Moscow Metro

Moscow Metro
File:Moscow metro.png
Overview
Locale	City of Moscow, Russia
Transit type	Electrified Metro Railway
Number of lines	12
Number of stations	173
Daily ridership	6.8 million
Operation
Began operation	1935
Operator(s)	Moskovsky Metropoliten
Technical
System length	282.4 km / 175.5 miles
Track gauge	1,520 mm

Moscow Metro (Russian: Московский метрополитен), which spans almost the entire Russian capital, is one of the world's most heavily used metro systems. It is well known for the ornate design of many of its stations, which contain beautiful examples of socialist realist art.

Description of the Metro

Kiyevskaya station

In total, the Moscow Metro has 282.5 km of route length, 12 lines and 173 stations; on a normal weekday it carries over 7 million passengers. Passenger traffic is considerably lower on weekends bringing the average daily passenger traffic during the year to 6.8 million passengers per day. The Moscow Metro is a state-owned enterprise.

Each line is identified by an alphanumeric index (usually consisting of just a number), a name, and a colour. The voice announcements refer to lines by name, while in colloquial usage they are mostly referred to by colour, except the Lyublinskaya Line (number 10) and the Kakhovskaya Line (number 11) which have been assigned shades of green similar to that of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line (number 2). Most lines run radially through the city, except the Koltsevaya Line (number 5), which is a 20-km-long ring connecting all the radial lines and a few smaller lines outside. On all lines, travellers can determine the direction of the train by the gender of the announcer: on the ring line, a male voice indicates clockwise travel, and a female voice counter-clockwise. On the radial lines, travellers heading toward the centre of Moscow will hear male-voiced announcements, and travellers heading away will hear female-voiced announcements (a good mnemonic rule here is: ‘your boss calls you to work; your wife calls you home’). In addition, there is an abundance of signs showing all the stations that can be reached in a given direction.

The system was built almost entirely underground, although some lines (numbers 1, 2 and 4) cross the Moskva river, while line number 1 also crosses the Yauza River by bridge. Other exceptions include the Filyovskaya Line, which has a long surface section (seven stations) between Kievskaya and Molodyozhnaya stations, and the Butovskaya Light Metro Line (L1) with 4 elevated stations. Two more stations exist on surface level on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line and on the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line

The Moscow Metro is open from about 5:30 until 1:00 (the opening time may vary at different stations according to first train schedule but all stations close for entrance simultaneously at 1:00). During peak hours, trains run roughly every 90 seconds on most lines. At other times during the day, they run about every two to three and a half minutes, and every six to ten minutes late at night. As trains are so frequent, there is no timetable available to passengers.

The Lines of the Moscow Metro

The colours in the table correspond to the colours of the lines in the map above.

Metro lines

Name	Number and colour	Cyrillic Name	Line completion	Newest station added	Length	Stations
Sokolnicheskaya	1	Сокольническая	1935	1990	26.2 km	19
Zamoskvoretskaya	2	Замоскворецкая	1938	1985	36.9 km	20
Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya	3	Арбатско-Покровская	1938	2003	22.6 km	13
Filyovskaya	4	Филёвская	1958 1	2006	19.0 km	15
Koltsevaya	5	Кольцевая	1950	1954	19.4 km	12
Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya	6	Калужско-Рижская	1958	1990	37.6 km	24
Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya	7	Таганско-Краснопресненская	1966	1975	35.9 km	19
Kalininskaya	8	Калининская	1979	1986	13.1 km	7
Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya	9	Серпуховско-Тимирязевская	1983	2002	41.5 km	25
Lyublinskaya	10	Люблинская	1995	2007	21.2 km	11
Kakhovskaya	11	Каховская	1995 2	1969	3.4 km	3
Butovskaya	L1*	Бутовская	2003	2003	5.5 km	5
Total:					282.4 km	173

Notes

¹ – Four central stations of Filyovskaya Line – Komintern, Arbatskaya, Smolenskaya and Kievskaya – were originally opened in 1935/37, when they were a branch of Sokolnicheskaya Line. Between 1938 and 1953, they were part of Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line. The stations were closed between 1953 and 1958 and then reopened as part of the (new) Filyovskaya Line.

