Rizhsky railway station

Rizhsky station
Moscow-Rizhsky
View of the station's main entrance
Location	Rizhskaya Square, Moscow, Russia
Platforms	2
Tracks	4
Connections	Moscow metro station: Rizhskaya
Construction
Structure type	at-grade
Parking	no
Other information
Station code	196108
Fare zone	0
History
Opened	1901
Previous names	Vindavsky, Baltiysky, Rzhevsky

Moscow metro station:

Rizhsky station (Russian: Рижский вокзал, Rizhsky vokzal, Riga station) is one of the nine main railway stations in Moscow, Russia. It was built in 1901. As well as being an active station it also houses the Moscow Railway Museum. The station is operated by the Moscow Railway.

It is located at Rizhskaya Square, at the crossing of Mira Avenue and Sushchyovsky Val. The station is served by Rizhskaya metro station. Although Rizhskiy Station is relatively the least busiest station in Moscow, its connection to Latvia is Moscow's only, and is highly used. On the intersection of two main roads, Rizhskiy is adjacent to a Holiday Inn hotel, a large market, and numerous Moscow apartments and offices. In addition, Rizhskiy Station has some of the best architecture of all the Moscow "vokzals".

The construction of the railway between Moscow and Vindava (Moscow-Vindava Railway) started in 1897. On June 30, 1901 the passenger traffic between Moscow and Volokolamsk was opened. Since the main station in Moscow was not ready at the time, the eastern terminal station in Moscow was Sortirovochnaya (currently Podmoskovnaya). The Vindavsky railway station, currently the Rizhsky railway station, was opened on September 11, 1901. The building, in the style of eclecticism, was built using the project of the architect Stanislav Brzhozovsky. The construction was supervised by the architect Yuly Diederichs.

After 1918, when Latvia became independent, the former Vindava direction decayed, since it did not serve any big cities. In 1930, the station was renamed Baltiysky railway station, in 1942 - Rzhevsky railway station, and in 1946, when Latvia has been already annexed by Soviet Union, it was renamed Rizhsky railway station. Originally, the suburban direction was scheduled to be electrified in 1943, but the electrification of the stretch between Moscow and Nakhabino only occurred in 1945, after World War II was finished.