New metro stations open on Solntsevskaya Line

The Line 8 section (Solntsevskaya Line) between Ramenki and Rasskazovka stations has opened in Moscow. Now about 600,000 people in Moscow who live in the nearby districts will need about an hour less travel time each day. The section was opened by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

“The metro in Rasskazovka welcomes its first passengers. Congratulations, thank you, friends. Thanks to those who built the metro and thanks also to all the local residents for being patient during the course of the construction period. Today we are finally opening the metro here,” Sergei Sobyanin said.

Essentially, the Solntsevskaya Line opened on 30 August. There are 15 stations: from Petrovsky Park to Rasskazovka. Now it will be easier for people living in the Novo-Peredelkino and Solntsevo districts to get to the city centre: it will only take 40 minutes.

The Moscow mayor also noted that the working conditions were difficult: the tunnels were built under the Moskva River, in difficult soil, and the trains were not stopped for it. “Can you imagine what kind of a feat this was? It is not just one station, not some small house above the ground, but this was a gigantic construction job that is 30 km in one direction and 30 km in the other, as well as another 10 km of service tunnels. All told 70 km of underground tunnels have been built.”

In addition to all this, Sergei Sobyanin examined the new Solntsevo depot where Line 8 trains will go for the night. This will also be the place used for technical maintenance and repairs.

30 years of waiting

People living in Solntsevo, Novo-Peredelkino and other western districts of Moscow have been waiting for the metro to be built for more than 30 years, since 1984. For all these years they had to use buses to get to Yugo-Zapadnaya and Prospekt Vernadskogo stations on Line 1 (Sokolnicheskaya Line) spending anything from 30 to sixty minutes or even more on one trip.

Sergei Sobyanin made the decision to construct the 31-km-long Solntsevskaya Line and the Solntsevo depot in 2011.

At first, the plan was to build the metro to Solntsevo only. However, in 2013 it was decided to extend the line to Rasskazovka and later to Vnukovo after residents requested this. This provides comfortable and high-speed transport not only for the locals but for the people needing to get to Vnukovo Airport as well. In addition to this, it was decided to connect Line 8 with the Large Circle Line making the trains run from Solntsevo to Petrovsky Park station and further.

The line was constructed in stages. The first section between Delovoi Tsentr and Park Pobedy opened in early 2014. It is 3.4 km long. Park Pobedy is the deepest station in the Moscow metro (84 m) with 126-m-long escalators, due to the fact that this section is located under the Moskva River. The second section with three stations, Park Pobedy – Ramenki, opened in March 2017. It is 7.3 km long. The third section between Ramenki and Rasskazovka is 15.3-km-long, has seven stations and the Solntsevo depot and opened for passengers on 30 August 2018. The fourth five-km-long section, which is yet to be built, will go from Rasskazovka station to Vnukovo Airport. It is expected to be built by 2023.

After the opening of Solntsevskaya Line about 600,000 people in Moscow residing in the Solntsevo, Novo-Peredelkino and Moskovsky districts as well as along Michurinsky Prospect and other nearby areas will spend about an hour less commuting every day. Another 300,000 people now have a metro station close by.

The line will take the burden off the southwestern section of Sokolnicheskaya Line (Line 1) and transport hubs at Yugo-Zapadnaya, Prospekt Vernadskogo and Universitet stations.

The traffic on Borovskoye and Kiyevskoye motorways, Michurinsky, Leninsky and Vernadskogo prospects and the section of the Moscow Ring Road between Michurinsky and Leninsky prospects will move freer because some drivers will now prefer to take the metro.

The longest section

In order to build this line, the general contractor, Mosinzhproyekt, got together a team of experts from Moscow, Tatarstan, Samara, Belarus and Azerbaijan.

Moscow opened seven new stations on the new line, which is a rare event in the life of the Moscow metro. The last time when such a large section opened was 35 years ago, on 8 November 1983. It was the Serpukhovskaya – Yuzhnaya section on Line 9. This was also the longest section in the Moscow Metro: 15.3 km long.

The new stations of Solntsevskaya Line have their own features: for example, Michurinsky Prospekt will be the first semi-underground station. Passengers will be able to see the entire station and assess how large it is.

In addition to this, some unique technology was used during the construction work. Novoperedelkino station was built aligned with Borovskoye Motorway.

Novoperedelkino and Solntsevo stations have individual designs. The winning projects of the open international contest were chosen. They were also approved by Muscovites on the Active Citizen portal.