² – All 3 stations of the Kakhovskaya Line were built in 1969; initially, they were an integral part of the Zamoskovoretskaya Line until 1983, becoming a branch of it until 1995. In 1995, they were split off from the Zamoskovoretskaya Line and used to form the Kakhovskaya Line.

* – L in L1 does not stand for Light Rail but, somewhat confusingly, for "Light Metro" — lines that are built mainly above-ground. These lines, as a result, do not need expensive tunnelling and are supposed to be financially "light". However, "light" and "normal" metro lines use interoperable rolling stock. See Butovskaya Light Metro Line for further explanation.

The 4.7 km, 6 station monorail line between Timiryazevskaya and VDNKh is currently in "excursion mode": trains leave once every 20 minutes, tickets cost about four times more than usual (50 rubles - about $1.70), and the hours of operation are 8:00-20:05. It is not yet known when (or whether) it will become fully operational.

Ticketing

Tickets are available for a fixed number of journeys, irrespective of the distance of travel and the number of lines changed. Monthly and yearly tickets are also available. Once a passenger has entered the Metro system, there are no further ticket checks - one can ride any number of stations and make transfers freely. Fare enforcement takes place entirely at the points of entry.

The Moscow Metro uses magnetic cards (contact cards) for tickets with a fixed number of journeys (up to 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 60 and 70 journeys for 30 days from the day of the first journey). Currently (Oct, 2007) the cost of 1 ride is 17 roubles (68 US cents), starting with 5 ride cards there are small discounts. Magnetic cards were introduced in 1993 as a test and were used as unlimited tickets between 1996 and 1998. The sale of magnetic cards will stop in 2008. In January 2007, Moscow Metropolitan began replacing magnetic cards with fixed number of journeys by contactless cards. Since January 20 2007 contactless cards are available for 10, 20 and 60 journeys versions. Smartcards are being used in Moscow Metro since 1998 and are called Transport Cards. Transport Cards was available as 'unlimited' and 'social' tickets. The unlimited card can be programmed for 30, 90, and 365 days. The social cards are free for elderly people (who are officially registered as residents of Moscow city or Moscow area) and some privileged categories of citizens; they are available to school pupils and students at a heavily reduced price. Transport Cards were introduced in 1998 along with a new type of magnetic card. The Moscow Metro became the first metro system in Europe to fully implement smartcards on September 1 1998. The sale of tokens ended on 1 January 1999 and they stopped being accepted in February 1999.

History

Main article: History of the Moscow Metro

Mayakovskaya Station

The Moscow Metro was initially built under the 1930s Moscow general plan designed by Lazar Kaganovich and was initially named after him ("Metropoliten im. L.M. Kaganovicha").

First Stage

The first line opened on May 15 1935 between Sokolniki and Park Kultury with a branch to Smolenskaya which reached Kievskaya in April 1937 (crossing the Moskva river by bridge). The construction of the first stations was based on other underground systems, and only a few original designs were allowed: (Krasniye Vorota, Okhotniy Ryad and Kropotkinskaya). Kievskaya station was the first to use national motifs.

File:Soldiers moscow metro.jpg

Soldiers helping with construction of the Metro

Second Stage

The second stage was completed before the war. In March 1938 the Arbatskaya branch was split in two and extended to Kurskaya station (now the dark-blue Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line). In September 1938 the Gorkovskaya Line opened between Sokol and Teatralnaya. Here the architecture was based on the most popular of the stations already in existence (Krasniye Vorota, Okhotnyi Ryad and Kropotkinskaya) and the compositions followed the popular art deco style, though merging it with socialist visions. The first deep level Column station Mayakovskaya was built at the same time.

Third Stage

Building work on the third stage was delayed but not interrupted during the World War II, and two Metro sections were put into service: Teatralnaya - Avtozavodskaya (3 stations, crossing the Moskva river in a deep tunnel) and Kurskaya - Partizanskaya (4 stations) were inaugurated in 1943 and 1944 respectively. War motifs replaced socialist visions in the architectural design of the stations.

