Lybidska is the 27th station of the KievMetro system that serves the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The station was opened as part of the Obolonsko–Teremkivska Line on December 30, 1984, located in between the Palats "Ukrayina" and Demiivska stations. The station provides passenger access to the Dzerzhynskoho Square, under which it is located. It served as the line's southern terminus for 26 years until 2010, when the line was extended to Vasylkivska. After the fall of Soviet Unionin the beginning of the 1990s, the station was renamed "Lybidska" after the name of a nearby river—Lybid, on February 2, 1993. In 2011, the station has been listed as "newly discovered objects of cultural heritage," and monuments of architecture, town planning, and art. In May 2016 it was decided that the Soviet decorative piece at the end of the central hall will be removed to be displayed at a museum due to 2015 decommunization laws. , Lybidska has a daily ridership of 28,500, and is operational every day from 05:48 to 00:00.
Construction
Originally, a metro station was not planned to be built in the area, since there was no large residential neighborhoods or important transport junctions nearby. During the planning process, the station carried the name of "Ploshcha Dzerzhynskoho" or "Zavod Imeni Dzerzhynskoho," although the name was simplified and settled upon Dzerzhynska, named after Felix Dzerzhynsky, communist politician of the Soviet Union. However, the station was built as a temporary terminus, owing to the complexity of the hydro-geological situation in the area that would become the Holosiivska extension of the Obolonsko–Teremkivska Line. The line's extension southwards stretched on for more than 15 years, which became a major issue for commuters during rush hours. The station was one of the busiest terminus stations since many bus and marshrutka routes were routed through its vicinity, connecting commuters with areas on the outskirts of Kiev which were lacking metro access. When the Holosiivska extension was inaugurated on December 15, 2010, the station was no longer a terminus.
Design
Lybidska was designed by a team of architects including Valentyn Ezhov, Anatoliy Krushynskyi, Tamara Tselikovska, Oleksiy Panchenko, in addition to artists Ernest Kotkov, Nikolai Bartossik. Prior to its renaming, the station featured a large bas-relief by M. Vronsky depicting Dzerzhinsky himself, although it was removed shortly after the station was renamed. Located at a depth of underground, Lybidska was designed as a deep column station that features a three separate halls—a central hall, and two platform halls—which are separated from each other by a row of columns. The row of columns in the station is unique in that it was designed as a double row, leaving an empty space in between each of the two rows. The station doesn't have an above-ground vestibule on the Lybidska Square and only has one exit, which is connected to the station's central hall by an escalator tunnel.
