Geographic map showing the approximate path of the Bolshaya Koltsevaya line (in teal) in the whole Moscow Metro network (in dark grey) including Central Circle, MCD and Monorail
The Bolshaya Koltsevaya line (Russian: Большая кольцевая линия) (English: Big Circle Line[3]) (Line 11[4]) is a rapid transit line of the Moscow Metro. It is the third circle line on the system, running outside of the existing circle Koltsevaya line and interlocking with the Moscow Central Circle.
The first section of the line opened on 26 February 2018 with the remaining stations opened on 1 March 2023.[5] The line includes 29 stations, including three from the former Kakhovskaya line, and is 57.5 km (35.7 mi) long, which makes it the longest metro circle line in the world, surpassing Line 10 of Beijing Subway by 514 m (1,686 ft).[6] In November 2017 the city estimated the total cost of the project at 501 billion rubles, up from earlier estimates of 378.9 billion rubles.[7]
Formerly known as the Third Interchange Contour, the city adopted "Bolshaya koltsevaya liniya" as the official name of the line after a vote via the "Active Citizen" web portal.[8]
Name
The working name of the project since inception was the Third Interchange Contour; however, prior to the opening of the line, the city authorities consulted residents to help decide on the name. In an initial survey on the Active Citizen survey website in October 2017, only 34% of the city’s residents voted to keep the working name.[9]
Although retaining the working name was the most popular option, members of the city’s council on transportation infrastructure suggested another vote. Two reasons cited by transport expert Kirill Yankov were that all of the lines’ names to this point were in the feminine grammatical gender and that all the other line names were generally understood from a point of view of geography.[10] The city held another vote on its website to allow citizens to choose between the existing name or the Bolshaya Koltsevaya line (Large Circle Line). Of the alternate names suggested by voters in the first vote, Bolshaya Koltsevaya was the most popular, with 9,000 votes.
In the second vote, Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line was selected with 53.3% of the votes versus 36.5% for the Third Interchange Contour.[8]
Development
Initial construction timetable for the Bolshaya Koltsevaya line
The original plans called for a line that is 58 kilometres (36 mi) with 27 new stations.[11]
The entire project was supposed to be completed by 2020–2021.[12][13][14][15][16] By 2018, the completion date had been postponed until 2023.[17]
First sections
First section with a temporal branch with five stations from Delovoy Tsentr to Petrovsky Park.Video of stations of first section on the first day of operation
The northeastern section was initially scheduled to be completed in 2018, but was delayed for two years until it was opened on 27 March 2020 and 31 December 2020. On 1 April 2021, the section between Khoroshyovskaya and Mnyovniki was opened. This section includes the part of the line from Elektrozavodskaya to Nizhegorodskaya.[19] The existing, short, three-station Kakhovskaya line was incorporated into the line. Kakhovskaya was reopened on 7 December 2021 after reconstruction within the segment to Mnyovniki. The sections from Savyolovskaya to Elektrozavodskaya and from Kakhovskaya to Nizhegorodskaya opened on 1 March 2023.
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