During the Siege of Moscow, in the autumn and winter of 1941, metro stations were used as air-raid shelters and the Council of Ministers moved its offices to the platforms of Mayakovskaya, where Stalin made public speeches on several occasions. Chistiye Prudy station was also walled off and the headquarters of the Air Defence installed there.

Fourth Stage

The majestic Komsomolskaya-Koltsevaya station

After the war, construction started on the fourth stage of the Metro, which included the Koltsevaya Line and a deep part of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line from Ploshchad Revolyutsii to Kievskaya, and a surface extension to Pervomaiskaya in the early 1950s. The exquisite decoration and design of so much of the Moscow Metro is considered to have reached its peak in these stations.

The Koltsevaya Line was planned first as a line running under the Sadovoye Koltso (Garden Ring), a wide avenue encircling the borders of Moscow's city centre. The first part of the line - from Park Kultury to Kurskaya (1950) - follows this avenue. But later plans were changed and the northern part of the ring line deviates 1-1.5 km outside the Sadovoye Koltso, thus providing service for 7 (out of 9) rail terminals. The next part of the Koltsevaya line opened in 1952 (Kurskaya - Belorusskaya) and in 1954 the ring line was completed.

There is an interesting urban legend about the origin of the ring line. A group of engineers approached Stalin with plans for the Metro, to inform him of current progress and of what was being done at that moment. As he looked at the drawings, Stalin poured himself some coffee and spilt a small amount over the edge of the cup. When he was asked whether or not he liked the project so far, he put his cup down on the centre of the Metro blueprints and left in silence. The bottom of the cup left a brown circle on the drawings. The planners looked at it and realized that it was exactly what they had been missing. Taking it as a sign of Stalin's genius, they gave orders for the building of the ring line, which on the plans was always printed in brown. This legend, of course, may be attributed to Stalin's cult of personality.

Arbatskaya station

During the Cold War

The beginning of the Cold War led to the construction of a deep part of the Arbatskiy line. The stations on this line are very deep and were planned as shelters in the event of nuclear war. After finishing the line in 1953, the upper tracks between Ploshchad Revolyutsii' and Kievskaya were closed and later reopened in 1958 as a part of the Filyovskaya Line. In the further development of the Metro, the term "stages" was not used any more, although sometimes the stations opened in 1957-1959 are referred to as the "fifth stage".

During the late 1950s, the architectural extravagance of new metro stations was significantly toned down, and decorations at some stations, like VDNKh and Alexeyevskaya, were greatly simplified compared with original plans. This was done on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev, who favoured a more spartan decoration scheme. A typical layout (which quickly became known as "Sorokonozhka") was developed for all new stations, and the stations were built to look almost identical, differing from each other only in colours of the marble and ceramic tiles. Most of these stations were very poorly built. It was not until the mid-1970s that architectural extravagance was restored, and original designs once again became popular.

Fares history

The cost of journeys has been steadily rising after 1991. Under Soviet control, the cost of a single journey was 5 kopecks, practically a free ride (1/20th of a Soviet ruble - and worth about US $0.002 at todays exchange rate, $0.08 at the Soviet official exchange rate). With the fall of communism, the price rapidly rose to 1 ruble. Subsequent inflation caused the price in rubles to rise considerably to the current (2007) 9 to 17 rubles per trip.

Recent Developments

Since the turn of the century, several projects have been completed, and more are underway. The first one was the Anino-Butovo extension, which consisted of extending the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line from Prazhskaya to Ulitsa Akademika Yangelya (2000), Anino (2001) and Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo (2002). Afterwards a new elevated Butovskaya Light Metro Line was inagurated in 2003.

Another major project was the reconstruction of the Vorobyovy Gory station, which initially opened in 1959 was forced to close in 1983 after the concrete used to build the bridge turned out to be defective. After many years, the station was rebuilt anew and re-opened in 2002.

A more recent major project included building a branch off the Filyovskaya Line to the Moscow International Business Centre. This included Delovoy Tsentr (2005) and Mezhdunarodnaya, opened in 2006.

After many years of bulding the long-awaited Lyublinskaya Line extension was inagurated with Trubnaya in August 2007, with Sretensky Bulvar to follow afterwards.