There is also a good access road to Ozyornaya station thanks to the North-West Expressway completed this year.

The new Solntsevo depot will provide a level of high security and high-quality maintenance of the rolling stock on Solntsevskaya Line.

In order to improve the areas around the stations, 900 large trees and over 10,500 bushes were planted in addition to 140,800 square metres of flowerbeds and lawns as well as granite paths.

In addition to this, all the new stations have platforms where surface transport can stop. Ozyornaya and Rasskazovka stations have bus turnouts. There are plans to construct transport hubs at five stations.

People living in the western and southwestern districts of Moscow will be able to use the metro to go from Rasskazovska to Nekrasovka station without interchanging at Delovoi Tsentr or via the Moscow City Business Centre after the section of the Large Circle and Nekrasovskaya lines open. This route is 70.8 km long and has 30 stations.

Blooming garden at Michurinsky Prospekt

Michurinsky Prospekt station is located at the intersection of Michurinsky Prospect and Udaltsova Street. It interchanges with a station of the Large Circle Line, which has the same name and is under construction now. There will be a large transport hub built there.

Michurinsky Prospekt is a semi-underground, three-span station with columns and two entrance halls leading to both sides of Michurinsky Prospect and Udaltsova Street. The first entrance hall forms part of the station and is located on the even side of the prospect, and the second one is a one-floor building on the odd side, which will later also serve as the entrance hall to Solntsevskaya station of the Large Circle Line.

Passengers can cross from one entrance hall to the other via a roofed pedestrian gallery. It can also be used by those who want to cross Michurinsky Prospect without going into the metro. The crossing was opened earlier than the station: on 21 June 2018.

The platform is 163 m long and 14 m wide. It has three escalators in the centre.

Granite, enameled ceramics, glass, steel and aluminium were used in the design. It is styled like a garden in bloom and is connected with the famous biologist Ivan Michurin, after whom the prospect and the new station are named.

Sun specks at Ozyornaya

Ozyornaya station is located along Michurinsky Prospect at the intersection with Nikulinskaya Street (next to the Moscow Ring Road). It is a shallow two-span station with columns and an island platform. Two entrance halls are located on both sides of Michurinsky Prospect near the existing and projected buildings and bus stops. The platform is 163 m long and 12 m wide.

Uzyornaya is a typical station: the design is similar to Minskaya, Lomonosovsky Prospekt, Ramenki and Michurinsky Prospekt stations.

Waterlilies and sun specks on the water are the main feature of Ozyornaya station. The architects were inspired by the Ochakovo Ponds nearby. A row of columns covered with blue and green metal-ceramic panels with pictures of water plants.

The water theme can also be found in the entrance halls decorated with illuminated stained-glass windows with waterlilies.

Glowing drops and three shades of light at Govorovo

Govorovo station is located in the village of Moskovsky (the Troitsk and Novomoskovsk Administrative Area), south to Borovskoye Motorway, between Planned Street No.6055 (Tsentralny Proyezd) and 50 Let Oktyabrya Street. It is a shallow two-span station with columns, one island platform and two underground entrance halls. It is 163 m long and 12 m wide.

Black colour dominates in the station’s decoration. There are three kinds of light at the station: warm yellow, white and purple, which makes the interior more picturesque.

The platform is decorated with granite and has a black mirror-like ceiling with a labyrinth of fluorescent lights. The effect of the mirror is multiplied by the grey granite floor with perpendicular tracks for decorative lighting. The columns are covered with perforated stone slabs. Decorative holes are filled with crystals and illuminated. Passengers will see a picture of glowing drops of water.

The shallow Solntsevo station is located at the intersection of Bogdanova and Poputnaya streets. It is a two-span station with an island platform, columns and two underground entrance halls that go out on both sides of Bogdanova and Poputnaya streets. Pedestrians can use the crossing at the first entrance to cross over Bogdanova Street. The platform’s length and width are standard 163 and 12 m, accordingly.

Optical illusion at Solntsevo

Solntsevo Station will surprise passengers with its optical illusion. If they use the escalator to ascend, they will see the rising sun that will split into several figures located on the walls, floor and ceiling.

The architects decided to make the sunlight part of the station’s design. They made holes in the walls and roof of the entrance hall so that light could get through.

The mix of various spots of light imitates the sunlight. The holes are covered with acryl glass so no damp can get in.

The platform has the same effect: there are holes in the ceiling filled with reflected light.

