Eco-friendly, quiet and noiseless transport is the future of large cities

Sergei Sobyanin talked to students at the Russian University of Transport (MIIT) during their meeting on the role of transport in the development of a modern city.

“The faster the commute, the higher labour productivity, the more transport effects of large cities. Megacities have everything. They have sales markets, a quality workforce, savings on a large scale; they have a lot. But if they lack good transport and easy commuting, it’s almost worthless, he noted, “And it is certainly critical that the graduates of your excellent university are well-trained, motivated and prepared to help develop Moscow’s transport systems.”

As early as seven years ago three major areas were identified for developing transport – they included increasing the capacity of the road system with modern interchanges which allow for better connections between the districts; developing public transit and creating parking lots. During this period, almost 700 kilometers of roads and about 300 bridges, transitions and tunnels have been built.

“This is massive construction. No other city in the world has a comparable volume of road construction activity.  Even Beijing trails us in road construction inside the city,” Mr Sobyanin said.

 Public transport is also being developed. Modern trams and busses have appeared in the city; a tender has been announced for electric busses. According to Sergei Sobyanin, the capital needs noiseless and environmently-friendly transport for the future.

“We hope new rolling stock will be designed and put into service on Moscow’s streets. In a few years we will start purchasing electric busses. This is eco-friendly, quiet, noiseless transport, it is the future.”

Designated traffic lanes were also an important step in developing surface transit. Today they help over 1.5 million people get to work and home faster. At the same time, the Moscow Metro has come even further and is leading the world’s underground systems in terms of traffic intensity.

Soon the railway system will be no different than the metro. You can see this with both the Moscow Central Circle which comfortably carries about half a million passengers a day, and the rebuilt section of the railway from Moscow to Zelenograd, which commuter trains can now cover in 25 minutes. Some railway lines are to be connected thus forming transverse central Moscow lines, which will have modern trains running on them.

“These will include the Yaroslavl, Kursk, Gorky, Smolensk, Paveletsk, Kazan and Riga lines. They will be opened according to our schedule in the coming years. And train speeds will be increasing,” Mr Sobyanin said.