Sergei Sobyanin: Metro to reach Vnukovo Airport in 2023

Moscow is building Vnukovo Airport metro station.

“The Solntsevskaya line is still under construction to reach Vnukovo Airport station. Spanning 30 kilometers from the City to Vnukovo, it is the longest and the most remarkable line in Moscow, because Muscovites will get a great through passage from the downtown to Vnukovo Airport in addition to the terminal’s excellent transport accessibility. It will take just 40 minutes to get from the City to Vnukovo — to go directly to the terminal from here, from this station,” said Sergei Sobyanin when inspecting the metro station under construction.

Vnukovo Airport station will improve transport accessibility in Vnukovo and neighboring localities, and they will also launch the fourth Moscow Central Diameter (D4) there this year.

“We are going to launch a metro station in Vnukovo this year, so millions of passengers will have a convenient through passage with a 40-minutes’ ride from the City to Vnukovo to go directly from the station to the airport terminal. It will take 23 instead of 37 minutes to get from the terminal to BCL’s Michurinsky Prospekt station and then to almost anywhere in the city. This year, we will also launch D4 for the adjacent localities to enjoy an above-ground metro, too. Now, we are finishing the main structures and laying engineering systems at Vnukovo Airport station. We will decorate it with pictures of civil airplanes built by Tupolev Design Bureau, as the airport is named after Tupolev,” the Moscow Mayor wrote on his telegram channel.

Source: Sergei Sobyanin's telegram channel @mos_sobyanin

They began building the 4.9-kilometer-long section of the Solntsevskaya metro line, including two stations of Pykhtino and Vnukovo, in October 2019 and have already completed tunneling, this involving an arrangement of two 6-meter single-track tunnels as is typical of the Moscow Metro.

Whereas the main line tunnels between Rasskazovka and Pykhtino were built using the trenchless method. Within the segment from Pykhtino to Vnukovo Airport, trains will run on the surface along the 460-meter-long metro bridge over the Likova River to further go underground again.

The Likovsky (Pykhtinsky) metro bridge will be the twelfth metro bridge in Moscow and the second longest one after Luzhnetsky Bridge over the Moskva River, its construction completed by 94 per cent.

Moscow now has 11 metro bridges; the oldest metro bridge in Russia is Smolensky across the Moskva River on the Filyovskaya metro line, which was opened back in 1937, while the latest one, built in 2009, is Mitinsky (Myakininsky) across the Moskva River on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya metro line. The Luzhnetsky metro bridge is 1,178 meters long, Likovsky (Pykhtinsky) has 460 meters, Mitinsky is 439 meters long, Preobrazhensky has 330 meters, with Smolensky of about 300 meters and Nagatinsky of 233 meters in length. Other bridges do not have ground segments and are quite shorter.

The future station will have a multi-level structure, including platforms, an underground lobby, technical rooms and a traction power substation (TPSS).

Passengers will be able to go from the station through an underground walkway to Terminal A, underground Aeroexpress terminal, the land side and 1st Reisovaya Street.

The track walls and the end wall are decorated with the digital painting called Civil Airplanes of the Tupolev Design Bureau and Their Creators.

Vnukovo Airport station is completed by 59 per cent to date and is expected to be used by over 22,000 passengers per day.

The extension of the Solntsevskaya metro line to Vnukovo Airport will:

– improve transport services for almost 350,000 residents of existing and future neighborhoods in the Vnukovo district in addition to localities of Vnukovo, Marushkinsky and Filimonkovsky and to those who work there. 25,000 people live within a walking distance of the new stations and the daily travel time for them will get 20 to 40 minutes shorter;

– significantly enhance transport services for passengers of Vnukovo Airport as they will reach it approx. 1.5 times faster. For example, it will take 23 instead of 37 minutes to get from the airport to Michurinsky Prospekt metro station and 40 instead of 60 minutes to Moscow-City;

– offer air passengers and other visitors a wider selection of the shortest routes to the airport using different types of transport, such as metro/Aeroexpress trains, regular or electric buses, taxis, car sharing or personal cars;

– relieve traffic congestion on the adjacent motorways, including Kievskoye Motorway (by almost 5 per cent) and Borovskoye Motorway (by about 10 per cent);

— reduce traffic strain at Rasskazovka station of the Solntsevskaya line (by about 20 per cent) and Salaryevo of the Sokolnicheskaya metro line (by almost 15 per cent).

