For over 150 years, the Northern Railway has been operating - a unique highway that starts in the center of Russia and stretches for 8638 km to the Far North and the Arctic Circle, crosses the Urals, goes from the European part of the country to the Asian one.
This is one of the 16 routes of Russian Railways.
How it all began
The first document marking the emergence of the Northern Railway was the Highest Command of the Emperor of Russia, which approved the charter of the Moscow-Yaroslavl Railway Society.
He was headed by Professor F. Chizhov, who attracted Moscow merchants. 15 thousand silver rubles were collected, and they immediately began construction.
Unofficially, the first section is considered to be the track commissioned in 1862. It connected Moscow and Sergiev Posad. A dozen steam locomotives ran along this railroad with a length of 65 versts, dragging over a hundred freight and passenger cars, as well as 15 baggage cars.
The importance and need of the road was obvious, so a decision is made to expand it. From September 1868, regular traffic began along the Shuisko - Ivanovo railway line, where 14 steam locomotives ran, carrying 170 freight and 28 passenger cars.
For a short period (1870-1872), a joint-stock company headed by a well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist S. Mamontov, paves other lines:
- from Alexandrov to Vologda through Yaroslavl;
- from Rybinsk to Sonkovo;
- from Ivanovo to Kineshma.
Volga trading cities get direct access to St. Petersburg and Moscow. S. Mamontov, creating highways, built and station buildings in the same style. For this, architects L. Kekushev and I. Ivanov-Shits were invited, with their efforts, beautiful stations with stucco molding appeared on the Vologodsk - Arkhangelsk line.
In 1900, the road passes to the state.
Active construction continues, paths are being laid to Kostroma, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, which is gradually turning from a backwater into an important transport hub connecting the two capitals of the empire.
In 1907, the main line between Moscow, Yaroslavl and Arkhangelsk (over 2 thousand versts in length) received the official name - the Northern Railway.
In 1911, the transition to a broad gauge begins.
Highway of the beginning of the XX century
The Northern Railway, whose history was closely intertwined with the history of the country, knew the times of prosperity and decline.
After the revolution, during subbotniks only in 1919, 226 steam locomotives were repaired.
In 1923, during an inventory of the property, it turned out that 44% of SZD structures were worn out. Re-equipment and electrification of the railway communication begins.
Already in 1924, the first section was electrified: a suburban highway from Moscow to Pushkino.
The spirit of that time did not pass by SZD: in 1935, for the first time, a rally of drummers-Stakhanovites took place. They sought to save fuel, work without accidents, increase speeds.
Northern railway during the war
By the beginning of the war, SZD was transporting 85% of all cargo in the country. On June 22, 1941, the leaders of all stations of the Northern Road, as well as other highways, received orders to detain trains traveling to Germany and to facilitate the transport of troops and equipment.
In an effort to help the front, the railroad workers carried out subbotniks, mastered related specialties, repaired locomotives on their own, and complied with 200-300% of the norms. Many went to the front as volunteers. The depot organized the production of anti-tank barriers, armored trains, bakery trains and baths.
Despite the war, the Northern Railway was built and developed. In 1941, in 3 weeks, roads were built that connected the Oktyabrskaya and Northern Highways in the Cabozh region. In 1942, 367 km of the North Pechora line needed to deliver coal were completed. The road in wartime was built according to simplified schemes, sleepers were sometimes laid on ice and frozen ground. When laying the tracks, the labor of camp prisoners was used.
In total, during the war years, the Northern Road was extended by 1,600 km, firmly connecting the Vorkuta mines with the center. The speed with which the North-Pechora Highway was built was incredible: 1.9 km were created per day.
Thanks to SZD, during the war, from Siberia and from the Urals, fuel, food, machinery, and coal were delivered to the front. In the opposite direction, thousands of evacuated people, equipment of factories, libraries, museum exhibits were brought to safe areas.
Post-war years
Despite all the efforts of the railway workers, the highway suffered heavy losses during the war years. In total, about 16 thousand trains were lost, thousands of kilometers of tracks were destroyed. For the employees of the Northern Railway, the main thing was to restore them, as well as increase throughput and eliminate dependence on snowfalls that paralyzed traffic in winter.
In 1953, the Yaroslavl and Vologda railroads merged into the North, in 1959, the Pechora railway was added to it. The development of the SZD revitalized the Far North, rich resource areas became available:
- Ukhtinsky, where oil was refined;
- Vorkutinsky, famous for coal mining;
- Syktyvkar - forest processing.
By 1965, almost half of the tracks had already been transferred to electric and diesel traction.
In the 70s, new roads were built connecting Arkhangelsk, Karpogory and Palenga, Yadrich and Veliky Ustyug, Sosnogorsk and Pechorsk, Mikun and Wendiga. An automated system is being introduced, which allows uninterrupted control of the movement of many trains, semaphores are replaced by traffic lights.
In the 80s, the installation of automatic control of jobs. In 1984, the first train of 24 cars was sent to Moscow.
