Launch of three new metro stations makes Sokolnicheskaya Line less busy

The average daily passenger traffic on the new section of the Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya Line was about 24,000 people in the first week since the Minskaya, Lomonosovsky Prospekt and Ramenki stations opened on 16 March.

“24,000 passengers per day is a good figure, which exceeds our preliminary estimates. In addition, the launch of three new stations helped make the Sokolnicheskaya Line less busy. The daily number of passengers decreased by 4,000 people at the Prospekt Vernadskogo metro station and by 5,000 people at the Universitet station,” Deputy Mayor and Head of the Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development Maxim Liksutov said.

He also added that the three new stations will improve transport services for about 300,000 Muscovites living within walking distance from the metro. For example, residents of the Ramenki District now get to the city’s centre twice as fast.

“Previously, they had to take surface transit to the nearest metro stations, Prospekt Vernadskogo or Universitet. Now it takes only 20 minutes to get from the Ramenki to the Okhotny Ryad station,” he said.

Two of the new stations, Lomonosovsky Prospekt and Minskaya, as well as another five metro lines, are connected by semi-express route No. 908. It was launched on 17 March. Buses running from the Kashirskaya to Filyovsky Park station carried over 35,000 people in almost a week.

“This is the first expressway route which links a few districts in southern and western Moscow and improves the transport accessibility of metro stations,” Mr Liksutov said.

The bus runs along the Kashirskoye Motorway, Nakhimovsky and Lomonosovsky prospekts and Minskaya Street. Thus, it connects six metro lines – Zamoskvoretskaya, Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya, Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya, Sokolnicheskaya, Solntsevskaya and Filyovskaya. The bus runs every five to 10 minutes. Buses depart from the Filyovsky Park station from 5.05 am to 10.21 pm and from Kashirskaya from 5.45 am to 11.01 pm.