Sergei Sobyanin: Public transportation should dominate in major cities

Public transportation should dominate in major cities. Sergei Sobyanin spoke on the subject in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.

“Millions of people live in a relatively small area. And if they have millions of cars, they just won’t fit on the roads. In Moscow, now there are more than 400 cars per thousand inhabitants,” said the Mayor of Moscow.

In terms of car ownership per capita, the capital occupies the second place in the country, the first being Moscow region, where there are 415 cars per thousand inhabitants.

“Our strategic task is to keep the city moving, and to ensure that no more than 3.5 million cars a day enter Moscow’s roads even at peak times. We have been trying to keep to this limit for seven years. In addition, we are developing the road network. Taken together, these measures allow us to avoid traffic collapse,” said Sergei Sobyanin.

While in 2010 about 60 percent of the population used public transportation on a daily basis, today that proportion has risen to 70 percent. The next target is to increase this figure to 75 percent by 2030. Nevertheless, private cars will remain an important form of transportation for a long time to come, added the Mayor of Moscow.

The key major public transportation project that the city will continue to implement in the coming years remains the Metro system.

“We will continue to build about six stations on average per year. We will build about 30 stations by 2030 and another 30 stations by 2035. Currently there are no major breakthrough projects under way that can compare with the construction of the Bolshaya Koltsevaya line in its ability to relieve congestion on the Metro system at least a little,” said Sergei Sobyanin.

Construction of the Rublevo-Arkhangelskaya, Biryulevskaya and Troitskaya Metro lines, and of Golyanovo and Pechatniki stations, is proceeding as planned. In addition, a plan for the construction of a new Metro line that will run towards Skolkovo is currently under consideration.

Among the most important urban transportation projects, Sergei Sobyanin also named the connection of the Solntsevo-Butovo road with the Moscow High-Speed Diameter road.