Sokolnicheskaya Line

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 northeast-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 Street and later Kiyevsky railway station, before it became in 1938 the distinct Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line and, later, in 1958, the Filyovskaya Line. The remaining part of the Frunzenskaya Branch went along the Kremlin's western wall past the Russian State Library to the future site of the Palace of the Soviets on the bank of the Moskva River and terminated near the 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. Instead they have a very classical taste to them, which blends nicely with the neo-classical atmosphere of the mid-1930s. It is also true that the overall construction of these early stations allowed the palaces of the 1940s and 1950s to evolve from them. Most of these stations are now officially listed as architectural heritage.

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 communities along the Vernadsky Avenue of southwestern Moscow.

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

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.

In the south, works on three stations began in early 2012, with Troparyovo opening in December 2014, and Rumyantsevo in January 2016; Salaryevo has been opened in February 2016.

Planned extensions in the north are hampered by the position of Cherkizovskaya and Bulvar Rokossovskogo which were built so as to become a part of the projected second ring line that has been in planning since the 1960s. 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. Such an extension, however, is not scheduled in the current official development program.

Rolling stock

Two depots are assigned to the line, the #1 Severnoye and the #13 Cherkizovo. Starting in 1997 both depots have been upgrading to the new 81-717.5M/714.5M trains (all factory fresh). Currently all carriages of the old EF, EF1, Em-508 and Em-509 have been retired.