The Helsinki Metro (Finnish: Helsingin metro, Swedish: Helsingfors metro) is a rapid transit system serving the Helsinki capital region, Finland. It is the only metro system in Finland as well as the world's northernmost metro system. It was opened to the general public on 2 August 1982 after 27 years of planning. It is operated by Helsinki City Transport and Metropolitan Area Transport Ltd for Helsinki Regional Transport Authority and carries 92.6 million passengers per year.
The Helsinki Metro is a system separate from the main railway network in Finland, forming the core of public transport in Helsinki along with the Helsinki commuter rail, the Helsinki light rail and trunk bus lines in the capital region.
The system consists of 2 lines, serving a total of 30 stations, of which 21 are underground and 9 overground. It has a total length of 43 km (26.7 mi). It is the predominant rail link between the suburbs of East Helsinki and the western suburbs in the city of Espoo and downtown Helsinki.
The line passes under Helsinki Central Station, allowing passengers to transfer to and from the Helsinki commuter rail network, including trains on the Ring Rail Line to Helsinki Airport.
The metro system initially opened in 1982 as a single line from Rautatientori metro station in the center to Itäkeskus in the east, from which one branch reached Mellunmäki in 1989 and another one reached Vuosaari in 1998. In the center, the line extended to Kamppi in 1983 and to Ruoholahti in 1993. The Länsimetro extension, opened on 18 November 2017, expanded the system westwards via Lauttasaari into the neighbouring city of Espoo with Tapiola and Matinkylä as termini. On 3 December 2022 the line was further expanded to the west all the way to Kivenlahti.
The two lines on the system mostly share the same track: M1 operates between Kivenlahti and Vuosaari, while M2 operates between Tapiola and Mellunmäki.
The initial motion for building a metropolitan railway system in Helsinki was made in September 1955, though during the five decades beforehand, the idea of a tunneled urban railway for Helsinki had surfaced several times. A suburban traffic committee (Finnish: Esikaupunkiliikenteen suunnittelukomitea) was formed under the leadership of Reino Castrén (1908–1981), and in late 1955, the committee set to work on the issue of whether or not there was truly a need for a tunneled public transport system in Helsinki. After nearly four years of work, the committee presented its findings to the city council.
The committee estimated that the population of Helsinki would grow rapidly, so the capacity of the street network would not be enough for the growing amount of private car traffic and public traffic. The committee proposed moving public transport underground, which would free the overground street network for private car traffic and keep both the direct costs and the indirect costs of public transport in bounds.
The findings of the committee were clear: Helsinki needed a metro system built on separate right-of-way. This was the first time the term "metro" was used to describe the planned system. At the time the committee did not yet elaborate on what kind of vehicles should be used on the metro: trams, heavier rail vehicles, buses or trolleybuses were all alternatives.
The city council's reaction to the committee's presentation was largely apathetic, with several council members stating to the press that they did not understand anything about Castrén's presentation.
Despite the lacklustre reception, Castrén's committee was asked to continue its work, now as the metro committee, although very little funding was provided. In March 1963 the committee led by Reino Castrén and Gunnar Strenius presented its proposal for the Helsinki Metro system. On a technical level this proposal was very different from the system that was finally realised. In the 1963 proposal the metro was planned as a light rail system, running in tunnels a maximum of 14 metres (45 ft 11 in) below the surface (compared to 30 metres (98 ft 5 in) in the finalized system), and with stations placed at shorter intervals (for instance, the committee's presentation shows ten stations between Sörnäinen and Ruoholahti, compared to the six in the realized system). The Castrén Committee proposed for the system to be built in five phases, with the first complete by 1969 and the final by 2000, by which time the system would have a total length of 86.5 kilometres (53.7 mi) reaching well into neighbouring municipalities, with 108 stations. This was rejected after lengthy discussions as too extensive. In 1964 the city commissioned experts from Hamburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen to evaluate the metro proposal. Their opinions were unanimous: a metro was needed and the first sections should be built by 1970.
Although no official decision to build a system along the lines proposed by Castrén was ever made, several provisions for a light rail metro system were made during the 1950s–1960s, including separate lanes on the Kulosaari and Naurissaari bridges, and space for a metro station in the 1964 extension of Munkkivuori shopping center. The RM 1, HM V and RM 3 trams built for the Helsinki tram system in the late 1950s were also equipped to be usable on the possible light rail metro lines.
The first line was agreed to go from Kamppi to Puotila and detailed planning started in 1965 when a metro planning committee was assigned to plan the metro network. By 1966 the planning had already cost 4.67 million markka while the budget of the city of Helsinki had reserved 475 million markka for the period from 1968 to 1977 despite no decision of actually building the metro yet being made.
In late 1967, Reino Castrén departed Helsinki for Calcutta, where he had been invited as an expert in public transport. Prior to his departure Castrén indicated he planned to return to Helsinki in six months and continue his work as leader of the metro committee.
For the duration of Castrén's absence, Unto Valtanen (1929–1989) was appointed as the leader of the committee. However, by the time Castrén returned, Valtanen's position had been made permanent. Following his appointment Valtanen informed the other members of the committee that the plans made under Castrén's leadership were outdated, and now the metro would be planned as a heavy rail system in deep tunnels mined into bedrock. Following two more years of planning, the Valtanen-led committee's proposal for an initial metro line from Kamppi to Puotila in the east of the city was approved after hours of debate in the city council on the early morning hours of 8 May 1969. The initial section was to be opened for service in 1977.
In 1968 the mayor of Helsinki Teuvo Aura and the director of the VR Group Esko Rekola agreed that VR would take care of traffic to the north and west, and Helsinki City Transit would handle traffic on its own track to the east. In connection to this, the idea of a tight network of several light rail lines was abandoned and a decision was made to build two lines conforming to the railway track standard: one line from Haukilahti in Espoo to Puotinharju and another line, the so-called U-Metro line from Haaga via Erottaja and the Helsinki Market Square to Maunula, which would use the same track width as the main railway network in Finland.
The decision to start construction of the metro was delayed because of votes held by the city council of Helsinki. The Left Alliance and some of the council members from the Swedish People's Party of Finland, as well as the liberals, supported construction of the metro, but the National Coalition Party opposed the project for the entirety of its design. Finally, on 7 May 1969 the city council made a decision to start the first phase of construction, and the decision was approved on 12 May. The idea was to have the construction of the line completed by the year 1977.
Construction of a 2.8-kilometre (1.7 mi) testing track from the depot in Roihupelto to Herttoniemi was begun in 1969 and finished in 1971. The first prototype train, units M1 and M2, arrived from the Valmet factory in Tampere on 10 November 1971, with further four units (M3–M6) arriving the following year. Car M1 burned in the metro depot in 1973.