Moscow Little Ring Railway
The Little Moscow Railway Ring (Russian Малое кольцо Московской железной дороги ) is a 54 -kilometer-long, non-electrified railway ring in Moscow, Russia. It belongs to the Moscow Regional Directorate of the Russian State Railways and is currently used only for freight. However, in the short to medium term electrification and expansion for passenger planned.
Description
In the distance is a completely closed railway ring only to the metropolitan area of Moscow, with the exception of the western section, however, far outside the city center, runs. The term "small railway ring " intended to define the route of another ring path in the Moscow region, namely the so-called Great Moscow railway ring outside this bypasses the city far in the area of Moscow Oblast. From the beginning, the ring is designed to supplement or discharge for incipient in Moscow over regional railway lines so that the railway network along with the little ring has a combined radial- annular structure within of Moscow, which has always been a traditional shortcut for the Moscow City Planning ( cf. the Boulevard Ring, the Garden Ring, Third or Fourth Transport ring and the MKAD ).
The first plans for the construction of the Moscow railway ring already existed in the 1870s, but only a few decades later came to the realization of the project, designed by the engineer PIRaschewski. After this in 1897 received a building permit, the laying of the track, including construction of the associated infrastructure took place in the period from spring 1902 to July, 1907. Among other things, four railway bridges across the Moskva River and a total of 15 stations were built here. The preserved for the most part today (and listed ) Empfangsbauten the stations were built in a uniform style, with the participation of the famous architect Alexander Pomeranzew.
From the deployment on July 20, 1908 regular commissioning of the ring until 1930 both goods and people were transported on the track. It reversed at regular intervals steam engine powered trains, which were used mainly by workers, since the ring route was to a considerable extent by industrial Town border settlements. Passengers stood by waiting rooms and ticket office in the concourse buildings of the stations available. Beginning of the 20th century provided the passenger trains of the small ring in Moscow is an important inner-city transport, since the outer districts were developed at that time insufficient by tram network. Until the early 1930s this changed gradually: the tram network had grown considerably, there were concrete plans for the construction of the Metro, and also the freight required in the course of industrialization of the Soviet Union more capacity. This led to the discontinuation of passenger service on the Little Moscow Railway Ring in 1930.
Plans for the resumption of passenger transport
Already in the 1960s there were considerations to take advantage of the little railway ring again for the passenger. So was taken at that time the construction of the southern branch of the Kaluschsko - Rischskaja Line of the Moscow Metro subway station Leninsky Prospekt in operation, in which an additional output was provided as future direct interchange with Circle Line. Since the 1990s, an expansion for passenger transport will be discussed again, which is due both to the decline in freight traffic on the ring and also to the lack of expansion of the metro network. Particularly lacking in the Moscow Metro, a larger ring connection, which would connect the radial lines, bypassing the city center. Therefore, the current plans call for an expansion of the ring for a tram -like service at regular intervals in order to complement the subway. For this purpose, a complete electrification of the small railway ring is provided. Additionally, in his total up to 30 passenger stations and stops built and wherever it is possible to link points on the Metro to be established. As of August 2009, the expansion of the ring in 2012 to begin.