The Greater Ring of the Moscow Railway (Russian: Большое кольцо Московской железной дороги) is the common name for a system of connector lines between the railways that radiate from Moscow. The general configuration of the Greater Ring is a ring around the main part of Moscow (outside Moscow).[1] It forms part of the radial-ring structure of the Moscow railways. The Greater Ring crosses the rail lines in all 11 radial directions from the railway stations of Moscow. It totals 584 kilometres (363 mi) in length. For its entire length, the ring is equipped with an automatic locking system, permitting, where necessary, two-way single-track operation; elsewhere, there are two track and multiple track sections.[2]
The ring allows freight trains to be transferred from one railway to another without entering Moscow; to a lesser extent, it is used for the same purpose by long-distance passenger trains as well. This reduces the transit traffic volume on the innermost sections of the radial rail lines, and makes more time slots available for running commuter trains between Moscow's rail terminals and the city's suburbs. The ring also serves transportation needs of towns and industrial customers located along it.
History
Different segments of the Greater Ring were constructed independently from each other, starting from the late 19th century. The entire ring was completed in 1942–1944, during World War II.
Links with radial lines
The Greater Ring links with the most important radial railway lines that begin and end in Moscow as follows:
The Kubinka I station (to the west of central Moscow, near Kubinka) provides a link with the Moscow – Smolensk (–Minsk) railway; trains that serve this radial route, as well as the trains of the ring railway, stop here.
Manikhino I train station near the city of Istra is at the intersection with the Moscow – Riga line.
To get from the ring railway to the Saint Petersburg–Moscow Railway, a passenger must get off at 142 km and cover a five-minute walk to the Povarovka stop on the St. Petersburg – Moscow railway line.
On the northeastern edge of the city of Sergiyev Posad (81 km railway stop), the ring section coming from Dmitrov flows into the Trans-Siberian Railway, branching off from it at Alexandrov I.
From here, the ring section to the north of it leads back to Kubinka I.
Operation
The Greater Ring itself entirely belongs to the three regions of the Moscow Railway:
The western semicircle (from Platform 39 km (40 km) to Sandarovo / Platform 283 km) belongs to the Moscow – Smolensk Railway Division
The part in the southeast (Nepetsino – Berendino / Yegoryevsk I and II) belongs to the Moscow – Ryazan Railway Division
The remaining two sections between them (Stolbovaya - Osёnka in the south and Naugolny – Ilyinsky Pogost in the north-east) are part of the Moscow – Kursk Railway Division.
This line is primarily used to let freight traffic bypass Moscow. The two biggest freight stations are Orekhovo and Bekasovo, they are main classification yards for Moscow region, and also have locomotive depots, for freight electric locomotives operating around Moscow.
Some overnight passenger trains also use some segments of Ring to bypass Moscow. Since the late 2000s, most, but not all of these trains run through Moscow instead.
Commuter traffic is very low, about 3-5 trains per day, and may be delayed due to overload of freight trains. The most used section is Aleksandrov - Karabanovo - Kirzach - Orekhovo, which was built first as a separate line.
Most of the line is two-track, except the northern part. The section Bekasovo – Iksha was converted to one-track in 1990s due to economic crisis. The Dmitrov - Naugolny section was built with one track in wartime, with steepest curves and low speed restriction, so it is rarely used by freight trains. This section is in a state of modernisation in 2010s, with construction of a second track. In 2021 the completion of some upgrades to the Greater Ring was announced.[3]
Administrative regions
Parts of the Greater Ring are located within three regions (federal subjects) of Russia:
A small section in the north-east (Arsaki – Alexandrov – Belkovo – Vetchi) is located in Vladimir Oblast. (It crosses 3 districts out of the 16 districts into which that oblast is divided)
The part to the south-west (Pozhitkovo – Bekasovo I – Vyatkino length of 49 km) is located within the City of Moscow (it crosses Troitsky Administrative Okrug, a territory that was annexed to the City of Moscow from Moscow Oblast in 2012)
The two largest sections of the ring (the section between Platform 173 km and Sandarovo, in the SE part of the ring, and the one between Platform 90 km and Pozhitkovo, in the NW part of the ring) are located in Moscow Oblast. They cross 11 out of the 29 districts and 5 out of 39 urban districts of that oblast.
Pozhitkovo station is situated both in Moscow and Moscow Oblast, split in half by the city boundary; Bekasovo I is similarly divided, with only a small part of being within Moscow Oblast.
Passenger operation
Suburban passenger traffic is served by OAO Central PPK.
