European Railroad Discussion > Finland: West Metro of Helsinki and Espoo

In Helsinki Metropolitan area the well working metro system with bright orange trains is being extended West. This will take this efficient rail transporter to the reach of maybe 200'000 people living on the coastline in Western Helsinki and Southern Espoo. The tunneling works for double tunnels and stations should now be about 80% finished and the building of the technologies in the tunnels has started with track building still a little further away. The total length of the main line extension is 14 kilometers / 9 miles. Seven new stations will be added. These will be modern, with a lot of light and some art work. The forecasted project finish line was originally in the mid 2014, but due to difficulties of installing the automated metro system of Siemens this date has now been pushed back to late 2015.

Since I have not yet had time to go underground, here are a few pictures of what is seen from above.

1 - 2) West Metro signs in Finnish language. The sign below show the numerous contractors' info.

2) Typical barracks for the builders to use during the work day. These are not made for living.

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4) Some local art on the building site fence by kids in the neighboring school. Subject: rabbits running the metro?

5) Service tunnel to the two bores below in Helsinki.

6) The tunnel goes under here so it is very important that this arctic sea is well insulated from the tunnels.

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It would have been possible to provide the Metro passengers about 5 kilometers of sea vistas like this, for the enjoyment of everyone, but as the money talks, it was cheaper to tunnel the tracks underground. Of course there is also another issue: dependability in the arctic climate. If the metro is built underground it can be a trusted vehicle in any weather, even during the worst snow falls and very low temperatures. Even today's older metro metro, half tunneled, half on the ground, is very reliable, except for the new train control systems with still hick ups.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/13 07:39 by McKey.

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McKey Wrote:
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> It would have been possible to provide the Metro
> passengers about 5 kilometers of sea vistas like
> this, for the enjoyment of everyone, but as the
> money talks, it was cheaper to tunnel the tracks
> underground. Of course there is also another
> issue: dependability in the arctic climate. If the
> metro is built underground it can be a trusted
> vehicle in any weather, even during the worst snow
> falls and very low temperatures. Even today's
> metro half tunneled, half on the ground is very
> reliable, except for the new train control systems
> with still hick ups.


Hopefully it doesn't "hick up" the wrong way.

That looks cold! Down here we keep the snow and ice in the mountains! (most of the time)

That's a long way to get ice to glass with a drink... :)

Well, seriously, I could switch to warmer climate occasionally. But Nordic has its advantages too.


Focalplane Wrote:
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> That looks cold! Down here we keep the snow and
> ice in the mountains! (most of the time)