St. Petersburg – Moscow railway line

Saint Petersburg – Moscow (without stops)
Route length:	650 km
Gauge :	1520 mm ( Russian gauge )
Power system :	3000  =
Top speed:	250 km / h
Legend 0 S.-Peterburg-Moscow Pass. 11 Obuchowo to Vologda / Murmansk Petersburg ring road 17th Slavyanka 25th Kolpino 41 Sablino Gatchina - Mga 53 Tosno 63 Ushaki 72 Ryabovo 83 Ljuban 100 Babino 109 Torfjanoje to Volkhovstroi to Veliky Novgorod 118 Chudovo -Moskovskoye 126 Volkhov 141 Grjady 152 Bolshaya Vishera 162 Malaya Wischera 181 Burga 189 Mstinski Most 189 Msta 215 Torbino 231 Borovjonka to Neboltschi 249 Okulowka to Borovichi 269 Uglowka 288 Lykoschino 297 Aleschinka 305 Beresaika to Pskov - Pechory 319 Bologoje -Moskowskoje to Velikiye Luki / to Rybinsk 326 Bushevets 333 Botschanovka 345 Akademicheskaya 356 Leontievo 364 Vyshny Volochok 371 Yelizarovka 380 Ossetschenka 398 Spirowo 419 Kalashnikovo 437 Schljus to Rzhev - Vyazma 443 Lichoslavl 452 Kryuchkovo 463 Kulitskaya 473 Bryantsevo after Wassilewski Moch 478 Doroshikha 479 Volga 483 Tver M10 504 Kuzminka 517 Redkino Ivankovo ​​Reservoir ( Shosha ) 531 Sawidowo to Konakowo GRES 544 Reshetnikovo 561 Clin 575 Pokrovka 585 Podzolnetschnaja 598 Powarowo -1 Great Moscow Railway Ring 611 Kryukovo 619 Shodnya M10 631 Khimki Moscow Canal Moscow ring road 635 Khovrino Small Moscow railway ring 650 Moskva Len.Pass.

The St. Petersburg – Moscow railway (originally called Nikolaibahn , Russian: Николаевская железная дорога  / Nikolajewskaja schelesnaja doroga ) is a high-speed line and one of the oldest and most important railway lines in Russia . It is almost 650 km long and connects Saint Petersburg with the capital Moscow . The railway operator is the October Railway Company ( Октябрьская железная дорога ) of the northwestern Russian regional division of the Russian state railway company RŽD .

history

Planning and construction

The railway line between Saint Petersburg and Moscow is the second oldest railway line in Russia after the Tsarskoye Selo Railway between Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo, which was commissioned in 1837 and was only 27.5 km long . The first plans for the strategically important rail link from what was then the capital of the empire to Moscow, the second most important metropolis in the country, were made in the 1830s. In 1841 the two renowned engineers Pawel Melnikow (1804–1880) and Nikolai Kraft (1798–1857) submitted their draft for the route to the Tsar for assessment . This draft provided for a double-track, straight line with a total length of 652 km. After the Tsar approved the construction of the route by decree at the beginning of 1842, construction began on August 1 of the same year; construction work began simultaneously from Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The construction of the route north of Bologoje was headed by Pawel Melnikow, the one between Bologoje and Moscow by Nikolai Kraft. The architect Konstantin Thon (1794–1881) was commissioned with the architectural design of the most important station buildings along the route ; In particular, the two very similar-looking terminal stations on the line in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, which he designed and built, are among his most famous buildings.

The construction of the entire line, which was named Nikolaieisenbahn after Tsar Nicholas I a few years after its opening , took almost nine years. A total of 184 bridges were built over the numerous larger and smaller rivers along the route (including one over the Volga ), and numerous swamps had to be drained. There have been many fatal accidents at work during construction; this was later processed by the popular poet Nikolai Nekrasov in his poem The Railway . Since, according to Melnikov's draft, the Nikolaibahn was to be as straight a route as possible, contrary to earlier plans it did not lead via Veliky Novgorod ; only in 1871 was a connecting route from Chudovo established .

Opening and operation

First type 2'B passenger locomotive, class В (1845)

After the completion of the St. Petersburg – Kolpino (1847), Kolpino – Tschudowo (1849) and Vyshny Wolotschok - Tver (1850) sections , the first train was able to travel the entire route in August 1851. On November 1 of the same year, regular passenger traffic began on the route. The total travel time at that time was 21 hours and 45 minutes. In contrast to the first Russian railway line from Saint Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo, which was built with a gauge of 1829 mm or 6 feet, it was decided to build the Nikolaibahn for 1524 mm or 5 feet.

In the decades following the opening of the line, numerous branches and connecting lines of the Nikolaibahn were built: In addition to the line to Novgorod, the branch lines to Borowitschi and Konakowo as well as the cross-connection from Rybinsk to Pskow and on to Riga . Like the Nikolaibahn itself, all of its branches and a number of other routes in northwest Russia (including the Murmanbahn ) are now operated by the October Railway Company.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Nikolaieisenbahn was the scene of several unrest: During the popular uprising in 1905 and in the following months, as well as during the February Revolution in 1917, railway employees struck in solidarity with revolutionaries. During the First World War , the line served as an important supply route for the northern front.

