Moscow trolleybuses: history of routes

Today it seems to many that the Moscow trolleybuses were always there. On capital highways they appeared in 1933. In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Moscow became the first city to run unusual cars with high "horns" (horns-terminals) connected to the wires. The routes were different.

Gone from contact

Years passed, and a trackless mechanical transport "luxury" contact type with electric drive has become a familiar means of transportation. Trolleybus has long been visible not only in the Golden-domed, 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. In a small article, it is difficult to completely retell it.

But what is ahead of the Moscow trolleybus (the history of the routes will be described below)? They say that by 2020, thanks to the rapid optimization of the network, this type of transport will order for a long time to live. Bloggers as early as 2015 wrote about the possible cancellation or shortening of 25 routes, partial dismantling of contact lines. The total length of trolleybus "yarns" in Moscow is 600 km.

Leading Internet diaries reflect on the fate of trolleybuses No. 4, 7, 33, 49, 52, 84, serving the South-West District of Moscow. The most determined representatives of the virtual fraternity became alarmed: in their opinion, the industry is dying.

There was a vicious circle. MUP "Mosgortrans" explains that trolleybuses for all kilometers are sorely lacking. In the meantime, the state unitary enterprise actually stopped updating the rolling stock (despite the fact that the program of Moscow's transport development, according to which "the laborers of Moscow streets" go on growth, has not been canceled). Really Moscow trolleybuses (photo see in the article) will soon disappear?

To the joy of citizens

Will the "stag beetles" be liquidated, which are increasingly replaced by buses, or are these fictions, we will not guess. But the inhabitants of Maroseyka, Pokrovka, Bolshaya Ordynka, Pyatnitskaya are already "not in touch." Dismantling of the lines took place. At the same time, Mosgortrans management does not see anything terrible in this, assuring that the trolleybus still occupies its stable niche, the enterprise will develop steadily.

Indeed, in the capital reconstruction program "My Street" there is an item on dismantling some of the lines. However, the replacement of trolley buses by buses, according to experts, is just a temporary phenomenon. Well, let's talk about how the Moscow trolley buses, whose history contains a lot of interesting, began to plow the expanses of the capital.

1933 year. First line, marginal

How did Moscow trolleybuses (the routes have changed since then) in the 1930s? The trolleybus at number one set off on a long journey on November 15, 1933 (the launch was planned to be done much earlier, in 1924, but it did not work out). The line (it was mounted in October 1933) crossed the Leningrad Highway, continued from the Tverskaya Zastava to Pokrovsky Streshnev.

Trackless transport with pantographs (horn-clamps), as planned, was used on suburban routes (in the center of Moscow the first fiddle was a tram). Before the sports arena "Dynamo" was a double-track line, in the rest of the way it was one-way. Moscow trolleybuses were supposed to conquer this world. And they did it.

However, on the day of the launch, two newcomers had to leave the route, but only one person appeared. The second giant immediately after receiving from the factory expected a "production injury": he fell through under the weak floor of the new garage and suffered. But everything was normal. The traffic schedule was as follows: from 7.00 to 24.00.

1934 year. Continuation

Moscow trolley buses became more popular. At the dawn of 1934, the line-ancestor had already stretched from the New Triumphal Gates (Tverskaya Zastava) directly to the center, to the square that until 1918 was called the Resurrection (now the Revolution). The 34th year ended with the opening of the 2nd line. She went from the Arbatskiye Vorota square to the Smolenskaya (Arbat) and to the Dorogomilovskaya outpost.

The route of trolleybus No. 2 entered service at the end of the year (December 10, 1934). The movement began from the Drahomilovskaya outpost. Having left for the Revolution Square in Bolshaya Dragomilovskaya, the "horned" transport went to Arbat. From there - to the Comintern, to the final one called "Okhotny Ryad." By then, thirty-six cars were running on both operating trolleybus lines.

1935 year. Third line

The third trolleybus "web" in the account was "woven" by people in the autumn of 1935. It stretched in the center of the city. Thanks to her, you could visit Petrovka, in the Caretne row, on Sukharevskaya Square, thence along Mira Avenue (then 1st Meshchanskaya Street) wave to Rzhevsky (the station has long been known to all as Riga). It would seem that only one trolleybus flew just recently, and by the end of the 35th year Muscovites were serviced by 57 LK cars!

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

In 1936 the trolleybus met with an active "offensive" on its rail competitor - a tram. The rails were removed from the northern part of the Garden Ring. Instead of "Gromoyalschik" they allowed a smooth "Bukashka" (route "B" - from Kudrinskaya square to Kursk railway station).

In the 37th the trolleybus already actively "settled" the routes beginning from the Garden Ring and continuing along the Kaliayevskaya and Novoslobodskaya streets, the Kuznetsky Bridge ... The high-floor machines of the brand YTB-1 were approved by the Muscovites. Especially they liked the head of the Soviet state Nikita Khrushchev.

Two floors, but not a house!

In 1938, a fast and convenient trolleybus became a good acquaintance for all who wanted to visit the former patriarchal fishing village - Berezhkovskaya embankment, a good sign of the Vorobyovy Gory, rushed to the October (former Kaluga) square ... From the metro station "Sokol" along the Leningrad Highway people reached the North River Station, in Izmaylovo, from the Crimean square along the Garden Ring and Mytnaya Street - to the Danilov market.

The Moscow trolleybuses covered ten routes. The routes were laid at the places of dismantled tram tracks. Already in 1937-1939. On the Leningrad prospectus went 2-story handsome YATB-3 and trolleybus of an English company. To start a "lanky gimmick" in the course, we had to raise the network by one meter (from 4.8 to 5.8 m). In the 39th, trolleybuses went around Mira (avenue) to VSHV (agricultural exhibition). In 1953, due to inconvenience of use from the hulk, they got rid of.

The flourishing and evening trolleybus era

Before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 in Moscow there were 583 trolleybuses and 11 routes. On January 1, 1952, the capital could boast of 786 trolleybuses and a noticeably increased number of directions on which they were moving.

In the 1950s residential quarters on the outskirts of the capital were actively growing. There were laid trolleybus routes (in particular, to the Silver Boar). Wherever the Muscovites or the guests of the capital were going - in Izmaylovo, Volkhonka, Varshavskoye Shosse, Luzhniki Stadium and in a huge number of places, they were helped by a bright trolley bus.

Time flies. It has been more than 60 years since the opening of the new ring line for VSHV in 1954. By the end of 1960, the total length of the trolleybus routes reached 540 kilometers, united by 36 routes.

In 1964-68 years. In the South-Western residential area, the "accordion" - an articulated trolleybus - was running. However, in 1975 it was finally removed from passenger traffic. In 1964 in Moscow there are 1811 trolleybuses. By 1972, the network reached 1253 km and was recognized as the longest (longest) on the globe.

In the 1970s and the 1980s new routes (Novogireevo, Ivanovo, Orekhovo-Borisovo and others) were girded with routes. In August 1993, Moscow introduced a one-way traffic (so the roads were unloaded and their security was increased). Some of the lines were closed. Subsequently, the reductions continued.