OREANDA-NEWS. March 19, 2009. The strategy of Moscow metro development was discussed at the Moscow city government session.

Metro is the main rapid transit system of Moscow. It carries 56% of all passengers of the capital, but despite this there are still 2.4 million people (about 23% of all passengers) living far from metro stations.

Moscow metro development strategy is primarily aimed at completing the construction of suspended objects:
     - Mitino section of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line;
     - central section of the Liublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line between Trubnaya and Mariina Roshcha stations;
     - southern section of the Liublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line between Mariino and Zyablikovo stations;
     - Zamoskvoretskaya line extension (from Krasnogvardeiskaya to Brateevo stations).
The construction of suspended lines in the districts with heavy traffic, including the districts outside the MKAD beltway includes:
     - Novokosino (Kalininskaya line);
     - Zhulebino (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line);
     - Mariina Roshcha-Seligerskaya (Dmitrov section of the Liublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line).
Another stage includes increasing the capacity of the existing lines to carry passengers from the districts where municipal houses are being built. This implies:
     - the construction of turnaround tracks near Ulitsa Starokachalovskaya station of the Butovskaya line;
     - Butovskaya light metro line extension as far as Bitsevsky Park station of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line;
     - Kalininskaya line extension from Novokosino to Kozhukhovo district;
     - Kalininskaya line extension from Tretyakovskaya to Volkhonka station (with a junction to the Sokolnicheskaya line).
One of the main goals is to complete the construction of the radial Solntsevskaya line (Tretyakovskaya ЁC Delovoy Tsentr ЁC Solntsevo stations).
To significantly improve passenger transportation in Moscow in the next 10 years, a new metro system consisting of the third set of junctions and a suburban line to Kozhukhovo, Nekrasovka and Liubertsy is going to be built.

Both this strategy and Moscow City Government programme implemented together with the Russian Railways will improve passenger transportation by 12% and provide a railway connection for the inhabitants of remote districts of Biryulevo, Shcherbinka, Severniy settlement etc.

Another advantage of this scheme is that it will help ease the excessively loaded lines and station entrances.

Once Mitino section of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line comes into service, the number of passengers traveling between Skhodnenskaya and Barrikadnaya stations (Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line) will decrease in peak hours by 15 thousand and by 8 thousand at Rechnoy Vokzal station.

The completion of line section between Trubnaya and Mariina Roshcha stations will ease passenger load in peak hours by 5 thousand people per hour between Savyolovskaya and Mendeleevskaya stations of the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya line and between VDNkH and Prospekt Mira stations of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line.

The inauguration of the southern section of the Liublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line (from Mariino to Zyablikovo stations) will bring the ridership down by 10 thousand passengers per hour between Krasnogvardeiskaya and Paveletskaya stations (Zamoskvoretskaya line), and relieve the loaded stations of Mariino and Krasnogvardeiskaya.

Butovskaya line section between Ulitsa Skobelevskaya and Bitsevsky Park stations will increase the capacity of the Butovskaya line and thus relieve congestion between Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo and Serpukhovskaya station of the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya line by 5-7 thousand passengers per hour in peak hours.

The introduction of Solntsevskaya line will relieve Sokolnicheskaya line section between Yugo-Zapadnaya and Park Kultury stations by 10 thousand passengers in peak hours. It will also manage the congestion in Yugo-Zapadnaya and Prospekt Vernadskogo station vestibules.

The completion of line section between Mariina Roshcha and Seligerskaya stations of the Liublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line will bring the ridership at peak hours down by 10-12 thousand passengers between Petrovsko-Pazumovskaya and Mendeleevskaya stations and relieve Petrovsko-Razumovskaya station vestibule.

Reducing passenger journey time is another positive effect of the strategy:
     - Novokosino ЁC from 15 to 30 mins;
     - Zhulebino - from 15 to 30 mins;
     - Mitino - from 20 to 30 mins;
     - Michurinsky prospekt ЁC from 10 to 20 mins;
     - Solntsevo - from 15 to 30 mins;
     - Brateevo and Borisovo - from 10 to 20 mins;
     - Kozhukhovo - §а§д from 20 to 30 mins;
     - Sheremetievskaya street and Mariina Roshcha, Likhobory, Lianozovo, Korovino - from 20 to 30 mins.

The inauguration of the abovementioned line sections and stations will reduce the number of passengers using buses on Pyatnitskoe, Volokolamskoe, Nosovikhinskoe, Borovskoe, Korovinskoe, Dmitrovskoe highways and adjacent roads, providing an alternative solution to tens of thousands of car owners in Moscow.

The construction and inauguration of Pyatnitskaya station, its junction and parking will provide a better metro access to the inhabitants of Zelenograd and other settlements along Pyatnitskoe highway.

ItЎЇs important to mention the new independent metro system which is going to be designed and built in the period under review. The third set of junctions is going to become a key element of it. ItЎЇll help to regulate passenger flow and ease congestion on the Circle line and at central junctions by 20%.

The new set of junctions is intended to serve over 1.5 million passengers every day. It will be joined by suburban branches spreading from Nizhegorodskaya street to Liubetsty and from Delovoy Tsentr to Novoperedelkino. Connecting lines between the third set of junctions and suburban branches will allow for making alternative routes avoiding the city centre.

Besides getting a chance to choose the most convenient route, the inhabitants of Liublino, Mariino, Brateevo, Orekhovo-Borisovo, Annino, Yuzhnoe and Severnoe Butovo, Yasenevo, Tyoply Stan and Konkovo will be able to travel to other suburban areas without going to the city centre. The same will apply to people living between the third and the scheduled fourth ring road.

The construction of specialized depots (in Khodynka, Mitino, Brateevo, Sonltsevo, Likhobory and Kozhukhovo) is another important stage as it will help decrease empty running of trains.

Another essential issue is decreasing the cost of design and construction of new lines by developing standard projects of the stations and facilities.

The speed of construction will have an impact on the costs. Shallow stations are usually built in 24 months and it takes twice this time to complete a deep station. ItЎЇs important to materialize the plans in time and to increase construction volumes.

Moscow metroЎЇs main goal is to provide fast development of design and estimate documentation. This will put an end to neverending construction projects, and maintenance costs of one object per year will be below 500 million rubles.

Besides, itЎЇs necessary to cut down costs on dЁ¦cor leaving the quality on the same level. After analyzing the recent projects (Mariino ЁC Zyablikovo and Strogino ЁC Mitino) it was decided to do without decorative elements and cut down costs of each project by 1 billion rubles.

Elevators may replace escalators at shallow stations (from 4,5 to 20 metres deep).

To improve passenger transportation in Kozhukhovo and adjacent districts, Moscow metro suggested extending Kalininskaya line till Kozhukhovo district (the construction of the line to Kozhukhovo and Liubertsty remains). This will solve the problems of passenger transportation from Kozhukhovo and Nekrasovka districts by 2015.

The inauguration of this station will give the inhabitants of a new settlement in Liubertsy a faster access to the city centre and relieve the southern section of the loaded Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line, Vykhino station vestibule and Ryazansky Prospekt.

Other suggestions included constructing Pyatnitskaya station instead of Rozhdestveno station in Mitino. The station will not only improve traffic there, but it will also halve the travel time from Zelenograd to the nearest metro station.

In addition, priority sections of the Liublinsko-Dmitrovskaya line construction will be changed. It was proposed to start with the line section between Petrovsko-Razumovskaya and Seligerskaya stations and then complete the construction of the line section between Mariina Roshcha and Petrovsko-Razumovskaya stations. This development strategy will ease traffic on Dmitrovskoe highway and Beskudnikovsky boulevard.