Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line

The Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line ( _ru. Арба́тско-Покро́вская ли́ния) is a line of the Moscow Metro. Chronologically the second to open, now it connects the major Izmaylovo District on the east of Moscow, and the Strogino District on the west, with the city centre. At present it has 18 stations (one of them is temporarily closed), and is the second-longest line of the system, being 37.7 kilometres long.

History

The history of the east-west axis is one of the most complicated in the Moscow Metro, and is partly due to the politics change in priorities. In 1935, when the first stage opened, a branch was build from Okhotny Ryad to the Smolenskaya Square on the Garden Ring, further extended to the Kiyevsky Rail Terminal in 1937.

In 1938 the branch was split into a separate line, and a 3.2 km stretch was inaugurated from Alexandrovsky Sad to the Kursky Rail Terminal. During the Second World War the construction of the metro was not stopped, and in 1944 the Pokrovsky radius was opened with three stations (Elektrozavodskaya added later). The eastern part of the line received three more extensions, a 1954 one to a temporary station Pervomayskaya inside a newly opened depot. This was replaced in 1961 by further two stations, incidentally despite the line being famous for its rich Stalinist architecture, the 1961 extension simultaneously demonstrated the new station designs that would persist throughout the 1960s, the surface station Izmailovskaya located in the Izmaylovsky Park, and the new "sorokonozhka" (centepede) design for the new Pervomayskaya. The line reached its present terminus in 1963 with an extension to Shcholkovskaya.

The Western end of the line has much more complex history. The original first stage stations, were built sub-surface. Given their importance in the centre of Moscow, and the post-WWII threat of a Nuclear War these would be useless as bomb shelters. So to solve this problem it was decided to build a parallel deep level section, and close the older stations, which took place in 1953.

The line would then be planned to be extended west to the Fili districts, but yet another policy change prevented that extension from being realised. Nikita Khruschev after the visit to the United States, was impressed by a large network of surface level Metros, and instead promoted the idea of building the Filoyvsky Radius on the surface. Thus the Filyovskaya Line was born, which opend in 1958 along with the four original stations.

Thus for almost 40 years there was no extension work carried out on the line. All this changed in the late 1980s, when a new general plan thought to correct the ill-attempted Filyovskaya Line experiment, and the first part of the station, after nearly 15 years of construction (although most of that time it was conserved due to the shortage of funding in the 1990s) Park Pobedy opened in 2003, becoming the deepest station in Moscow. In 2008 this was followed by the long-awaited extension to Strogino, the line opened two new segments and annexing some from the Filyovskaya Line growing in total by approximately 16 km.

The line is known most for its architecture, as the bulk of its central stations were built in Stalin's period. Example include the art deco Ploshchad Revolyutsii with its 72 sculptural groups by M.G. Manizer, Elektrozavodskaya which is lit by 318 incandescent lights, and the semi-elliptical Arbatskaya, with its Moscow Baroque styling are probably the most well-known stations of the system let alone the line.

Timeline

Rolling Stock

The line is served by the Izmailovo depot (#3) and it presently has 43 seven carriage trains assigned to it. Traditionally none of the trains that it received were factory-fresh and most of its rolling stock consisted of old trains models that other lines retired upon upgrade to newer ones, and thus all trains that are retired from this line are sent to the scrapyard, this was seen Am and Bm types in 1975 and the D type in 1995 and is currently taking place with the E type. Presentely the trains are a combination of Ezh, Ezh1, Em-508 and Em-509 models.

Recent Events and Future plans

The West

In 1953, after the closure of the shallow stations between Ploshchad Revolyutsii and Kievskaya and replacing them with the present deep ones, more westward extensions were to begin. However, Nikita Khruschev's inspiration after visiting New York Subway prompted all works to be cancelled and the shallow stations to be reopened with a westward surface path creating the Filyovskaya Line. Although the construction of a surface station was fast enough to reach the western districts of Moscow by mid 1960s, the Russian winter climate, took its toll on the operation and management of the Filyovskaya Line.

