Yerevan’s Metro stopped running today.

State of Emergency Commandant Tigran Avinyan has ordered that all public transportation in Armenia, except for the railway, be halted until April 12.

Subway supervisor Aghavni Martirosyan finds the order painful.

“Such emptiness hurts. I find it all very sad. I like the hustle and bustle of life. I am saddened by our empty streets and empty subway,” said Martirosyan who’s been working for the metro since 1981, when it was first launched.

She started at the bottom and worked her way to the top. Nothing takes place along the tracks and in the stations without her knowledge.

“Nothing like this has occurred in my forty years of service. Not even in the cold and dark days after independence,” Martirosyan said.

Since the state of emergency was declared, the number of subway passengers has dropped by six-fold. Subways now run every ten minutes compared to the previous five.

Martirosyan says passengers are more tolerant regarding the current wait times.

“Generally, the subway departs at 07:01 am from the Garegin Nzhdeh Station and Barekamutyun. The other day a passenger was waiting for the subway at one of the stations. I sent the local attendant to ask if the person was going to work. Was there a need to send the train early or wait five minutes for people to disembark? Since the passenger was going to work, I had to send the train. We analyze everything,” said Martirosyan.

The supervisor monitors what’s going on at all the subway’s ten stations via cameras.

“I love our metro. But on holidays, when there are loads of passengers, we have to operate the reserve escalators. I love it when the stations are full of movement,” says Martirosyan.

Martirosyan loves to dance and says she was thinking of becoming a professional dancer. Even now, at the command hub, she turns on the music and does a few dance moves to relieve the stress and fatigue that comes with the job. 

Martirosyan says that passengers have become more respectful regarding the metro.  

She recalls that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, passengers tore up their posters. Now, if anyone does something wrong, they are scolded by fellow passengers.

Martirosyan has experienced any number of memorable events involving passengers down in the subway.

“One evening a track attendant cried out that a passenger had fallen on the tracks. ‘Stop the subway and cut the power’, she yelled. So, we stooped the train and cut the power. The passenger’s leg was right near the third rail with 1,000 volts running through. We thought he had died. We removed him from the tracks. The guy then opened his eyes and, in a half daze, started to curse out the attendant. ‘Why did you wake me?’ the drowsy man asked.”