When the Rasskazovka — Vnukovo segment is ready, the length of the Solntsevskaya metro line will be more than 30 kilometers with 14 stations. Its construction involves several stages.

The first segment between Delovoy Tsentr and Park Pobedy (3.4 kilometers, two stations) running beneath the Moskva River opened for passengers in early 2014, the 84-meter deep Park Pobedy with 126-meter escalators being the deepest station of the Moscow Metro.

The second segment from Park Pobedy to Ramenki (7.3 kilometers, three stations) was launched in March 2017.

The third one, Ramenki — Rasskazovka, including the Solntsevo train depot (15.3 kilometers, seven stations) opened in August 2018, while the last section from Rasskazovka to Vnukovo (4.9 kilometers, two stations) is to be put into operation this year.

Since 2011, the Moscow Government has built or reconstructed 225 kilometers of lines, 109 stations, 4 extra station lobbies and 11 train depots for the Moscow Metro and Moscow Central Circle (MCC) to increase the Moscow Metro network 1.6 times. On top of that, together with RZD, they have launched D1 and D2 above-ground metro lines spanning 132 kilometers and including 62 stations.

My District. Vnukovo

Initiated by Sergei Sobyanin, the My District program is focused on setting up a favorable living environment in all Moscow districts, regardless how far from the city center they are located.

Vnukovo is home to more than 27,000 people and a lot has been done in the recent years to improve the quality of their lives.

“In Vnukovo, we are building social infrastructure and sports centers in addition to transport facilities, reconstructing the outpatient hospital and landscaping the neighborhoods, so Vnukovo is becoming an adequate district of Moscow,” added Sergei Sobyanin.

To create a nice public space, they have landscaped the park behind the service center and adjacent courtyards. In total, they have improved 24 yards, 34 playgrounds and 15 sports grounds in the district, installed 1,170 hardscapes and 164 outdoor lighting poles for the comfort of local residents and planted more than 3,100 trees and shrubs to make the area greener.

In the villages of Izvarino, Vnukovo and Tolstopalovo, roads and sidewalks have been fixed on more than 60 streets, with a routine repair run at the Pasternak Children’s Music School.

This year, they are going to take a big step towards improving transport services for the locals and open a new metro station called Vnukovo Airport next to the terminal building, while the neighboring settlement of Vnukovo is to have Pykhtino station.

Moreover, Vnukovo will get the surface metro with the fourth Moscow Central Diameter (Kaluzhsko-Nizhegorodsky D4), including Tolstopaltsevo, Lesnoy Gorodok and Kokoshkino stations, which look quite trendy after reconstruction with nice passenger lobbies and new fully-canopied platforms in addition to safe and commodious pedestrian crossings over the railway tracks.

They are building a sports & recreation center with a swimming pool (estate 2 Izvarinskaya Street) and fully reconstructing Branch No. 217 of Outpatient Hospital No. 212 (1a Nasosnaya Street) in line with the new Moscow standard.

They have also started erecting a temple in honor of the holy martyrs Vera, Nadezhda, Lyubov and their mother Sophia and are going to improve the green area on the side of Oktyabrskaya and Radarnaya streets. Other plans involve cleaning seven yards, installing fifty outdoor lighting poles and arranging suitable access walkways and roads to the metro/MCD stations.

The vital urban development projects include, among other things, construction of treatment facilities near the village of Likova.

