Moscow Leningrad train station

Front view of the station concourse of the Leningrad train station

The Leningrader Bahnhof ( Russian Ленинградский вокзал / Leningradski voksal ) is a long-distance train station in the Russian capital Moscow . It was completed in 1851, making it the oldest railway station in Moscow and one of the oldest in all of Russia.

General

The Leningrad railway station is a railway terminus and end point of the railway line St. Petersburg-Moscow . He was called Nikolajewskij (Никола́евский) from 1855 to 1923; and from 1923 to 1937 Oktjabrskij (Октя́брьский). He is named after Leningrad, as the city of Saint Petersburg , in which this route begins, was called from 1924 to 1991. In the timetable it is listed under the name Oktjabrskaja . The station building is located on Komsomolskaya Square , the city's most important rail transport hub, where the Kazan and Yaroslavl train stations and the Kalanchovskaya regional train station are also located. There are two metro stations in the immediate vicinity of the train station .

history

Site plan of the Nikolaibahnhof, 1853

The St. Petersburg – Moscow railway line , often called the Nikolaibahn by its historical name , is the second oldest railway line in Russia. It was relocated between 1842 and 1851 and, since its completion, has linked the two largest cities of the Russian Empire by the shortest possible route, almost without a single curve. In the course of the construction of the railway line, a total of 36 stations were built on it. For the terminus in Moscow, extensive fallow land near the northeastern city limits was selected. An ideas competition was announced for the design, which was won in 1844 by the architect Konstantin Thon (also known for the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior ). Construction work began under his direction in 1844 and was completed in the summer of 1851.

The station building of the Nikolaibahnhof - this is how the station was named after the death of Tsar Nicholas I in memory of him in 1855 - is today the only one of the three terminal stations on Komsomolskaya Square that has largely been preserved in its original state. The station was opened to passengers together with the official commissioning of the railway line on November 1, 1851, and at that time included two covered side platforms behind the front facade of the reception building - one for the departure and one for the arrival of the trains - and two tracks. In addition, several waiting lounges for first, second and third class passengers were set up in the building, as well as a luggage storage room and rooms specially designed for the royal family.

Major modifications were made to the station in the 1930s and 1970s. In the mid-1930s, the tracks and platforms were expanded, the reception building received additional ticket offices and facilities such as an information desk, post office and savings bank. In addition, the Komsomolskaya metro station was built near the train station in 1935 . In 1977 the station building was given an additional side building, and the old platform hall was integrated into the station building and converted into the main waiting room.

The station has changed its name several times in its history. A few months after the October Revolution in 1917, the Nikolaibahn lost its designation, which was reminiscent of the tsarist rule, and was renamed the “ October Railway ” (Russian Октябрьская железная дорога ) to commemorate the revolution ; accordingly, the station has been called "Oktoberbahnhof" since then. In 1937 the station was named "Leningrad Station", which it kept after 1991, despite the city being renamed Saint Petersburg. The statue of Lenin is still there in the waiting room today.

architecture

The architect of the reception building of the Leningrad train station was Konstantin Thon ; he had designed the building and was in charge of the station construction from 1842 to 1847. What is particularly striking about the oldest Moscow station building is that when you look at the main facade, it looks rather atypical for station buildings. Its symmetrical construction with relatively inconspicuous entrance portals and a central clock tower is partly reminiscent of a historic town hall building . Overall, the architectural style of the Leningrad train station building is considered a mixture of Italian Renaissance and traditional old Moscow architecture.

Parallel to the terminus in Moscow, an architecturally very similar station was built in Saint Petersburg during the construction of the Nikolaibahn, which is still called "Moskowski Woksal" (in German: Moskauer Bahnhof ). The station building of this station, which was also designed by Konstantin Thon, looks like a somewhat enlarged copy of the Leningrad station in Moscow: there, too, the main facade is symmetrically arranged around the central clock tower, with the number of arched portals on the building's ground floor being eleven as at the Leningrad train station amounts to nine.

Train traffic

Today the track systems of the Leningrad train station consist of ten tracks, five of which are used for handling long-distance trains and the other five for local trains. The main destination of the long-distance trains that start from here is still Saint Petersburg; Several express trains run there every day. There are other long-distance connections to Veliky Novgorod , Petrozavodsk , Murmansk , Helsinki and Tallinn , among others . With local trains (also known as Elektritschki ) there are direct connections to Zelenograd , Solnschnogorsk , Klin , Konakowo and Tver, among others . A total of 43 pairs of long-distance trains and 110 pairs of local trains are handled at the Leningrad train station.