Today it seems to many that Moscow trolleybuses have always been. They appeared on the capital highways in 1933. In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Moscow was the first city to run unusual cars with high "horns" (horns, terminals) connected to wires. The routes were different.
Left contact
Years passed, and trackless mechanical transport "luxury" contact type with electric drive has become a familiar means of transportation. For a long time already, a trolleybus can be seen not only in Zlatoglava, but also in other cities of Russia and the republics of the former USSR. However, the Moscow trolleybus routes (there are 104 of them) have perhaps the richest history. It is difficult to retell it completely in a small article.
But what awaits the Moscow trolleybus ahead (the history of routes will be described below)? It is said that by 2020, thanks to the rapid optimization of the network, this type of transport will command a long life. Bloggers in 2015 wrote about the possible cancellation or shortening of 25 routes, partial dismantling of contact lines. The total length of trolleybus "threads" in Moscow is 600 km.
The leading Internet diaries reflect on the fate of trolleybuses No. 4, 7, 33, 49, 52, 84 serving the South-Western District of Moscow. The most decisive representatives of the virtual fraternity were alarmed in earnest: in their opinion, the industry is dying.
A vicious circle has taken shape. MUP Mosgortrans explains that there are sorely lacking trolley buses for all kilometers. Meanwhile, the state-owned unitary enterprise virtually stopped updating rolling stock (despite the fact that Moscow’s transport development program, according to which the “hard workers of Moscow streets” are growing, has not been canceled). Will Moscow trolleybuses (photo see article) disappear soon?
To the delight of citizens
We will not guess whether the stag beetles, which are increasingly being supplanted by buses, or whether these are mere inventions, will be eliminated. But the inhabitants of Maroseyka, Pokrovka, Bolshaya Ordynka, Pyatnitskaya are no longer in touch. The dismantling of the lines took place. At the same time, the management of Mosgortrans does not see anything wrong with this, assuring that the trolleybus still occupies its stable niche, the enterprise will develop steadily.
Indeed, in the capital’s reconstruction program “My Street” there is an item on the dismantling of part of the lines. However, the replacement of trolleybuses with buses, according to experts, is just a temporary phenomenon. Well, let's talk about how Moscow trolleybuses, whose history contains a lot of interesting things, began to plow open spaces of the capital.
1933 year. First line, outskirts
How did Moscow trolley buses go in the 1930s (routes have changed more than once since)? Number one trolleybus 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 Leningradskoye Shosse and continued from Tverskaya Zastava to Pokrovsky Streshnev.
Rail transport with pantographs (horns, terminals), as planned, was used in suburban areas (in central Moscow, the first violin was a tram). There was a double-track line to the Dynamo sports arena; Moscow trolleybuses were supposed to conquer this world. And they did it.
True, on the launch day two newcomers were supposed to enter the route, but only one appeared. The second giant immediately after receiving it from the factory was expected to have an “industrial injury”: it fell through the weak floor of a new garage and was injured. But everything returned to normal. The schedule was as follows: from 7.00 to 24.00.
1934 year. Continuation
Moscow trolleybuses became more and more popular. At the dawn of 1934, the parent line stretched from the New Triumphal Gate (Tverskaya Zastava) directly to the center, to the square, which until 1918 was called the Resurrection (now the Revolution). 34 year ended with the opening of the II line. She went from Arbat Gate Square to Smolenskaya (Arbat) and to the Dorogomilovskaya outpost itself.
Trolleybus route No. 2 was put into operation at the end of the year (12/10/1934). The movement began from the Dragomilovskaya outpost. Having left on the Revolution Square on Bolshaya Dragomilovskaya, the "horned" transport went to Arbat. From there - to the Comintern, to the final one called “Okhotny Ryad”. By that time, thirty-six cars were running on both existing trolleybus lines.
1935 year. Third turn
The third trolleybus "web" was "woven" by people in the fall of 1935. She reached the center of the city. Thanks to her, it was possible to visit Petrovka, in the Karetny Ryad, on Sukharevskaya Square, from there along the Prospekt Mira (then 1st Meshchanskaya Street) wave to Rzhevsky (the station has long been known to everyone as Riga). It would seem that just one trolleybus was running recently, and by the end of 35 Muscovites were served by 57 LC cars!
"Lazar Kaganovich" - we mentioned this first Moscow trolleybus, routes. The list of routes, their detailed characteristics would occupy more than one page of the story.
The trolleybus met the year 1936 with an active “offensive” on its rail rival - the tram. The rails were removed from the northern part of the Garden Ring. Instead of a “thunderbolt,” they launched a smooth “Bukashka” (route “B” - from Kudrinskaya Square to Kursk Station).
In the 37th, the trolley bus was already actively “getting along” with routes starting from the Garden Ring and continuing along Kalyaevskaya and Novoslobodskaya Streets, Kuznetsk Bridge ... Muscovites approved high-floor cars of the YATB-1 brand. The leader of the Soviet state, Nikita Khrushchev, especially liked them.
Two floors, but not a house!
In 1938, a quick and convenient trolleybus became a good acquaintance for everyone who wanted to visit the former patriarchal fishing settlement - Berezhkovskaya embankment, a good omen of the Vorobyovy Gory, rushed to Oktyabrskaya (former Kaluga) Square ... People traveled from the Sokol metro station along the Leningradskoye Shosse to the Northern River station, in Izmailovo, from Krymskaya Square along the Garden Ring and Mytnaya Street to Danilovsky Market.
Moscow trolleybuses covered ten routes. Routes were laid on the site of the dismantled tram tracks. Already in 1937-1939. On Leningradsky Prospekt, 2-story handsome YATB-3 and a trolleybus of an English company walked. To launch the “lanky curiosity”, we had to raise the network by one meter (from 4.8 to 5.8 m). In the 39th, trolleybuses walked along Mira (Avenue) to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (agricultural exhibition). In 1953, due to the inconvenience of use, they got rid of hulks.
The heyday and evening of the trolleybus era
Before the start of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 in Moscow, there were 583 trolleybuses and 11 routes. On January 1, 1952, the capital already boasted 786 trolleybuses and a markedly increased number of directions in which they moved.
In the 1950s, residential quarters on the outskirts of the capital were actively growing. Trolleybus routes were laid there (in particular, to Serebryany Bor). No matter where Muscovites or guests of the capital went to Izmailovo, Volkhonka, Varshavskoye Shosse, Luzhniki Stadium and many other places, a nimble trolley bus came to their aid.
Time flies. More than 60 years have passed since the opening of a new ring line at VSHV in 1954. By the end of 1960, the total length of trolleybus routes reached 540 kilometers, united by 36 routes.
In 1964-68 in the southwestern residential area, an "accordion" - an articulated trolley bus ran. However, in 1975 it was finally removed from passenger traffic. In 1964 in Moscow, there are 1811 trolley buses. By 1972, the network reached 1253 km and was recognized as the longest (longest) on the globe.
In the 1970-1980s, new buildings (Novogireevo, Ivanovo, Orekhovo-Borisovo, etc.) were encircled by routes. In August 1993, one-way traffic was introduced in Moscow (thus unloading roads and increasing their safety). Some of the lines were closed. Subsequently, the reduction continued.