Moscow’s target of an all-electric inland passenger vessel fleet by 2035 may depend on private operators’ willingness to replace their vessels, InnovaTransport founder and transport consultant Alexei Smirnov told Russian news outlet TASS.
Smirnov said operators will need shoreside charging facilities and sufficient electrical power at berths and service locations.
He considered electricity availability across Moscow unlikely to be a fundamental obstacle, with charging infrastructure needing to expand alongside the fleet. He suggested that the city could offer subsidies or help develop the necessary infrastructure to encourage private operators to switch to electric propulsion.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s timetable called for diesel-powered ships to be absent from the central section of the Moskva River by 2030, thus allowing an electric-only river fleet to be in service by 2035. The city government restated those targets in May 2026 when it announced the launch of four electric boats built at Moscow Shipyard.
Moscow’s river services carried more than 4.5 million passengers in 2025, up about 40 per cent year on year. The combined total for scheduled and recreational services was a 30-year high; scheduled services made up 1.5 million of those trips.
Smirnov considered seven million annual trips achievable, while saying river services were unlikely to significantly reduce pressure on roads, the metro or surface public transport.
“For further growth, it is necessary to expand the route network, create a sufficient number of piers, and provide convenient transfers to the metro and surface public transport,” he said.
The city’s May development plan envisages more than 100 electric vessels by 2030, including about 60 on up to seven scheduled routes and 42 on 11 excursion and pleasure routes. It projected 7.5 million annual trips by 2030, including four million on scheduled services.
As of August 31, 2026, State Transport Leasing Company figures previously reported by Baird Maritime gave totals of 31 electric vessels and 25 piers on four regular routes, spanning about 34 kilometres. The fourth route, Luzhniki–Kiyevsky, opened in June.