Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi railway station

Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi
Southwestern Railway terminal
Location	Vokzalna Ploshcha, Kyiv, Ukraine
Coordinates	50°26′26″N 30°29′22″E / 50.44056°N 30.48944°E / 50.44056; 30.48944Coordinates: 50°26′26″N 30°29′22″E / 50.44056°N 30.48944°E / 50.44056; 30.48944
Owned by	Ukrzaliznytsia
Platforms	7
Tracks	14
Connections	tram, Metro (Vokzalna station, Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line)
Construction
Structure type	at-grade
Parking	yes
History
Opened	1870
Rebuilt	1932, 2001
Electrified	1950
Services
Terminus Southwestern Railways Terminus

Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi (Ukrainian: Київ-Пасажирський) is a railway station in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. It is a big complex and railway hub consisting of several railroad station buildings, railyard, and other railroad infrastructure such as the Kiev Electrical and Railcar Maintenance Factory. The station is located on so called Kiev Southern Railway loop.

Serving more than 170,000 passengers per day (as of 2005), station contains several buildings. The Central Station building connected with the Southern Station building by overpass is the main feature of the railway station. The station complex thus provides long-distance and international services, and short-distance service (elektrichka) for suburbs (including dacha areas), minor city stations, and nearby regions.

The Kiev Metro station Vokzalna^[1] is adjoining the complex, constituting the station's main intersection with city transport. The Kiev tram terminal Starovokzal'na (Ukrainian: "Старовокзальна") (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-Balta and Kiev-Kursk 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 style was by the architect М. V. Vyshnevetskyi.^[2]

The current Central Station building was constructed in 1927-1932 and designed by O. Verbytskyi. It was built in the style of Ukrainian Baroque with some elements of Constructivism. The Central Station building is designated as the Landmark of Architecture, numbered 193.

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. Both buildings are connected with an overpass for passengers. The renovation project also included two large underground parking structures, one of which remains uncompleted to the date. The construction of the southern station building was done on efforts of Heorhiy Kirpa.

Name disambiguation

Officially, Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi railway station is regarded as the whole huge complex of passenger terminals, railways, depots etc. with respective personnel. Practically, such installations in post-Soviet 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 Kiev-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.^[3]

The name Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi (literally Kiev Passenger) is also used to differentiate it from other railway stations across the city such as Kiev-Volynsky, Kiev-Demiivskii, Kiev-Tovarny, others.

Development plans

Currently the station is severely overloaded with suburban traffic, intercity traffic (especially during the height of winter and summer holidays), and also subway traffic (in daily rush hours). Relief plans include:

• Upgrading Darnytsia station to make it a second long-distance passenger station, serving the Left-Bank of the city (including new sleeping car maintenance facility.)
• Construction of a second surface entrance for the Vokzalna metro station, which is currently the most overloaded station of the metro system .
• Extension of the Podilsko-Vyhurivska Metro Line, which is now under construction on the banks of Dineper river, to the Vokzalna metro station.

Photos

• 
  The former two-platform brick station building of Old English Gothic style in the 19th century.
• 
  Road to the railway station
• 
  Main station building at night
• 
  One of the drafts of main station building
• 
  Suburban station building
• 
  Southern station building
• 
  On the left is a suburban rail, further back is the main station
• 
  The adjacent railyard, intended to sort out and combine railcars
• 
  Railwaymen Monument

See also

• Ukrzaliznytsia - the national railway company of Ukraine

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi Railway Station.