Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line

Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line
The geographical route of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line
Overview
Type	Rapid transit
System	Moscow Metro
Locale	Moscow
Termini	Mitino (west) Shcholkovskaya (east)
Stations	21
Daily ridership	954,549
Operation
Opened	13 March 1938
Owner	Moskovsky Metropoliten
Operator(s)	Moskovsky Metropoliten
Character	Mostly underground
Rolling stock	81-740/741
Technical
Line length	43.7 kilometres (27.2 mi)
Track gauge	1,520 mm (4 ft 11 5⁄6 in)
Electrification	Third rail
Route map Legend 28.8 Mitino 27.1 Volokolamskaya Mitinsky Metro Bridge across the Moskva River 25.9 Myakinino 22.9 Strogino 16.5 Krylatskoye 14.5 Molodyozhnaya to Kuntsevskaya 12.2 Kuntsevskaya 10.3 Slavyansky Bulvar 7.0 Park Pobedy 3.8 Kiyevskaya 2.7 Smolenskaya 1.0 Arbatskaya to Alexandrovsky Sad 0.8 Ploshchad Revolyutsii to Tverskaya 3.1 Kurskaya 5.3 Baumanskaya 7.1 Elektrozavodskaya 8.2 Semyonovskaya 10.2 Partizanskaya Izmaylovo yard Pervomayskaya (closed) 12.1 Izmaylovskaya 13.8 Pervomayskaya 15.5 Shcholkovskaya

The Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya Line (Russian: Арба́тско-Покро́вская ли́ния) (Line 3) is a line of the Moscow Metro. Chronologically the second to open, now it connects with the district of Mitino and town of Krasnogorsk to the northwest of Moscow with the east of the Russian capital passing through the city centre. Today there are 21 stations on the line, with the latter being 43.7 kilometres long and having the status of the longest line of the system.

History

The history of the west–east axis is one of the most complicated in the Moscow Metro, and is partly due to the politics, namely constant changes of priorities. In 1935, when the first stage opened, a branch was built from Okhotny Ryad to the Smolenskaya Square on the Garden Ring, further extended to the Kiyevsky Rail Terminal in 1937.

In 1938 the branch was split into a separate line, and a 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) stretch connecting Alexander Garden and Kursky Rail Terminal opened. Despite the World War II the construction of the metro continued, and in 1944 three stations of the Pokrovsky radius.

The eastern part of the line was extended three more times, one being a stretch to Pervomayskaya temporary station inside a newly opened depot. It was replaced in 1961 by Izmaylovsky Park, Izmaylovskaya the new Pervomayskaya stations. These three stations demonstrated a change of design priorities strafing away from Stalinist architecture to new minimalism centipede designs of Nikita Khrushchev. The line reached its present terminus in 1963 with an extension to Shcholkovskaya.

The western end of the line has much more complex history. Though first stations of the west end were built sub-surface, given their importance in the centre of Moscow and the threat of a Nuclear War, these would be useless as bomb shelters. So as to solve this problem a decision to build a parallel deep level section, and close the older stations was made. The section was opened in 1953.

The line was planned to be extended west to the District of Fili, but yet another policy change prevented that extension from being built. Nikita Khrushchev was impressed by a large network of surface-level stations during his visit to the United States. Because of that he promoted the idea of building the Filoyvsky Radius at-ground. Filyovskaya Line consisting of four stations was opened in 1958.

Filyovskaya Line turned out to be an ill-attempted experiment and in 2003, more than 50 years after the western terminus opening, Park Pobedy station was opened. It took 15 years to construct the deepest station of the Metro (though most of the time it was conserved due to the shortage of funding in the late 1990s). In 2008 the western part of the line was extended further to the district of Strogino annexing some of the Filyovskaya Line stations and totally extending by approximately 16 kilometres (9.9 mi). In the end of 2009 Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line became the first line of the system to cross the borders of Moscow providing rapid transit service to the city of Krasnogorsk inhabitants.

Timeline

Segment	Date opened	Length
Kiyevskaya – Aleksandrovsky Sad detached from Sokolnicheskaya Line	March 13, 1938	4 km
Aleksandrovsky Sad – Kurskaya	March 13, 1938	4 km
Kurskaya – Partizanskaya	January 18, 1944	7.1 km
Elektrozavodskaya	May 15, 1944	N/A
Ploshchad Revolyutsii – Kiyevskaya	April 5, 1953	3.9 - 4 km*
Partizanskaya – Pervomayskaya (old)	September 24, 1954	1.5 km
Partizanskaya – Pervomayskaya (new)	October 21, 1961	3.8 - 1.5 km**
Pervomayskaya – Shcholkovskaya	July 22, 1963	1.6 km
Kiyevskaya – Park Pobedy	May 6, 2003	3.2 km
Park Pobedy – Kuntsevskaya	January 7, 2008	4.9 km
Kuntsevskaya – Krylatskoye detached from Filyovskaya Line	January 7, 2008	4.3 km
Krylatskoye – Strogino	January 7, 2008	6.6 km
Slavyansky Bulvar	September 7, 2008	N/A
Strogino – Mitino	December 26, 2009	6.6 km
Total	21 stations	44.3 km

* A section to Kiyevskaya via Alexandrovsky Sad was an integral part of the line until 1953.

