Moscow has more than eleven million inhabitants. Over eight million of them use the metro on a daily basis. To transport so many people safely, economically and quickly, the existing metro network is continuously being expanded. For this major project Herrenknecht supplied not only large-diameter machines for tunnel boring, but also a Vertical Shaft Sinking Machine or VSM. It sank ventilation shafts for the Lublinskaya line.

Between June 2013 and November 2014 a total of six shafts with an outer diameter of 6.4 meters were sunk with a Herrenknecht VSM10000. These extend 30 to 70 meters into the depths of Moscow and connect to ventilation tunnels running underground. Depending on the depth, sinking the shafts took three to five weeks. Up to 8 meters a day were excavated vertically and the shaft lining created at the same time. Even at winter temperatures of up to -28°C, only a few meters from the nearest houses and in difficult ground conditions with sticky clay, the VSM's cutting drum with its 96 cutting tools rendered top service in all six shafts. On November 18, 2014 the VSM reached the deepest point in the last shaft: 73 meters below ground the Herrenknecht Vertical Shaft Sinking Machine successfully completed its work with a total excavated depth of nearly 350 meters.