Odesa City Hall reminded of the idea of light rail

Odesa residents were invited to sign a petition to the municipality's leadership to create an elevated subway in Odesa.

The author of the petition, Vladislav Timchenko, noted that an elevated subway could be an alternative to the traditional underground subway in Odesa.

The petitioner sees this option as more affordable due to the city's complex geology, high cost of underground construction, and dense historical buildings.

"This option involves construction mainly above ground (on overpasses or in combination with underground sections), which makes it cheaper and faster to implement. However, today the project remains at the level of ideas and discussions - without funding, approved plans or the start of work," Vladyslav Tymchenko reminded.

It should be noted that three months ago, a similar petition was already registered on the Socially Active Citizen platform.

It should be noted that the issue of creating a subway in Odesa is regularly discussed in the city. However, the construction of a classic subway is seen as too expensive. For example, in April 2024, Petro Obukhov, a deputy of the Odesa City Council, said in a live broadcast on Intent.Insight that such construction would cost the city two annual budgets. According to the deputy's estimates, the construction of one kilometer of the "subway" costs 100 million dollars, or 4 billion hryvnias. The deputy also said that a well-organized tram system could completely replace the subway in Odesa.

The subway was planned to be built in 2007 and included in the city's Master Plan for 2031. According to the project, the subway was supposed to connect the residential Peresypskyi district with the city center and with the southern districts, including Kyivskyi. The total length of the metro line would have been 38 kilometers. However, it has not yet been decided whether it will be an underground or surface subway.

In addition, the program for the development of the subway in Ukraine, adopted in 2006, provided for the design of subways for Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, and Lviv. In 2009, Electrotrans-Odesa proposed a "light" metro project, a 22-kilometer-long underground-air line from Kotovske village to Kulykove Pole, but the project was never implemented.

The idea of building a subway in Odesa first appeared in the mid-1960s. However, it did not go beyond talks. At that time, Odesa had not yet become a city of one million people. Therefore, according to the regulations, Odessans were not entitled to a subway.

Кирило Бойко