Sokolnicheskaya Line

The Sokolnicheskaya Line ( _ru. Сокольническая линия), formerly Kirovsko-Frunzenskaya (Кировско-Фрунзенская), is the first line of the Moscow Metro, dating back to 1935 when the system opened. Presently the line has 19 stations with a total of convert|26.2|km of track. It carries a daily load of 1.7 million passengers.

History

As the line was the first formal one in the system, its history of development coincides with the history of the Moscow Metro's first stage altogether. In short it was to cut Moscow on a northweast-southwest axis beginning at the Sokolniki Park and continuing through the Three railway terminals and then past the city centre's main traffic junctions: Red gate junction, Kirovskaya, the Lubyanka and the Manege Squares. From there, a separate branch carried off into the Arbat and later Kiyevsky Rail Terminal, before it became in 1938 the distinct Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line and, later, the Filyovskaya Line (1958). The remaining part of the Frunzenskaya Branch went along the Kremlin's western wall past the Russian State Library and into the future site of the Palace of Soviets on the bank of the Moskva River and terminated near the infamous Gorky Park.

Although Moscow Metro prides itself on the best Stalinist Architecture and the earlier art deco attempts, the stations of the first stage are very far from those. The stations of the first stage instead have a very classical taste to them, which blends nicely with the atmosphere of the mid-1930s neo-classical taste. It is also true that the overall construction of these early stations allowed the palaces of 1940s and 1950s to evolve from these. Most of them are now officially listed as architectural heritage.Fact|date=June 2008

Further development was seen in the latter half of the 1950s during the construction of the Frunzensky radius. The line extended into the Khamovniki District in 1957 coming up to Luzhniki Stadium and then in 1959 reached the Moscow State University on the Sparrow Hills. This required crossing the Moskva river on a combined auto and Metro bridge including a station on it. However due to the necessity of reconstruction in 1984, the station was closed, and not reopened until 2002. The Frunzensky radius was completed in 1964 upon the last extension into the new bedroom raions (districts) along the Vernadsky Avenue of southwestern Moscow.

At the opposite end, there were two extensions: one in 1965 across the Yauza River (also on an open bridge), and another in 1990 into Bogorodskoye.

Timeline

Rolling stock

Two depots are assigned to the line, the Severnoye (No.1) and the Cherkizovo (No.13). Starting in 1997 both depots have been upgrading to the new 81-717.5M/714.5M trains (all factory fresh). Cherkizovo currently operates 22 seven-carriage trains of the type. Severonoe's upgrade was slower and presently 33 of its 36 seven-carriage trains are the new models, the rest being the old Ezh, Ezh1 and the Em-508 and Em-509.

Recent developments and future plans

Presently the line has the oldest structures in operation, and thus several renovations have been carried out systematically. Recent changes include a second entrance to Kropotkinskaya in 1998. Major lighting enhancements to Okhotny Ryad and Kropotkinskaya.

Extensions are planned at both ends of the line. In the south, one station, Troparyovo, is planned. Further extensions in the north are hampered by the position of Ulitsa Podbelskogo and Cherkizovskaya, which were built so they could become of a projected second ring line which has been in planning since the 1960s. As a result the Cherkizovskaya's tunnels have provisions for a second perpendicular station, that would allow the line to continue eastwards to the district of Golyanovo and meet the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line at Shchyolkovskaya. At present, however, both extensions are quite distant, as Moscow Metro has much more important projects to realise prior to that.