Overview of major railway projects planned until 2030

The holding company "Russian Railways" regularly develops projects to change and improve the infrastructure. We bring to your attention a list of the most significant of them. This list includes projects that are planned or planned to be implemented over the next 10 years.

Moscow central diameters

This project is called one of the most ambitious and promising in recent years. Moscow Central Diameters (MCD) will connect the region with the capital. Their creation is connected with the desire to integrate the Moscow region into the transport system of the metropolis. 

When the project is implemented, electric trains from the region will not stop at dead-end stations. They will stop the territory of the city. The project states that comfortable transfers to public transport, including the metro, will be equipped at the stations of railway stations.

The introduction of the IDC should significantly reduce the number of traffic jams at the entrance to the capital. Many residents of the Moscow region, working in the metropolis, will agree to transfer from the car to a modern high-speed train. It is known that the cars for the MCD are ordered from the Tver Carriage Building Plant.

In total, seven such diameters are planned to be launched as part of the project. The first two were launched in 2019. They connected the routes Odintsovo — Lobnya and Nakhabino — Podolsk. The next two diameters are planned to be launched in 2023. The opening schedule for four more has not yet been made public.

Aeroexpress in the Northern Capital of Russia

For the first time, the idea to link St. Petersburg and Pulkovo Airport, located 15 km from the city, appeared back in 2011. The plan was considered, they were going to be engaged in construction, and then they forgot about it.

In 2017, the construction of the Aeroexpress train was approached a little more carefully. Then we made some edits to the project and seriously took up its implementation. They even announced a competition for construction. Its winner was to be named in March 2019.

It was planned that the departure of the express train would be from the Vitebsk railway station with a stop in Kupchino. But at the last moment the project was postponed again. If it had not been abandoned, then in 2022 Pulkovo would have been connected by rail with St. Petersburg.

Bridge to Sakhalin

The construction of such an object can be safely called the "project of the century". The bridge will connect the mainland of Russia in the Khabarovsk Territory with Sakhalin Island through the Nevelsky Strait. Note that in the narrowest part the distance is 6 km. It means that the bridge to Sakhalin should be about 6000 m. 

And this idea is not new. The Soviet Union also planned to connect the mainland with the island, but this idea was quickly abandoned.

As for returning to the project, the residents of Sakhalin asked for it. The authorities at the highest level promised to create a project. But there is a catch. Only a non-electrified single track can be run over this long bridge. Economists said it was financially unprofitable. Such a step was called rather political.

In 2022, the Minister for the Development of the Far East Alexey Chekunkov said that the project is not yet a priority. Some changes were made to it, which increased its cost. In addition, an economically sound base is needed. Therefore, while the bridge is not in a hurry to build. But Chekunkov said that the project will be implemented in the future, because this is an "inevitable story". 

Petersburg semicircle

The project will be a kind of analogue of the Moscow Central Ring. Of course, no one plans to achieve a similar result. This is due to geographical features. Therefore, Russian Railways is going to build a system in which trains will run on a half-ring. The interval between them will be no more than 20 minutes. And the whole route will take about an hour.

However, so far little is known about the construction of the St. Petersburg semicircle. The project is going to be fully completed after 2030. However, already in 2024 they plan to build the first section of the semicircle.

The main goals pursued when creating the project:

• develop the railway network in the region;
• to make transport more accessible in the suburbs of St. Petersburg;
• to take freight transportation by rail outside the Northern Capital.

Now many sections that are part of the St. Petersburg Semi-Ring project are being operated for cargo transportation. Over time, their routes are planned to be taken out of the city. To do this, a transport and logistics center will be built, previously in Shushary. 

Yuzhny railway station in Moscow

One of the largest projects of Russian Railways. Initially, the company planned to build a new station on the basis of Paveletsky, which would unite all southern directions. They justified it with convenience. In addition, the demand for tickets to the south of the country is growing significantly from year to year. So far, these flights are operated by three (sometimes five) metropolitan railway stations. Often passengers get confused, confusion arises.

At some point, Russian Railways decided to put an end to this. It was proposed to give all the southern directions to one station. But very quickly this project was curtailed. Russian Railways refused to build the Southern Railway Station. But the leaders of the holding promised that they would continue to develop routes in this direction, as well as improve the infrastructure.

It should be noted that passengers traveling south from the capital spend 1-2 days on the train. The holding promised to build a high-speed railway to the south. According to the latest data, it will be built in 2024. The implementation of this project will take 11 years beforehand.

«Construction of the century» — Northern Latitudinal course

Another project, the implementation of which is extremely difficult, but promising. Russian Railways is going to build two branches: SSHX-1 and SSHX-2 in partnership with Gazprom. The total length of the route is 1500 km. And all this in severe climatic conditions! 

SSHX-1 will connect Vorkuta with the still isolated Novy Urengoy. A route to Norilsk will already be built from it. It will be SSHX-2.

The rationale for this project is more than substantial. Railway communication will facilitate the delivery of oil, gas, metal, diamonds and coal, which are rich in the North of Russia. Since this is the cheapest way of transportation, it is economically feasible to build. Preliminary calculations show that the average annual turnover of the site will be 25 million tons.

The railway tracks will also be used for passenger transportation. Tour operators are sure that many people will be interested in getting to the permafrost region. In addition, a new promising direction is emerging. Polar tourism will find its fans.

However, this project is one of the most expensive. Back in 2021, its cost was estimated at about 260 billion rubles. It is not yet known whether the USH will be built, but according to rumors, the project was planned to be implemented in the next decade.

Thus, Russian Railways has developed many interesting and promising projects in recent years. But many of them have remained only on paper, although it is possible that they will return to their discussion.