Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro (Московское метро), which spans almost the entire Russian capital, is the world's second most heavily used rapid-transit system. Opened in 1935, it is well known for the ornate design of many of its stations, which contain outstanding examples of socialist realist art.

Description of the Metro

In total, the Moscow Metro has 292.2 km (181.6 miles) of route length, 12 lines and 177 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. 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. Less than 10% of the stations are at or above the surface level. The surface sections of the Metro include the western part of Filyovskaya Line continuing as Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line between Kievskaya and Molodyozhnaya (eight surface stations), and the Butovskaya Light Metro Line (L1) with 4 elevated stations. The other surface stations are Vykhino, Izmaylovskaya and Vorobyovy Gory (the latter is unique in the world being built into a lower level of a bridge). There are several short surface stretches, including those between the stations Avtozavodskaya and Kolomenskaya (where a new station Technopark is going to be built), and between Tekstilshchiki and Volgogradsky Prospekt.

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	Index and colour	Cyrillic Name	First Opened	Latest addition	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	2008	37.7 km	18
Filyovskaya	4	Филёвская	1958 1	2006	14.7 km	13
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	12
Kakhovskaya	11	Каховская	1995 2	1969	3.4 km	3
Butovskaya	L1*	Бутовская	2003	2003	5.5 km	5
Total:					292.2 km	177

Notes

¹ Four central stations of Filyovskaya Line Komintern (now Alexandrovsky Sad), Arbatskaya, Smolenskaya and Kiyevskaya 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 the three 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 and with shorter platforms. 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 Moscow Monorail is a 4.7 km, 6 station monorail line between Timiryazevskaya and VDNKh opened from January 2008. Before the official opening, the monorail had operated in an "excursion mode" since 2004 till 2008 with trains leave once every 20 minutes with tickets costing four times normal price (50 rubles, ~$2.10), and hours restricted to 8:00-20:05. Since 2008 intervals were shortened and price has been made equal to the metro ticket price.

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 used 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) until Jan, 2008. Currently (Jan, 2008) the cost of 1 ride is 19 roubles (78 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 stopped 16 January, 2008. In January 2007, Moscow Metropolitan began replacing magnetic cards with fixed number of journeys by contactless cards. Now contactless cards are available for 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 60 journeys versions. Smartcards are being used in Moscow Metro since 1998 and are called Transport Cards. Transport Cards were 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 (180 rub. (about 7 US$ for a month without journey limit). 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

The first plans for a rapid transit system in Moscow date back in the times of the Russian Empire, but they were postponed by World War I, the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. It was not before June 1931 that the decision to start construction of the Moscow Metro was taken by the Central Committee of the USSR Communist Party. The first lines were built under the 1930s Moscow general plan designed by Lazar Kaganovich, and the Metro and was initially (until 1955) named after him ("Metropoliten im. L.M. Kaganovicha").

First stage

The first line was opened to public on May 15, 1935 at 7am. The line was 11 km long, and included 13 stations. It connected Sokolniki to Park Kultury with a branch from Okhotny Ryad to Smolenskaya (the first Metro map is available here: ). The latter branch was further extended westwards to the new station Kiyevskaya in March 1937 (making the first Metro crossing of the Moskva River by the Smolensky Metro 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). Kiyevskaya station was the first to use national motifs.

On May 14, 1935, the Komsomol was awarded the Order of Lenin by Stalin's suggestion for the contribution of the Komsomol members to construction of the first Metro stage.

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

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. In fact the line was never shown as a circle on the Metro map until 1980, long after Stalin's death. Prior to this time, the line was depicted much closer to the shape of the actual route.

During the Cold War

The beginning of the Cold War led to the construction of a deep part of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya 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 Kiyevskaya 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" - "Centipede", which comes from the fact that early designs had 40 concrete columns in two rows) 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 built with simplified, cheaper technologies which were not always quite suitable and resulted in extremely utilitarian design. For example, walls paved with cheap and simplistic ceramic tiles proved to be susceptible to vibrations caused by trains, with some tiles eventually falling off. It was not always possible to replace the missing tiles with the ones of the same color, which eventually led to infamous "variegated" parts of the paving. Not until the mid-1970s was the architectural extravagance restored, and original designs once again became popular. However, newer design of "centipede" stations, with 26 columns with wider ranges between them and more sophisticated, continued to dominate.

