The President of Russia and the Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin have inaugurated the last section of the Big Circle Line (Line 11) which is now 70 km long and the world’s longest underground metro line surpassing the 13 km Line 10 of Beijing Metro.
On March 1, the last section with nine stations from Maryina Roshcha to Varshavskaya stations in the north, south-east and south of the city. Three depots are serving the rolling stock running on the line.
“Today, we are launching nine stations on the Moscow Metro’s Big Circle Line. This is the final stage in this large-scale construction project. Now that the entire circle line is fully operational, passengers can use all its stations,” Vladimir Putin said.
The line will alleviate the road traffic by up to 15% and the metro lines, by up to 25% and “it was built taking into account the prospects for the development of Moscow for decades to come and has a large margin of carrying capacity,” Maksim Liksutov, the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport said.
The Big Circle Line is operated by Moskva-2020 trains which have wide doors, gangways, USB ports between seats and air conditioners with air disinfection system.
The launch of the new line will improve transport services in 34 Moscow city districts with a population of 3.3 million people and will also significantly reduce the load on other lines. On many routes, daily travel times are expected to be up to 45 minutes shorter.
The longest underground metro line is now 70 km log with 31 stations, 24 of them providing 47 interchanges to the existing and future stations of the Moscow Metro, Moscow Central Circle, Moscow Central Diameters and suburban railway directions. “This is the largest and most challenging project in the history of metro construction. This is the new heart of Moscow’s transport system, which brings the MCD, the MCC, and the regular metro lines together into a seamless transport system. And it can be extended by adding new metro lines, shaping the future of the transport system,” Sergey Sobyanin said at the ceremony.
It is estimated that the entire project had a value of USD 6.6 billion and is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Russia.
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