Yugo-Zapadnaya is a station of the Moscow Metro located on the Sokolnicheskaya (red) line. Today, and for many decades now, this is not just another stopping point of the metropolitan subway, but a whole transport hub, where hundreds of thousands of residents of the Moscow region and guests of the city arrive every day. From here begins their usual route to work, if we are talking about residents of the region, or the search for sights, if we are talking about tourists. Built more than half a century ago, the station is the real southwestern transport gate of the capital.
A Brief History
The Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station, opened on December 30, 1963, was a kind of New Year's gift to Muscovites and guests of the city. She became the 68th in a row in the capital's subway. Its construction coincided with the mass development of villages located on the southwestern outskirts, which were included in Moscow simultaneously with the construction of the Moscow Ring Road in 1960.
The extension of the first metro line further was conceived for a long time: since 1957,when the station "University" was opened. And now, 6 years later, two new stations (the second was Prospekt Vernadsky) were solemnly launched. Their decoration was quite typical for that time. The inquisitive eye of a Muscovite can easily identify several more stations, surprisingly similar to the Yugo-Zapadnaya and Prospekt Vernadsky metro stations.
It is also noteworthy that for the first few years the stopping point worked only for residents of the surrounding villages of Troparevo and Nikulino, and the first multi-storey buildings in the vicinity of Yugo-Zapadnaya appeared only in 1967. For half a century, this station remained the terminus on the Sokolnicheskaya metro line. For many years, the Moscow subway had the only station named after the articulation of the cardinal points where it is located. Today, another one has been added - "South" on the Serpukhov-Timiryazevsky (gray) direction.
"Scientific" station
Many Muscovites are sure that the wrong station was named "University". Yes, of course, it got its name in honor of the Moscow State University, located nearby, but the Yugo-Zapadnaya metro stop could also bear this name with confidence. In the district of this station there are a number of major higher educational institutions, including: MGIMO, RUDN University, RANEPA, MIREA and MPGU. Often in the morning and evening you can see a lot of students rushing to and from classes. For this reason, the area of the Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station has a fairly well-developed infrastructure - there are severallarge shopping malls with cafes, restaurants, shops and fitness centers.
Transport hub
The Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station in Moscow is the key one for several metropolitan areas and satellite cities of the capital. With the opening of the Troparevo station, the passenger traffic from the cities near Moscow fell off somewhat, but suburban bus routes from Krasnoznamensk and Odintsovo come here.
How to get to Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station from Moscow? 41 public transport routes pass through the station: 39 buses and 2 trolleybuses. They follow both from the Moscow districts located outside the Moscow Ring Road (Solntsevo, Novo-Peredelkino, the city of Moskovsky), and from municipalities located inside the ring road. So, for example, on buses 718, 720 and 752, you can get to the Solntsevo area, on the 330th - to Novo-Peredelkino, and on the 890th - to Moscow. The route of the M4 main trolley bus runs through the station, which runs from Ozernaya Street to the Udarnik cinema. Late passengers will not stay on the street either: for example, the night bus H1 goes through the station.
How to get to Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station by car? The exits from the station are located along one of the Moscow beams - Vernadsky Avenue. The ends of Koshtoyants and 26 Baku Commissars adjoin them. Pokryshkin Street originates here. Literally 150 meters from the station pavilions lies Ruzskaya street.
Passenger traffic and opening hours
Due to its position in the city's transport system, the passenger flow through the Yugo-Zapadnaya station is huge. So, in 2002, it was more than 250 thousand people per day for entry and exit, but recently it has slightly decreased due to the opening of new stations on the Sokolnicheskaya branch, to which public transport routes from the Moscow region have been brought.
The Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station in Moscow operates as normal for the subway, opening its doors for passengers at 5:40-5:45 in the morning, closing at exactly one in the morning. The first trains leave the station between 5:48 am and 5:59 am. It depends on even and odd days.
