The Reconstruction of Moscow

In the second form of public tmnsportation — motor- buses — the number of passengers carried in Moscow in^ creased from 50,700,000 in 1928 to 92,300,000 in 1934, i.e., by 80 per cent, and the number of motorbuses increased froni 163 units in 1928 to 400 as for Jan. 1, 1935, or two and a half times. The system of motorbus routes was extended from 162 kilometres in 1928, to 366 kilometres as for Jan. 1, 1935, i.e., it doubled. However, notwithstanding this increase, the motorbus still plays an insufficient part in the muni- cipal transportation services, handling a total of approx- imately 4 to 5 per cent of the passenger turnover of the city, while in cities with a smaller passenger turnover like Berlin and Paris, the motorbus conveys 9.5 per cent and 19 per cent of the passengers, respectively. In Berlin there are 700 motorbuses, and there are 1,500 in Paris. And lastly, the latest and youngest form of urban transportation, with the exception of the subway, is the trolley-bus, introduced in November 1933, and having the broadest perspective for further development. In 1934 trolley-buses carried 5,900,000 passengers. There were 33 trolley-buses on January 1, 1935, and 60 by the end of 1935. In this form of transportation the Soviet Union is rapidly overtaking, and in a number of cases has already overtaken, capitalist countries. The various forms of public transportation by which Moscow has been served until very recently, despite their enormous development, could not cope with the continu- ally increasing demand for transportation. It was this backwardness of the transportation facilities in face of the rising demand of the population for service that led to the decision of the June (1931) Plenum of the Central Com- mittee of the C.P.S.tJ. on the construction of the subway

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