Moscow Railroad

a major railroad main line of the Soviet Union. Its present boundaries were established in 1961. Operating length, 9, 113 km (6.7 percent of the total operating length of the country’s railroads); third longest in the USSR. It connects ten of the 11 radial railroads converging on Moscow; only one line (to Leningrad) is part of the October Railroad. The Moscow Railroad borders on the October, Byelorussian, Southwest, Southern, Southeast, Kuibyshev, Gorky, and Northern railroads.

The Moscow Railroad consists of the following radial lines emanating from Moscow: to Savelovo, to Aleksandrov (continuing to Yaroslavl), to Petushki (continuing to Gorky and Kirov), to Cherusti (continuing to Kazan), to Riazhsk (continuing to Michurinsk and Rostov), to Efremov (continuing to Elets and the Donbas), to Kursk (continuing to Belgorod and Kharkov), to Vorozhba and Khutor-Mikhailovskii (continuing to Kiev and L’vov), through Smolensk to the Shukhovtsy station (continuing to Orsha and Minsk), and to the Shakhovskaia station (continuing to Velikie Luki and Riga). The radial lines are interconnected by a number of north-south and east-west lines, such as Viaz’ma-Briansk-L’gov and Riazhsk-Tula-Viaz’ma, Volovo-Sukhinichi-Smolensk, and Elets-Orel-Briansk-Smolensk. In the Moscow area all radial lines are interconnected by two ring lines—the Lesser Peripheral Railroad within the city limits and the Greater Ring Railroad, located at a distance of 50–120 km from Moscow and connecting the following stations of the radial lines: Dmitrov, Iksha, Povarovo, Manikhino, Kubinka, Bekasovo, Stolbovaia, Mikhnevo, Zhilevo, Voskresensk, Kurovskaia, Orekhovo-Zuevo, Aleksandrov, and Dmitrov.

The radial and ring design of the Moscow Railroad provides a high degree of flexibility, facilitates handling of high traffic volumes in all directions by the shortest route, and prevents overloading of the Moscow junction by heavy transit traffic. The Briansk-Viaz’ma line and the Greater Ring Railroad were built during the years of Soviet power. The Moscow junction has the highest car traffic volume in the world. Its suburban and intercity passenger turnover is the highest in the USSR. Several thousand freight and passenger trains arrive at and depart from the Moscow junction each day. More than 1 billion passengers are transported annually (as of 1972).

The Moscow railroad serves not only the city of Moscow and Moscow Oblast but also provides passenger and freight service for neighboring oblasts of the central part of the USSR. It handles 20 percent of the Soviet railroad system’s long-distance passenger trips and 40 percent of the suburban trips. The main freight goods handled by the Moscow Railroad are coal, iron ore, building materials, petroleum, and mineral fertilizers. Transit hauls account for more than one-third of all freight hauls. The Moscow Railroad accounts for 6–7 percent of all freight arrivals and departures and total freight turnover. The total freight turnover of the Moscow Railroad (as of 1972) was 157 billion ton-km; the total passenger turnover was 52 billion passenger-km. The Moscow Railroad ranks fifth among all railroads of the USSR in terms of departures and freight turnover and second in terms of arrivals.

The rapidly increasing volume of traffic has necessitated thorough technical reequipment of the Moscow Railroad. Suburban passenger transportation uses electric locomotives. In 1972, 99.4 percent of all trips were powered by electric or diesel locomotives (as compared with 17 percent in 1961). Almost all radial lines are double-tracked. Marshaling yards with the latest automatic control equipment have been built. Within the Moscow junction (at the Losinoostrovskaia station) there is a fully automated hump yard, used in marshaling and breaking up trains.

The Moscow Railroad was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1966.