When the last subway train has rumbled down the tunnel, the final passenger has stepped off the escalator and the police officer has locked the station doors, the day is far from over for Kyiv metro workers.
When the last subway train has rumbled down the tunnel, the final passenger has stepped off the escalator and the police officer has locked the station doors, the day is far from over for Kyiv metro workers.
At midnight, senior engineer Natalya Seleznyova, 58, pops the door open to the control center – a spacious underground office near metro Lva Tolstoho.
For some 15 operators surrounded by monitors, which broadcast live pictures from 49 stations, the night is about to begin.
“The subway never sleeps,” said Seleznyova, greeting her colleagues, some of whom she has known for decades. Working under ground for nearly 40 years, she is roughly the same age as the metro.
Kyiv’s metro, a mainstay of public transportation, opened in 1960. Even after the last train, workers stand guard all night.
Built in 1960 at the height of the Cold War, metro stations were dug deeply to shelter Kyivans in case of an attack.
Left from that time are also secret bunkers for the political elite, but Seleznyova would not talk about them.
Instead, she agreed to tell more about two types of unwelcome people – those who come to the metro to commit suicide and those known as “diggers,” who just seek illicit adventure.
Luckily, people who want to take their own life in the metro can be numbered on the fingers of one hand.
Even in the daily flow of 1.38 million passengers, metro operators say they can recognize them.
Tamara Potorocha monitors images from 16 cameras at the Syrets station. (Alex Furman)
“Before jumping on the rails, they hesitate for a long time, missing a few trains,” said Tamara Potorocha, 56, a supervisor at the Syrets station.
Sitting in front of the monitors feeding from 16 cameras, she looks intently at the passengers, studying their behavior. When they notice people who may take their own lives, they try talking them out of it, said Potorotcha.
During her 12 years in the metro, no lethal accidents happened when she was on duty.
The corridor underneath the escalator of the Syrets metro station. (Alex Furman)
“I only saw drunks scrambling down the tunnel to urinate. People waving hands. Some even strip in front of the cameras,” she said, matter-of-factly describing her nighttime visitors. From her small office at the end of the platform, Potorocha can stop the train or inform the control room of any malfunctions.
For example, if something or someone falls on the rails, she can signal an oncoming train to stop.
The rails themselves, however, are not dangerous. What can kill people is a deadly ledge, which lurks right under the platform – not far from the rails – and carries 825 volts.
Potorocha can cut the power to prevent accidents if she notices someone fall.
But this extreme action is rarely needed. According to official figures, the metro is a safe choice: last year only 68 people got injured.
Every third one of them got hurt on escalators, despite the fact that they run at only three kilometers per hour.
At night, the subway is even safer. And Dmytro, a 27-year old computer programmer, knows this well.
A worker repairs escalator steps in the nooks of the Shulyavka metro station. (Alex Furman)
He is one of the “diggers” – thrill-seeking youngsters who sneak into tunnels to go exploring, throw parties for friends or draw maps of the underground metro world.
It’s also possible to squeeze into the subway through air pits, said Dmytro, showing one of his secret pathways near the Golden Gate.
“We used to climb down through it, but now they installed a motion detector, see,” he said, tossing a stone to test a barely-visible ray of light.
“The detectors are strong – even a fly wouldn’t go unnoticed,” said subway spokeswoman Nadiya Shumak.
But diggers seem to find their way around anyway. Scores of photographs and online videos on social networks show that they know how to trick the system.
The youngsters have made some interesting discoveries.
Mykola Kozyuka checks train wheels at the metro depot. (Alex Furman)
They are desperately hoping to find secret places in the Kyiv subway system like the Metro-2 line in Moscow, built by Josef Stalin to transport the Communist Party elite from the Kremlin to bunkers in Moscow and suburbs.
Dmytro said he made some progress in the search. Near Arsenalna station – the oldest in the city – he found an inconspicuous door inside the tunnel, which he broke open.
It led him to what looked like a shelter, presumably for the party elite.
This digger hoped to discover a secret tunnel with ammunition or food supplies, given its proximity to government buildings and the president’s office. But he was left disappointed.
“There was nothing there except for military signs with warnings such as: ‘Put on masks,’’’ he said.
The train wash at the Kharkivske metro depot. (Alex Furman)
Shumak confirms there are bunkers and shelters inside the subway, but refuses to show them or comment on the topic for security reasons.
“The tunnels are all the same. There’s nothing to investigate. You can see everything from a train during the day. Of course, there are those governmental objects, but even we know nothing about them,” she said, downplaying the value of the subway’s alleys and nooks.
The subway has to keep some of its secrets.
Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Panova can be contacted at [email protected]
