Nizhny Novgorod Metro (known as the Gorky Metro until 1992) — the metro system in Nizhny Novgorod, the third in Russia and the tenth in the USSR.[3] It opened on November 20, 1985, with an initial section of six stations.[3] Today it comprises two lines, 15 stations, and more than 22 kilometers of double-track route; by number of stations, total length, and workforce it ranks third in the country, after the Moscow and Saint Petersburg metros.[1][3] In 2023 the metro carried more than 32 million passengers.[1]
Lines and Stations
The metro has two lines — the Avtozavodskaya and the Sormovo–Meschera. For a long time there was no practical separation between them: trains arrived from the Avtozavodskaya direction at Moskovskaya station and then continued either further into the Upper Town or onto the second line.[3]
All stations are shallow-cut. Most were built to standard columned or single-vault designs, but three stand apart: the four-track Moskovskaya — the network's largest interchange station — the partly above-ground Burevestnik, and Gorkovskaya, decorated with panoramic panels depicting views of the city. A landmark in its own right is the Metro Bridge across the Oka, which brought the line into the Upper Town.[3]
Growth in the 21st century has been slow: Burevestnik in 2002, Gorkovskaya in 2012, and Strelka near Meschera Lake in 2018, in time for the FIFA World Cup.[1] The rolling stock fleet numbers 130 cars, and more than two thousand people work for the metro.[1]
Opening Chronology
| Date | Section |
|---|---|
| November 20, 1985 | Moskovskaya – Proletarskaya: the first opening section of six stations[3] |
| August 8, 1987 | Proletarskaya – Komsomolskaya |
| November 15, 1989 | Komsomolskaya – Park Kultury |
| December 20, 1993 | Moskovskaya – Burnakovskaya |
| September 9, 2002 | Burnakovskaya – Burevestnik[1] |
| November 4, 2012 | Moskovskaya – Gorkovskaya: metro reaches the Upper Town[1] |
| 2018 | Strelka opens — the fifteenth station[1] |
| August 1, 2027 | planned completion of works at Sennaya and Freedom Square[5][4] |
Passengers
After the line reached the city center in 2012, the metro won back its ridership: in 2023 it was used by more than 32 million people, and for 2024 a further 7.5 percent increase was projected.[1] In the first quarter of 2025 the metro carried 8,483,332 passengers — 0.54 percent more than in the same period the previous year.[2]
Once the three stations currently under construction open, passenger traffic is expected by the Region to grow two-and-a-half times.[1] Sormovskaya alone is projected to generate 7.8 million trips per year and bring the metro within reach of more than 160,000 residents.[1]
Construction on the Avtozavodskaya Line
The extension of the Avtozavodskaya line from Park Kultury by more than three kilometers to Sennaya Square is the Region's largest infrastructure project in recent years.[1] It is financed through infrastructure budget loans at three percent per annum, with Mosproekt-3 Group as the contractor.[1][4]
Deadlines have shifted repeatedly: the end of 2025 was named first, then 2026. Under the revised contract, the contractor must complete all construction and installation work at Sennaya and Freedom Square by August 1, 2027, and close the contract by December 25, 2027; the cost has grown from 35.5 billion to approximately 48 billion rubles.[4][5] By the end of 2025 the tunnels between stations had been driven through; the right-hand tunnel from Park Kultury had its rail-bed foundation formed, and installation of engineering equipment was beginning.[5]
A separate project is the Sormovskaya station on the Sormovo–Meschera line, at a cost of 19.4 billion rubles.[1]
The use of infrastructure budget loans has made it possible to build up a resource base in the region for the creation of major infrastructure facilities.
The Token with a Hole
Nizhny Novgorod metro tokens worked in the turnstiles of the Saint Petersburg metro, and as long as the difference in fare was small, nobody paid it much attention. By the late 2000s the gap had become significant: just before New Year 2010, a trip in Nizhny Novgorod cost nine rubles, while in Saint Petersburg it cost twenty.[6]
From January 2010 the Nizhny Novgorod metro introduced a new token design — with a round hole in the center. For three weeks both old and new tokens remained in circulation; then the turnstiles began accepting only the new ones. Management issued a specific warning that drilling a hole in an old token was pointless: it was not just about the hole, but also about the new alloy.[6]
The tokens themselves lasted another fifteen years: by January 2026 they were definitively withdrawn from circulation, leaving bank cards, transit cards, and other cashless payment methods.[7]
See Also
Sources
- strategy.nobl.ru — Development Strategy of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Underground Transport Framework: Vectors of Development of the Nizhny Novgorod Metro (March 22, 2024)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — More than 8.4 million people were carried by the Nizhny Novgorod metro in Q1 2025 (May 20, 2025)
- mirmetro.net — World of Metro — Nizhny Novgorod Metro
- GIPERNN — Sennaya and Freedom Square metro stations are planned to be built by August 2027 (March 26, 2026)
- progorodnn.ru — PRO Gorod NN — The metro to Sennaya and Freedom Square in Nizhny Novgorod will open by August 2027 (March 27, 2026)
- fontanka.ru — Fontanka.ru — Nizhny Novgorod metro tokens had holes drilled in them to distinguish them from Saint Petersburg ones (January 18, 2010)
- nn.aif.ru — Argumenty i Fakty — Nizhny Novgorod — Tokens can no longer be used to pay for travel on the Nizhny Novgorod metro (January 3, 2026)