On September 10, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin launched passenger traffic on the Moscow Central Ring railway.
The Moscow Central Ring, formerly the Smaller Ring of the Moscow Railway, is 54 km long. It can carry from 150 million to 300 million passengers. “There are 31 stations overall. Today (on September 10) we open 26 of them. According to the schedule, 5 more station will be launched in the coming months,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
“There are 17 links with the metro and 11 interchanges with railways lines. The commuter trains come up to the ring, and passengers traveling to the centre can change for the Ring and then on to the metro, another commuter train line or surface transport,” the mayor said.
This is a joint project by Moscow, Russian Railways and the Russian Ministry of Transport. The decision to build the MCR was taken in 2012 despite potential hurdles in the project’s implementation. In the course of the work, about 4,500 structures had to be demolished, 200 kilometres of new main tracks and almost 4,000 kilometres of utilities lines to be laid. Also, 28 engineering structures had to be built: ramps, bridges, overpasses and underpasses.
At the same time, freight traffic will continue to use the MCR railway. “One of the options considered was to cancel the freight traffic, which would have made things much easier. But we preserved it since it is important. Trains come up to the Ring railway, re-group, deliver cargo to different stations in Moscow and then leave the city,” Sobyanin added.
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