Fantasies on the Subject of STS-Y

String Transport (Unitsky's) — one of the more curious stories of Urban Legends, widely discussed with the involvement of the authorities and the Mass Media in 2006–2007. Like most such projects, it was forgotten within a year.

The essence of the phenomenon

The subject of the legend was a project for a high-level transport crossing over the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod along the route "Nizhny Novgorod — Bor" proposed to the Nizhny Novgorod authorities by the Moscow limited liability company "STS-Y":


« The construction of a high-level rail-and-string monoSTS-Y route is proposed using the latest technologies of "Unitsky's String Transport" (STS-Y), which are of worldwide novelty and enjoy international patent protection.

The cost of the future monoSTS-Y transport system, under the full implementation scheme, is preliminarily estimated at 58–60 million USD, with the option of constructing only the transport crossing over the Volga River River separately, at a cost ranging from 5 to 12 million USD depending on routing options.

The carrying capacity of the proposed "aerial metro" can reach 100,000–150,000 passengers per day and more with round-the-clock operation. With a large total length of the STS-Y system and a large number of stops, the overall volume of passenger traffic on such a transport system can exceed 1 million passengers per day.

»


The story in detail

According to the submitted documentation, the cost of the project's "system foundation" was to amount to 10 million rubles, "materials" — 5–8 million rubles, "design and construction" — 60 million USD, and "station buildings" — 80–150 million USD.

The route was expected to run as follows:

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Then, if the Nizhny Novgorod authorities approved, it would continue as follows:

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The system's towers were to look quite imposing:

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The Nizhny Novgorod authorities were offered the following tower "designs" to choose from:

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In reality, Unitsky had only one "working model" built, located outside Moscow:

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In the wake of string transport

For some time after the string transport project was closed, stereotyped news items on similar topics continued to appear, such as:


« 23 May 2007 15:58

"VAK-TA" proposes to implement a project to construct a paid passenger cable car in Nizhny Novgorod

(NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — correspondent Arseniy Solovey) LLC "VAK-TA" proposes to implement a project to construct a paid passenger cable car that would link the Gorky Square area with the area of the Moscow Railway Station in Nizhny Novgorod. The project was presented at a session of the Investment Council under the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region under the Governor on 23 May. This was reported to journalists by Deputy Governor for Socio-Economic Planning, Budget Relations and Investment Policy Vladimir Ivanov.

The Investment Council under the Governor has deferred consideration of LLC "VAK-TA"'s application. According to Ivanov, this is due to the fact that the terminal passenger boarding and alighting stations "overlap with the access tracks to the Metro Bridge."

He noted that the investor and the Department of Urban Development have been tasked with finding acceptable options for siting the areas for the construction of terminal stations.

The total investment in the project's implementation amounts to 620 million rubles.
 »


At present, Unitsky's projects continue to operate and are seeking investors under a new name: http://rsw-systems.com/etp/

See also (and they believed in it too)

Similar transport projects