Russian Railways decided to extend the lines of the MCD

Oleg Toni, Deputy Director General of Russian Railways, said that the existing routes of the Moscow Central Diameters (MCD) “are planned to be extended.” According to him, Russian Railways sees the demand for the project for the development of the central transport hub and is working on its development in 2025–2030. Mr. Tony specified that the monopoly has “practically completed” a feasibility study for the project, which provides for “further development of the first and second diameters.”

Traffic on the first two MCDs (as part of the project, through railway lines in Moscow and the Moscow Region were reconstructed) was launched in 2019. Now electric trains run along the routes Odintsovo-Lobnya and Nakhabino-Podolsk. Mr. Tony did not specify how exactly these lines will be extended. It should be noted that in October 2021, the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, stated that MCD-1 and MCD-2 would not be extended. “They are made in such a way as to collect the most intense flow of passengers, and then ordinary commuter trains go,” the mayor explained. Mr. Sobyanin then specified that about 500 thousand passengers use the lines daily.

The project provides for the launch of three more lines – the 88-kilometer MCD-3 Zelenograd-Ramenskoye, the 85-kilometer MCD-4 Zheleznodorozhny-Aprelevka and the MCD-5 Pushkino-Domodedovo. In September 2022, the Moscow Department of Transport reported that in 2023-2024 MCD-3 and MCD-4 will include ten largest transport hubs, including those at the Kursky railway station and the square of three stations. Maxim Liksutov, the capital’s vice-mayor for transport, said at the same time that MCD-5 would require the construction of a 13-kilometer underground tunnel and the Moscow government, together with Russian Railways, was looking for a solution to this “technically difficult task.”

Ivan Tyazhlov