Renovation program

In Vnukovo, 978 people will get new homes under the renovation program, these being residents of 11 houses with a total area of 16,400 square meters, including seven houses to be preserved and reconstructed after rehousing as the listed buildings; rehousing is to be arranged at the second stage of the program (2025-2028).

New sports center with a swimming pool

Construction of the Pegasus Sports Center in Vnukovo at 2 Izvarinskaya Street began in November 2021.

The remarkable façade with decorations of top-grade finishing materials and molded stringcourses connecting all parts of the building will certainly be an architectural highlight of the 4,000m² center.

The three-storey building will feature:

— a 25 x 16 m eight-lane swimming pool (with the depth of 1.2 to 1.8 meters) with coaching rooms, locker rooms, a medical station, and a water chemical laboratory;

– a 10 x 6 m pool for teaching swimming to 7-10 year old children;

— a 200m² gym with all-purpose exercise equipment to build up all muscle groups and a free weights area accommodating more than 30 people at a time.

In addition, the building will have a cafe for 19 seats and a nearby parking lot to park 12 cars, including two parking places for disabled persons.

It is completed by 72 per cent, with a watering hole and façade cladding being done to date, while now builders are laying internal engineering systems and finishing the interiors.

The Moscow Department of Physical Culture and Sports (Moskomsport) are to arrange classes in swimming and water aerobics there, in particular, for students of the Moscow Swimming Academy and everyone who would wish to attend them.  It is scheduled to be completed this year to become a new hot spot for Vnukovo residents.

4-star hotel

AZIMUT City Hotel Comcity Moscow was built in 2022. It is located at 22nd km of Kievskoye Motorway, building 6a/3 (TiNAO) in the Comcity office park, within a walking distance from Rumyantsevo metro station and 12 kilometers away from Vnukovo International Airport, and occupies an area of more than 9,000 square meters.

In addition to the hotel, the landscaped office park accommodates a residential quarter, underground and a surface parking, a business-class co-working space and a shopping arcade.

Private investment in the project amounted to 1.63 billion rubles.

Construction of the eight-storey hotel involved using environmentally friendly materials and up-to-date green technologies; the interior is decorated predominantly with wood, natural embellishments and green walls.

It is a mid-tier four-star hotel according to the Russian classification, which has 150 rooms in four categories:

– 114 Standard Double Rooms (23.4 square meters);

– 25 Superior Rooms (24.5 square meters);

– 3 Suites (45.1 square meters); and

– 8 rooms for guests with reduced mobility (23.3 square meters).

The ground floor is a multifunctional space, including a lounge area with a library, a reception desk, a business corner, conference rooms, a lobby bar, and a restaurant, with free high-speed Wi-Fi available everywhere at the hotel.

In the conference area, there are five multimedia halls for 12 to 150 people, plus a meeting room for 10 people. The 130-seat European restaurant offers buffet breakfasts with a wide range of drinks and dishes.

The second floor hosts a 52.5m² gym with up-to-date fitness equipment that fits both professional athletes and amateur gym-goers; the hotel rooms are located on the second to the eighth floors, inclusive.

The rooms for guests with reduced mobility have wider doorways, lower beds, special handrails around the room, spacious adapted showers and bathrooms. All rooms are equipped with flashing lights, enhanced sound speakers and an alarm system for guests with visual and hearing impairments.

The hotel is operated by Azimut Hotels, the largest Russian hotel chain, and AZIMUT City Hotel Comcity Moscow is their fifth hotel in Moscow as it also operates 4-star AZIMUT City Olympic Hotel, AZIMUT City Smolenskaya Hotel, AZIMUT City Tulskaya Hotel and 3-star AZIMUT Derbenevskaya Hotel, while, in total, the chain incorporates more than 50 hotels and resorts in 50 cities across Russia with more than 10,000 rooms in aggregate.

The new hotel has created over 50 jobs and intends to boost cooperation with hospitality departments of Moscow universities to offer internships and graduate employment.

The hotel welcomed its first guests on February 1, 2023.