In addition to that the northwestern districts of Moscow, being Strogino and Mitino housing massifs, which were built in the late 1970s-1980s remain isolated and all of the transit lies on bus and tram routes to Shchukinskaya and Tushinskaya of the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line. Which makes the latter line one of the busiest in the system.

By the mid-1980s it was clear that a complex reconstruction was needed to solve the problem in Western Moscow. Three separate developments were to start. Because the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line had relatively small passenger traffic, it was decided to have it take up the main share of the transit load. For the first part the deep radius would follow the Kutuzovsky Avenue with three stations. Then, the line would annex the western terminal stations of the Filyovskaya Line, and continue to Strogino and Mitino. Work began in the late 1980s, for the opening of the first station (a future cross-platform transfer to the Solntsevsko-Mytishchenskaya chordial line) to open in early 1990s and the remaining part of the bypass by the turn of the decade. However the first station in the bypass was not opened until 2003 (Park Pobedy) and the quantity of the remaining two: Minskaya and Slavyansky Bulvar, were cut to accommodate for only the latter one, which opened in September 2008.

After a long debate on how to accommodate for the junction at Kuntsevskaya, under pressure from the local people, a cross-platform transfer will be set up in the reconstructed surface station, and the remaining Filovskaya stations, Molodyozhnaya and Krylatskoe will be annexed to the APL.

The second part of the development consists of boring more than

In 1989 the first part of the plan was completed with the extension to Krylatskoye. Then in 2003 the deepest station in the Metro, Park Pobedy was opened as the first part of the southern bypass. In 2007 the stations Slavyansky Bulvar and a redesigned Kuntsevskaya will open and the Filyovskaya Line's underground stations Molodyozhnaya and Krylatskoye will be annexed by the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line, nearly doubling its present length and certainely the passenger load. Simultaneously the two station extension to Strogino will be completed, which would include a combined automobile and Metro tunnel under an ecological preserve - Serebryany Bor (Silver Pinewood).

From there the line shall continue to Strogino with one interim station Troitse-Lykovo. The station Strogino and the following segment, actually would eventually end up with the Stroginsky radius of the Kalininskaya Line when the central segment is completed (not expected to take place before late 2010s or early 2020s). So both Strogino and Mitino will be served by the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line until then.

The East

Most of the stations there are very old and some were built during the 1940s, and their age shows clearly in their appearance as well as their operational technology such as escalators. In May 2005 the station Semyonovskaya was closed for a year to replace its escalators and also to completely renovate and upgrade its vestibule. Elektrozavodskaya was closed in May 2007, and is planned to reopen in December 30th, 2008. It was supposed to be reopened much earlier, in mid-2008, but the only plant, which manufactures subway escalators in Russia, is being late with completing the order. So seweral months are being wasted, waiting for the new escalators to arrive. All of the deep level stations on the Pokrovskiy radius were said to be equipped with second entrances to the surface. But in fact the municipal authorities and subway`s management are lying about those intentions and are not really interested in refurbishing those problem stations. That is why for "Semyonovskaya" and for "Elektrozavodskaya" second entrances were never built, so these stations in order to replace old worn-out escalators in their only entrances, had to be just closed down. The busiest of them, "Baumanskaya", is likely to be closed down soon, after "Elektrozavodskaya" reopens, but it is not yet clear, when exactly. Although with second entrances the stations could have avoided closing. Recently the manager of Moscow`s subway D.V.Gaev spoke about designing a second entrance for "Partizanskaya" station, which is shallow and has no escalators, so closing is not necessary.

In addition to the renovation works, new stations were planned for the line. In 1938, on the first stage of the line between Kurskaya and Ploshchad Revolyutsii, provisions for two future stations were built. Named Pokrovka and Maroseika, these were planned to be opened at a later date. The latter station in particular is very important as it will facilitate a direct transfer to the Kitay-Gorod station complex with Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya and Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya lines. The opening of the new stations is not presently considered a priority, although when the Strogino extension opens, the rise in passenger traffic on the line will most likely necessitate building of the new stations.

In the very east another extension is planned to Golyanovo. The station Schelkovskaya recently received a very major restoration replacing old ceramic tiles with modern aluminium planes.