The major Strogino-Mitino extension (see future plans below) began with Park Pobedy in 2003. The main segments are however due to open in December 2007.

Newest stations

• 
  Trubnaya (2007)
• 
  Park Pobedy (2003)
• 
  Mezhdunarodnaya (2006)
• 
  Delovoy Tsentr (2005)

The system

Ulitsa Gorchakova of the Butovskaya Light Metro Line

The Moscow Metro has a broad gauge of 1520 mm, like ordinary Russian railways, and a third rail supply of 825V AC. The average distance between stations is 1800 m, the shortest (502 metres) section being between Delovoy Center and Mezhdunarodnaya and the longest (3,413 metres) between Volgogradskiy Prospekt and Tekstilshchiki. The long distances between stations have the positive effect of a commercial cruising speed of 41.7 km/h.

Since the beginning of Moscow metro, platforms have been built to be at least 155 m long, so as to accommodate eight-car trains. The only exceptions are certain stations of Filyovskaya line: Delovoi Tsentr, Mezhdunarodnaya, Studencheskaya, Kutuzovskaya, Fili, Bagrationovskaya, Filyovsky Park, Pionerskaya, which only allow six-car trains (note that this list includes all ground-level stations of Filyovskaya line, except Kuntsevskaya).

Trains on lines 2, 6, 7 and 9 consist of eight cars, on lines 1, 3, 8, 10 of seven cars and on lines 4, 5 and 11 of six cars. All cars (both older E-series and newer 81-series) are 19.6 m long with four doors on either side.

The Moscow Metro train is identical to those used in all other ex-Soviet Metro cities (St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Minsk, Kiev, Kharkov, etc.) and in Budapest, Prague, Sofia and Warsaw.

Line L1 is called the "Light metro". It was designed to its own standards and has shorter (96 m) platforms. It employs newer Rusich trains, which consist of three articulated cars, but it can also be served by traditional four-car trains. Rolling stock on the Filyovskaya Line is also replaced with four-car Rusich trains.

The Moscow metro comprises 173 stations, of which 72 are deep-level, and 87 are shallow. Of the deep stations, 55 are pylon-type, 16 are column-type and one is "single-vault" (Leningrad technology). The shallow stations comprise 65 of the pillar-type (a large portion of them following the infamous "sorokonozhka" design), 19 "single-vaults" (Kharkov technology) and three single-decked. In addition there are 10 ground-level stations and four above ground. Two of the stations exist as double halls, and two have three tracks. Five of the stations have side platforms (only one of them-subterranean). The station Vorobyovy Gory is on a bridge. Three other metro bridges exist but are covered or hidden. In addition there are two closed stations and one that is derelict.

There are also four stations, reserved for future service: Volokolamskaya of Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line, Delovoi Tsentr of Kalininskaya and Solntsevskaya lines and Park Pobedy of Solntsevskaya line. Besides these, there are two abandoned stations: old Kaluzhskaya and old Pervomayskaya.

Numbers of Moscow Metro

Latest numbers from official site.

The Rusich (81-740/81-741) train, on the left, now can be found on the oldest stations, among the oldest serving E-series cars

Passengers	2475.6 million passengers
— privileged category	917.3 million passengers
—— students and schoolchildren	254.6 million passengers
Maximum daily ridership	9142.5 thousand passengers
Revenue from fares (2005)	15997.4 million rubles
Route length	282.5 km
Number of lines	12
Longest line	Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line (41.2 km)
Shortest line	Kakhovskaya Line (3.3 km)
Longest section	Volgogradskiy Prospekt–Tekstilshchiki (3.4 km)
Shortest section	Delovoy Tsentr–Mezhdunarodnaya (502 m)
Number of stations	173
— transfer stations	57
— transfer points	26
— surface/elevated	14
Deepest station	Park Pobedy (84 m)
Most shallow underground station	Pechatniki
Station with the longest platform	Vorobyevy Gory (282 m)
Number of stations with a single entrance	70
Total number of entrances	267
— with surface vestibules	118
Total area of cladding	754.3 thousand sq. m.
— with marble tiles	340.1 thousand sq. m.
— with granite tiles	68.6 thousand sq. m.
— with different tiles	210.7 thousand sq. m.
— Other cladding materials	134.9 thousand sq. m.
Number of turnstiles with automatic control on entrances	2374
Number of stations with escalators	122
Number of escalators	624
— including Monorail stations	18
Total length of all escalator	65.2 km
Number of depots	15
Total number of train runs per day	9915
Average speed:
— commercial	41.71 km/h
— technical (2005)	48.85 km/h
Total number of cars (average per day)	4428
Cars in service (average per day)	3397
Total run of cars	679.6 million car-kilometres
— with passengers	649.5 million car-kilometres
Average run of cars per day	548.1 car-kilometres
Average passengers per car	53 people
Longest escalator	126 m (Park Pobedy)
Total number of ventilation shafts	393
Number of local ventilation systems in use	4965
Number of medical assistance points (2005)	46
Total number of employees	34792 people
— males	18291 people
— females	16448 people
Timetable fulfilment	99.96 %
Minimum average interval	90 sec
Average passenger trip	13.0 km

