Moscow Metro to manage city’s tram infrastructure

As Moscow pursues integration of its transport system, the city government transfers control of urban rail infrastructure to the Metro.

On November 27, Moscow’s Deputy Mayor for Transport Maxim Liksutov announced that the track infrastructure of Moscow’s tram network will be managed by Moscow Metro. In his personal blog, Mr. Liksutov explains that Moscow Metro has one of the world’s strictest quality standards that should be extended to other types of transport.

“Moscow Metro is a leader among non-automated metros as far as headway is concerned. That’s because our infrastructure maintenance standards are one of the strictest, safest and best in the world. So, we should apply these practices in other modes of transport, particularly in urban rail transit that from now on will face stricter requirements,” – says Maxim Liksutov.

Centralized management and consequent modernization is expected to increase tram speed, improve track maintenance, halve number of repairs and cut maintenance costs.

“Besides, we have already renewed most of the tram fleet and in 1-2 years all the old cars will be ultimately replaced with the new ones,” – adds Mr. Liksutov.

Moscow continues to create an integrated transport system. Earlier steps included single navigation system, intermodal assistance service for passengers with reduced mobility and smart ticketing system. The latter received the Best Smart Ticketing Programme Award 2020 and saw further upgrade with a new MaaS app presented in November.

Moscow Metro is one of the most dynamically developing transport systems in the world. Today it has 789 km of tracks, 335 stations, 17 lines, 20 depots (including the Monorail, MCD and MCC). Its total length is planned to double by 2023 comparing to 2010.