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Kiev Passenger Railway Station (["Київ-Пасажирський", Kyiv-Pasazhyrs’kyi] Error: {{Langx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is Kiev's main passenger railway station, serving more than 170 thousand passengers per day (as of 2005). The station provides long-distance service including international, and a short-distance service (elektrichka) for nearby regions. The Kiev Metro's Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line's station Vokzalna is situated nearby, constituing the station's main intersection with city transport.

History

The first railroad station in Kiev was constructed during 1868-1870, as a part of Kiev-Baltica and Kiev-Kursk railroad constructions, which were completed in 1870. The station was located in a valley created by the Lybid River, replacing the former solders' settlements. The station was a two-story brick station building, designed in the Old English Gothic style by М. Vyshnevetsky.

On August 11, 1877, a fire broke out at the station, damaging it enough that restoration works would not suffice. Projected tasks for a new railway station were carried out by a special commission which consisted of railway and military departments' representatives.

According to the project, passenger division would not only be because of travel class, but also of their travel's direction and arrivals. Mechanical lifts, situated in the basement, were to transport luggage to the station platforms. The planned project envisaged a building constructed out of brick and grift stone the style of Italian Renaissance, with fire-resistant materials like majolica tiles and imitation stone inside. Central heating and ventilation were also planned to be included. Construction work on the new railway station was started in 1907. In the meantime, a one-floor wooden building was built nearby in 1908 for temporary use. Designed for only three years of use, the wooden station was actually exploited for almost a quarter of a century.

Old Kiev Railroad Station in XIX century.

Up until 1913, Kiev's railroad intersection had 25 long-distance trains and 17 local trains in use.

In the same year, a new project for the construction of a new railway station was created by V. Shchuko from Saint Petersburg. The project proposed that long-distance trains from all four directions and local commuter trains of the Eastern direction would arrive and depart from the Northern lines that would be parallel to the station building itself. The local trains of the Western direction would depart from end lines situated to the West of the main building.

The project included service areas for passengers in the main hall and two additional adjoining buildings. To the left and the right of the main hall were the luggage halls, which had luggage receiving and loading areas. The arrival hall would include a hairdresser's, restrooms, cloakroom, information desk and staircase up to the first floor, which also lead to the restaurant in the departure hall. The auxiliary rooms were located on two different floors in the right wing of the railway station. Rooms and a kitchen for the newly arrived railway workers were to be located on the second and third floors of the two additional railway buildings.

On April 9, 1913, work began on the destruction of the old railway buildings. From an order from a construction manager of the railway station:

“ The walls cannot be broken by solid parts. Disassembling of the brick walls must be executed just in the way by brickwork rows, bricks must be pulled down by chutes to the place of stacking in equal piles. All disassembled materials must be assorted; bricks must be cleaned from old mortar and stacked for calculation. A stacking place of materials in piles before loading into carriages must be outside of the place meant for construction of a new railway station building. ”

In 1914, construction began on the foundation of the railway station building, but was hindered due to the oncoming World War I and the Russian revolution. In 1925, a map of Kiev's railway intersection was drawn out with locations and plans of the new railway buildings. Only in 1927 did the construction of the new railway station begin.

The construction of the main building lasted from 1927-1932. It was designed by O. Verbytsky and constructed in the Constructivist style with additional elements of Ukrainian Baroque. During World War II, the Kiev Railway Station was partially destroyed by the Nazi Army. Oncoming Nazi fighters tried to blow up the building, placing the explosives in the basement, however, the building's strong construction preserved the building.

In 1945-1949, the main building was renovated based off of a project by architect H. Domashenko. In 1945-1955, an underground passage was constructed, which connected the Pryvokzalna Square (Pre-railway Square) with the railway station itself and train platforms. In 1967-1969, the first platform was covered with a 400 metres long, 13 metres wide, which was capable of protecting 1,000 people.

The main building was yet again renovated in 1978-1980 and again in 2001. In the same year, a new and more modernized "Southern Vokzal" building was built nearby. During the reconstruction, new western and eastern passenger tunnels were added, the Church of St. George the Victor was also among the additions, as well as new parking and railway infrastructure.

Name disambiguation

Officially, a "Kyiv-Passazhyrskyi railway station" is regarded as the whole huge complex of passenger terminals, railways, depots etc. with respective personnel. Practically, such installations in post-Soviet countries are widely known as vokzals, which first of all means the building(s) and services immediately serving passengers for various types of ransport. So the official name Kyiv-Passazhyrskyi is never used colloquially, being noted only in tickets, schedules etc.

See also

• Ukrzaliznytsia — the national railway company of Ukraine.
• Darnytsia Railway Station — railway station that is currently being built to ease the traffic at the Kiev Passenger Railway Station.