Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, General Director of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov and official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova opened a new northern concourse and Russia's first Moscow-Minsk international platform at the Moscow City Station.
Thanks to the new platform, citizens will be able to save up to 30 minutes, and a train trip from the center of Moscow to the center of Minsk will be comparable in time to a plane flight.
MOSCOW, October 1 - RIA Novosti. The mayor of the capital Sergei Sobyanin, General Director - Chairman of the Board of JSC Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov and official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova opened a new northern vestibule and the first Moscow-Minsk international communication platform in Russia at the Moscow City Station.
During the opening ceremony of the new international train station, Sobyanin awarded Belozerov the honorary title of the capital “Honorary Transport Worker of the City of Moscow.”
“Moscow City is the largest station and the largest transport hub of our country. I think there are practically no such transport hubs in Europe, there are three metro lines, two railway tracks, Moscow Central Diameters and the Moscow Central Circle... Today is a good event: Moscow-Minsk trains are starting to stop here and, in fact, this city station is also turning into an international station. This project will be a good sign of our friendship with our sister city Minsk,” said mayor.
Sobyanin thanked Belozerov for his active work in creating this unique project and a series of other projects that were jointly implemented.
“Today, on the day of the Russian Railways campaign, this wonderful gift to the residents and guests of Moscow, together with Moscow, today a new platform is opening, the new city station is taking on an almost completed appearance. Today the northern vestibule is opening,” Belozerov noted.
He recalled that the southern vestibule was opened in April and during this period of time more than 630 thousand people were able to use the services of the city station. According to him, Lastochka, the Moscow-Minsk high-speed train and the Moscow-Smolensk high-speed train will stop at this station.
“Last year, more than three million people were transported to Belarus, 786 thousand used the services of Lastochka. This year, 600 thousand people have already been transported in 9 months, this is an increase of more than 10%,” he added.
Belozerov noted that thanks to the new platform, citizens will be able to save up to 30 minutes.
“Sergey Semenovich, in general I would like to answer you, in the guise of a Muscovite, and thank you, because first of all, to be honest, this is important for us, citizens of Russia, Muscovites,” Zakharova said.
She recalled that during this month it will be 155 years since the first train from Minsk arrived in Moscow.
“Imagine, no one, I think, guessed, but it turned out that way. True, that train arrived at the station, which was then called “Brestsky”, then “Smolensky”, “Aleksandrovsky”, and now we know it as “Belorussky”. Now the train arrives in the very heart of Moscow, this saves time, but this, I think, is also the beginning of a new tradition,” the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry clarified.
As stated in the materials of the mayor's office, now, taking into account all the logistics, a train trip from the center of Moscow to the center of Minsk turns out to be comparable in time to a plane flight. At the moment, 6 pairs of Lastochka trains operate regularly along the routes per day.