Fares & ticketing

In the Soviet time, the cost of a single journey was 5 kopecks (1/20 of Soviet ruble). The cost of journeys has been steadily rising after 1991. Inflation caused the price to rise considerably to the current (2008) 9 to 19 Russian rubles per trip (taking into account the 1998 denomination of the ruble by a factor of 1000).

Initially all turnstiles accepted the five kopeck coin, however during the 1990s plastic tokens were made available. Magnetic cards were first introduced in 1998, and by summer 2000 replaced as the main ticket machines. Recently chip cards have been added in 2007. Multi-use travelcards were available initially as a printed ticket to be shown to the controller near the turnstiles, and now are available as both date limited and number of journeys.

Discount travel chip cards are available for students, pensioners and other social groups etc.

Recent developments

Since the turn of the century, several projects have been completed, and more are underway. The first one was the Annino-Butovo extension, which consisted of extending the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line from Prazhskaya to Ulitsa Akademika Yangelya (2000), Annino (2001) and Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo (2002). Afterwards a new elevated Butovskaya Light Metro Line was inaugurated 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 building the long-awaited Lyublinskaya Line extension was inaugurated with Trubnaya in August 2007, with Sretensky Bulvar in December of that year.

The major Strogino-Mitino extension (see future plans below) began with Park Pobedy in 2003. Its first stations, an expanded Kuntsevskaya and Strogino opened in January 2008, and Slavyansky Bulvar followed them in September.

Newest stations

The system

The Moscow Metro has a broad gauge of 1520 mm, like ordinary Russian railways, and a third rail supply of 825 V AC. The average distance between stations is 1800 m, the shortest (502 m) section being between Delovoy Center and Mezhdunarodnaya and the longest (6,627 m) between Krylatskoye and Strogino. 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, 9 and 10 consist of eight cars, on lines 1, 3, 8 of seven cars and on lines 4, 5 and 11 of six cars. All cars (both E-series and 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 and Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line is also replaced with four-car and five-car Rusich trains.

The Moscow metro comprises 176 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

From the official website

Metro 2

Although this has not been officially confirmed, many independent studies suggest that a second, deeper metro system exists under military jurisdiction and was designed for emergency evacuation of key city personnel in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War. 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. A suspected 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.

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 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

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.

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. Blackout most heavily affected Zamoskvoretskaya and Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya lines where initially all traffic has been disrupted due to some trains halted in tunnels at south part of city which has been most affected by blackout. Later, parts of these lines resumed operation in limited mode and people from trains stopped in tunnels were evacuated. Some lines did not suffered much from blackout since blackout mainly affected south part of Moscow while north, east and west parts were less affected or not affected at all.

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.

On September 7 2008, President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, attended the opening ceremony for the new metro station of Slavyansky Bulvar(Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line).

Expansion plans

Current

Official site. As of 2008-2010 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: The first stage of the extension opened in January 2008. The second stage will further extend the line to Myakininskaya and Volokolamskaya in mid 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. One more station located between Krylatskoye and Strogino, Troitse-Lykovo will futher be added.
• Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line: The long-delayed second and third stages of the line are finally being built. 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 received a fare share of criticism from various sectors. The fate of the BLLM's expansion remains under question, whilst the Solntsevskaya Light Metro Line initially planned to be begin construction in 2004 and be opened in 2006, having eight stations,. However in 2005 the project was altered and two stations were dropped out of its 11.9 km stretch, and the opening year was revised to 2010. However in 2008 the SLLM project was cancelled altogether in favour of a conventional underground Solntsevskaya Line (see below). The BLLM extensions, also constantly revised and postponed, inlcude constructing an underground extension northwards to Bitsevsky Park which will offer a transfer to the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line (5.0 km), and a southwards three station extension (also 5.0 km in length) that would include a new depot: Ulitsa Staropotapovskaya, Ulitsa Ostafyevskya, Novokuryanovo. Presently all of the of the listed BLLM work has been taken off Moscow Metro's priority expansion programme (until 2015), and there are speculations that Moscow Metro might even consider dismantaling the system in favour of a conventional two-three station replacement by the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line.
• Solntsevskaya Line, following the cancellation of the SLLM, the Moscow Metro reverted to an old project of bringing the Metro to the Solntsevo district outside Moscow. Initially foreseen as part of a major Solntsevo-Mytischinskaya Chordial Line, the current stretch in question suggests using the second set of tracks at Park Pobedy and then having the line curve out to along the Michurin Avenue with initially four stations: Mosfilmovskaya, Lomonosovsky Prospekt, Michurinsky Prospekt and Olimpiyskaya Derevnya. This is annuounced for 2014, and would appear to be the first stage of the line. The second stage would compromise reaching Solntsevo itself. In the original chordial project this included three stations, although the present plan still calls for the line to follow the Light Metro's path. The project would also allow to expand the line in the other direction junctioning with the Delovoy Tsentr station in Moscow City. It is unclear what will be the faith of the line afterwards, and whether it will continue its old Chordial path, as there is a project that has replaced it.
• Kalininskaya Line's western extension, has the most probable chance of being realised, the line will extend from Tretyakovskaya to Ostozhenka, Kadashevskaya, reunite the Smolenskaya stations in one single transfer unit, and then continue westwards through the Moscow-City business centre, where an empty set of platforms has already 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.
• Ghost Stations. Moscow Metro does not have ghost 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 private investors.

