Riga Metro
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The Riga Metro () was a planned
metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...
system in
Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...
,
Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
, during the time of the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. Three lines with a total of 33 stations were planned to be built by 2021, however in the late 1980s, during the
Singing Revolution The Singing Revolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The term was coined by a ...
, the whole project met with opposition and combined with the fall of the Soviet Union, construction, which was planned to begin in 1990, never took place. The population of the city has been declining due to
emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
and negative
population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...
since 1990, making the prospects of a full metro system, even with EU funding, unrealistic in the near future. In fact, after the fall of the Soviet Union, possible construction of the metro system has seldom been publicly discussed, even dismissed as unnecessary.


History

The idea of the Riga Metro emerged in the mid 1970s, when city planners were examining how to integrate traffic systems into the capital. Several concepts were proposed, including the reconstruction of the city's railway or the installation of high-speed tram lines. However, officials regarded both proposals as inefficient. The most pressing issue was that Riga's population was rising quickly and was expected to eventually surpass one million, the requirement for constructing a metro in the Soviet Union. The Metrogiprotrans institute in
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
was to design the layout of the metro system, work out the economic planning, and develop the detailed design of the project itself. The technical and economic basis of the project was to be completed by 1978. Another three years were scheduled for further elaboration of the project, with another nine years for the construction of the first eight metro stations. According to this plan, the first underground line was supposed to be opened in 1990. However, the development process faced continued delays, resulting in the technical and economic planning of the project being finished two years late, in 1980. A further five-year delay followed, stalling construction work of the metro line and stations, which could not begin before the all preparation work was finished. Due to hard geological condition of soils the design of the first section in 1984 was redirected to the Lenmetroproekt institute in
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, who were more experienced in these conditions (Leningrad having similar geology). This resulted in the opening date of Riga metro being rescheduled to 1997 at the earliest. Art-decor design of interior of stations was given to local architects that had an experience already after a development of Rizhskaya station of
Moscow Metro The Moscow Metro) is a rapid transit system in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. It serves the capital city of Moscow and the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy, and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935 with one l ...
. In 1986 the plan-general of metro system was updated to include three lines instead of two. Despite continued delays, the project phase of the first section was completed in 1989, its preparation for build phase started at 1986 while a construction phase would to be in 1990, and the opening date planned for 2000–2002. At the end of the 1980s, the project began to receive strong criticism, and, as a result of public dissatisfaction combined with the fall of the Soviet Union, the planned construction during the 1990s never began.


Lines

The original plan called for two lines, but then a third line had been included.


First plan

* Line 1: from
Pleskodāle Pleskodāle is a neighbourhood of Riga consisting mostly of private houses on the western side of the city. It borders the Zolitūde and Šampēteris Šampēteris is an old Riga neighbourhood on the Pārdaugava side of the Daugava The Da ...
/
Zolitūde Zolitūde () is mainly an apartment house neighbourhood (or microdistrict) located in the western part of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Zolitūde is a centrally planned estate, consisting mostly of prefabricated concrete block Brutalist style ho ...
to
Purvciems Purvciems is a neighbourhood in the Vidzeme Suburb of Riga, Latvia. Its name literally translates as "marsh village". It is located on the east bank of the River Daugava, to the east of the City Centre and is defined roughly as the area between ...
/ Dreilini * Line 2: from
Mīlgrāvis Mīlgrāvis is a neighbourhood of Northern District in Riga, the capital of Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia ...
to
Ziepniekkalns Ziepniekkalns is a neighborhood in Riga, Latvia. It is located in the Pārdaugava district of Riga close to the city's southern border. Ziepniekkalns is the newest out of all Riga's neighborhoods. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 19 ...


Second plan

* Line 1: Imanta- Centrs- Jugla * Line 2: Dreilini/
Pļavnieki Pļavnieki is a Riga neighbourhood situated to the right of the river Daugava. Territory of the Pļavnieki for many centuries was used as agricultural land and was added to Riga only in 1974. The name "Pļavnieki" is derived from Latvian word " ...
- Centrs * Line 3:
Mežaparks Mežaparks () is a neighbourhood of Northern District in Riga, the capital of Latvia. It consists of a residential area to the South and a large urban park to the North of the same name – Mežaparks. The neighbourhood is located on the west ...
- Centrs-
Ziepniekkalns Ziepniekkalns is a neighborhood in Riga, Latvia. It is located in the Pārdaugava district of Riga close to the city's southern border. Ziepniekkalns is the newest out of all Riga's neighborhoods. It was developed in the late 1980s and early 19 ...
* Line 2 extension: Centrs-Buļļi


