Russian president, Mr Vladimir Putin, Minister of Transport, Mr Yevgeny Dietrich, Moscow mayor, Mr Sergei Sobyanin, governor of Moscow, Mr Oblast Andrey Vorobyov, and general director and chairman of the board of Russian Railways (RZD), Mr Oleg Belozerov, all attended the opening. The delegation also examined the new pavilion at the Belorussky station and rode the Ivolga electric train to Fili station.

MCD-1 Odintsovo - Lobnya is 52km long with 24 stations, of which eight provide interchanges with the metro and the Moscow Central Circle (MCC) Line. Another four stations, all of which will be interchanges, will be completed by 2024.

MCD-2 Nakhabino - Podolsk is 80km long with 33 stations, with another five planned. Currently, 11 stations offer transfers to the metro and the MCC, while four of the five planned stations will be interchanges. The two lines are operated by a fleet of 39 Oriole EMUs supplied by Transmashholding, which are operating alongside conventional commuter trains. The end-to-end journey times are 1h 27min on MCD-1 and 2 hours on MCD-2.

The project has increased the frequency of services on four routes from the Central Transport Junction: to Kursky by 62% (from 110 to 178 trains a day), to Rizhsky by 76% (from 92 to 162), to Savelovsky by 38% (from 143 to 198), and to Smolensky by 37% (from 139 to 221).

“An additional 1.4 million seats per day will be available for residents of the city of Moscow and Moscow oblast,” Belozerov says.

Almost 160km of track was built or reconstructed for the project, along with more than 200km of overhead electrification, seven bridges and tunnels, 39 platforms and 21 multilevel pedestrian crossings.

The MCD is designed to improve integration between suburban and urban railway, the metro and other forms of public transport to create a single network. New transport hubs are under construction, a universal tariff is being introduced, and passengers are being offered a wider selection of services as part of the development.

Work on two more diametric routes will be completed by the end of 2024: MCD-3 Kryukovo (Zelenograd) - Ramenskoye (Oktyabrsko-Kazansky) and MCD-4 Aprelevka - Zheleznodorozhnaya (Kievsko - Gorkovsky). The timing of MCD-5 will depend on how the project develops.

Infrastructure developments for the MCD include the reconstruction and modernisation of all stops canopies installed along the length of the platforms, heated ticket offices, modern analogue and interactive navigation assistants, new elevators and escalators, and landscaping.  

RZD expects suburban passenger traffic to increase by 20% by 2025 (up to 948 million passengers).

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