PASSENGER RAILWAY COMMUNICATION AND ATTRACTIVITY OF OUTER ZONES OF RUSSIAN MILLIONAIRE CITIES

Abstract

The author interprets the transport accessibility of the outer zones of the cities and attractors located in them as the most important condition for the successful development of the city, excluding the socio-spatial segregation of the urban environment. The article reveals the role of railway in ensuring this accessibility in 14 millionaire cities in Russia. As a result, the paper studies six groups of cities according to the integral indicator. They differ in the level of development of railway communication, which connects the outer zones with each other and with the center. The most favorable situation is typical for Volgograd, Kazan and Yekaterinburg (first group), the least - for Chelyabinsk (sixth group). The author reveals essential differences within the three groups based on comparing the values of indicators of the provision of general urban attractors with railway traffic and the degree of its uniformity. Among the five cities with a high and increased level of development of railway communication, only Yekaterinburg has a relatively high and relatively uniform provision of attractors of external zones with this type of the transport. In most cities, where the level of development of railway communication is below average, it provides attractors relatively evenly, but not enough.