The plans lay another 2 thousand kilometers of railways.
The uniqueness of the highway
It is difficult to overestimate the value of SZD: it connected the industrial regions of the country with the raw materials, contributed to the construction of new cities, factories, and facilitated the development of trade.
It is connected by the Northern Railway of the city of Syktyvkar, Vorkuta, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Arkhangelsk. The development of the Far North without this highway would hardly have been possible. Today, SZD provides cargo delivery to the Plesetsk cosmodrome, to the port of Arkhangelsk, and supplies the necessary gas and oil workers working on the Yamal Peninsula.
The activities of SZD provide the work of about 10 thousand small and medium enterprises, as well as industry giants such as Severstal, Vorkutaugol, Slavneft, etc.
Road structure
As a division of Russian Railways, the Northern Railway connects :
- 7 regions of central Russia - Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Vologda, Vladimir, Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, Kirov;
- Komi Republic;
- Yamal.
35% of the length of the highway runs through the Central region of Russia and 65% through the North-West.
The most important freight stations of the SZD are Vorkuta, Cherepovets, Inta, Novoyaroslavskaya.
There are sorting stations on the highway, among them Solvychegodsk, Yaroslavl-Glavny, Losta.
Geography: cities and stations
The structure of the road is determined by its geographical location. The railway consists of such highways:
- Moscow - Arkhangelsk via Alexandrov (1040 km);
- Pecherskaya, which includes the Konosha-Vorkuta route through Kotlas, as well as the Chum-Labytnangi, Troitsko-Pechorsk-Sosnogork, Syktyvkar-Yertom branches, its length is 1,562 km.
Latitudinal tracks of the Northern Railway:
- Obozerskaya - Little;
- St. Petersburg - Yekaterinburg through Cherepovets, Vologda, Candle, Kirov.
Almost 5 thousand km of intra-district road lines and access roads of industrial enterprises are no less significant, as they increase the level of maneuverability and economic efficiency of transportation logistics. These are highways such as:
- Bologoe - Ermolino;
- Kineshma - Belkovo via Ivanovo;
- Buoy - Danilov;
- Novki - Sonkovo via Ivanovo, Nerekhta, Yaroslavl and Rybinsk;
- Nerekhta - Galich through Kostroma.
Traffic statistics
The cargo turnover of the Northern Railway is about 4.5% of the total volume of cargo carried by Russian Railways. It carries out small transit and large local transportation in the region. In 2016, 246.3 million tons of cargo were transported.
Thanks to the railway, mined useful minerals are exported:
- coal from Vorkuta, Inta, Mulda, which makes up almost 4% of all mined in Russia;
- mineral building materials;
- oil from Ukhta;
- forest from stations of the Arkhangelsk direction, this is 1/4 of the country's total forest production;
- black metals.
SZD trains import building materials and bread into the region.
Among local transportations, coal, firewood, building materials are the leaders.
Experts note that the Northern Sea freight traffic is on average higher than the entire Russian Railways network.
Leading in terms of cargo turnover are such stations of the Northern Railway as:
- Arkhangelsk;
- Vorkuta;
- Volga region;
- Yaroslavl-Marina;
- Hanovei;
- Rybinsk Commodity;
- Cherepovets.
Passenger Transportation
Although the Northern Highway serves (compared to Russian Railways) a small number of passengers, in numbers this looks impressive - 10.7 million people took advantage of this railway in 2016.
Passenger services include:
- 52 long-distance trains of the Northern Railway, i.e. almost 2 thousand wagons;
- 223 composition of suburban communications;
- 9 branded trains.
SZD serves daily about 100 thousand passengers.
Most of the traffic is made up by suburban transport, which is about 70% or 8.1 million people, according to 2016 data. The Moscow-Yekaterinburg highway, taking into account Yaroslavl, is the most popular destination.
Control
Being a branch of Russian Railways, the Northern Railway has a central control address in Yaroslavl, on Volzhskaya nab., 59.
In the structure of its 5 branches, which are located in the following cities and towns:
- Arkhangelsk, pl. 60th anniversary of the October Revolution, 4;
- Vologda, st. Mira, 39;
- Solvychegodsk, st. Ulyanova, 21;
- Sosnogorsk, st. Moldy, 1;
- Yaroslavl, st. Liberty, 72.
Almost 46 thousand employees work in different divisions of the SZD. Management of the Northern Railway is carried out by its head, currently Tanaev V.F.
Interaction with other modes of transport
River transport has long played a large role in the Far North, so many railway stations cooperate with shipping companies:
- Pechorsky (railway station Abez, Kozhva and Sosnogorsk);
- Northern (st. Sheksna);
- Volzhsky (transshipment stations of Kostroma, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl, Kineshma).
SZD connects seaports, primarily Arkhangelsk, Mezen, Onega and Naryan-Mar, with all regions of Russia.
Federal highways provide final delivery of goods from railway stations to consumers.