Metro 2

Main article: Moscow Metro 2

Although this has not been officially confirmed, many independent studies suggest that a second, deeper metro system exists under military jurisdiction and is designed for emergency evacuation of key city personnel in case of attack. It is believed that it consists of a single track and connects the Kremlin, chief HQ (Genshtab), Lubyanka (FSB Headquarters) and the Ministry of Defence, as well as numerous other secret installations. There are also entrances to the system from several civilian buildings such as the Russian State Library, Moscow State University (MSU) and at least two stations of the regular metro. It is speculated that these would allow for the evacuation of a small number of randomly chosen civilians, in addition to most of the elite military personnel. The only known junction between the secret system and normal Metro is behind the station Sportivnaya of the Sokolnicheskaya Line. The final section of this system was completed in 1997.([1])

Fatal incidents

Although the Metro is a complex system, it has a very low rate of accidents. On March 30 1983, several passengers were killed when two trains collided in the Belorusskaya station on the Koltsevaya Line. A senior official of the Moscow metro told foreign reporters there had been no accident and that the closing of the station had been due to a breakdown of rolling stock.

Terrorist bombing of 1977

On January 8 1977, a bomb was reported to have killed seven and seriously injured 33. It went off on a crowded train passing the tunnel between Izmailovskaya and Pervomaiskaya stations Three Armenians were later arrested, charged and executed in connection with the incident.

Station fires of 1981

In June 1981, seven bodies were seen being taken out of Oktyabrskaya station during a fire at the station. A fire was also reported at Prospekt Mira station around that time.

Escalator accident of 1982

Main article: Aviamotornaya

A fatal accident took place on 17 February 1982 due to an escalator collapse at the Aviamotornaya station of the Kalininskaya Line. That day 8 people lost their lives, and 30 more were seriously injured, due to the pile-up caused by the faulty emergency brakes. [2]

Terrorist bombing of 2004

On February 6 2004, an explosion wrecked a train between Avtozavodskaya and Paveletskaya stations on line 2 of the metro, killing 42 and wounding 250. Chechen terrorists were immediately blamed. Later investigation concluded that a Karachay-Cherkessian resident, an Islamic militant, had committed a suicide bombing.

Recent events

On May 25 2005, a city-wide blackout halted some lines. The following lines continued operations: Sokol'nicheskaya, Zamoskvoretskaya from Avtozavodskaya to Rechnoy Vokzal, Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, Filyovskaya, Kol'tsevaya, Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya from Bitsevskiy Park to Oktyabrskaya-Radialnaya and from Prospekt Mira-Radialnaya to Medvedkovo, Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya, Kalininskaya, Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya from Serpukhovskaya to Altufyevo, Lyublinskaya from Chkalovskaya to Dubrovka. Trains did not run on Kakhovskaya and Butovskaya lines.

On March 19 2006, a construction pile from an unauthorized billboard installation was driven through the roof of the tunnel hitting a train between the Sokol and Voikovskaya stations on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. No injuries were reported.

Yauza train

Expansion plans

Current

Official site. As of 2007-2009 metro expansion program.

