The Moscow Metro is the world's second most intense underground rail transport system, second only to the Tokyo Metro. In 2010, the Moscow government published a program for the development of public transport, according to which it is planned to build an additional 120 km of new metro lines by 2020. New metro stations will appear in 2012 as well.
Deputy Mayor of Moscow Marat Khusnullin, who is in charge of urban planning policy, told reporters in mid-June 2012 that new metro stations would soon appear in the center of the capital. The primary goal of underground construction is to eliminate tensions at existing stations by relieving as much of the road network as possible. When designing stations, one has to take into account the technical capabilities, since today there are few free areas suitable for the construction of stations in Moscow.
The planned objects include the Volkhonka station, the second exit of the Baumanskaya station, and the Suvorovskaya station. The project also includes the second entrance hall of the Komsomolskaya station on the Sokolnicheskaya line. The nearest construction projects include five stations. However, it will be possible to say exactly where specific stations will be located only by the end of 2012, when the construction of facilities will be economically justified and technical calculations are made.
The chief architect of the Moscow metro, Nikolai Shumakov, said that the new metro stations will be decorated in national and space styles. Most of the stations are typical, but some will be built according to individual projects. For example, the Bitsevsky Park station, which is scheduled to open in 2013, will be decorated with a huge ground-based lobby. Interchange stairs for the exit will be located in the middle of the platform.
Earlier, the Moscow authorities announced that by 2020 a third metro interchange loop will be built in the capital, the length of which will be more than 40 km. The outline will stretch around the Circle Line. Over the next eight years, about 70 new metro stations will appear. Their total number will reach 252, and the length of all lines will be over 450 km.
