Pedestrian interchanges to connect commuter stations with Moscow Central Circle

By 2018, new pedestrian interchanges will connect five MCC stations with commuter station platforms. Covered footbridges and pedestrian underpasses will connect the Moscow Railway’s Savyolovskaya, Yaroslavskaya, Rizhskaya, Kazanskaya and Paveletskaya lines to the MCC.

Kazanskaya Line: Andronovka and Frezer

According to the Russian Railways (RZD) Directorate for the Integrated Reconstruction of Railways and the Construction of Railway Transport Facilities, a 38-metre-long pedestrian underpass will be built beneath the Frezer station on the Kazanskaya line with two exits: one to Frezernaya Street and the other to the MCC Andronovka station. It will provide a more convenient, “dry foot” interchange between the two platforms. Passengers will no longer have to come out into the street to change lines.

“People will walk through the underpass and then another 30 metres under an overhang with protection from the elements. The covered walkway will connect to the pedestrian overpass at the Andronovka transit hub,” a railway spokesperson said.                  

Savyolovskaya Line: Okruzhnaya

By 2018, the Okruzhnaya station on Savyolovskaya Line will be closer to the MCC station of the same name. It will be located on a road overpass, which is currently being built over the MCC. The overpass will shorten the interchange by 100 metres to 200 metres.

A 50-metre pedestrian underpass below the elevated road will lead from the railway station to the metro. The underpass with exits both to the MCC and the Okruzhnaya metro station, scheduled to open in 2017, will be part of the Okruzhnaya transit hub.

Yaroslavskaya Line: Severyanin and Rostokino

By 2018, the Severyanin station on the Yaroslavskaya line will be relocated 400 metres closer to the MCC Rostokino station. To change lines, passengers will only have to walk 130 metres instead of 400 metres. A pedestrian underpass will be built with one exit – to the Moscow Lubricants Plant. To get to the MCC Rostokino station, riders will walk another 70 metres beneath a North-East Expressway overpass.       

On the other side of the Severyanin platform there will be a footbridge, around 60 metres long, leading towards Prospekt Mira.

Paveletskaya Line: Nizhniye and Verkhniye Kotly

Two Nizhniye Kotly station platforms on the Paveletskaya line will be moved 900 meters closer to the MCC station, to a road overpass over the railway tracks. This will shorten the interchange to a mere 50 metres. A covered footbridge around 40 metres long, integrated into the transit hub, will be built by 2018, linking the commuter platform to the MCC’s Verkhniye Kotly station.     

Rizhskaya Line: Leningradskaya and Streshnevo

By 2018, the Leningradskaya station on the Rizhskaya line will be relocated closer to the MCC by 600 metres, making the interchange several times shorter. Two underpasses, each around 50 metres long, will be built from the platform towards Leningradsky Prospekt and to the MCC’s Streshnevo station.

Future plans

By 2018, four more interchanges to suburban railway lines will be available for MCC riders. Pedestrian interchange facilities will appear on the Smolenskaya, Gorkovskaya, Oktyabrskaya and Kurskaya railway lines. But as no decisions regarding these latter projects have been made yet, it’s unclear whether the new interchanges will be above or below surface.     

There will be a convenient interchange from the MCC Shelepikha station to the Testovskaya station on the Smolenskaya line and to a new station of the same name being built on the Third Interchange Circuit. The station is almost through and is due to open by the end of 2016. From the MCC Nizhegorodskaya station passengers will be able to change to the Karacharovo station on the Gorkovskaya line and also to the Nizhegorodskaya Ulitsa station. The latter will be part of the Kozhukhovskaya metro line with 2018 as completion deadline. In addition, there will be interchanges from the MCC Novokhokhlovskaya station to the Kalitniki station on the Kurskaya line and from the NATI station on the Oktyabrskaya line to the MCC’s Likhobory station.

Moscow Central Circle passenger service was launched on 10 September with 26 MCC stations, 12 interchanges to metro lines and six to commuter trains open so far. The MCC runs through 26 districts with an overall population of around two million people. The remaining five MCC stations will admit their first passengers by the end of October.