MOSCOW Metro has unveiled the first of its new fleet of Moskva-2020 metro trains, with Moscow mayor Mr Sergei Sobyanin one of the first people to ride the new train during the inaugural journey on October 6.

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The train travelled from Krasnaya Prenya depot along Line 5/Koltsevaya to Belorusskaya station.

The train is the first of a fleet of 170 trains, comprising 1300 cars, which will be manufactured by Transmashholding (TMH) subsidiary Metrowagonmash (MVM). MVM was awarded the contract under the condition that the first train was delivered by October, following the announcement of a tender in June 2020. The first train since has passed certification and acceptance tests, as well as completed a test run.

The full fleet is scheduled to be delivered by 2023, and will be used on Line 5/Koltsevaya, Line 6/Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya and Line 11/Bolshaya Koltsevaya.

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The trains have 160cm-wide doors for improved accessibility.
The Moskva-2020 trains will completely replace older fleets operating on the Koltsevaya Line from 2021, and on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line from 2023. On the Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line, the trains will operate together with existing fleets of Oka and Moskva trains.

The new trains feature significant improvements to accessibility for passengers, with door widths increased by 15% to 160cm, as well as open gangways. The trains will also feature powered sliding doors equipped with passenger safety systems and larger windows than previous models, and be around 15% quieter than Moscow’s older metro fleets.

The trains also feature improved CCTV, air conditioning with built-in ultraviolet air filtration systems, USB power outlets for every seat, direct video and audio links to the central control centre to improve staff response during emergencies, and a digital passenger information system with console-mounted data displays and exterior displays showing the train’s final destinations.

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The driver’s cabin features a minimal interface with touchscreen consoles.
The train will also include an upgraded driver’s cabin, which will be equipped with touchscreen consoles, with access to the train’s control and traffic safety systems secured through a system of unique access cards.

“We started to renew the Metro’s rolling stock in 2010 and now we have some of the youngest rolling stock among the world’s metros,” Sobyanin says.

The average age of Moscow Metro rolling stock is currently 15 years. However the metro plans to reduce this to just 10 years by 2023. This follows a radical programme of modernisation which began in 2010, and has seen 60% of the network’s total rolling stock upgraded, including the purchase of 832 Moskva metro cars in February 2014. An additional 80 cars were later purchased.

RUSSIA: Moscow’s city government has transferred control of tramway infrastructure to the metro.

‘Moscow Metro is a leader among non-automated metros as far as headway is concerned’, said Deputy Mayor for Transport Maxim Liksutov. ‘That’s because our infrastructure maintenance standards are one of the strictest, safest and best in the world. So, we should apply these practices in other modes of transport, particularly in urban rail transit that from now on will face stricter requirements.’

Centralised management and modernisation is expected to increase tram speeds, improve track maintenance, halve the number of repairs and cut maintenance costs.

‘We have already renewed most of the tram fleet, and in one to two years all the old cars will be ultimately replaced with the new ones’, added Liksutov.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow plans to nearly quadruple the number of electric buses it operates in coming years and replace all petrol or diesel-powered public transport vehicles with greener alternatives by 2030, a senior city transport official has said.

Mosgortrans, which runs Moscow's vast bus and tram network, said its fleet of around 600 electric buses would be expanded by 400 vehicles by the year-end, by another 420 the following year, and then by 855, bringing the fleet to more than 2,000 e-buses.

"Every year the plan will be to replace all wheeled public transport vehicles with electric buses," said Artyom Burlakov, deputy head of the innovative projects department at Mosgortrans.


Environmental activists have welcomed the initiative.

"They are also buying new, more power-efficient trams, which is a good thing," said Mikhail Babenko, head of the green economy programme at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia.

Babenko said there was still a long way to go, however, when it came to Muscovites changing their own behaviour and turning their backs on cars in favour of greener alternatives.

The Russian capital remains infamous for its traffic jams.

Sergey Sobyanin, the Mayor of Moscow has officially opened a new modern terminal at Vnukovo station situated in the suburbs of Moscow.

The reconstruction of the suburban station changed the station status into a city terminal. The project covered the total demolition of the building and the facilities, excluding the rail tracks which were modernised.

In 2020, four stations were opened as part of the Moscow Central Diametre 4 line and this year the authorities plan to open two more stations and renovate six more, two of which will have interchanges to metro stations.

The development of the diameter Line 4 (MCD-4) is continuing, new stations are under construction, and the Kokoshkino station is ready by 75 % where two platforms with a canopy are already completed. Finishing works are carried out, it is left to install elevators and escalators. Shops, residential areas, restaurants will be opened next to the new modern terminal making this place attractive for living and business.

