[ UrbanRail.Net ]     [ Europe ] [ Americas ] [ Asia ] [ Africa ] [ Oceania ]     [ News ] [ Books ] [ Links ]

Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog in Russian) lies just southwest of Dnipro in central/southern Ukraine. The city has some 700,000 inhabitants and is an important industrial centre in the Kryvyi Rih iron basin.

After Volgograd, Kryvyi Rih was the second city in the former USSR to build a partly underground rapid tram line (Shvydkisnyi Tramvai - ShT). The system had been under construction since 1974, and the first stage opened on 26 December 1986. The second stage with four stations north to Zarichna followed on 25 October 1999.

In May 2012, the rapid tram line was integrated with the urban tram network by building a link at the southern terminus Kil'tseva, allowing lines 3 and 4 to operate on the rapid tram line and the urban network, while lines 1 and 2 run exclusively on the rapid tram section.

The total length of the fully segregated section is 17.7 km with 11 stations, which are built to full metro standard. 6.8 km is underground with 4 stations.

The express tram line has its own yard close to Maidan Pratsi station. At both ends of the line there are loops. The gauge is 1520 mm. The rolling stock used are Tatra T3, KTM-11/11T. The ShT is operated by Krivorozhelektrotrans.

26/12/1986 - Maidan Pratsi - Dzerzhin'ska (now Mudryona) (4 stations, 7.7 km, without Miska Likarn'a)
13/02/1988 - Dzerzhin'ska - Budynok Rad (1 station, 1 km, shuttle service)
02/05/1989 - Dzerzhin'ska - Kil'tseva (3 stations, 4.5 km, full operation)
26/10/1999 - Zhovtneva (now Mikrorayon Sonyachnyi) - Zarichna (2 stations, 5.5 km, without Elektrozavod'ska)
19/06/2000 - Elektrozavod'ska station added
19/05/2001 - Miska Likarn'a station added
25/05/2012 - Kil'tseva terminus abandoned and line extended on urban tram tracks to Kil'tse KMK (~1 km)
11/08/2012 - Kil'tseva terminus re-established for lines 1 & 2, and new line 3 introduced
24/08/2015 - Rush-hour service 4M introduced between Zarichna and Pivdennyi GZK

All photos © Andrey Surikov and Vladimir Sviridenkov

Photos © Serguei Bolachenko