The World’s Northernmost Metro System | Helsinki Metro (Helsingin Metro) 🚇🇫🇮| Urban Transport #36

[@yellowZ3]

Wow finland is 𝕔𝕠𝕠𝕝

[@realdronthego]

Yes!

[@mikrokupu]

Fun fact: The metro connects the capital and the largest city Helsinki (675k) and the second largest Espoo (315k). The two cities are also connected by light rail and commuter rail. The third major city in the capital region is Vantaa (245k), connected to Helsinki by commuter rail, they have a light rail under planning. Vantaa hosts the international airport.

[@Hubik_193]

Wow! Thanks for the video! I was quite surprised to see that this metro is way smaller than i imagined. Great work, keep on going 😊

[@realdronthego]

Thank you!!

[@Aviationvlad]

This is one of my favorite metro systems out there! 🙂 The only thing I still don’t understand, why did the Länsimetro extension was built just to accommodate 4-car trains, while the other part of metro can handle 6-car trains (some trains even were with 6 cars before the extension!). This incompatibility is now on the same metro line (!), which is odd. I mean, yeah, there were plans on the automation and stuff, but the capacity is a completely different thing (especially if it had been already built!).

[@realdronthego]

They were planning too much on the automation, with Copenhagen-like frequencies. But even then, it’s quite an odd decision to limit capacity in the first place.

[@leisti]

It's due to an unwise decision to save a bit of money by building the platforms of the Espoo stations (the extension opened in 2017) to a length of only 90 m, while the previously built platforms were all 135 m long. According to what I've read, Espoo's municipal councillors were upset by the estimated price increasing a lot already during the planning stage, and were mollified by the platform length being cut, thus saving about €20 million. This was just a drop in the total price of the first stage of the extension, over €1 billion. The justification was that as the system was going to be automated, trains could operate more frequently, so didn't need to be as long as they had been before. And as the automation effort failed, this decision permanently decreased the capacity of the system by one-third. All trains now have to be 90 m long, as both routes run through the new stations with the 90 m platforms, and it's practically impossible to extend the platform lengths now that the stations are in use. It's infuriating.

[@ilove_class805]

0:53 Helsinki Metros second line won’t extend to Vantaa because if that extension opened, then passengers in Vantaa will take the metro to the center, also the bus route 570 heading to Helsinki Airport brings passengers towards East Helsinki and the metro replacement (Bus 99M) only runs if 1 or more metro station(s) close due to renovation or construction work. You can get to Vantaa by train and bus

[@realdronthego]

It’s in the distant future. The more options, the better it will be😅

[@bahnspotterEU]

Great explainer that came at an interesting time for me. I was also just in Helsinki and just now posted my own video on the metro. It really is a cool system and I feel like there is no other quite like it in Europe. It seems somewhat American-inspired in its rolling stock design and in terms of station spacing.

[@realdronthego]

Thank you! For me the Helsinki metro has similar features to the Stockholm Metro too, although they could have done more with the walls🤔

[@bahnspotterEU]

@@realdronthego True, the walls are quite barren in many stations, but I love the ceilings on the Länsimetro!

[@Henu_K]

I hate that this system is branded as having "2 lines". It's clearly just one line that just branches in the east. Other than that, I like the Helsinki Metro, and I hope we will some day get an actual second line.

[@aarnililja5599]

Great video👍🤩 Correction first set of m300's were deliverd between 2015-2016.

[@realdronthego]

Thank you!

[@benaspetkevicius7139]

Maby M400 for new extention? :)

[@realdronthego]

Who knows?😁

[@joelschule310]

Thank you for covering the Helsinki metro! I'd like to add to this video that there are also extension plans in the western parts of the line. The city of Espoo has long-term proposals of extending the metro from Kivenlahti to Kauklahti and a new branch from Matinkylä to Jorvi hospital via Espoon keskus.

[@realdronthego]

Thank you for the addition!

[@SuperCompany007]

Do you have a source for this? I have never heard of this and I tried googling but couldn’t find any information about plans to further extend the metro line in Espoo

[@olskutsuikkeli]

@@SuperCompany007All the sources are in Finnish so of course you couldn’t find anything

[@SuperCompany007]

@@olskutsuikkeli oon vittu suomalainen…

[@nicopursiainen7528]

@@SuperCompany007Espoo master plan 2060. Or you can try to google espoo metro 2060 etc.