The MCD-4 is a link between the Moscow suburbs, the city centre and the Moscow region. The line will be 86-km-long and will include 37 stations. It will give passengers an opportunity to build more convenient and time-wise routes. The perspective MCD-4 will connect seven Moscow stations and will create 18 interchanges to metro and 2 to the MCC.

It is estimated that about 30 million people will use the new line which is twice population of Paris, London and Berlin.

At the end of 2019, the first two MCDs were opened which were used by 66 million passengers until June 2020. They have a total length of 132 km and 60 stations. MCD-1 is 52 km long and is served by 25 stations while the MCD-2 is 80 km and has 35 stations.

MCD-3, the MCD-4 and the MCD-5 are planned to be launched in 2023 and 2024.

RUSSIA. Sinara has revealed the appearance of the 90 Type 71-628M fully low-floor, four-axle trams which it has designed for Moscow and which will be produced by subcontractor UKVZ.

Panoramic views, USB chargers and space for your scooter and bicycle - the new eco-friendly river boats will be launched into water in June 2022.

Water transportation has become another sector for the eco-friendly improvements the Moscow government is implementing. And it means business. On July 15, 2021, on the dock of Moscow’s ‘Zaryadye’ park, mayor Sergey Sobyanin was shown the first model of the upcoming river cruise boat.

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The model of the electrical boat with panoramic windows measures 22 meters in length. The river tram - as Muscovites call them - has a passenger capacity of 42, including two disabled seats. The trams will also get cutting edge info panels, USB docking stations, Wi-Fi, spaces for scooters and bicycles, as well as chairs and desks for working on the go. The boats will be available all year round, according to ‘Mosgortrans’, the regional transport agency.

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Passengers will be able to pay with their ‘Troika’ public transport card, credit cards or bank cards.

The main clientele targeted are people living in Moscow’s river districts - the upcoming trams will shorten their travel time in comparison to buses and other transportation by five times, Mosgortrans stated.

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As the river trams are being rolled out, Moscow docks will also see mini-stations, some of which will also be outfitted with charging docks for speed-charging the boats.  

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Moscow is set to announce the start of the tender for construction and supply in September 2021. The first trams are scheduled to launch in June 2022 on two routes - from Kievskaya Station, through Moscow City, into Fili; and from ZIL to Pechatniki.

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“Two full-scale routes will be created in 2022-2023, serviced by 20 river trams and a number of river stations. We’ll continue to develop them further if they prove to be popular with the citizens,” the Moscow mayor said.

Moscow has completed the construction of another Big Circle Line section and it is expected that it will be put into operation by the end of this year.

The 17.5 km metro line will be served by three stations – Terekhovo, Kuntsevskaya and Davydkovo.

At the same time, Moscow Metro has launched a test train along the new section from Mnyovniki to Davydkovo. According to the results of the tests, the section will be improved, and the engineering systems and devices are going to be adjusted.

The new stations will relieve the traffic at three other stations on two metro lines. On Line 3, the passenger traffic congestion will be reduced by 17 per cent at the Slavyanskiy Bulvar station and by 28 per cent at the Kuntsevskaya station, which is also a connection to the Line 4.

The new section will improve transport service more than 700 000 city residents. About 90 thousand citizens will have a metro station within walking distance for the first time and the travel time for residents will be reduced by approximately 40 per cent.

“The Big Circle Line is the most important project for the development of the capital’s transport, implemented with the personal participation of the Mayor of Moscow. The BCL will become the largest underground Metro circle line in the world,”Deputy Mayor for Transport Maksim Liksutov, said.

This Spring, Moscow Metro has opened a new Big Circle Line section between Savyolovskaya and Khoroshyovskaya stations and in May, the company announced that BCL tunnelling has been completed while ten more station will be opened. By the end of this year, Moscow Metro plans to open 70 per cent of the new circle line.

Currently, 12 stations are opened on the BCL and works are carried out to open the remaining stations. In 2018 the first section of the Big Circle Line with six new stations was opened. The entire line is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 when it will have a length of 70 km of new underground track, with 31 stations, including 19 with interchanges to other metro lines, 11 interchanges to regional trains and 4 interchanges with the Moscow Central Circle.

Moscow is constructing the Rizhskaya transport hub which will become one of the largest hubs in the Russian capital, as part of the Moscow Central Diameters (MCD) network.

The hub will consist of three above-ground metro lines, two underground metro lines, suburban railway transport and in the future first Russian high-speed railway connection.