According to plans of the Moscow city government and Russia's transportation ministry, announced in September 2008, by 2015 79 kms new lines, 43 new underground stations and 7 metro depots should be added to the system.

Distant projects

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

• Chordial Lines Projects for these appeared in the mid-1980s, which called for creating conventional radii lines, but instead of passing through the city centre within the Koltsevaya Line they would bypass them on the outside (see map). After four of these were completed, they would be used to form the new Second Ring (see below) service. Construction began only on the Mitino-Butovskaya Line in the early 1980s... In the wake of the 1990s crises, these massive and ambtious projects were abandoned, and instead replaced by more cost-effective means, including the Light Metro lines, and using existent segments. However despite the Mitino-Butovo chord now replaced, the other three still have chances, the Solntsevsky radius of the Solntsevo-Mytishchinskaya Line has now been regenerated in its original path. It is unknown whether it would take its intended shape by crossing up along all the northern radii before travelling to the adjacent city of Mytishchi along the Yaroslav Highway, as 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 build a line from Delovoy Tsentr to Savyolovskaya which would effectively duplicate the path. The fates of the Balashikha-Troparevskaya (south west bypass) as well as the Khimsko-Lyuberetskaya (north east bypass) chordial lines are unknown.
• 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.
• The original 1960s project called for a ring 3-6 stations on the radii distance, and several provisions for the future line were built including free space for the transfer at Bratislavskaya, the whole of the Kakhovskaya Line (originally intended to close following the opening of the Orekhovo extension in 1984, had a flooded tunnel not kept it open since) as well as the segment Cherkizovskaya - Ulitsa Podbelskogo of the Sokolnicheskaya Line (allowing it to in turn expand westwards into Izmaylovo).
• During the 1980s chordial line programmes, the ring was instead to be formed out of the space enclosed by them, with a circular service operating at off-peak hours.
• In 2006 Moscow Metro announced plans for a second transfer contour which would build a line from Delovoy Tsentr to Savyolovskaya on a large diameter that would in the future become fully enclosed into a ring one-three stations away along the radii distance.
• However even the latter project seems to be under question, and in light of the major priority developments in the above sections, it is clear that the second ring is as distant today as it looked 40 years ago.

See also

• 2005 Moscow power blackouts
• List of rapid transit systems
• Moscow Metro 2
• Пассажиропоток Московского метрополитена (detailed per-station statistics; Russian Wikipedia)

Further reading

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

Citations

External links

• Official website
• Metro.ru — Information, history, maps, art
• MetroWalks Moscow Photos of all metro stations
• Metro.Molot.ru — Lines, stations, plans, articles
• Моё Метро ("My Metro") — Stations, cars, links
• Metronews — News of Moscow metropolitan
• UrbanRail.Net
• Moscow Metro Photos — "faithful rendering of the decorations of the Moscow metro, through some 450 photos and 27 panoramas"
• KartaMetro.info — Lines, stations, and exits on Moscow map and satellite imagery. Public transportation near metro stations.