Tehran - Iran - page 145

Azadi to Tehran Pars : Links the centre of town with Azadi Sq in the west and, most
usefully, Terminal-e Shargh (eastern bus terminal).
METRO
Tehran's fast-expanding Tehran Metro ( www.tehranmetro.com ) is transforming the way
the city moves and cutting journey times by up to an hour on some cross-town trips. The
plan is for nine Metro lines to eventually criss-cross the entire city. At the time of writing
five lines were at least partially complete and another under construction.
Tickets cost US$0.20 per single trip journey, or US$0.35 if you need to change lines.
Ten-trip (US$1.40), one-day (US$4), three-day (US$8) and seven- and 30-day contactless
cards are also available. Trains start at about 6am (7am on Fridays and holidays) and stop
by 11pm. Services are most frequent and crowded during peak hours. The first and last
carriages of every service are for women only, though women are free to travel in any oth-
er carriage. Station announcements are in Farsi only, so keep an eye on the English maps
inside the trains.
TEHRAN METRO: A CITY'S SAVIOUR
It's no overstatement to say the Tehran Metro is the only hope of salvation for a city literally choking to death on
chronic pollution and endless traffic jams.
Tehran's Metro was first proposed in 1974 and French companies had begun work when the revolutionary gov-
ernment cancelled the contracts in 1981, with just 2km of tunnel completed. It wasn't until 1999 that the first line
(Line 5) was eventually opened. By then everyone agreed Tehran's congestion and pollution problems had begun to
affect all aspects of life. With four-hour commutes for trips of less than 15km not uncommon, expanding the Metro
became a top priority.
When the first underground sections opened, a shortage of carriages soon made peak hours a Tokyo-style squeeze
and, inside the carriages, a frotteur's paradise. It's only marginally better today. Since then, progress has been slow
but steady, with more than 70 stations operating on five lines, a number scheduled to grow by at least 20 by 2015
when it is hoped half of all journeys in Tehran will be by Metro. The full nine-line network is forecast to be com-
pleted by 2031 when a staggering 370km of tunnel will make it longer than the New York subway.
Already more than 2.5 million people ride the Metro each day and the benefits are plain to see. Countless millions
are saved on fuel, stress and pollution-related health costs (though this is relative, of course, to how terrible it would
be if all these people were on the roads), not to mention the increased productivity.
Line 1 is the most useful for travellers. It runs between Kahrizak, just beyond Imam
Khomeini's tomb in the far south, and Tajrish in the far north, via a main junction of
Imam Khomeini Sq. Tajrish in the north is the jumping-off point for Darband, Tochal and