The green line of the Kyiv metro already runs across the Dnipro River during air raid alerts, but the red line still does not. Is it possible to change this? (The spoiler is: everything is complicated)

Why did the green line works, but the red one didnʼt? Hereʼs how the Kyiv City State Administration explains it

The difference between the two left-bank lines of the Kyiv metro is in the length of the above-ground section.

On the green line, trains leave the ground only at the Southern Bridge (thatʼs 1.25 km).

And on the red line, a whole third of the line with six stations (6.7 km) runs above ground.

"The distance of the open section along which trains move is very large. Just from the point of view of peopleʼs safety, such a decision [to allow movement during air raid alerts] cannot be made," said the deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCMA) Petro Panteleyev.

In other words — the city administration decided that statistically the risk for the longer section is greater than for the shorter one.

The founder of the company “About Mobility” Dmytro Bespalov explains that a separate weak point of the red line is the emergency Metro Bridge. Due to the condition of the structures, trains are forced to travel slower, and therefore take longer to pass through this section.

Despite this, the risks for the open section of the green line are still existing, and KCMA understands this. For instance, the Southern Bridge is on the route of the “Shaheds” way to the TPP-5 zone.

“The risks for trains [on the Southern Bridge] objectively exist,” commented Petro Panteleyev.

Nevertheless, the city administration took responsibility and allowed traffic on the green line. Obviously, this is a certain compromise between safety and the need for the city to work. If the green line carries passengers, the connection between the left and right banks is not so completely broken.

Why is all ground transport working, but the metro isnʼt? Hereʼs how KCMA explains it

A year and a half ago, the Kyiv Defense Council allowed all other ground transport — buses, trams and trolleybuses — to move during air raid alerts. This is hundreds of kilometers of route network and dozens of units of rolling stock. What is the greater danger for metro trains compared to the — for comparison — buses?

"We need to simulate a situation when a train stops in an open area between stations. It is impossible [for people] to get off the train, because everything nearby is under enormous voltage. That is, it is critically dangerous for life. The train can stand in this state for an indefinite period of time. It is very difficult to evacuate passengers from there," explained Petro Panteleyev.

Is this really true? The metroʼs contact rail is alive — it is laid to the left of the tracks and a little raised above them. It is not visible from the station, as it runs under the platform. Pantographs mounted on the cars slide along the contact rail and draw current from it to power the motors. There are four of them on each car — two on each side.

The voltage on the contact rail is 825 Volts. Touching this rail is life-threatening, because an electric shock can lead to severe burns or instant death. The danger is posed by direct contact, and the contact rail is covered along its entire length with a protective box (painted yellow).

It is not designed to be stepped on, but at least it protects against direct contact, as explains the co-founder of the NGO “Kyiv Passengers” Vyacheslav Skryl, who also worked in the metroʼs power supply service.

Current collectors on cars also pose a danger when touching the alive contact rail.

The contact rail in the subway has a voltage of 825 volts, it is covered with a protective box along its entire length.

The voltage from the contact rail can be removed. Algorithms for emergency situations have been developed and are in operation in the Kyiv metro, as was confirmed to Babel by the deputy head of the SE “Kyiv Metro” Dmytro Pinchuk.

For example, on September 11, 2017, there was smoke in the Kyiv metro on the section between the “Kontraktova Square” and “Tarasa Shevchenko” stations. The train itself was operational, and it was driven to the station, where passengers were able to get out of the cars. And so that the State Emergency Service could find the cause of the smoke, the metro removed the voltage from the contact rail. As Vyacheslav Skryl explains, in such cases, it is possible to remove the voltage on a separate section.

There were also cases of evacuation of passengers from cars stuck on the tracks. For example, on January 31, 2026, due to a large-scale accident in the power system, the Kyiv metro stopped completely — and some trains remained in the tunnels. Almost 500 passengers walked to “Vokzalna” and “Vydubychi” stations. Apparently, there was no voltage in the contact rail at that time, but it was because of the blackout.

Due to a large-scale accident on January 31, 2026, metro trains were forced to stop in tunnels. Passengers had to be evacuated to stations.

Пресслужба ДСНС

Пресслужба ДСНС

How does this happen? Dmytro Pinchuk explains that the algorithm depends on the specific situation. The train driver, the station duty officer (and in cases that threaten peopleʼs lives, any other metro employee) can transmit the corresponding requirement to the train dispatcher (this is a specialist who controls the movement of trains). He, in turn, transmits the order to the energy dispatcher, and he turns off the contact rail. The metro did not specify how long this procedure may take.

Dmytro Bespalov notes that the only thing that the metro evacuation protocol may not take into account is military realities.

