -- Line 5: stations "Zvenigorodskaya" (transfer to line 1) and "Volkovskaya". Line 4: station "Spasskaya" (transfers to lines 2 and 5). The existing segment "Sadovaya" - "Komendantskiy Prospekt" will become a part of line 5, while the shortened line 4 will terminate at "Spasskaya".
2010 -- Line 5: station "Obvodnyi Kanal".
2010 -- Line 5: stations "Bukharestskaya" and "Mezhdunarodnaya".
2011 -- Line 5: station "Admiralteyskaya".
2012 -- Line 5: stations "Prospekt Slavy", "Dunayskaya", "Balkanskaya" and a new yard.
Later projects include (in no particular order):
- extension of line 5 further northwest from "Komendantskiy Prospekt"
- extension of line 4 further west from "Spasskaya"
- new line 6 southwest from "Moskovskiye Vorota"
- extension of line 4 further south from "Ulitsa Dybenko"
All these segments are to be completed in the next 10 years, however, it is too early to quote any possible opening dates.
Maps of the existing metro and regional-rail networks in largest Russian cities can be found at http://www.metromaps.da.ru/.