Länsimetro
Länsimetro (English: Western Metro, Swedish: Västmetron) is an extension to the Helsinki Metro system. The grand opening for the long awaited extension was held on 18 November 2017. Länsimetro extends the system's two lines, M1 and M2, from central Helsinki, Finland, to the neighbouring city of Espoo. The new stretch continues the lines from the existing Ruoholahti station via the island of Lauttasaari, the Aalto University Otaniemi campus, and Tapiola, the terminus of line M2. M1 continues further east to Matinkylä. Unlike previous extensions to the Helsinki Metro system, Länsimetro runs entirely under ground. The second phase of the construction will continue the line further west to Kivenlahti.
Final approval for a 13.5-kilometre (8.4 mi) route was granted on 4 April 2007, and the construction began in November 2009. In February 2014, rock blasting was complete, and the fitting out of the tunnels and construction of the stations was started. The extension was planned to open in August 2016 but was delayed until November 2017.
The first designs for a metro system in Helsinki, made in the 1950s, already contained lines to Espoo. After the two forks of the metro line in eastern Helsinki had been completed in 1998, the city of Helsinki continued to pursue the Länsimetro proposal, but the city of Espoo continued to reject it until the early 2000s.
Espoo is the second most populous city in Finland (after Helsinki), currently served by roads, bus transport, and commuter trains. It is connected to Helsinki by the Rantarata coastal railway and by two motorways: Finnish national road 1 (Turun moottoritie, to Turku) in the middle and the Western Highway (the Länsiväylä) in the south, near the coast. As the primary passageway between southern Espoo and central Helsinki, the Länsiväylä has been repeatedly enlarged to cope with congestion, but is still seeing chronic traffic jams in the morning rush hours. Widening the Länsiväylä has not solved the traffic jams, but has instead only moved them closer to the centre of Helsinki (see also Downs–Thomson paradox).
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