“Just imagine: we are moving in the metro somewhere in the middle of an open area. Explosions are heard. The metro stop working. Perhaps a ʼShahedʼ or debris gets into another car. The regular reaction of passengers is to try to escape. The metro has an emergency door opening mechanism, passengers can open them themselves. Then they can start jumping onto the rails. There the contact rail is under voltage. Yes, there is a procedure for turning off the voltage. But a failure can occur in this chain, due to a technical or human factor. Accordingly, several people may die not because they were killed by a ʼShahed, but because they were killed by panic during the evacuation. This is the scenario that the city fears,” says Bespalov.

Are passengers who had to get off the subway during the air raid alerts safer?

In most cases, they do not go to shelters, but remain near the station or stand in long lines for buses and trolleybuses. KCMA explains that these people have a choice — to wait or go to shelters.

“When people get off, they have a choice. And when people are blocked in a train under the open sky and all the equipment is under voltage, this is a completely different point,” says Petro Panteleyev.

There are 12 backup buses between the banks, which cannot accommodate all the passengers of the red line. The city does not have more buses, but it can optimize the route

To deal with the transport problem of residents of the left bank, KCMA launched a new bus — “1-M”. It runs from the “Lisova” station along the ground part of the metro and takes you to “Arsenalna” and “Palats Sportu” stations. Citizens who have to use the red line of the metro say that during long [air raid] alerts, the bus fills up already at the first stop, and passes the next ones without getting new ones.

This route cannot completely replace the red line of the metro, as it does not have the corresponding capacity. The Kyiv metro actually does not have an equivalent alternative, especially when it comes to crossing between banks.

Due to the fact that most workplaces are located on the right bank, crossing bridges is traditionally the weakest point of the cityʼs transport system. The red line is the busiest in the Kyiv metro, and only 12 buses were released on the route to duplicate it.

At the request of Babel, the company “About Mobility” made approximate calculations of the capacity of the “1-M” bus and the ground section of the red metro line.

Thus, during the morning rush hour, trains run at an interval of 02:30-02:45 mins, and that’s 22-24 trains per hour (according to state standards, each can accommodate about 840 passengers), so they manage to transport about 20 000 passengers in one direction per hour.

The interval of the “1-M” bus during rush hour is 10.5 mins, which is less than 6 buses (90 passengers each) and only about 500 passengers per hour.

It turns out that the capacity of the bus is almost 40 times less than the metro.

How many buses are needed to fully replace the metro and transport all passengers on the red line to the right bank during rush hour?

To do this, it is worth comparing not the metroʼs capacity (i.e. how many passengers it can transport), but the passenger flow (i.e. how many passengers actually travel). The metro does not provide current data on the passenger flow of the ground section of the red line.

Although, taking into account pre-war data and the approximate drop in metro passenger flow, experts from "About Mobility" assume that 10-15 000 passengers travel to the right bank via the Metro Bridge during rush hour.

Currently, buses are capable of transporting only 540 passengers, or about 4% of passenger flow. To transport everyone who currently travels across the Metro Bridge during rush hour, it is necessary to make bus trips every 20-30 seconds (i.e. 145 trips per hour). It is impossible to organize this even theoretically.

According to Vyacheslav Skryl, for the duplicate route to work adequately, it is enough to transport at least 30% of metro passengers.

“Other passengers are redistributed to alternatives in a regular way,” he explains.

If the bus currently picks up only 4% of metro passengers, then to cover the estimated demand, 7.5 times more buses will be needed, that is, 90 (instead of 12).

However, Kyiv does not have a reserve of rolling stock.

Even these 12 buses for the backup route were taken from other city routes.

“It is difficult to assemble so many buses in Kyiv. It is not about impossibility, but then it will be very bad throughout all the city,” says Skryl.

He supposes that buses could be quickly removed from the routes that perform the function of transportation to the metro — they become ineffective anyway when the metro stops.

“The air raid alert has started, and buses from their transportation [regular] routes come to this route. The air raid alarm has ended, then they turn back [to their regular routes]. If the air raid alerts would be long, this option may work.”

Another way to increase the busʼs capacity is to shorten the route. Currently, “1-M” takes passengers to the “Arsenalna” metro station, and then goes to the “Palats Sportu” station.

“The shorter the route, the faster the buses will routing. Shortening the route will allow us to reduce the move interval by half, or even more,” supposes Vyacheslav Skryl.

With the current traffic pattern, the bus manages to make a circle in 130 minutes. If we let the bus go through Dniprovskyi Uzviz to the “Arsenalna” station, it will make a circle in 70 minutes, says “Kyiv Passengers”.