The hub will provide connections between three regions on the city as they are separated by the highway and railway transport. Passengers will be able to make interchanges quickly and comfortably to the metro system through the Line 6 and the Big Circle Line, to the MCD system (MCD 2, on which a new terminal was opened in June, MCD 3, MCD 4) and surface public transport. The MCD stations include elevators, escalators, and cash registers for low-mobility passengers.

The surrounding area will benefit taxi and public transport parking facilities. The Rizhskaya hub will be realized by forming a new transport frame.

“The Rizhskaya transport hub will improve transport accessibility of the three Moscow metropolitan areas: Meshchansky, Alexeyevsky and Maryina Roscha. Residents will have convenient interchanges between these three regions, passengers in turn will have fast and comfortable interchanges between different modes of transport. This hub will emerge through the formation of a new transport framework that we are creating on behalf of the Moscow Mayor,” Maksim Liksutov, the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport said.

The new station is based on a ‘dry feet’ principle. Surface transport routes will be available, which in turn will take passengers to the Moscow international business center ‘Moscow-City’. With the MCD 4, passengers will be able to reach seven Moscow terminals without interchanges. It will also become one of the stations of the future 680 km Moscow – Saint Petersburg high-speed line. The travel time will be reduced by 2.5 hours. The length of the route will be 680 km. The Rizhskaya hub will become not only a stop in the city, but also an initial and final point for some high-speed trains. This will unload the area of the three railway terminals.

By 2025, all the five Moscow MCDs connections will be put into commercial operation providing 67 transport hubs.

Currently, the “MCD 1 and MCD 2 have only 21 interchange stations, but in a few years this number will increase by 27. By 2025, all five Moscow Central Diameters will have 67 interchange stations, including more than 20 interchanges to the MCC and the Big Circle Line the two transport hearts of the capital,” Maksim Liksutov, the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport said.

The interchange stations will ensure the cross-city connections between the MCD, the Moscow Central Circle (MCC) and the metro. The leader of the interchanges will be MCD 4, accommodating 18 hubs.

All hubs will be built according to the uniform Moscow transport standard. For example, Schukinskaya MCD 2 station, which was launched this summer, includes the MCD station, the metro station, the interchange between them is carried out on a crossing built on a dry feet principle. Passengers can also make an interchange to the buses and trams.

The Moscow Central Diameters system, known as the city’s above-ground metro network started to operate in 2019 when the city inaugurated the first two lines: the MCD-1 Belorussko-Savyolovsky (Odintsovo-Lobnya) and MCD-2 Kursko-Rizhsky (Nakhabino-Podolsk).

The Moscow MCDs of 60 stations with 21 interchanges. The launch of the future MCD 3 is planned in 2023. The new system will include 43 stations and its length will be 82 km. The MCD 4 is scheduled to be launched in 2023. There will be 18 transit stations with 35 options for interchanges to the metro, the Moscow Central Circle and other diameters. With the MCD 4, passengers will be able to reach 7 Moscow terminals without interchanges. The MCD 5 launch is planned on the 2025.

The President of the Russia Vladimir Putin and the Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin have opened a new section of Big Circle Line (BCL) in the South and West of the city.

“We launch passenger service on a new section of the Moscow Metro’s Big Circle Line. Indeed, for the first time in history of domestic metro engineering, ten stations are being launched at once. The new stations of the Big Circle Line will definitely considerably improve transport access to many parts in the west and south of Moscow,” Putin said during a videoconference ceremony on December 7.

The section is more than 21 km long and served by 10 stations connecting Mnyovniki and Kakhovkaya stations, running through the city’s Western, Southwestern and Southern administrative areas. In addition to new stations also includes a section of the Kakhovskaya line, currently under reconstruction.

The line will provide transport acces for residents of 11 districts of the city with 1.4 million inhabitants. Almost 450,000 people will have the BCL stations near the house. The opened Aminyevskaya station will provide connection to the future Moscow Central Diameter 4 (MCD4) through an underground passage.

Thanks to the new metro section, passengers will daily save 35-45 minutes of travel time. Sections of the radial lines inside the BCL will become freer up to 22%, interchange stations with the BCL will become freer up to 27-60% and the roads along the BCL will be unloaded up to 17%.

The new section of Big Circle Line is the longest section in the history of the Moscow Metro launched for passengers at the same time. Currently, 44 km and 22 station of the BCL are operating. The BCL is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2023 when will have a total length of 70 km with 31 stations, which is 3.5 times longer than the existing Line 5 (the Circle Line). The full launch of the BCL will simplify the movement of 3.3 million Moscow citizens living in 34 districts