Baku Metro
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| Overview | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Native name | Bakı Metropoliteni | ||
| Owner | Bakı Metropoliteni | ||
| Locale | Baku, Azerbaijan | ||
| Transit type | Rapid transit | ||
| Number of lines | 3 | ||
| Number of stations | 25 | ||
| Daily ridership | 608,200 (daily average, 2015) | ||
| Annual ridership | 222.0 million (2015) | ||
| Chief executive | Zaur Huseynov | ||
| Website | Baku Metro | ||
| Operation | |||
| Began operation | November 6, 1967 | ||
| Operator(s) | Bakı Metropoliteni | ||
| Number of vehicles | 228 | ||
| Technical | |||
| System length | 36.63 km (22.8 mi) | ||
| Track gauge | 1,520 mm (4 ft 11 27⁄32 in) Russian gauge | ||
| Electrification | Third rail, 825V DC | ||
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Baku Metro map
Baku Metro (Azerbaijani: Bakı Metropoliteni) is a rapid transit system serving Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. First opened on 6 November 1967 during the time of the Soviet Union, it has features typical of ex-Soviet systems, including very deep central stations and exquisite decorations that blend traditional Azerbaijani national motifs with Soviet ideology. At present the system has 36.66 kilometres (22.78 mi) of bi-directional tracks, made up of three lines served by 25 stations. The metro is the only one constructed in Azerbaijan, and was the fifth built in the Soviet Union. In 2015, it carried 222.0 million passengers, which yielded an average daily ridership of approximately 608,200.
During the final decades of the Russian Empire the port city of Baku became a large metropolis due to the discovery of oil in the Caspian Sea. By the 1930s, it was the capital of the Azerbaijani SSR and the largest city in Soviet Transcaucasia. The first plans for a rapid-transit system date to the 1930s, with the adoption of a new general plan for city development.
Having survived the Second World War without falling to the Germans, and furthermore becoming a strategic hub of the Caucasus, the population passed the one million mark, a requirement of Soviet law for allowing construction of a metro system. In 1947, the Soviet Cabinet of Ministers issued a decree authorizing its construction, which began in 1951. On November 6, 1967, Baku Metro became the Soviet Union's fifth rapid-transit system when the first 6.5 kilometers of track and a depot were inaugurated, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution.
Due to the city's unique landscape, Baku Metro did not have the typical Soviet "triangle" layout of development, and instead had two elliptical lines which crossed each other in the center of the city at the Baku Railway Terminal. Thus one line would begin at the southwestern end of the city, and cross on a northeastern axis to follow the residential districts on the northern edge of the city and then snake along to the southeastern and ultimately southern end. This was inaugurated in three stages: Ulduz (1970) and Neftçilər (1972), followed by Ahmedli (1989) and finally Hazi Aslanov (2002), completing the first line. Additionally, in 1970 a branch was opened to a station built in a depot, Bakmil.
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