Kursky railway station opens in Moscow

Kursky railway station repeatedly changed its location. Initially, the terminus was built near Bolshoy Nikolsky Lane (now Puteisky Blind Alley). No photographs of the original building have survived, but, judging by the documents, it was a small wooden edifice. The then Minister of Railways Pavel Melnikov, who paid much attention to the problems of the Kursk railway, personally chose the site for the station.

It was the only Moscow railway terminus located outside the city limits, beyond the so-called Kamer-Kollezhsky Val. Since the mid-18th century, this circle of ramparts was recognized as the official city limit separating Moscow from its environs. Such a location was a beneficial option. Firstly, the land here was cheaper, secondly, the county council imposed on land and enterprises lower taxes than the city authorities, thirdly, local sanitary and labor protection regulations were more favorable for industrialists.

From the very outset, the status of the Nizhegorodsky terminus was unclear as it was officially declared a temporary station for many years. The entrepreneurs sought for a site closer to the downtown. While pressing the municipality for a new advantageous location, they saved on the existing facilities. In the meantime, the traffic commenced as soon as in 1865, which necessitated an expansion of a plain and modest station for the time being, so it had to be enlarged with two extensions.

The line to Serpukhov opened in November 1866, and then over to Tula, Orel, Kursk. In attempts to pick out a better location for the terminus, negotiations about the final option took almost 30 years. Multiple alternatives were considered, such as spots along Sadovaya Street or near Gorokhovaya Street. Another idea was to join the new facility to the operating Nikolayevsky terminus by linking them with a railway branch from the Nikolayevskaya trunk line across the Yaroslavl trunk line tracks over to the Kuskovo station and then straight to Nizhny Novgorod. The private owner, the Main Society of Russian Railways, faced a deficit of funds, and the State Council suggested that the Russian Ministry of Railways should postpone the project "until the time is ripe".

Eventually, after the tsarist government bought out this and some other railways into national ownership, a resolution was adopted to merge the former Nizhegorodsky terminus with the Kursky one, which was already under construction on the Garden Ring.

On January 1, 1894, the "Moscow-Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod and Murom railway" was established. The new enterprise encompassed all these routes.

In 1896, on its current location, the new Kursky-Nizhegorodsky railway station, designed by the architect N.I. Orlov, was unveiled: an elegant building with a portico on white columns. Newspapers published an announcement that from June 14, 1896, the Nizhegorodsky railway station at the Pokrovskaya Square would no longer serve passengers. Instead, trains would arrive at and depart from the new terminus. For the convenience of residents of the Rogozhskaya borough, the Moscow-Kurskaya freight station nearby was enhanced with a passenger platform where all "passenger trains, except for expresses, would have a stop." The City Council contributed by paving the streets and lanes leading to the newly built platform.

Since then, the functions of the former Moscow-Nizhegorodskaya station at the Pokrovskaya Square reduced to dispatching and receiving military and freight trains. Traffic boosted in the wartime of 1914-1917. Hundreds of wagons kept arriving at the neighboring central warehouse of the Red Cross, as well as warehouses of the Moscow Metallurgical Plant, the factories owned by Nobel, Podobedov and others.

After the station was moved to the new building, the old facilities were long used for various railway needs. At present, nothing reminds of the station, depot and railway facilities that used to occupy the area where residential quarters stand nowadays.

Kursky railway station was renovated in 1938. A design competition held in March 1932 included international and open all-Union stages. The panel of judges included: G.M. Ludwig, G.B. Barkhin, M.Ya. Ginzburg, L.V. Rudnev and others. There were many young architects among the authors of the competition projects.

In 1972, a new station complex (designed under the supervision of chief architect Voloshinov) was built while preserving the old premises with a colonnade and lavish stucco molding inside. The old edifice was encapsulated within the new framework, with the original architectural decor preserved in one of the central halls. The building with floor-to-ceiling windows commands a view of the forecourt and is covered with a distinctive folded roof, forming a 9-meter canopy. The premises of the Kursk railway station are spacious enough for as much as 11 thousand people. In the center of the hall there are escalators that take passengers to an underground hall with baggage lockers. It is adjoined by the lobbies of Kurskaya and Chkalovskaya metro stations.

Kursky railway station is the largest in Moscow. Electric trains departing from the Kursky railway station connect Moscow with such towns and cities as: Shcherbinka, Podolsk, Klimovsk, Chekhov, Serpukhov, Yasnogorsk, Tula, Reutov, Balashikha, Zheleznodorozhny, Elektrougli, Elektrostal, Noginsk, Pavlovsky Posad, Elektrogorsk, Drezna, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Pokrov, Petushki, Kosterevo, Lakinsk, Sobinka, Vladimir.