Vostochny [Eastern] Railway Station opens in Moscow
The Vostochny station complex sees the arrival and departure of 56 long-distance trains every day, including 20 high-speed Swift and Lastochka trains heading for Nizhny Novgorod and Ivanovo. The remaining trains are transit services from Russia’s southern and eastern regions en route to the country’s North-West. Vostochny is now the third station in Moscow in terms of the number of long-distance trains after Kazan and Leningrad stations and has been designed for a daily passenger flow of over 24,000 people.
In designing the station, particular attention was paid to the creation of a barrier-free environment, including 3 elevators, 4 escalators, ramps, special lowered cash desks, induction equipment for the hearing impaired, tactile indicators and mnemonic diagrams.
Passengers can await their trains in the bistro or waiting rooms. The station also has a children’s playroom and a mother and child room, as well as a medical centre. Vending machines have been installed in the halls and platforms and passengers have the use of automatic lockers. An electronic queue is in operation at the ticket office.
The construction of the station complex was completed in record time and took just over a year. The terminal is integrated with the Moscow Central Circle’s Lokomotiv station with access to the Cherkizovskaya metro station and RZD-Arena. The facilities are connected, enabling passengers to move between them indoors in the warm. The station’s territory has been landscaped and a public transport stop organised from the side of Amurskaya Street.
In order to start transit trains arriving in Moscow from the Gorky, Kursk and Leningrad directions on the MCC’s third track, the railway branch lines between Kuskovo – Lefortovo, Lyublino-Sortirovochnoye – Ugreshskaya and Khovrino – Likhobory were reconstructed to connect the radial lines of the Central Hub and the MCC. Transit trains now run around the central section between Kursk railway station and Kalanchevskaya station.
To ensure the turnaround of trains at the new station, a special equipment park has been built at Kuskovo station, where everything necessary for the preparation of passenger trains before their departure is carried out: the carriages and dry closets are cleaned, water is refilled and bed linen changed etc.