Greater Ring of the Moscow Railway


The Greater Ring of the Moscow Railway 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. 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 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.
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:
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:
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.

Administrative regions

Parts of the Greater Ring are located within three regions of Russia:
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.

Stations

Alexandrov I to Iksha