Over the past decade, Moscow has set an intense rhythm of development of the transport network, a programme according to which the public transport system is a priority. With a new metro line opened last year, another one whose sections are waiting to be put into operation and a plan to develop the light rail network, Russia’s capital hopes to solve all traffic problems.
When talking about Moscow, like other big cities in the world, next to the advantages in terms of culture, economy and social projects aimed to develop these aspects, it is impossible not to consider its transport system: three large airports, a recently developed bike-sharing system, with necessary infrastructure, over 330 km of metro network with more than 200 stations and over 800 bus, trolley and tram routes. While the metro system ensures the transport of over 10 million passengers a day, surface transport completes the underground network with an additional capacity of 5.5 million passengers/day.
Last year, Moscow won the ITF Transport Award for its accomplishments in developing the transport system. It is on the list of European cities with ambitious plans on approaching traffic problems and public transport development. As the city’s activity relies on the transport system, the authorities continue their road and railway infrastructure development projects, both inside the city and in metropolitan areas, to increase the coverage of areas that don’t benefit from public transport systems or to increase accessibility to this transport service and, also, to increase the share of this type of transport. All these will encourage economic development, reduce congestion and costs, as well as the environmental impact. Moscow is one of the capitals and big cities committed to fight against climate change. “Moscow builds new metro stations and improves rail commuter transport services. The city builds 100 km of roads and 10 metro stations a year”, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
111,5 km of new metro lines were built between 2011 and 2017, 60 new stations and another 31 stations were inaugurated within the Moscow Central Circle. Due to implemented projects in terms of time, intensity and speed, congestion dropped by 12%, the number of cars entering the city by 25%, while car travel time from the city suburbs to the centre was reduced by 16%. Also, the number of passengers using transit services increased significantly in 2015 with 640 million journeys more than in 2010. Two years ago, the transit system accounted for 5.74 billion journeys of which 2.42 billion by metro, 680 million by commuter trains, 2.2 billion transit journeys and the rest by suburban buses and taxies.
Moscow is one of the leader cities in developing public transport and this is proven from the transport share as approximately 75% of citizens prefer to use public transport services, at least at peak hours, as they are much faster. To develop the transit system, the city granted RUB 550 billion (EUR 8 billion) as financing is necessary to the optimisation and modernisation of the system.
Moscow Central Circle (MCC), also known as Line 14 (metro) is the biggest and latest public transport development project in the Russian capital. Opened in September 2016, it is used by 400,000 passengers daily. A year after its commissioning, MCC provided transport services for over 100 million passengers, 7% more than expected (estimates showed that 75 million passengers will use its services in the first year). MCC includes a 54-km railway served by 31 stations and operated by 33 Lastochka trains. It takes 84 minutes to travel the railway (including stops in stations). The first five of the 31 stations part of Third Interchange Circuit (TIC), or the new underground ring will be put into operation soon. According to plans, the entire railway will be operational by 2022, allowing passengers not to cross the city centre for transfer to commuter lines or other lines that serve Moscow and reducing travel time by 20-30 minutes. Estimates show that 500 thousand passengers will use transport services on this line every day in the first years of operation. In September, the first rail section of the line linking Delovoy Centr and Petrovsky Park of 10.5 km and 5 stations was already completed. TIC will be the biggest metro ring in the capital with a total length of 66 km and 31 stations. Traffic volumes are estimated at an average of 650,000 passengers / day.
Apart from these new transport routes, Moscow has also announced the launch of new projects for the development of the public rail transport network. The metro system could be developed by extending Line 8 (Solntsevskaya Line) and Line 10 (Dmitrovskaya Line) and opening Kozhukhovskaya Line. These lines are radial and provide new transport connections to another 1.5 million citizens. Local and national authorities’ plan includes the transformation of radial railways into diametral railways that will operate as a transport ring for each area, while also easing transfer to other railways and eliminating the need for transfer. Also, the rolling stock fleet will be upgraded, a plan, according to which, in the next 5 to 6 years, all obsolete coaches will be replaced by Moskva trains.
A LRT network
Another ambitious project includes the construction of a new light rail network to operate as an express commuter network (RER) for which, in November, President Vladimir Putin gave his consent for the construction of the first phase. According to plans, the railway will be 50-km long and will provide connection between regional railways “Belarus” and “Savyolovo”, starting with 2019. In this first phase, a railway will be built to connect Lobnya, a district in northern Moscow, to Odintsovo, in the west, crossing Dolgoprudny and Skolkovo, cities in Moscow Oblast. After commissioning, travel time will be reduced to less than one hour compared to the over two hours current travel time which includes three transfers that will be eliminated once the new line is completed. The railway could be completed in one and a half year. Works are estimated to be launched next year and commissioning is expected for the middle of 2019.
The railway is part of a programme aimed to develop a network of connections between regional railways and the light rail. For example, another connection includes the radial route between Riga and Pavelets railways, or that from Nakhabino, in the west, to Podolsk, in the south.
Costs to develop the Lobnya- Skolkovo and Nakhabino- Podolsk connections amount to RUB 20 billion (EUR 287 million). According to the mayor of the city, light rail lines are the best solution because of their impact on traffic bottlenecks and because they are cost-effective. By comparison, if these lines were built in the underground, costs would amount to EUR 3.6 billion (RUB 250 billion).
According to the authorities, it is possible to build between five and 15 such lines that would be completed by 2015. If this “realistic” programme is implemented, the entire structure of Moscow’s transport and transit system will change to a capacity of 300 million passengers, generating a higher traffic volume on Moscow’s road ring by up to 12%, three times higher than the number of passengers carried on Moscow Central Circle.
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