Metro (metropolitan railway) — a type of public transport that allows the streets of the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitan Area to be relieved. It is a system of tunnels, mostly underground, equipped with rails, high-speed electric-traction passenger trains and stations for disembarking passengers at socially significant points on the surface of the city.

The 'Nizhny Novgorod Metro' (until 1992 — the Gorky Metro) is the third largest in Russia, after the metro systems of Moscow and St. Petersburg).

As of 5 November 2012, 14 stations are in operation, with a passenger line length of about 18.9 km.

The Nizhny Novgorod metro carries about 76,000 people daily.

The essence of the phenomenon

The metro in Nizhny Novgorod is one of the smallest.

It consists of fourteen stations on two lines, which currently operate as a single "forked" line: trains arrive from the Avtozavodskaya line at the "Moskovskaya" station, and from there depart to the "Gorkovskaya" station or continue on the second line.

All stations of the Nizhny Novgorod metro are shallow-laid. 11 of the 14 stations are pillar-type or single-vault, built to standard designs; 3 of the 14 are local landmarks - the four-track "Moskovskaya", the half-surface "Burevestnik" and "Gorkovskaya", decorated with panels depicting views of the city. Another landmark of the Nizhny Novgorod metro is the Metro Bridge across the Oka

Construction began in 1977, the first stations opened in 1985, and the last station ("Gorkovskaya") opened in 2012.

Since the opening of the station in the upper part of the city, there have noticeably been more people in the Nizhny Novgorod metro. However, it remains a secondary means of transport for most residents.

Operating hours

The two lines of the Nizhny Novgorod Metro (Avtozavodskaya and Sormovskaya) currently operate as one (at the "Moskovskaya" station there is a change of direction of travel from one line to the other).

The stations are open for passenger entry from 05:15 to 00:00.

History of construction

The history of the Nizhny Novgorod Metro begins in October 1973, when designers from the Moscow institute "Metrogiprotrans" began work on the first phase of the metro.

Construction began on 17 December 1977. On this day the first piles were driven into the foundation of the "Leninskaya" station. A memorial marker (the letter M in a tunnel) has been installed at the site where construction began. In September 1978, tunnel excavation began from the "Leninskaya" station.

The construction of the running tunnels used experimental, unproven technology: monolithic press-concrete lining. This resulted in problems both during construction (from delays when passing through curves to the lifting of tram tracks when the concrete was pressed out) and during operation: tunnels built using the MPBO (monolithic press-concrete lining) technology cannot withstand operational loads and require reconstruction after just 25 years.

Timeline of section openings

  • 20 November 1985: "Moskovskaya" — "Proletarskaya"
  • 8 August 1987: "Proletarskaya" — "Komsomolskaya"
  • 15 November 1989: "Komsomolskaya" — "Park Kultury"
  • 20 December 1993: "Moskovskaya" — "Burnakovskaya"
  • 9 September 2002: "Burnakovskaya" — "Burevestnik"
  • 4 November 2012: "Moskovskaya" — "Gorkovskaya"

Cell service

Two mobile network operators are available in the metro.

Development: plans and prospects

Construction of the "Gorkovskaya" station and the underground crossing under Gorky Square began on 6 July 2008, and was planned to be finished by Q4 2012.

The next stage planned is the extension of the Sormovskaya line: westward to the "Varya" and "Sormovskaya" stations. This will be followed by further line extensions: the Sormovskaya line further into Sormovo (disambiguation) and Pochinki, and the Avtozavodskaya line further into the city center.

An earlier prospective development scheme for the Nizhny Novgorod metro included further extensions of the Sormovskaya line (into the Meshcherskoe Lake) and the Avtozavodskaya line (into [[Verkhniye Pechory and Kuznechikha) and the construction of a third line along the right bank of the Oka from the Sennye quarters in the center (with a transfer to the Avtozavodskaya line near the Opera Theater) to the Myza and Shcherbinki districts.

The new development scheme provides that the Avtozavodskaya line will reach only Sennaya Square, while the third line will start in the area of the The Kremlin and Cherny Prud, cross the Avtozavodskaya line at the same Opera House, pass through the same Verkhniye Pechory and Kuznechikha into the new outlying districts of Ankudinovka, Konstantinovo, Beshentsevo, Olgino, Novinki, cross the Oka via a second metro bridge, and connect with the same Avtozavodskaya line, extended into the South-Western district.

On 17 September 2009, the tunnel between the Moskovskaya station and the under-construction Gorkovskaya station was completed. The tunnel boring machine broke through to the surface.

The new Nizhny Novgorod metro token

Previously, Nizhny Novgorod metro tokens could be used to pay for travel on the St. Petersburg metro, which removed the need to stand in the long queues that form after the arrival of another suburban train. But this practice did not suit the management of the St. Petersburg metro in particular, since fares there were 2 to 2.5 times higher than in Nizhny Novgorod. The management of the Nizhny Novgorod metro was less troubled by it - though tokens were still disappearing from circulation.

The first step was to limit token sales: "no more than 4 per person. Signed, the Administration." But the leakage of tokens continued, and at the end of 2009, at the request of their St. Petersburg colleagues, the Nizhny Novgorod metro introduced lightweight, perforated tokens.

The center of the composition of the Nizhny Novgorod metro's passenger token has historically been occupied by a stylized letter "M" - the symbol of the metro in our country.

At present, the symbol of the Nizhny Novgorod metro has become two halves of the letter M, collapsing into the now-empty center of the composition. This, unfortunately, is in keeping with the dismal passenger flow and the emergency condition of the tunnels, built using the experimental technology of unreinforced press-concrete.

The letter M is one of the oldest symbols known to scholars. Regarding the letter M there is complete agreement in both European and Semitic languages: in both, it is associated with the principle of water and birth from the depths: Mhat, Madhava, Maya, mantras. Its sign is Scorpio, its planet is Mars, its note is Re, in the Cyrillic alphabet it is the 14th letter, "Mysléte." M has since ancient times been contrasted with N as a symbol of creation and synthesis, opposed to a symbol of negation.

The asymmetrically punched hole in the modern Nizhny Novgorod token reduces the M to two warring halves, which, moreover, begin to collapse into the now-empty center of the composition - as if pressing down the viewer's vector of attention. Thus the token is transformed from an archetypal protective sign for Nizhny Novgorod residents descending into the newly-formed Hades, into a means of invoking images of decay and catastrophe - predominantly technogenic, the cause of which is meant to be the arbitrariness of the modern, inattentive heirs of Thor who punched the hole - that is, Nizhny Novgorod transport workers.

What is the reason that the mass consumer of the most democratic transport system (at least in theory) can no longer contemplate the dynamic unity of the Yin-Yang principles that the previous-model token embodied? Is this a coincidence? +

Profitability

The metro's annual losses amount to about 300 million rubles. Due to low ridership, the interval between trains has been significantly increased, ranging from 5 to 20 minutes depending on passenger flow.

Useful links

See also