The Moscow metro is a means of delivery and movement of passengers not only in the Russian capital, but also in the nearest Moscow region. It is both underground and aboveground, and also represents the fifth most intensively used system of its kind in the world, passing ahead only the subways of Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo and Shanghai. So how many lines and stations are part of the Moscow metro?
Some historical facts
The first station and line of the then metropolitan named after L. M. Kaganovich were opened on May 15, 1935 from Sokolniki to Park Kultury with a branch to the Smolenskaya station.
Renaming the metro in the name of V. I. Lenin happened in 1955.
In 2013, the metropolitan subway transported 2.49 billion people, and this figure shows a constant increase from 2.463 billion in 2012, 2.388 billion in 2011 and 2.348 billion in 2010.
But it took quite a long time to reach such indicators. For the first time, the idea of a metro in Moscow came to the authorities of the then Russian Empire in 1875. According to it, the subway was supposed to connect the Kursk railway station, Lubyanskaya and Trubnaya squares, as well as Maryina Roscha. But then the project was postponed.
The idea of a Moscow metro was revisited in Russia in 1902, 1913, 1916 and 1925. Nevertheless, various problems, including financial ones, constantly hindered its implementation until 1931, when construction finally began.
How many stations are included in the metro of the capital of Russia?
As of the beginning of 2014, there were 194 stations and 12 lines operating within the Moscow metro. Moreover, only 192 of them are located in the city, and two more - "Myakinino" and "Novokosino" - outside Moscow.
44 metro stations in Moscow are included in the list of UNESCO cultural heritage sites.
According to the plans of the city authorities, by 2020 the number of stations will increase by 62, and the length of the subway will increase by 137 kilometers from 325.4 kilometers at present.
Most of the Moscow metro stations in Moscow, unlike, for example, the Berlin subway, are underground, and only 16 are above the surface. 76 of them were built using the deep-laid method.
Various lines are connected by 30 metro interchange hubs, and one of them is designed as a four-station one - Aleksandrovsky Sad, Arbatskaya, Lenin Library and Borovitskaya.
Most of the stations have a fixed length according to a single standard - 155 meters or 8 cars with a small gap. This norm was adopted de facto even at the time of the beginning of construction. But for new stations, which will be built by 2020, this distance will increase to 162 meters.
Previously, the only exception was the Filevskaya line, which was originally conceived for transporting the ruling elite of the country - the stations accepted only trains of 6 cars, but after the development of this direction, they were lengthened.