Presently, the Moscow Metro has a set expansion programme that is due to be completed by 2015. Major projects include:

• Strogino-Mitino extension:A complex redevelopment which would see the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line, first extend from Park Pobedy to Kuntsevskaya, where a new cross-platform transfer set will be built, annex the end of the Filoyvskaya Line including stations Krylatskoye and Molodyozhnaya and continue northwards to Strogino (in total 11.5 km, to open in late December 2007). The second stage will further extend the line to Myakininskaya and Volokolamskaya in 2009 (4.2 km), part of the track will include a new Metro Bridge across the Moskva River. The third and final part will be Mitino itself with two more stations, Mitino and Rozhdestveno and a new depot, to be completed by 2011. Two stations will be left out initially and will later be completed, these are Slavyansky Bulvar (to be completed by May 2008) and Troitse-Lykovo (no date announced yet).

• Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line: The long-delayed second and third stages of the line are finally being built. The first part of the Second Stage began with the opening of Trubnaya in late August 2007. Station Sretensky Bulvar which was left out due to difficulties in escalator tunnel will be compelted sometime in November of this year. The Second stage will finish with the stations Dostoyevskaya and Marina Roshcha in 2009 (3.0 km). The Third stage will be the Dmitrovsky Radius which will first open in 2013 with four stations: Sheremetyevskaya, Butyrsky Khutor, Petrovsko-Razumovskaya and Likhobory (8.0 km) along with a new depot. From there it is expected that another extension will follow though the final positions of the stations have not been confirmed nor their names: Seligerskaya, Yubileynaya, Degunino and Severnaya. This will open after 2015.

• Brateyevo-Zyablikovo extension: A simultaneous project of the Zamoskvoretskaya and Lyublinskaya Lines. The former will extend by one station to Brateyevo (2.9 km) along with a new depot, and the latter by three :Borisovo, Shipilovskaya and Zyablikovo (4.3 km), with a transfer point at Krasnogvardeyskaya-Zyablikovo. The new stations will considerably relieve the south end of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line. Construction has began back in the late 1990s, but since 2001 was frozen, it is due to be restarted in 2008 with the potential of opening in 2010.

• Zhulebino-Kosino extension. Originally reserved for Light Metro lines, the questionable success of the BLLM, meant that in an attempt to relieve one of the busiest terminus stations of the Perovsky and Tagansky radii (Novogireyevo and Vykhino respectively), both lines would extend by one station beyond the MKAD: Kalininskaya Line to Novokosino in 2011 (3.2 km) and Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line to Zhulebino in 2012 (3.4 km). Both regions are territorially within the municipality of Moscow but lie outside the Moscow Orbital Highway.

• Light Metro lines. Originally developed as a way of reducing costs by building an elevated Metro path that would bring the Metro to distant regions of Moscow, the first, and only one of these, the Butovskaya Light Metro Line has recieved a fare share of critcism from various sectors. It also meant that future extensions and new Light Metro lines have been postponed for a long period of time.
  • For BLLM this includes constructing an underground extension northwards to Bitsevsky Park which will offer a transfer to the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line (5.0 km, planned for 2010), and a southwards three station extension (also 5.0 km in length) that would include a new depot: Ulitsa Staropotapovskaya, Ulitsa Ostafyevskya, Novokuryanovo.
  • The other line that was approved was the Solntsevskaya Light Metro Line(SLLM), construction of which was to be began back in 2004, but as of present no work is yet carried out. Moscow Metro Administartion now announces 2014 as the opening year, and plans to open 6 stations with 11.9 km in length. (Initially it was eight stations). However the line might not be built at all as there is an older project (see below) that exists in delivering a "classic" Metro to Solntsevo.