A park of three hectares was created near the station. It has 26,000 square m of lawns and 4,500 square m of flowerbeds and pedestrian paths paved with granite.

Borovskoye Shosse station is located at the intersection of Borovskoye Motorway and Prirechnaya Street. It is a columned shallow station with an island platform and two underground entrance halls that go out on both sides of Borovskoye Motorway and Prirechnaya Street.

The interior design can be associated with Borovskoye Motorway: the combinations of orange and grey elements, navigation lines and lamps shaped like cars bring the road to mind. Lights on the stations are shaped like streetlights and the smooth ceiling with notches looks like asphalt after rain.

Another shallow station, Novoperedelkino, is located at the intersection of Borovskoye Motorway and Sholokhova Steet. The exits are located on both sides of the motorway. There are four lifts that go from the surface to the ticket office and two lifts going from there to the platform for people with disabilities.

The interior is decorated to resemble medieval Moscow palaces. The perforated metallic panels on the dome lamps have grass patterns. The LED lamps in them help change the shades of lighting at the station thus creating different sorts of atmosphere and visually expanding the space.

Rasskazovka Station is situated in the village of Vnukovo, north from Borovskoye Motorway (near the intersection with Fedosyino Street). Is also has two underground entrance halls going out on both sides of the motorway. The station is 12 m deep so there are no escalators, but lifts for people with disabilities.

The designers used a library theme to decorate the station: tunnel walls are made to look like bookshelves and the columns are shaped like drawers of filing cabinets with book titles, authors’ names and QR codes that can be used to download books.

A sculpture of a tunnel boring machine and a shaftman and a writer sitting on a bench made from railway sleepers is installed near the station.

By the time Solntesvakaya Line opened, the Rasskazovka transport hub included a terminus for 280 buses, parking for 600 cars, a taxi stand for 15 vehicles and pergolas for passengers to wait under. The construction of the 20,000-square-metre Skazka Mall in the hub is nearing completion.

A road leading to the village of Moskovsky and a section of the road between Kiyevskoye and Kaluzhskoye motorways has already been built from Rasskazovka.  In the future, the station will become a large transport hub that will connect the metro, four outbound routes (Varshavskoye, Kaluzhskoye, Kiyevskoye and Minskoye motorways) and two railway lines: Kiyevskoye and Kurskoye.

The Solntsevo depot, which covers 26.3 ha, has been built for technical maintenance and repairs of the rolling stock on Solntsevskaya Line and the first section of the Large Circle Line.

The depot includes places where the trains will be cleaned, an administration building (with a medical office, a canteen for 130 people and recreation rooms for 44 people), a depot for special equipment, mechanisation bases, a rail-welding station, a repair building plus an auxiliary building where about 1,500 people will be working.

Moscow Metro construction programme 2011–2018: Results

The Moscow Metro construction programme has been implemented since 2011 and is the largest programme in the history of the Moscow Metro: 136 km of tracks, 71 new stations, three additional entrance halls and eight depots for the Moscow Metro and the MCC.

Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line (Line 10):

— section between Maryino and Zyablikovo stations;

— section between Maryina Roshcha and Seligerskaya stations;

— the second entrance hall at Maryina Roshcha station;

— the second entrance hall at Petrovsko-Razumovskaya station.

Kalininskaya Line (Line 8):

— section between Novogireyevo and Novokosino stations.

Solntsevskaya Line (Line 8):

— section between Delovoi Tsentr and Ramenki stations;

— section between Ramenki and Rasskazovka stations.

Zamoskvoretskaya Line (Line 2):

— section between Krasnogvardeiskaya and Alma-Atinskaya stations;

— Tekhnopark station;

— section between Rechnoi Vokzal and Khovrino stations.

Arbatsko–Pokrovskaya Line (Line 3):

— section between Mitino and Pyatnitskoye Shosse stations.

Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line (Line 7):

— section between Vykhino and Kotelniki stations;

— Spartak station.

Butovskaya Line (Line 12):

— section between Starokachalovskaya and Bitsevsky Park stations.

Sokolnicheskaya Line (Line 1):

— section between Yugo-Zapadnaya and Salaryevo stations.

The Large Circle Line:

— section between Delovoi Tsentr and Petrovsky Park stations.

Filyovskaya Line (Line 4):

— the second entrance hall at Mezhdunarodnaya station.

The Moscow Central Circle: 31 stations.

Over 3.5 million people live, work or study near the new metro stations.

The 2011-2023 Moscow Metro building plan includes the construction of 256 km of tracks and 122 stations.