is the oldest road in the Russian railway network. Its history began in 1837 with the opening of the railway line St. Petersburg - Tsarskoe Selo (now the city of Pushkin) with a length of 27.5 kilometers. On the experience of its construction and operation, the possibility of uninterrupted operation of railway transport in the climatic conditions of Russia at all times of the year was practically proved.
In 1830-1840, the issue of connecting St. Petersburg with the central regions of Russia by a reliable road required urgent resolution. The lack of convenient means of communication put St. Petersburg under the threat of starvation, and also became an increasingly serious obstacle to the development of industry. On February 13 (February 1, old style), 1842, Emperor Nicholas I signed a decree on the construction of the first Russian railway line St. Petersburg - Moscow. They decided to lay the road along the shortest distance between the two capitals, its length was determined at 604 versts (644 kilometers). Subsequently, during the construction of the Verebinsky bypass in 1877, the length of the road increased to 609 versts (650 kilometers).
The construction was entrusted to carry out two directorates - North and South. The Northern Directorate was headed by Pavel Melnikov, the Southern Directorate by Nikolai Kraft.
Construction work began in the summer of 1843. The road was built according to engineering-justified parameters, which, along with economic feasibility, provide the required throughput capacity, taking into account the future. The earthen bed was erected immediately under two tracks. At Melnikov's insistence, the track gauge was set at five feet or 1,524 millimeters. It has become standard for all Russian railways. For the first time on the Petersburg-Moscow line, wide-soled rails made at the Lyudinovsky plant were used. Subsequently, this rail profile spread throughout the world's railways.
Builders had to build eight large and 182 medium and small bridges to overcome water barriers. 34 stations were built on the road. Two large railway stations were built in Moscow and St. Petersburg according to the designs of the architect Konstantin Ton.
Movement on separate sections of the railway began already in 1846. November 13 (November 1, old style), 1851, the official opening of the entire highway took place. The first train, consisting of a steam locomotive, two soft, three rigid and one baggage cars, left St. Petersburg at 11:15 and arrived in Moscow the next day at 9:00 in the morning, having been on the road for 21 hours and 45 minutes. It had 192 passengers.
At first, two passenger and four freight trains ran between St. Petersburg and Moscow per day. The road was double track and traffic was on the left side. The passenger train consisted of seven wagons, while the freight train consisted of 15. average speed trains was then 29.6 kilometers per hour. In 1854, a train schedule was introduced.
In 1855, the highway was named: "Nikolaevskaya Railway", in honor of Emperor Nicholas I, and since 1923 has been called "October".
On September 1, 1929, the North-Western Railways merged with the Oktyabrskaya. The main highways - Leningrad - Moscow, Leningrad - Pskov, Leningrad - Narva, merged into a single Directorate of the October Railways (since 1936 - the Directorate of the October Railway).
During the Great Patriotic War due to the blockade of Leningrad, the nature of the road has changed dramatically. The operating lines were used mainly for the transport of goods to the front and food to Leningrad. On January 27, 1944, the Nazi troops were driven back from Leningrad, on February 23, the first freight train after the lifting of the blockade was sent from Leningrad to Moscow along the restored main course, on March 20, the Red Arrow train, a branded train running along the October Railway between Moscow and Leningrad since 1931.
By 1950, 3.5 thousand kilometers of main tracks, more than 300 railway stations and 1126 buildings, 240 bridges, over 6.3 thousand kilometers of communication lines had been restored on the Oktyabrskaya road. In the 1950s-1960s, it was technically re-equipped. In 1962, the Leningrad-Moscow line was switched to electric traction. On December 15, regular traffic of passenger trains with electric locomotives ChS-1, ChS-2 was opened on the main course Leningrad - Moscow, with a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour.
In the mid-1980s, the technical equipment of the road made it possible, along with conventional trains, to start operating high-speed express trains ER 200, reaching speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour.
In 1996-2000, the Petersburg-Moscow highway was reconstructed, in fact it was built according to modern technologies new railroad. Thanks to the reconstruction, the trains can reach speeds of 200-250 kilometers per hour.
Since 2009, high-speed Sapsan trains have been used on the Moscow-St. Petersburg-Moscow route. The distance between the two cities "Sapsan" takes three hours and forty-five minutes. In 2015, the first double-decker train at the Oktyabrskaya railway range began to run.
Currently, the Oktyabrskaya Railway (since 2003 - a branch of Russian Railways OJSC) is one of the largest railways Russian Federation, has an operational length of 10,363.9 kilometers and serves an area with a population of more than 25 million people. The road is divided into six regions: Moscow, St. Petersburg-Vitebsk, St. Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Murmansk and Volkhovstroevsky. More than 70 thousand people work at all enterprises at the railway site.
IN transport system of the North-Western region of Russia, the Oktyabrskaya railway, passing through the territory of eleven constituent entities of the Russian Federation - the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad, Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda, Murmansk, Tver and Yaroslavl regions and the Republic of Karelia, belongs to the leading place - to its share accounts for 60% of freight traffic and 40% of passenger traffic.
The main feature of the transport complex of the North-West of Russia is its export-import orientation. There are eight border crossings in the Oktyabrskaya road service area, four of which are on the border with Finland, two each with Estonia and Latvia.
The Vyborg-St. Petersburg-Moscow line is a link of the ninth "Crete" international transport corridor. The Oktyabrskaya road also passes through the most important corridors for transit traffic, having international status, "North-South" and "Europe-Asia".
An important role in the implementation of foreign trade relations is played by the existing commercial ports of St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Vitino, Vyborg, Vysotsk, Primorsk, as well as a new port under construction in the Baltic - Ust-Luga, which are located in the service area of the Oktyabrskaya railway.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
