Moscow trolleybuses: route history

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Today it seems to many that Moscow trolleybuses have always existed. They appeared on the capital's highways in 1933. In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Moscow became the first city through which unusual cars with high "horns" (horns-terminals) connected to wires ran. The routes were different.

Gone out of contact

Years have passed, and the trackless mechanical transport "luxury" of contact type with electric drive has become a familiar means of transportation. Trolleybus has long been seen not only in Zlatoglavaya, but also in other cities of Russia, the republics of the former USSR. However, the routes of the Moscow trolleybus (there are 104 of them) have, perhaps, the richest history. It is difficult to retell it completely in a small article.

But what lies ahead for the Moscow trolleybus (the history of routes will be presented below)? It is said that by 2020, thanks to the rapid optimization of the network, this mode of transport will die for a long time. Bloggers back in 2015 wrote about the possible cancellation or shortening of 25routes, partial dismantling of contact lines. The total length of trolleybus "threads" in Moscow is 600 km.

The hosts of Internet diaries reflect on the fate of trolleybuses No. 4, 7, 33, 49, 52, 84 serving the Southwestern District of Moscow. The most determined representatives of the virtual brotherhood were alarmed in earnest: in their opinion, the industry is dying.

There is some vicious circle. MUP Mosgortrans explains that there is an acute shortage of trolleybuses for all kilometers. Meanwhile, the state unitary enterprise actually stopped updating the rolling stock (despite the fact that no one canceled the Moscow transport development program, according to which “workaholics of Moscow streets” are growing). Will Moscow trolleybuses (see photo in the article) disappear soon?

To the joy of citizens

Whether the “stags”, which are being more and more actively forced out by buses, will be liquidated, or these are sheer inventions, we will not guess. But residents of Maroseyka, Pokrovka, Bolshaya Ordynka, Pyatnitskaya are no longer in contact. The dismantling of the lines has taken place. At the same time, the management of Mosgortrans sees nothing wrong with this, assuring that the trolleybus still occupies its stable niche, the enterprise will develop steadily.

Indeed, in the capital's reconstruction program "My Street" there is a clause on the dismantling of part of the lines. However, the replacement of trolleybuses by buses, according to experts, is just a temporary phenomenon. Well, let's talk about how Moscow trolleybuses, whose history contains a lot of interesting things, startedplow the expanses of the capital.

1933. First line, outskirts

How did Moscow trolleybuses run in the 1930s (routes have changed more than once since then)? Trolleybus number one set off on a long journey on November 15, 1933 (it was planned to launch much earlier, in 1924, but it did not work out). The line (it was assembled in October 1933) crossed the Leningradskoe shosse, continued from Tverskaya Zastava to Pokrovsky Streshnev.

Roadless transport with pantographs (horns-terminals), as planned, was used in suburban areas (in the center of Moscow, the first violin was the tram). There was a double-track line to the Dynamo sports arena, in the rest of the way they managed with a single-track line. Moscow trolleybuses were supposed to conquer this world. And they did.

True, on the day of the launch, two newcomers were supposed to go on the route, but only one appeared. Immediately after receiving the second giant from the factory, an “industrial injury” was expected: it fell under the weak floor of the new garage and suffered. But everything returned to normal. The traffic schedule was as follows: from 7.00 to 24.00.

1934. Continued

Moscow trolleybuses became more and more popular. At the dawn of 1934, the ancestral line had already stretched from the New Triumphal Gates (Tverskaya Zastava) straight to the center, to the square, which until 1918 was called Voskresenskaya (now Revolution). 34 year ended with the opening of the II line. She went from Arbat Gate Square to Smolenskaya (Arbat) and all the way to the Dorogomilovskaya Zastava.

Trolleybus route No. 2 was put into operation at the end of the year (1934-10-12). The movement began from the Dragomilovskaya outpost. Having left for Revolution Square along Bolshaya Dragomilovskaya, the "horned" transport went to the Arbat. From there - to the Comintern, to the final one called "Okhotny Ryad". By that time, thirty-six vehicles were running on both active trolleybus lines.

1935. Third line

The third trolleybus "web" was "woven" by people in the fall of 1935. She moved through the center of the city. Thanks to her, it was possible to visit Petrovka, in Karetny Ryad, on Sukharevskaya Square, from there along Prospekt Mira (then 1st Meshchanskaya Street) to wave to Rzhevsky (the station has long been known to everyone as Rizhsky). It would seem that just recently only one trolleybus was running, and by the end of 1935, 57 LK cars served Muscovites!

"Lazar Kaganovich" - we mentioned this first Moscow trolleybus, routes. A list of routes, their detailed characteristics would take more than one page of the story.

1936 the trolley bus met with an active "offensive" on its rail competitor - the tram. The rails were removed from the northern part of the Garden Ring. Instead of a “rumbler”, they launched a smooth “Insect” (route “B” - from Kudrinskaya Square to Kursk Station).

In the 37th trolleybus was already actively "settling in" routes starting from the Garden Ring and continuing along Kalyaevskaya and Novoslobodskaya streets, Kuznetsky bridge … Muscovites approved high-floor cars of the YATB-1 brand. The head of the Soviet state, Nikita Khrushchev, especially liked them.

Two floors, but not a house

In 1938, a fast and convenient trolleybus became a good friend for everyone to visit the former patriarchal fishing settlement - Berezhkovskaya embankment, a good omen of the Vorobyovy Gory, rushed to Oktyabrskaya (former Kaluga) Square … From the Sokol metro station along the Leningrad highway people traveled to the Northern River Station, in Izmailovo, from Krymskaya Square along the Garden Ring and Mytnaya Street to Danilovsky Market.

Moscow trolleybuses covered ten routes. The tracks were laid on the sites of the dismantled tram tracks. Already in 1937-1939. 2-story handsome YATB-3 and a trolleybus of an English company were walking along Leningradsky Prospekt. In order to put the "lanky curiosity" into action, it was necessary to raise the nets by one meter (from 4.8 to 5.8 m). In the 39th, trolleybuses ran along Mira (prospect) to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (agricultural exhibition). In 1953, due to the inconvenience of use, they got rid of the hulks.

The heyday and evening of the trolleybus era

Before the start of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, there were 583 trolleybuses and 11 routes in Moscow. On January 1, 1952, the capital already boasted 786 trolleybuses and a markedly increased number of directions in which they moved.

In the 1950s, residential areas on the outskirts of the capital were actively growing. Trolleybus routes were laid there (in particular, to Serebryany Bor). Wherever Muscovites or guests of the capital go - to Izmailovo, to Volkhonka,Varshavskoye highway, the Luzhniki stadium and a huge number of other places, a nimble trolleybus came to their aid.

Time flies. More than 60 years have passed since the opening of the new circle line at the VSHV in 1954. By the end of 1960, the total length of trolleybus lines reached 540 kilometers, united by 36 routes.

In 1964-68. in the South-Western residential area, an "accordion" - an articulated trolley bus - ran. However, in 1975, he was finally removed from passenger traffic. In 1964, there were 1811 trolleybuses in Moscow. By 1972, the network reached 1253 km and was recognized as the longest (extended) on the globe.

In the 1970s-1980s, new buildings (Novogireevo, Ivanovskoye, Orekhovo-Borisovo, etc.) were surrounded by routes. In August 1993, one-way traffic was introduced in Moscow (this is how roads were unloaded and their safety increased). Some of the lines have been closed. Subsequently, cuts continued.