A long story of a short line, or how the Dmitrovsky radius on the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line was built

Metro in Beskudnikovo on the map since 1957

The history of metro construction planning along the Dmitrovskoye Motorway is more than half a century old. In 1960, Moscow expanded and included the entire area within the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD). In the north, the city annexed Beskudnikovo, Degunino, Korovino, and other villages. Some of them gave their names to the new areas.

A great deal of residential construction took place, but an outbound metro line was never built. Dmitrovskoye Motorway remained the main transport artery. The motorway was originally designed as an intraregional? Interior route intended for local traffic distribution.

Residents in Degunino and Beskudnikovo faced a big problem. The narrow motorway was the only main road to connect a large number of new developments with central Moscow. New metro stations were nowhere in sight. And Dmitrovskoye Motorway traffic was bulging beyond design capacity already by the 1960-1970s.

There was a railway along the eastern borders of the residential area. But it did not make things easier. There was no metro station adjacent to Savyolovsky Railway Station too; the Novoslobodskaya metro station was the closest.

In 1966, the executive committee of the Moscow City Council decided to urgently reconstruct the section of Dmitrovskoye Motorway from the Smaller Moscow Belt Railway (SMBR) to Beskudnikovsky Boulevard. The partial widening of the motorway did not help much. It was necessary to continue the metro line farther into the new areas.

And this when a new metro line in Beskudnikovo appeared as long ago as 60 years on maps of Moscow Metro development!

In the 1957 metro development plan, there was also a Timiryazevsko-Kaluzhsky cross-city line. But it was its southern section that was built first. The section between Oktyabrskaya and Novye Cheryomushki metro stations was opened in 1962. Then, the line was connected to the existing Prospekt Mira-VDNKh section. Thus, the orange (Line 6), Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya Line veered to the east of Dmitrovskoye Motorway.

The 1971 General Plan: unfulfilled hopes again

Then, the Timiryazevsky radial line appeared in the 1971 General Plan of Moscow development. The section was to run from the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina metro station through the Novoslobodskaya station and the Savyolovsky railway terminal, then along Dmitrovkoye Motorway to Degunino and farther to the Mark railway platform. A branch of the Timiryazevskaya  radial  line was to go to Otradnoye. The new section under construction from the Novoslobodskaya to Savyolovskaya and farther to the north even appeared on Moscow Metro maps.

In 1979, a pit was dug at the Dmitrovskoye and Korovinskoye motorways’ junction. But once again “Dmitrovka” residents were unlucky. The situation in northern Moscow changed. Areas located on the other side of the Savyolovo line of the Moscow Railway — Otradnoye, Bibirevo, and Altufyevo were growing quickly. They were bigger than Beskudnikovo and Degunino. So the branch line became the mainline. The grey Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line moved farther to Otradnoye.

The Petrovsko-Razumovskaya metro station, which opened on 7 March 1991, made life a bit easier. Surface transit was no longer the only option for reaching the Novoslobodskaya or Savyolovskaya metro stations from northern Moscow. But the northern part of Dmitrovskoye Motorway was still overcongested.

Northern area residents had to wait until another metro line reached them — the light green Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line. However, construction of this line progressed very slowly. Initial plans to complete the line from Degunino to Zyablikovo by the beginning of the 21st century ground to halt against the realities of the 1990s.

On 28 December 1995, with a five-year delay (the line was to be launched between 1986 and 1990) the Moscow Metro managed to open the first section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line between Chkalovskaya and Volzhskaya metro stations (without the Dubrovka metro station and without the connecting passage between Krestyanskaya Zastava and Proletarskaya metro station — they were finished later). Another 16 kilometres of tunnel boring still had to be completed so that metro stations could appear in the Dmitrovskoye Motorway area.

Prophetic students’ joke

On 1 April 1996, a circle marking a new Fiztekh station appeared on the maps in metro trains. Many passengers thought that soon there would indeed be a new station in northern Moscow (though it seemed strange that there was no announcement about it!), and the Moscow Metro was inundated with telephone calls. But it was just a practical joke by students of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). Like other passengers, they travelled in overcrowded buses and commuter trains.

In those years there was little hope that the metro would ever come to the village of Severny and the town of Dolgoprudny. Students had Fiztech station stickers printed and organised what might be called a flash mob now.

An extension of the metro line to the north saw no progress. The construction of the tunnels between Chkalovskaya and Maryina Roshcha metro stations was abandoned in mid-1990s. Rusty liner plates, flooded mines — this is how the central part of the future Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line looked at the beginning of the 21st century.

About 450,000 people live in the northern districts of Moscow without the metro. There were few alternatives to reach central parts of Moscow: Dmitrovskoye Motorway was congested, Savyolovskaya railway line’s trains were overcrowded. The Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line was doubly burden.

To remedy the situation, an alternative to change the timeline for the construction of sections of the light green line was considered: first, to expand the section to the north from the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya station, and then link it to the city centre. But this plan was rejected.

Finally, in the mid-2000s, construction in the abandoned tunnels in central Moscow was resumed. In 2007 the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line was extended to the Trubnaya metro station, in 2010, to Maryina Roshcha metro station.

Three routes were considered to connect the light green line with the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya metro station, of which the shortest was chosen. This section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line is 60-metre deep and passes under Ogorodny Proyezd and Milashenkova Street. Then to the east of Dmitrovskoye Motorway it crosses the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line and continues northward.

Since 2010, the metro has been moving to the north at an accelerated pace. A new 5.5-kilometre section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line from Maryina Roshcha to Petrovsko-Razumovskaya was launched on 16 September 2016, comprising three stations: Butyrskaya, Fonvizinskaya, and Petrovsko-Razumovskaya.

By the way, construction of the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya metro station of the Dmitrovskaya radial line began simultaneously with the construction of the similarly-named station on the grey line. But if the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya station on the grey Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line opened in March 1991, construction of the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya station on the light green Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line was frozen. The light green line and the grey line met at the Petrovsko-Razumovskaya station only a quarter of a century later.

Riders can use a cross-interchange platform to change from one line to the other.

Last kilometres

The remaining section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line is deemed to be one of the most difficult in the history of metro construction. Chemical freezing had to be used to extend the line through water-saturated soils.

A new 6-kilometre long section from Petrovsko-Razumovskaya to Seligerskaya, which is to open shortly, will also consist of three stations: Verkhniye Likhobory, Okruzhnaya, and Seligerskaya. The launch is scheduled for late 2017 — early 2018. The metro will finally serve the Dmitrovskoye Motorway area.

The new section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line will ease the load on the Serpukhovsko-Timiryazevskaya Line, the northern section of the Zamoskvoretskaya Line, as well as on the surface transit. According to estimates, residents of adjacent areas will save up 20 minutes. They will be able to reach central, southeastern and southern Moscow without changing lines. On top of this, the light green line intersects with almost all of the other lines.

The Okruzhnaya station will be part of the similarly-named transit hub. The latter will include a Moscow Central Circle station, a platform on the Savyolovo line of the Moscow Railway, and a surface transport stop. Also, the transit hub will intersect with the North-West Expressway. The Okruzhnaya station will be one of the most popular transit hubs in the capital and will create many alternative transport routes for residents of the northern and northeastern districts.

After the opening of the Seligerskaya metro station, construction of metro stations in this direction will continue. It is planned to build another section of the Dmitrovskaya radial line, which will comprise the Ulitsa 800-letiya Moskvy station, Lianozovo and Fiztekh stations. In 1996, hardly any of the MIPT students could imagine that their 1 April joke would become reality.