Can red line trains run safely during yellow level alert? “Ukrzaliznytsia” urban electric train does this, but it is significantly different from the metro

Now the red line stops as soon as the city declares a yellow level air raid alert. The yellow level is for single drones in the capital (or approaching). Massive drones (or a missile threat) is already a red level.

As a result, movement between banks on the busiest metro line can be stopped in case when a drone that is not even in the city yet.

Could the “Kyiv Metro” respond to a real danger, rather than an air raid alert? Thatʼs what “Ukrzaliznytsia” does.

Since the beginning of the Great War, it has had monitoring groups that track the movement of drones and missiles and give signals to stop the train in case of a threat.

According to Oleksandr Shevchenko, the deputy head of the passenger department of “Ukrzaliznytsia” (UZ) Oleksandr Shevchenko, UZ has 15 regional groups, one of which is in Kyiv. A few months ago, the company opened a central monitoring department.

The monitoring groups operate a system that integrates military and railway databases. It allows you to see in real time where drones or missiles are flying (at what altitude, at what speed and in what direction) and where trains are.

According to Shevchenko, the trains are equipped with trackers that allow you to track their location even when electronic warfare (EW) is active.

When does UZ stop a train?

“We assess not an abstract threat in the region, but a threat to a specific train, and evacuate people only when a drone appears within a certain radius (which depends on the speed of the drone). If we see that the trajectories of the UAV and our train intersect within 15 mins, our central monitoring group orders to stop the train and evacuate passengers,” says Shevchenko.

“In addition, we are in contact with the military. We understand whether there is air defense at a given point and whether it is working on this drone. This also affects the decision. If they are working with a drone, we can decide together to continue moving and, accordingly, increase the distance between the train and the threat.”

How do you stop a city train?

Since 2022, it has been operated not by KCMA, but by “Ukrzaliznytsia”. The train continued to run during air raid alerts until July 2026.

Since July, it has been stopped regularly. The process is similar to the evacuation of long-distance trains. Monitoring groups track the threat and signal the drivers. The train reaches the nearest station, and drops people off, and they have to move 200 meters away.

Implementing a similar scheme for the above-ground sections of the metro is much more difficult, say all the experts Babel spoke with.

Mainly because the frequency of metro trains is several times higher than on the railway. The intervals of movement during rush hour in the metro are up to 3 minutes, and in the city tram is about 30 minutes.

In addition, the city tram does not have a contact rail, so it is safer for passengers to evacuate from it, even if they panic.

Transport engineer Viktor Petruk proposes to develop an algorithm that will allow the red line to be activated during air raid alerts

A transport engineer, former specialist of the KCMA transport department, and now an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Viktor Petruk proposed how it would be possible to establish safe operation of the ground sections of the metro during air raid alerts.

Guided by data on the position and speed of an air target, it is possible to calculate the time it needs to fly and hit the train or tracks. If this time is longer than the time it takes for the train to reach the next station and drop off passengers (or enter the metro tunnel), then the train can be given permission to move. If it is shorter, then it [permission] should not be given.

For each station, a safety zone needs to be calculated. If the target is outside this zone, train movement is safe. If it flies into the zone, it needs to be stopped. To determine the radius of the zone, you need to take into account the speed of the drones and the time it takes for passengers to be safe.

• For the green line, this is the time from the departure of the train from the station in front of the tunnel ("Slavutych" station or "Telychka" station) to the tunnel portal on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, +20 seconds for a possible delay in data updates. According to Petrukʼs calculations, this is 02:50 and 03:15 minutes, respectively.
• For the red line, this is the time from the trainʼs departure to its arrival at the next station plus the time for data update delays and passenger evacuation. According to Petrukʼs calculations, this is from 02:30 to 05:05 minutes for different stations on the red line. The center of the safety zone radius is the arrival station (for the red line) or the tunnel portal (for the green line).

This is what Viktor Petrukʼs concept looks like in a simplified form.

«Babel'»

«Babel'»

With such an algorithm, the evacuation of passengers during rush hour could be avoided. It would not solve the problem completely, but it would potentially reduce the time the metro stops.

The problem with this model is that it raises the issue of liability.

“Someone takes responsibility every time they send (or don’t send) a train on a run. I don’t know who would agree to take responsibility that isn’t provided for by the metro’s regular procedures,” says Dmytro Bespalov.

“We have a complex responsibility on the railway. We cannot separate the ʼKyiv City Expressʼ [city train] and long-distance trains. If one train is stopped, all other trains cannot go around it. Therefore, if we do not see a direct danger to the train, it is more correct for us to make the train a moving target. In any case, such a target is more difficult to hit,” comments Oleksandr Shevchenko.