Translated material
The doors are closing
Dmitry Gaev spoke out against the construction of the metro in Zhulebino
The capital's metro, it seems, does not want to lag behind road workers who are actively developing budgets for the construction of new ring highways, and intends to present a detailed plan for the construction of a second subway ring to the city planning council under the mayor this year. This was stated yesterday at a press conference by the head of the metro, Dmitry Gaev, who indirectly admitted that the problem of traffic jams, which has become key for officials in charge of ground transport, also concerns those who provide the transportation of passengers underground. Mr. Gaev believes that the new interchange circuit will not only relieve congestion at the hub stations in the city center, but will also significantly make life easier for residents of outlying residential neighborhoods, who will be able to take a shortcut along the “chords” that connect stations two or three stages from the current Ring Road.True, this will not happen very soon - the transition from the development of design documentation directly to construction work is expected only in 2010. And, naturally, the second, so-called Small Ring, will be built gradually. The first section, according to Mr. Gaev, will go from west to north, almost along the Third Transport Ring - from the Mezhdunarodnaya station through Polezhaevskaya and Dynamo to Savelovskaya. At the same time, the head of the metro made it clear to taxpayers and authorities that the pleasure of taking a shortcut would not cost them that much, especially when compared with the prices of underground construction in European capitals. “The cost of construction of one kilometer in our country is 2.2 billion rubles, and in Europe it ranges from 80 to 120 million euros,” said Dmitry Gaev.
However, investments, the lack of which metro builders complained about throughout the 90s, have been gradually growing recently. According to Mr. Gaev, three times more will be invested in the development of the metro this year than last year. While maintaining the growth rate and taking into account the “backlog” of recent years, in the next three years the metro is preparing other good news for residents of the outskirts, and even the center of the capital. It is planned to commission five new stations and about 15 kilometers of underground tracks. Already in August, the stretch of the Lyublinskaya line from Chkalovskaya to Trubnaya Ploshchad should open; by November, another one will appear between these stations - Sretensky Boulevard, which is part of a single junction with Turgenevskaya on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line and Chistye Prudy » on Sokolnicheskaya. And closer to the New Year, the Filevskaya line will extend to Strogin. According to Dmitry Gaev, the opening of a metro station in Strogin should partially relieve the congested Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line. According to estimates by metro managers, a passenger flow of 12 thousand people per hour will no longer storm the Shchukinskaya carriages that arrive there during peak hours already filled with residents of Tushin, Mitin and Kurkin.
At the same time, Dmitry Gaev told the residents of Zhulebin yesterday rather unpleasant news, practically burying their already timid hopes of reducing travel time to underground electric trains. “I am against the construction of the metro in Zhulebino, as a specialist,” said the head of the metro. To substantiate his opinion, he cited calculations showing that extending the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line beyond the Moscow Ring Road, which ends at Vykhino, would increase passenger traffic too significantly. As an alternative solution to the transport problems of residents of this new microdistrict, Mr. Gaev suggested that the authorities consider the construction of light rail lines connecting Zhulebino with the nearest metro station.