After the revolution

A few months after the October Revolution in 1917, the Nikolaibahn, like all other railway lines in the Russian Empire, was nationalized by the new power and subordinated to the newly formed People's Commissariat for Transport (later: Ministry of Transport of the Soviet Union ). In 1923, in honor of the October Revolution, the Nikolaibahn was officially renamed the October Railway , a name that the operating company still carries today. The two terminal stations on the line, which were previously called Nikolaibahnhof, were also given new names: Moscow's Nikolaibahnhof was renamed Leningrad Bahnhof , and the Nikolaibahnhof in the city ​​that was now called Leningrad became the Moscow railway station .

On June 9, 1931, the Krasnaja Strela ( Красная Стрела , in German Red Arrow ), the first express train to operate on the October railway line, which reached the shortest journey time of ten hours. An express train with the same name still runs on the route today.

In the Second World War , the traffic on the October Railway was interrupted during the two and a half year siege of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht . The railway line itself as well as numerous bridges and station buildings were badly damaged in fighting and air raids. In 1944 the train service between Moscow and Leningrad could be resumed. The reconstruction lasted until 1950.

In the second half of the 20th century, the line was gradually modernized: The full electrification of the line was completed in 1962, and from 1965 the Aurora express train traveled the line at 130 km / h. With the start of regular operation of the ЭР200 (ER200) train type on the October Railway on March 1, 1984, it officially became a high-speed line .

present

In September 1991, RAO VSM, a company for the realization of a high-speed line between Moscow and St. Petersburg, was founded. After the forecasts presented at the end of the 1990s for 2010 indicated that passenger numbers would match the levels achieved in 1989, the Russian government withdrew some commitments for the construction of the route in July 1998, but basically stuck to the project. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the line was extensively modernized after the plans for a high-speed line running parallel were put on hold for the time being.

By the end of 1998 around a third of the existing line had been re-routed for a speed of 200 km / h and provided with new overhead lines. The work on the entire route should be completed by the year 2000. Since 2001, speeds of up to 200 km / h have been driven on most of the route. The journey time on the ЭР200 high-speed trains was 4 hours and 45 minutes.

Since December 17, 2009, new high-speed trains of the type Sapsan (Russian for peregrine falcon ) have been running between Moscow and Saint Petersburg at speeds of up to 250 km / h. This results in a travel time of 3 hours and 45 minutes between these cities, which corresponds to a time gain of one hour. The maiden voyage took place on August 2, 2009 in the presence of the President of the Russian State Railways, Vladimir Jakunin .

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  In operation since December 2009: the Sapsan

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  ЭР200 (ER200) high-speed train in Ljuban

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  Express Nevsky Express in St. Petersburg

Planned new line

A new line is planned between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The route should be fixed by April 2011. An open call for tenders should be launched in December 2011. Completion was scheduled for 2017 and commissioning before the 2018 World Cup .

Incidents

On 14 August 2007 exploded on the track near Malaya Vishera a self-made explosive device , whereby the express train Nevsky Express , which h straight from Moscow to Petersburg with just under 130 km / was traveling derailed. Of the 250 passengers on board the train, 60 were injured and 38 of them were hospitalized. The Russian General Prosecutor's Office then started investigations into suspected terrorist attacks. 

The most momentous incident on the line so far occurred on the night of November 27th to 28th, 2009, when three wagons of a Nevsky Express on its way from Moscow to Petersburg derailed near Bologoje. There were at least 26 dead and around 90 injured. The next day, the President of the Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin , confirmed that the accident was due to a terrorist attack.

Since the start of the Sapsan's train service, there have been occasional fatal interferences with pedestrians on the route, as the train does not pass any or only sparsely secured level crossings at top speed.

criticism

Since the modernization of the track systems and the construction of crossing-free crossings along the high-speed line are saved, accidents occur again and again.

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  The Moscow train station in Saint Petersburg

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  The Leningrad train station in Moscow

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  Radishchevo stop , Moscow Oblast

Web links

Commons : Nikolaibahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the October Railway Company (Russian)
• Short story of the Nikolaibahn (Russian) ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Svetlana Dmitrijewa: October Railway Company (Nikolaibahn) ,. 150 years since it opened. Wetsche Tweri, August 1, 2006, archived from the original on July 16, 2012 ; Retrieved October 28, 2007 (Russian). 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Report setback for Moscow - St. Petersburg . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 10/1998, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 434
3. ↑ Official RŽD website: press release ( Memento from January 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Michael Ludwig: The peregrine falcon flies to Petersburg. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. No. 177 of August 3, 2009.
5. ^ German railway technology for Russia . In: Handelsblatt . No. 39, February 24, 2011, ISSN  0017-7296 , p. 28.
6. ↑ Bomb attack on train - dozens injured. In: spiegel.de. August 14, 2007, accessed October 28, 2007 . 
7. ↑ Investigators assume the attack. In: Tagesschau.de. November 28, 2009, archived from the original on December 1, 2009 ; Retrieved November 28, 2009 . 
8. ↑ Трагедия глазами пассажиров "Невского экспресса". In: RIA Novosti. November 28, 2009. Retrieved November 28, 2009 . 
9. ↑ Lenta.ru, November 28, 2009
10. ^ Deutsche Welle: Russia: The Death Train | Europe Current. Retrieved April 18, 2020 . 
11. ↑ At 250 km / h through Russia's villages . Spiegel online , September 5, 2010, accessed December 11, 2010.