First section

The first planned section was 8.3 km long, took 12 minutes to travel from one terminus to the other and had 8 stations (4 of which were deep below ground in the centre): "Zasulauks", "Agenskalns" (formerly "Aurora"), "Daugava" (formerly "Uzvaras"), "Station" (former "Central"), "Druzhba"(Friendship) (formerly "Kirov"), "Vidzeme market" (formerly "Rainis", "Revolution"), "Oshkalny", "VEF" File:Riga-metro-station-aurora.jpg, Project of Aurora station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-central.jpg, One of alternative projects of Central station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-central1.jpg, One of alternative projects of Central station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-daugava.jpg, Project of Daugava station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-rainis.jpg, Project of Rainis station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-vef.jpg, One of alternative projects of VEF station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-zasulauks1.jpg, One of alternative projects of Zasulauks station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-zasulauks2.jpg, One of alternative projects of Zasulauks station 1983 File:Riga-metro-station-zasulauks3.jpg, One of alternative projects of Zasulauks station 1983


Monetary issues

The first metro in the Soviet Baltic republics was also to have been the most expensive one in the Soviet Union. It was estimated that the cost of one kilometre would be 25–26 million
Soviet ruble The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, r=rubl', p=rublʲ) was the currency of the Soviet Union. It was introduced in 1922 and replaced the Russian ruble#Imperial ruble (1704-1922), Imperial Russian ruble. One ruble was divided into 100 kopecks ...
s. At the time the Riga metro was being planned, the metro in Minsk,
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
was being built at a cost of 15 million Soviet rubles per kilometre. Officials in Riga were not very concerned with funding, as the necessary money would come mainly from
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
. The budget of the
Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...
would have been responsible for funding the train depot (10–12 million Soviet rubles), engineering details (2.5 million Soviet rubles), and station vestibules (4–5 million Soviet rubles). As a result, Riga would have been expected to spend less than 20 million Soviet rubles for the city's metro. However, the city would have had competition for funding from Moscow, as
Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
and
Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...
were also eager for financial assistance in establishing their own metro systems at the same time.


Criticism

Objections against the Riga metro began to be raised as the final design proposal was being finalised. The most pressing concerns, raised by the local scientific community, regarded the usefulness and effectiveness of such a massive and challenging project. They argued that the project would bring more harm than benefits to the city, as the ground waters in Riga are very high with migrating currents, and, as a result, nobody could tell where they would be after a decade. If ground waters were to flow across metro lines, the metro system would get flooded. However, this same argument did not prevent the construction of a metro in Leningrad (now
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
), which has similar geological features to Riga. As
perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...
began to become established in the Soviet Union, the local press became filled with geologic and geodesic articles and how these issues could affect a potential metro in the city. In addition to concerns about potential flooding, the project's authors were also blamed for having planned stations at inconvenient locations, and that the idea itself of a metro was becoming outmoded. After these arguments were evaluated and dismissed, the autochthonous population of Latvia began protesting against another likely wave of migration of
Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...
into Riga as the construction would attract another tens of thousands of workers from other
Soviet republics In the Soviet Union, a Union Republic () or unofficially a Republic of the USSR was a constituent federated political entity with a system of government called a Soviet republic, which was officially defined in the 1977 constitution as " ...
to the city where the share of Latvians had fallen from more than 60% in the 1930s to less than 36% in the 1980s. It was said that such a new wave of migration would pose an even larger threat to the identity of Latvia, where the share of Latvians fell in the late 1980s to just 52%, and to the
Latvian language Latvian (, ), also known as Lettish, is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Indo-European language family. It is spoken in the Baltic region, and is the language of the Latvians. It is the official language of Latvia ...
.


Cancellation

The end of the 1980s brought about disputes and doubts regarding the decisions of the Riga and Latvian governments concerning the metro, as well as the competence of specialists from Moscow. In 1987, ecological activists organised an act of protest; despite the protest, however, the decision was made to start work on the second stage of technological and economic planning. However, local specialists were asked to take over much of the work to reduce Latvia's reliance on specialists from Moscow. After two months, the planning commission came to the conclusion that there was no economic or technological basis to continue the project, and twelve years of planning ended without any work actually done.


See also

* Vilnius Metro


References

{{coord, 56, 56, 56, N, 24, 6, 23, E, display=title Transport in Riga Transport in Latvia Proposed rapid transit Cancelled rapid transit lines and systems