**Upon the 1961 extension, temporary station Pervomayskaya was closed, along with a segment of track.

Name changes

Station	Previous name(s)	Years
Partizanskaya	Izmaylovsky Park Kultury i Otdykha imeni Stalina	1944–1946
	Izmaylovskaya	1946–1962
	Izmaylovsky Park	1962–2005
Izmaylovskaya	Izmaylovsky Park	1961–1962
Semyonovskaya	Stalinskaya	1944–1961

Transfers

#	Transfer to	At
	Sokolnicheskaya Line	Arbatskaya
	Zamoskvoretskaya Line	Ploshchad Revolyutsii
	Filyovskaya Line	Arbatskaya, Kiyevskaya, Kuntsevskaya
	Koltsevaya Line	Kurskaya, Kiyevskaya
	Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line	Arbatskaya
	Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line	Kurskaya

Rolling stock

The line is served by the Izmailovo depot (#3) and it presently has 43 seven carriage trains assigned to it. Traditionally none of the trains that it received were factory-fresh and most of its rolling stock consisted of old trains models that other lines retired upon upgrade to newer ones, and thus all trains that are retired from this line are sent to the scrapyard, this was seen Am and Bm types in 1975 and the D type in 1995 and is currently taking place with the E type. Nowadays line is being served by 81-74x series 5-car trainsets of .1 and .4 modifications.

Recent events and plans

The West

See also: Strogino–Mitino extension

The existing tracks (black) and the new ones (red) illustrate the complex redevelopment of the Northwestern Moscow rapid transit

In 1953, after the closure of the shallow stations between Ploshchad Revolyutsii and Kievskaya and replacing them with the present deep ones, more westward extensions were to begin. However, Nikita Khrushchev's inspiration after visiting New York Subway prompted all works to be cancelled and the shallow stations to be reopened with a westward surface path creating the Filyovskaya Line. Although the construction of a surface station was fast enough to reach the western districts of Moscow by mid 1960s, the Russian winter climate, took its toll on the operation and management of the Filyovskaya Line.

In addition to that the northwestern districts of Moscow, being Strogino and Mitino housing massifs, which were built in the late 1970s-1980s remain isolated and all of the transit lies on bus and tram routes to Shchukinskaya and Tushinskaya of the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line. Which makes the latter line one of the busiest in the system.

By the mid-1980s it was clear that a complex reconstruction was needed to solve the problem in Western Moscow. Three separate developments were to start. Because the Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya Line had relatively small passenger traffic, it was decided to have it take up the main share of the transit load. For the first part the deep radius would follow the Kutuzovsky Avenue with three stations. Then, the line would annex the western terminal stations of the Filyovskaya Line, and continue to Strogino and Mitino. Work began in the late 1980s, for the opening of the first station (a future cross-platform transfer to the Solntsevsko-Mytishchenskaya chordial line) to open in early 1990s and the remaining part of the bypass by the turn of the decade. However the first station in the bypass was not opened until 2003 (Park Pobedy) and the quantity of the remaining two: Minskaya and Slavyansky Bulvar, were cut to accommodate for only the latter one, which opened in September 2008.

After a long debate on how to accommodate for the junction at Kuntsevskaya, under pressure from the local people, a cross-platform transfer will be set up in the reconstructed surface station, and the remaining Filovskaya stations, Molodyozhnaya and Krylatskoe will be annexed to the APL.

In 1989 the first part of the plan was completed with the extension to Krylatskoye. Then in 2003 the deepest station in the Metro, Park Pobedy was opened as the first part of the southern bypass. In 2008 the stations Slavyansky Bulvar and a redesigned Kuntsevskaya opened and the Filyovskaya Line's underground stations Molodyozhnaya and Krylatskoye were annexed by the Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya Line, nearly doubling its present length and certainely the passenger load. Simultaneously the two station extension to Strogino was completed, which included a combined automobile and Metro tunnel under an ecological preserve - Serebryany Bor (Silver Pinewood).

From there the line continues to Strogino with one interim station Troitse-Lykovo expected to open around 2015. The station Strogino and the following segment, actually would eventually end up with the Stroginsky radius of the Kalininskaya Line when the central segment is completed (not expected to take place before late 2010s or early 2020s). So both Strogino and Mitino will be served by the Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya Line until then.

The East

New escalators on Semyonovskaya

Some of the stations there are very old and many were built during the 1940s, and their age shows clearly in their appearance as well as their operational technology such as escalators. In May 2005 the station Semyonovskaya was closed for a year to replace its escalators and also to completely renovate and upgrade its vestibule. Elektrozavodskaya was closed in May 2007 and re-opened in late November 2008. Such a delay was caused by the supplier of the escalator equipment, who was late with completing the order. The next station in order on the Pokrovsky radius, and also the busiest of them, "Baumanskaya", is likely to be closed down for replacement of escalators in spring 2009, but it is not yet clear, when exactly. Second entrances were also planned for the majority of the stations, but these plans are in fact abolished.

In addition to the renovation works, new stations were planned for the line. In 1938, on the first stage of the line between Kurskaya and Ploshchad Revolyutsii, provisions for two future stations were built. Named Pokrovka and Maroseika, these were planned to be opened at a later date. The latter station in particular would have been very important as it would have facilitated a direct transfer to the Kitay-Gorod station complex with Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya and Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya lines. Construction of these stations is not on the table, although when the Strogino extension opens, the rise in passenger traffic on the line demands them to be built.

In the very east another extension is proposed to Golyanovo. The station Schelkovskaya recently received a very major restoration replacing old ceramic tiles with modern aluminium planes.