The Metropolitan has declared war on tramps and beggars

urban transport
Yesterday, the head of the Moscow Metro, Dmitry Gaev, spoke about plans for the construction of new light metro lines in Moscow and about the security measures that the capital’s authorities are taking to protect passengers from terrorist attacks and homeless people.
Dmitry Gaev gathered journalists to talk about the preliminary results of the Butovskaya light metro line, which opened on December 27 last year. Mr. Gaev first noted the efficiency of the work: construction, both in terms of time and monetary costs, is several times more profitable than the construction of deep lines. True, stable operation of the Butovskaya line was not established immediately: in January it was discovered that the new Rusich trains were breaking down during snowfalls and blizzards (Kommersant talked about this on February 3). However, according to Mr. Gaev, the problems were eliminated after the trains were modernized at the Varshavskoye depot. According to the head of the metro, the light metro is becoming increasingly popular among Muscovites: since the beginning of the year, passenger traffic on the Butovskaya Line has increased from 27-29 thousand to 32 thousand people per day. “We are planning to extend the Butovskaya line in several directions: into the zone where new residential neighborhoods will appear (Potapovo and Ostafyevo), and in the north of the region, where it is planned to connect the Starokachalovskaya station with the Bitsevsky Park station of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line,” said Dmitry Gaev. “This fork will allow passengers from South Butovo to choose the most convenient line of the regular metro.” In the next two years, it is also planned to build a second (Solntsevskaya) light metro line from the Yugo-Zapadnaya station to Vnukovo airport.
Having finished with long-term planning, the head of the Moscow Metro moved on to current tasks. First of all, ensuring the safety of passengers. After the terrorist attack on February 6, a special passenger safety program was developed. Its implementation will take one and a half to two years and will require up to 2.5 billion rubles. So far, within the framework of the program, the number of police officers and internal troops patrolling metro stations has been significantly increased (from 500 to 1000 additional people are on duty every day). In the near future, the police staff serving the Moscow metro will be increased by another 1,500 people.
Dmitry Gaev called homeless people the second most important problem after the terrorist attacks in the Moscow metro. “We did not actively address this problem,” he admitted, “for which we were criticized by passengers and city leaders.” After a call “directly on this problem” from Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the metro management developed a “new system to combat the phenomenon.” Every day, about 1,000 employees of the Moscow metro police department, employees of the metro control service and security companies are involved in the work of catching homeless people. “During three weeks of special measures, more than two thousand homeless people were not allowed into the metro and more than one and a half thousand were expelled from cars and stations,” Mr. Gaev reported. In his opinion, “if a homeless person comes in and goes to sleep in the subway on the Circle Line, he is committing an antisocial act.” Mr. Gaev called on passengers to inform the police and drivers (using the “passenger-driver” connection) about beggars and homeless people.
Meanwhile, according to lawyer Leonid Olshansky, it is impossible to kick a person out of the metro until he has committed an administrative offense. However, the choice of administrative violations in which a homeless person can be convicted is quite wide: obscene language, actions that disturb the peace of citizens, lack of a passport or registration, begging, and so on.
TATYANA Kommersant-Morozova

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 53 dated March 25, 2004, p. 7

Themes:

Operation and development of the metro

Homeless people will be pulled out of the ground