Baku Metro

During the final decades of the Russian Empire the port city of Baku became a large metropolis due to the discovery of oil in the Caspian Sea. By the 1930s, it was the capital of the Azerbaijani SSR and the largest city in Soviet Transcaucasia. The first plans for a rapid-transit system date to the 1930s, with the adoption of a new general plan for city development. After World War II, the population passed the one million mark, a requirement of Soviet law for construction of a metro system. In 1947, the Soviet Cabinet of Ministers issued a decree authorizing its construction, which began in 1951. On November 6, 1967, Baku Metro became the Soviet Union's fifth rapid-transit system when the first 6.5 kilometres (4.0 mi) of track and a depot were inaugurated, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution.

Due to the city's unique landscape, Baku Metro did not have the typical Soviet "triangle" layout of development, and instead had two elliptical lines which crossed each other in the center of the city at the Baku railway station. Thus, one line would begin at the southwestern end of the city, and cross on a northeastern axis to follow the residential districts on the northern edge of the city and then snake along to the southeastern and ultimately southern end. This was inaugurated in three stages: Ulduz (1970) and Neftçilər (1972), followed by Ahmedli (1989) and finally Hazi Aslanov (2002), completing the first line. Additionally, in 1970 a branch was opened to a station built in a depot, Bakmil.

The second line was to parallel the Caspian coast from Hazi Aslanov through Baku's industrial districts, meeting the first line again at the Baku Railway Terminal, and then continuing westwards before turning north to join Baku's northwestern districts. To accelerate construction, a branch was opened from May 28 station to Khatai in 1968, and in 1976 in the opposite direction towards Nizami. The second and first line used the same station (May 28). This posed no serious problems initially, as the line was two stations long, but when the second stage opened in 1985, lengthening the line to 8 stations (Memar Ajemi), construction of a transfer was desperately needed.

In 1993, the first stage of the transfer station Jafar Jabbarli came in operation, but the end of the Soviet Union, political unrest, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and the financial collapse which followed effectively paralyzed any construction attempts in Baku. Furthermore, during the mid-1990s, three mass casualty incidents took place: on March 19 and July 3, 1994, terrorist attacks killed 27 people and injured another 91, and on October 28 of the following year a fire in a crowded train killed 289 and injured 265 others, the world's deadliest subway disaster.

In the late 1990s, construction restarted. The first project was the completion of Hazi Aslanov station, partly sponsored by the European Union. In the mid-2000s, construction of the northern end of the second line, abandoned since 1994, was restarted with Nasimi station opening on October 9, 2008.

Officially Baku Metro has two lines, however due to problems with opening the second part of Cəfər Cabbarlı, Baku instead operates as a large four branch system, with trains travelling from Həzi Aslanov to either İçərişəhər or Dərnəgul, branching at May 28 (beneath the main train station). Rare services from both Dərnəgul and İçərişəhər also terminate at Bakmil, but only twice per hour. There is a one-stop second line that operates separately between Cəfər Cabbarlı (essentially different platforms within the same station as May 28) and Şah İsmail Xətai, a shuttle service using only one of the two tracks due to low demand. The second interchange station is “Memar Əcəmi" where Green and Violet Lines cross.

Due to the city's uneven landscape, some stations are very deep, that could double as bomb shelters in case of a nuclear war attack, given that the system was built at the height of the Cold War in the 1950s/early 1960s. All seven of these deep level stations have a standard pylon design. The majority of the system's stations, 13, are shallow pillar-trispans. In addition, one station, Bakmil, is a single platform surface level.

Like many other former Soviet systems, most of the stations of the system are exquisitely decorated; many features advanced Soviet motives in artwork (including mosaics, sculpture and bas-reliefs) and architecture such as those of progress and international culture, whilst others focus on traditional Azeri culture and history. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, several stations were renamed, and some of their decoration was altered to comply with the new ideology.

Ticketing

The system works on a flat fare of 60 gapiks (0.60 AZN) per trip, following a price hike on October 1, 2025. Some Baku residents were reportedly unhappy with the price hike, citing the age of the metro system's infrastructure. Until 2006, metro users accessed the stations with metal (later plastic) tokens placed into turnstiles. In 2006, the Baku Metro introduced an RFID card system using rechargeable fare cards, which require a 2-manat deposit (plus travel credit).

Incidents

1994 bombings

On March 19 and July 3, 1994, bombs killed 27 people and injured 91 others. Three Armenians were later arrested, charged and imprisoned in connection with the incident.

1995 fire

On October 28, 1995, a fire broke out between the Ulduz and Nariman Narimanov stations, killing 289 people and injuring 265 others. The fire was deemed to have been caused by electrical malfunction, but the possibility of sabotage was not excluded. The fire remains the world's deadliest subway disaster in the world.