Rizhsky railway station opens in Moscow
Eventually, the Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk railway of 2,453 km in total was built to meet this demand. The construction got underway on the imperial decree of Nicholas II dated March 2, 1897. The Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk railway company submitted to the Moscow City Council a request "to grant permission to locate a freight and passenger station "Moscow" at Krestovskaya Square on vacant lots between the Nikolayevskaya railway and the Lazarevskoye cemetery."
It was proposed to build a passenger terminus near Krestovskaya Square on a vast vacant lot adjacent on one side to Pervaya Meshchanskaya Street. A spacious forecourt was supposed to provide access for horse-drawn carriages. The freight station was planned to be located next to the passenger station. The project provided for a designated area for unloading timber and firewood, which was of vital importance for the city.
The newly-established company had to incur significant expenses on street improvement and solving technical issues regarding the existing and future water supply system, because the pipes of the Moscow waterworks had been laid within the planned station’s territory. The entrepreneurs accepted the requirements imposed by the authorities, which were set out in the Resolution of the City Council dated February 9, 1899, "On the conditions laid down by the City to the Society of the Moscow-Vindava-Rybinsk Railway Company regarding the construction of a freight and passenger station "Moscow" at Krestovskaya Square." The railway society undertook to build a paved road at least 21 meters wide along the Lazarevskoye cemetery, build a cobbled road a pavement in Trifonovsky lane, settle issues regarding the Naprudnaya river and carry out some other works.
Because they were short of time and struggled to meet tight deadlines, the design engineers opted for a route adapted to peculiarities of landscape rather than the shortest one.
The Vindavsky railway terminus in Moscow was unveiled on September 11, 1901, with the first train leaving for Vindava* at 18:05 the same evening (*since 1917, Ventspils, now in Latvia). Since June 1901, passenger trains began to ply between Moscow and Rzhev three times a week.
The terminus was designed by the architect S. Brzhozovsky, who devised the Vitebsky railway station in St. Petersburg. The construction was supervised by the architect Dietrich.
The station building is remarkable for its splendid facade in the old-Russian style and comprised of three tower houses, linked by arcades on the first floor. Both the central part and the wings of the edifice have two floors. The edifice is adorned with a whole gamut of decorative elements characteristic of the Russian architecture of the 17th century: windows of various shapes, architraves, gables, corbelings etc. Contemporaries were unanimous in admiring the great taste and artistic merits of the design.
The central part with a covered porch and a convenient entrance was especially majestic. The station was rightfully recognized as the most passenger-friendly and technically perfect in many aspects. The station’s own power plant illuminated the premises and platforms.
The station was renamed many times. From its unveiling until the 1930s, it was called Vindavsky, then Baltic, and later Rzhevsky terminus. In 1946 the terminus was renamed Rizhsky (as Riga was the principal destination).
Because by the late 1930s suburban trains pulled by steam locomotives reached a maximum of their technical speeds, they became an impediment for further progress of rail traffic. The railways needed electrification to boost their capacity. Electrification of the metropolitan railway network began in 1929 with the Moscow – Pushkino section of the line towards Yaroslavl, followed by the lines towards Vladimir in 1933, towards Ryazan in 1935, and towards Kursk in 1937.
The third five-year national economic plan provided for the launch of electric trains on the Riga direction in 1943. Sadly, the Great Patriotic War broke out, and the electric trains were not launched until the spring of 1945.
Over time, the Rizhsky terminus was falling into decay. Traffic congestion became rife at Riga Square, which also called for reorganization. On January 10, 1995, the Moscow Government adopted a decree "On the complex development of the area around the Rizhsky railway station, including a road interchange."
The city encountered a major problem in getting rid of the bottleneck at the intersection of Mira (Peace) Avenue and Suschevsky Rampart. Guided by the complicated hydrological conditions, the experts preferred an overpass to a tunnel. For the new overpass to be built, the freight yard, the storage room and a number of other buildings of the station had to be partly demolished.
Instead, the old square was endowed with a modern viaduct with multi-lane traffic in both directions and a system of underground pedestrian crossings that united the railway terminus, metro station, and city streets with a renovated station building as the pièce de résistance. After the reconstruction, the appearance of the station has not changed: neither extensions, nor extra floors were added. Moreover, following the original drawings, the artistic stucco moldings on the ceilings were restored, and the elegant chandeliers were repaired.
At the moment, the Rizhsky railway terminus boasts ca. 5 thousand sq. meters of usable space, modern ticket offices, digital information displays in the halls and on the platforms, spacious and bright waiting rooms for up to 1300 people, a baby care room, a comfortable hotel and much more. The throughput capacity of the station complex tripled.
The Rizhsky station serves passengers of the north-western direction of the railways. Direct electric trains from the Rizhsky station connect Moscow with Krasnogorsk, Dedovsk, Istra, Volokolamsk.