EBRD lends Kyiv €150m for new metro cars, accessibility upgrades and women drivers
The EBRD is lending the City of Kyiv up to €150m, backed by a partial Spanish guarantee, to buy about 65 new metro cars that use up to 25% less energy. The package also funds an accessibility audit and a three-year driver training programme with UN Women.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending the City of Kyiv €150m to buy new metro cars, spare parts, tools and maintenance and diagnostic equipment for the operator Kyivskyi Metropoliten. Announced on 30 September 2026, the loan is backed by a partial guarantee from Spain and complemented by grant funding from the EBRD's own resources (EBRD, 30 September 2026). The new cars are expected to be up to 25% more energy efficient than the ageing ones they replace.
The deal in figures
| Loan | Up to €150m to the City of Kyiv: €100m committed at signing, €50m uncommitted; tenor up to 13 years |
| Grant | €5m from the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund |
| Guarantee | Partial guarantee from Spain's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business |
| Fleet | About 65 new metro cars, out of a fleet of 837 |
| Procurement | Two-stage open tender launched in March 2025 under EBRD rules, still ongoing |
| Energy | Up to 25% less energy than the cars replaced; about 1,253 t of CO2 avoided a year from fleet renewal alone |
| Accessibility | Audit and action plan for more inclusive transport, benefiting 3.2 million people |
| Training | Three-year electric train driver programme with UN Women's She Drives initiative: at least 100 trainees, including at least 50 women |
Sources: EBRD announcement and project board report (EBRD project 56620). The earlier plan was a €50m loan; the amount was tripled (Railway Gazette, 7 October 2026).
A metro that is also a shelter
Kyiv Metro runs three lines, 67.6 km and 52 stations, and carries about 53% of the city's public transport passengers, roughly 0.7 million a day. Ridership has recovered to 249 million in 2025, from 232 million in 2023, but remains about half of the pre-Covid level of around 500 million a year. Its deep stations also serve as shelters during missile and drone attacks, and services were disrupted again after Russian strikes on a bridge on 1 October 2026.
Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said the city and the EBRD are carrying out four projects worth €290m in total, covering urban transport and district heating. Since February 2022, the EBRD has made almost €11bn available to Ukraine.
An engineer's view
About 65 cars is less than 8% of the 837-car fleet: this is a first tranche, not a fleet replacement. The EBRD itself says replacing obsolete cars is now cheaper than extending their life, which says a lot about the state of the Soviet-era stock. Integration will be the hard part. New cars must work with the existing ALS-ARS cab signalling and the traction power supply, and the tender's two-stage format suggests technical compliance on those points is being checked before price competition. Energy efficiency (regenerative braking, modern traction converters) also matters in a city where power supply is a wartime target.
The staff programme is just as practical: the metro faces driver shortages, and the She Drives scheme widens recruitment to women at a time when many men are mobilised.
Related reading
- World Rail Market Study 2026: a €266.8bn market
- Riyadh orders more driverless metro trains from Alstom
- Rail industry events calendar 2026-2028
FAQ
How much is the EBRD lending to Kyiv Metro?
Up to €150m (€100m committed at signing), plus a €5m grant, with a partial guarantee from Spain.
How many new metro cars will Kyiv buy?
About 65 cars, according to the EBRD board report, out of a fleet of 837.
What is She Drives?
A UN Women initiative. With the EBRD, it supports a three-year training programme for electric train drivers at Kyiv Metro, for at least 100 trainees including at least 50 women.
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TrainsNews est un média indépendant et bilingue d'actualité ferroviaire mondiale, publié depuis 2024. La rédaction couvre la grande vitesse, le matériel roulant, l'infrastructure, la signalisation et les télécoms ferroviaires (ERTMS/ETCS, CBTC, FRMCS, GSM-R), l'exploitation, le fret et le financement des projets. Chaque article cite ses sources et donne les chiffres avec leur total. TrainsNews is an independent, bilingual (French/English) news outlet covering the global rail industry since 2024: high-speed rail, rolling stock, infrastructure, signalling and telecoms, operations, freight and project financing. Every article cites its sources.
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