MOSCOW’S UNDERGROUND

Evening Star, Issue 22067, 28 June 1935, Page 14

MOSCOW’S UNDERGROUND

There is only one subject of cotiversation in Moscow these days—the new subway. Young people and old are trying to wangle passes for the free rides which are preceding the opening of the route, to regular commercial traffic. Anyone .who has not had a ride is just socially “out,”- writes Harold Denny,, in the ■ ‘ New York Times.’ -

The completion of the subway- and the ■ unveiling, of its realty beautiful stations have ' evoked a wave of local pride which could hardly be matched even in the, most ebullient American town. And. the Muscovites can be pardoned for pointing out some comparisons between them subway and those of Western metropolises. The seven and a-half mile first section, running through theheart of the city,, close by the _ Kremlin wall, has been built more rapidly than any other, although Moscow’s subsoil of soft mud. quicksand, and rock is the .most difficult of all for tunnelling. . Underground rivers and even sixteenth century waterworks complicated the task. Actual construction began in 1933.' New York’s thirteen-mile Eighth Avenue line took seven years to build. The stations—contrasting brilliantly in their architectural beauty with the dingy holes of our old subways—have other distinctions, too. The platforms are the widest' in the world—four mgtres for side platforms, compared with- three and a-balf metres in New York. The Okhotni Ryad station, in the heart of Moscow, corresponding to New York’s 1 Times ’ square, is the largest underground structure in the w;orkl. It is 170 metres long, 34 metres w r ide, and 13 metres high. Forced ventilation js used throughout the system. has named her subway the Metro, like that of Paris, and the system itself resembles Paris’s more than New York’s. Moscow is roughly circular in shape, and eventually will be served by a spider web network of lines as in Paris. ;

Trains rqn at a very leisurely pace--17 miles an hour—compared with canonball speed in New York, and there are no express trains. But that is twice as fast as Moscow’s horribly overcrowded street cars run. _ /Coin turnstiles like those used in New York are being manufactured, but ponding- their completion 10,900,000 tickets have been printed, which are expected to last 10 days. The fare probably will be 25 kopecks., regardless of length of ride. Tho Moscow street cai fare is 10 to 20 kopecks, depending on Am distance travelled.

Riding in tho subway with ' these thrilled Muscovites gives ground for the belief that they will readily master this, to them, strange form of transportation. They are as accomplished straphangers as the most adept New Yorkers, except that in the Moscow subway too there are nickel-plated bars to hang on to. The stations are abundantly manned by guards in trim blue uniforms, and they are infinitely more polite than the men who ’jam New Yorkers into rush-hour trains..