Koltsevaya Line
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Koltsevaya Line (Russian: Кольцева́я ли́ния), is the ring line of the Moscow Metro. The line was built in 1950-54 encircling the central Moscow, and became crucial to the transfer patterns of passengers.
Of all the lines, the ring remains the most famous, mostly due to its beautiful stations built at the height of Stalinist Architecture. Each of the twelve stand out in their own right, but some, like Komsomolskaya, Novoslobodskaya and Kievskaya represent the whole system.
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[edit] History
In the initial plans of the Metro's development there was no provision for the ring line. Instead it was planned for complete "diameters" to cross the city centre and with transfer stations at their intersections. However after the opening of the second stage in 1938 it was clear from the excessive loads on those junctions, that this plan would be insufficient to deal with the growing number of passengers as the system expanded. According to a rumour, Joseph Stalin himself suggested the ring when he placed a coffee cup on the original development map (with no ring) and then lifting it and leaving a circular stain around the centre of the city. It is believed that the brown colour of the Koltsevaya Line is attributed to this reason.
In principle the alignment of the ring was also debated, whether to use the Sadovoye Koltso avenue that encircles the centre or a more wider circumference. In the end it was decided to partially align the southern path along the Sadovoye Koltso, and let the northern part deviate to connect most of Moscow's rail terminals. This solved an important logistical problem, because, due to the layout of Russia's railroads, it would be impossible to travel from a region on one side of Moscow to another without having to make a manual transfer from one terminal to another.
Construction began shortly after the end of the war, and the first stage was opened in 1950 from Park Kultury to Kurskaya, in 1952 a second segment completed the norhern deviation up to Belorusskaya and in 1954 the circumference linked up.
The construction of the ring allowed for massive changes in the passenger flow patterns around Moscow, and allowed a systematic development platform for many future lines. A total of seven radial lines began at the ring, four of which later linked up in the centre to become diameters.
[edit] Timeline
| Koltsevaya Line
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Park Kultury | ||||||||
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Oktyabrskaya | ||||||||
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Dobryninskaya | ||||||||
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Paveletskaya | ||||||||
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Taganskaya | |||||||
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Kurskaya | |||||||
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Komsomolskaya | ||||||||
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Prospekt Mira | ||||||||
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Novoslobodskaya | ||||||||
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Belorusskaya | ||||||||
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Krasnopresnenskaya | ||||||||
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Kiyevskaya | |||||||
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| Segment | Date opened | Length |
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| Park Kultury-Kurskaya | January 1, 1950 | 6.5 km |
| Kurskaya-Belorusskaya | January 30, 1952 | 7.0 km |
| Belorusskaya-Park Kultury | March 14, 1954 | 5.9 km |
| Total: | 12 Stations | 19.4 km |
[edit] Name changes
| Station | Previous name(s) | Years |
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| Park Kultury | Tsentralnyi Park Kultury i Otdykha Imeni Gorkogo | 1950-1980 |
| Oktyabrskaya | Kaluzhskaya | 1950-1960 |
| Dobryninskaya | Serpukhovskaya | 1950-1960 |
| Prospekt Mira | Botanicheskiy Sad | 1952-1966 |
[edit] Transfers
It should be noted that the Koltsevaya line, unlike other lines of Moscow Metro, does not service any stations that belong to that line exclusively; rather, all its stations are transfer stations, linking to other lines, as shown below:
[edit] Rolling stock
The line is serviced by the Krasnaya Presnya depot (No.4) and was the first one to adopt the 81-717/714 trains in 1978. Presently 34 six-carriage trains are assigned to it.
[edit] Recent developments and future plans
Today the line is one of busiest, and the ever-rising passenger flows during rush hours are noticeably felt as most of the stations are over half a century old. In 1998 a second entrance was opened at Belorusskaya and there are plans to equip Park Kultury and Komsomolskaya with similar ones.
Many restoration works are carried out to improve the old line, recently Novoslobodskaya had major restoration work carried out, including replacement of lighting and retouching on the stained glass masterpieces by Pavel Korin. The vestibule of Taganskaya was closed in 2005 to replace old escalators and upgrade with new turnciles and also cosmetically renovate it, this was re-opened in 2006, and shotly afterwards Dobryninskaya followed suit for a similar upgrade.
Despite the fact that when opened, there were six stations left for future transfer provisions, this turned out to be too small for the growing system. Two stations are planned to be opened on the Koltsevaya Line to provide transfer points to two future radii. The first one, Suvorovskaya (also referred to as Ploshchad Suvorova) located between Prospekt Mira and Novoslobodskaya will provide a transfer to Dostoyevskaya of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line. However, though construction has begun on Suvorovskaya it is currently frozen for financial reasons and the station will not be complete in time for the opening of the Dmitrovsky radius in 2008/2009.
The other planned station, presently dubbed Rossiyskaya, is to be built between Krasnopresnenskaya and Kievskaya to become a transfer point to the Kalininskaya Line when eventually begins its westward extension. However construction is not expected to begin until 2015 at least and this means an opening of 2020 and not earlier.