• Ghost Stations. Moscow Metro does not gohst stations in the conventional definition as of the three stations that were closed, two Pervomayskaya (1954-61) and Kaluzhskaya (1964-74), were built as temporary inside a depot, and closed after the parent line extended and one Leninskiye Gory, was built on a bridge, that due to faulty concrete had to be closed and new flyovers built to let the trains by-pass, was rebuilt anew and opened in 2002 as Vorobyovy Gory. However there were several stations that were left out, some later completed yet some to this day exist as provisions. The most famous of these was Volokolamskaya, which was actually built but never open due to a lack of need for it. (Right now it is planned that it might be opened sometime in 2015-2020 after the empty Tushino airfield is re-developed). Other stations that have high chance of openings are Maroseyka on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line that will offer transfer to Kitay-Gorod, Yakimanka on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line (transfer to Polyanka) and Suvorovskaya on the Koltsevaya Line that was to be built with Dostoyevskaya but has since been put off until the Third stage of the LDL is complete. An exception is Tekhnopark which will be built on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line's surface stretch in 2009, the first station that is wholly sponsored by a private investor.

Distant Projects

It is unknown when and if these will be built, but nonetheless they do exist:

• Kalininskaya Line's western extension, has the most probable chance of being realised, the line will extend from Tretyakovskaya to Otozhenka, Kadashevskaya, reunite the Smolenskaya stations in one single transfer unit, and then continue westwards through the Moscow-City business centre, where already an empty set of platforms has been built, and then along the Khoroshovo Highway. The project is not yet clear how it will pass onto it, but it will eventually dock with Strogino, where a provision for the second parallel station is being constructed right now with the opening of the first station, and annex the line up to Mitino which will be built by then.
• Solntsevsko-Mytishcheskaya Chordial Line. An equally ambitious project, that will begin in the city of Mytishchi and continue along the Yaroslavl Highway, through a cross-platform transfer at VDNKh, and cross all of the northern radii: (Butyrsky Khutor, Savyolovskaya, Dinamo, Ul. 1905 Goda) take up the remaining unused platforms at Delovoy Tsentr and hence unite the transfer point as a single unit between the Kalininskaya and the Filyovskaya Lines, take up the second unused tracks at Park Pobedy and continue south-westwards along the Michurinsky Avenue to Solntsevo. However despite the clear advantages it would offer, there are now serious doubts whether it will be realised, as the SLLM above is already in planning (although delayed), there is now a fast connection to Mytishchi via the Sputnik rail link from the Yaroslavsky Rail Terminal, and now a new programme was announced to continue the Filyovskaya Line from Mezhdunarodnaya to Savyolovskaya which would effectively duplicate the path.
• Second (large) Ring Possibly the most famous of the projects which dates back to the 1960s, and it does what it says, to build a second ring line 3-6 stations along the radii away from the current Koltsevaya Line. Although presently there are clear provisions on several stations, including Bratislavskaya and the whole Kakhovskaya Line as well as the segment Cherkizovskaya, Ulitsa Podbelskogo of the Sokolnicheskaya Line (alowing it to in turn expand westwards into Izmaylovo), there are questions asked on if it will actually take some, if any of the stated sections, as Moscow Metro Administartion has recently stated it wants to build a "second transfer countour" closer to the city centre, and announced a plan to continue from Mezhdunarodaya to Savylovskaya, that would form the basis of the new ring line. Thus today the Second ring project is as distant today as it was 40 years ago.

See also

• List of rapid transit systems
• Moscow Metro 2
• Moscow Metro Ridership Statistics (detailed per-station statistics; Russian Wikipedia)

Further Reading

• Oberg, James E. Uncovering Soviet Disasters:Exploring the Limits of Glasnost. New York:Random House, 1988.

External links

• Template:Ru icon Template:En icon Official Website
• Template:Ru icon Metro.ru — Information, history, maps, art
• Template:Ru icon MetroWalks Moscow Photos of all metro station
• Template:Ru icon Metro.Molot.ru — Lines, stations, plans, articles
• Template:Ru icon Моё Метро ("My Metro") — Stations, cars, links
• Template:Ru icon Metronews — News of Moscow metropolitan
• Template:Ru icon Molnet Metro Map — Dynamic metro map to calculate travel time from A to B
• Template:En icon Moscow Metro
• Template:Hu icon 81-717 Pictures about 81-717 type trains
• Template:En icon UrbanRail.Net
• Template:En icon Moscow Metro Photos — "faithful rendering of the decorations of the Moscow metro, through some 450 photos and 27 panoramas"
• Template:En icon KartaMetro.info — Lines, stations, and exits on Moscow map and satellite imagery. Public transportation near metro stations.