Russia’s Veliky Novgorod, a city that survived famine and revolution

Crossing near the river Volchov

There was a railway in the Novgorod Republic in the 12th century, so there are reasons for it’s halt near Volkov. Significant settlements appeared here in the early Middle Ages.

In 1494, on Uspenskaya Street (now Bolshaya Sankt-Peterburgskaya), the Veliky Novgorod hut burned, which for the next 10 years was the last in this territory.

In 1851, on the territory of the former monastery, on the initiative of the local merchant Ivan Tolstykh, a narrow-gauge horse-drawn railway was built, which ran two kilometers from the pier on the Volkhov River to the highway to St. Petersburg. In 1875, as a result of the construction of the Chudovo - Vyshny Volochyok railway line, the track was dismantled, the steam locomotive arrived in Veliky Novgorod.

The railway line passed four kilometers from the city and the issue of its connection with the railway network remained.

From the history of the St. Petersburg railway

In 1892, the engineer Alexander Petrovich Vashkov suggested building a new railway instead of two old ones. In 1893, the then head of the St. Petersburg Directorate of Railways, engineer A.P. Uspensky reported to the Ministry of Railways on the need to build a railway line from the Ust-Volkhovskaya station on the Nikolaevskaya railway to Veliky Novgorod.

In 1904, the Council of Ministers approved the construction of the line, but the Russo-Japanese War began and the issue was postponed. By 1907, the construction had resumed, the first section was commissioned on June 16, 1916, and the second on December 7, 1916. The line was built as a single-track steam locomotive, and the second one was built in 1925. At the same time, a 60-meter bridge across the Volkhov River was built.

In the spring of 1942, during the Great Patriotic War, a retreating Red Army blew up a bridge across the Volkhov River, which was restored only in 1944.

In 1951, the line was electrified. Until the beginning of the 1990s, an enterprise carried out wheelset rolling in the city, and double-decker passenger trains Chelyabinsk - St. Petersburg passed through the station. But the Great October Railway stopped passing through the station.

Revival

In 2009, the old railway station, which was located on the railway in the Otradnoye neighborhood, was demolished and a new modern railway station was built in its place, which met all the requirements of the time.

The length of the main railway track is 697.4 meters. The building of the railway station consists of four floors, which include a waiting room, ticket offices, a small cafe and shops.

The station serves five pairs of train trains a day. In the summer, the number of trains increases, as suburban electric trains are added. The Moscow - St. Petersburg highway passes near the railway station, a bus stop is also nearby. Now suburban trains run from Veliky Novgorod to St. Peterburg three times a day.