Sergei Sobyanin announces the launch of summer river navigation in Moscow

Summer navigation on the Moscow River begins on April 24, Sergei Sobyanin has announced in a post on his blog.

“To mark the opening of the navigation season on the Moscow River we will hold a parade of ships. More than 20 pleasure motorboats operating in the capital, as well as an electric vessel and a water transport vessel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia will sail from Nagatinsky Zaton to the Neskuchny Sad pier in the Central Administrative District. The next festive activities at the Northern and Southern river stations in honor of the start of navigation are scheduled for April 27,” added the Mayor of Moscow.

To prepare for the opening of the season, city maintenance services have cleaned the embankments, parapets and fences, smartened up the piers and entrances to the water, where necessary, repaired granite and concrete bases, replaced rubber dock bumpers and renewed the do-not-cross lines and signage for boarding and alighting.

With the help of 500 outdoor surveillance cameras, the River Situation Center monitors safety in the Moskva River water area around the clock. Order in the water area is monitored by the Moscow River Police. Its officers patrol 670 kilometers of waterways. A special water patrol is also on duty during the navigation season. At piers, assistance is provided by staff from the Traffic Management Center and crews are assisted by port staff.

Thanks to the high-quality infrastructure and service level, the popularity of river cruises and walks is growing every year.

“Last season, cruise ship arrivals and departures from the North and South River Station piers increased by 10 percent and passenger numbers increased by 15 percent. This year we expect 15 percent growth, or more than 2,500 moorings,” added Sergei Sobyanin.

The first cruise ship, Rus Velikaya, will depart from the Northern River Station to Tver. In total this season the river routes will include dozens of cities, including Saint Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Kazan, Perm, Ples, Kostroma and Samara.

One of the most famous routes, the Golden Ring River Route, will pass through the center of Moscow and past the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Two modern high-comfort motor ships, Golden Ring and Aurum will depart from the Northern River Station and finish at the Southern one.

After the renovation, the river stations themselves are now popular public spaces, as well as key sites in Moscow’s transport infrastructure. Local and citywide festivals are held at the river stations and major festivals are celebrated there.

Since the beginning of 2025, the stations have welcomed more than 400,000 visitors and hosted 260 events, including sports trainings, performances by musicians, creative masterclasses, lectures and movie screenings.

One innovation this season will be cruises on the new motor ship Nikolai Zharkov, operated by Vodokhod, which was launched this year. The comfortable five-deck vessel with a length of more than 130 meters has space for almost 180 guests, who are served by about 100 crew members. The ship was named after the famous shipbuilder Nikolay Zharkov, who oversaw the construction of more than 400 vessels, including 24 nuclear submarines and 20 deep-sea rescue vehicles.

The regular route to Khimki and the ferry to Zakharkovo pier have resumed operation from the Northern River Station. For residents of five districts of Moscow and the Moscow suburb of Khimki, this is a convenient way to travel. Last year the motor ships Moskva-1 and 850 Let Moskvy transported more than 260,000 passengers.

Regular electric transport vessels navigate along the Moskva River all year round and in any weather. Since the opening of traffic there has not been a single day when electric vessels stopped navigating along the Moskva River. During their work, more than 1.7 million trips were made on the routes Kievsky — Fili Park and ZIL — Pechatniki.

Testing is also beginning on the first surface unmanned boat. This vessel is expected to become a universal assistant for Moscow’s transport police, automatically recording violations in the water area and helping to rescue people who find themselves in the water.

The crewless boat is equipped with a camera, lidar and advanced navigation aids, and its navigation is controlled by artificial intelligence. The equipment operates reliably and safely in all weather conditions.

The technology for controlling the boat was developed by specialists from the Center for Unmanned Transport Research and Development of the Moscow Metro State Unitary Enterprise, and the project itself is the result a collaboration between the Main Transport Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and a team from the Center for the Advanced Development of Moscow Transport, which opened in May last year.

“This season there are plans to launch a third regular river route, Novospassky — ZIL, which will connect the Danilovsky, Tagansky, Yuzhnoportovy and Zamoskvorechye city districts. There will be four new piers on the route, Simonovsky, Torpedo, Derbenevskaya Naberezhnaya and Novospassky piers. The innovative river transport fleet will be replenished, with the addition of 10 new electric vessels. Some of them will be used on the new third route, and the rest will support the first two routes,” added the Mayor of Moscow.