Oral History of Mashhad Subway in the First Station

Gholam Reza Azari Khakestar
Translated by: Maryam Shally

2015-8-1

In commemoration of Subway opening day in Mashhad (Winter 89)

Expansion of population and cities have led to the subject of municipal traffic and become the most important concern for municipal managers. Subway is one of the underground public transportation systems that has an outstanding role in transporting of passengers and obviating the traffic jam.

* Subway background in the world dates back to the January 10^th in 1863(1). In this year the oldest underground public transportation system in the world has been exploited in London. The first London subway line was metropolitan that was started in the center of this city.                                                                                                                                       About 147 years after metropolitan, the first subway was established in Mashhad (A Religious Metropolis in Khorassan, Iran). Comprehensive transportation researches in Mashhad were done between 1994 and 1999 by Transportation Institute of Sharif Industrial University due to the traffic problems and passengers’ transporting. Studies show that, Mashhad requires a 4-line subway. Executive operation of the first line was started in the mid-2000. Establishment of the first line (from Vakil Abad to Nakhrisi Square) was finished in 2007 and also, this line was exploited after ten years in March 2010. The passengers are served 16 hours in a day by the first line with 170.000 capacities.

Issues and management experience on subway caused to form subway oral history plan in Mashhad based on the memories and experience of managers, developers and crews of this project. The goal of subway oral history plan in Mashhad and interviewing with operating staff is recording their experience and knowledge in order to modify the interviews to valuable sources for researches and managers in this realm to help the history and recording of this industry.

The most important aims of this plan are:

1. The importance of specifying subway in public transportation of Mashhad

2. Subway role in expansion of Mashhad Municipal

3. Specifying the way of plan operation

4. Consultant and developers’ role in operating Mashhad subway project

5.  Interviewing with establisher of Mashhad subway

6. Making photo, interview and document archive

Establishing of Mashhad subway and its wagon manufacturing process, expenses and manager experience are considered by oral history. Researching process of this plan has been finished and the initial interviews are being done by oral history experts who most of them are history post-graduate and Ph.D. candidates. After interviews, implementation and editing of plan outcome will be published and distributed.

Note:

(1) On 10 January 1863, The Metropolitan Railway opens the world's first underground railway, between Paddington (then called Bishop's Road) and Farringdon Street.

Montage of the Metropolitan Railway's stations from Illustrated London News December 1862, the month before the railway opened