The West In 1953, after the closure of the shallow stations between Ploshchad Revolyutsii and Kievskaya and their replacement with the present deep ones, more westward extensions were planned to begin. However,
Nikita Khrushchev's inspiration after visiting the
New York City Subway prompted all works to be cancelled and the shallow stations to be reopened with a westward surface track creating the
Filyovskaya line. Although the construction of surface stations reached the western districts of Moscow by the mid-1960s, the Russian winter climate took its toll on the operation and management of the Filyovskaya line. In addition to that, the northwestern districts of Moscow, including the Strogino and Mitino housing estates, which were built in the 1970s and 1980s remained isolated. All of the bus and tram routes in that area led to the
Shchukinskaya and
Tushinskaya stations of the
Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line, which made the latter line one of the busiest in the system. By the mid-1980s it was clear that a complex reconstruction was needed to solve the transport problems in Western Moscow. The first plans to link Strogino to the city center were formed back in the 1960s before they were even built. The mid-1960s general plan proposed the new Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line to have a branch from
Polezhayevskaya which would continue westwards into Khoroshovo, Serebryany Bor and ultimately Strogino, and afterwards towards
Krasnogorsk. Despite Polezhayevskaya being opened in 1972 with three tracks, it was never to be used for its intended purposes. Owing to the disadvantages of the over-congested centre, a set of chordial and semi-chordial lines that would bypass the city centre and the
Koltsevaya line was proposed in 1980s. The Mitinsko–Butovskaya line would begin in Mitino, continue south to Strogino and then to Khoroshovo, Fili, along the
Moscow Little Ring Railway via Luzhniki before finally coming south to the district of
Biryulyovo and continuing into
Butovo. In 1988 building commenced on the extension of Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line to
Park Pobedy which was to be a
cross-platform interchange with the new chord. At the same time, construction was started in earnest on three stations of the chord:
Strogino,
Volokolamskaya and
Mitino along with a new bridge across
Moskva River between Strogino and Volokolamskaya and a depot after Mitino. In 1990s following the
collapse of the Soviet Union state funding was cut to negligible amounts, and the construction of the chordial lines was permanently halted. In March 1993, Moscow Metro published a revised plan for what was to replace the chord. The already started section in Mitino and Strogino should be completed and the hooked on to the
Filyovskaya line, and for the next ten years all Moscow Metro maps drew the three stations that way. However realistically, with the exception of the new
Krylatskoye station (opened in 1989) and the underground
Molodyozhnaya (1965), the Filyovskaya line could not have dealt with the additional passenger load, consisting of closely situated stations with short platforms. The same plan however also proposed that the
Kalininskaya line would travel via
Moscow-City to Khoroshovo and Strogino, and take the branch to Mitino. The plan also in perspective proposed that
Park Pobedy of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line would be completed and the line would then continue to double the Filyovskaya line, with two stations before docking at and annexing the underground section of the Filyovskaya line. Because the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line had relatively low passenger traffic, it was decided to have it take up the main share of the transit load. Only in early 2000s the construction of Park Pobedy, which remained on conservation, was resumed, with the station opening in 2003. The initial plan called for two stations between Park Pobedy and Kuntsevskaya: Minskaya and
Slavyansky Bulvar, however, in order to speed up the work, it was decided to shorten the route and retain only a single station. Although Minskaya was first given the priority, under pressure from the local residents Slavyansky Bulvar, situated closer to residential areas, was finally chosen. The plan to simply cut off the
Filyovskaya line at
Pionerskaya was also reconsidered, and a cross-platform transfer at Kuntsevskaya was to be set up. The remaining Filovskaya line stations, Molodyozhnaya and Krylatskoye, were to be added to the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. Construction of a new radial highway linking the city centre with the
M9 highway — the
Krasnopresnensky Avenue — was started in 2000s, and it was decided to have it pass under the
Serebryany Bor forests via the new
North-Western Tunnel that would combine auto traffic on upper level and Metro tracks from Krylatskoye to Strogino on lower level. Necessitated by safety measures, a provision for a new station, , was left between the combined tunnel and Strogino, to be completed once a new housing massif is established there. The original project for station, which was to be a two-storied station, was abandoned in favour of a single-vault one, with a provision to build a neighbour when and if another line finally reaches Strogino. The path to Mitino also introduced a new station,
Myakinino, the first station on the territory of the
Moscow Oblast. In 2008 the stations Slavyansky Bulvar and a redesigned Kuntsevskaya opened, and Filyovskaya line's underground stations Molodyozhnaya and Krylatskoye were annexed by the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. At the same time, the extension to Strogino was completed, nearly doubling the length and passenger load of Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line as a result. In 2009, the line finally reached Mitino, with an additional station
Pyatnitskoye Shosse opening further on in 2012.
The East Some of the stations in the eastern section of the line are very old and many were built during the 1940s, and their age shows clearly in their appearance as well as their operational technology such as escalators. In May 2005 the Semyonovskaya station was closed for a year to replace its escalators and also to completely renovate and upgrade its vestibule. Elektrozavodskaya was closed in May 2007 and re-opened in late November 2008. The next station to be refurbished on the Pokrovsky radius is also the busiest, Baumanskaya, which was planned for closure in spring 2009, but has been rescheduled to 2015. Second entrances were also planned for the majority of the stations, but these plans have been cancelled. In addition to the renovation works, new stations were planned for the line. In 1938, on the first stage of the line between Ploshchad Revolyutsii and Kurskaya, reservations for two future stations were built. Named Maroseika and Pokrovka, these two stations were planned to be opened at a later date. The former station in particular would have been very important as it would have facilitated a direct transfer to the
Kitay-gorod station complex of the
Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya and
Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya lines. Construction of these stations is not yet planned to occur. In the very east another extension is proposed to Golyanovo. The Shchyolkovskaya station recently received a very major restoration with the old ceramic tiles replaced with modern aluminium panels. ==References==