28 June was the last day of operation of the Moskva (Moscow) monorail, a 4.7km km line in the northern suburbs linking Timiryazevskaya in the west to Ulitsa Sergaya Eyenshteyna in the east via Vystavochniy Tsentr and VDNkH (the All-Russia Exhibition Centre). Plans for the line were hatched up by Moskva mayor Yury Luzhkov and Yury Solomon, who directed Luzhkov's mayoral election campaign and patented a Monorail Transport System. An 8.6km line was planned but only stage 1 was built, in 2001-2003. The depot was established at Bauman tram depot by taking space where museum trams were stored (they were relocated to Strogino). Various technical problems caused delay and the first passengers were not carried until 20 November 2004, initially in 'excursion' mode (round trips 10.00-16.00 every 30 minutes with a RUR 50 fare). On 1 January 2008 the line was declared part of the metro network with operation 06.50-23.00, boarding and alighting at all six stations and the regular RUR 19 fare. Six trains supplied by Intamin with a passenger capacity of 200 each were used running every 9 minutes. However once initial curiosity and worn off passenger numbers were quite low, about 6000 passengers/day on weekdays and 7000 at weekends. In May 2017 the monorail reverted to excursion mode with a 20-minute service.
A referendum was held in 2025 when 71% of voters agreed that the monorail should be closed and part converted to an elevated park modelled on New York's High Line.

Announcement of the monorail closure brought out crowds for a last ride. (Transport_Moskva)
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